Making Good Use

Hat-Chasing Weather

Today is the sort of weather that my brother-in-law always describes as 'hat-chasing weather'.  There is a strong bitter easterly wind blowing, and the sky is grey and leaden looking.  I was going to have a go at tidying up a bit more of the garden this afternoon but it is just too cold and windy to be out there so I decided to do a bit more embroidery whilst tucked up in the warm with a hot cup of tea.

Inspired by some of the lovely photos in 'Sublime Stitching', I decided to branch out from just embroidering cards and try my hand at something else for a change.  I'm having a go at embroidering a knife, fork and spoon (iron-on transfers from the book) on to four rather nice pure cotton napkins.  I got the napkins a few years ago at a car boot sale and had never got round to using them.  They were nice material, and a nice size, but were a bit 'bland' for my tastes.  I'm hoping the addition of some embroidery will prompt me to actually make use of them at last.

Here's hoping the weather soon bucks up and actually becomes a bit spring-like.  I'm having serious car boot sale withdrawals, having not managed to get to a single one yet this season.  Judging by the weather forecast for the next few days I fear I shall have to miss out yet again this weekend.  At least I've got the embroidery to be getting on with!

Cupcakes and Crime Novels

I went over to Billericay this morning for the first time in about three weeks.  I normally go there once every week or 10 days - not only to peruse the charity shops but also to get a few tasty bits and pieces in Waitrose.  Waitrose is an expensive shop but they do have a wonderful array of delicacies which are completely unavailable in my small town, where only Aldi and Somerfield are available for food shopping. 

Some changes had occured in Billericay in the past three weeks - and none of them good really.  One,  I'd missed the annual 'Linen and Lace' event in the Oxfam shop there.  Now this is a bit of a b*gger as they do have some really nice craft bits and pieces during the 'Linen and Lace' and I've got some excellent things there in the past.  This time all I came away with was a length of black and white herringbone webbing which will come in useful for bag handles at some point.

The second 'bit of a b*gger' was one of the cheaper charity shops was closed for refurbishment.  That can only mean higher prices when they re-open.  This is one of my perennial grouses - why do charity shops feel they have to emulate upmarket boutiques??  Give me a grotty charity shop with reasonable prices any day.

The third 'bit of a b*gger' was that the council have removed the very convenient pedestrian crossing which was right outside one of the best charity shops and relocated it much further down the high street - why?? I guess it was done to speed the flow of traffic and not for the convenience of pedestrians!

Anyway, enough of the moaning!  I did find one of my favourite crime writers latest book in the 29p basket in the first charity shop I called in at.

I love a good crime novel, and the books by Arnaldur Indridason combine not only a really good thriller but are also set in Iceland - two of my favourite things in one.  I only came across his books by finding one in a charity shop last year and they are excellent.  If you enjoy a good crime / thriller type book I can highly recommend these.  He hasn't written many - well, not many have been translated into English put it that way - and they also give a fascinating (to me anyway) insight into Icelandic life.

Finally, on to something a little more frivolous.  I've been doing a bit more embroidery and have just finished these two cake cards.

Both done using the iron-on transfers from the fabulous book Sublime Stitching by Jenny Hart. 

Specs Appeal

I collected my new glasses yesterday - which was an incredibly speedy service by the optician.  I 'quite' like them when they're on, not that I ever really 'like' any glasses I've ever had, and I've been wearing glasses pretty much constantly since I was five years old!!

They're really light, and seem to fit well (something of a miracle as I have an incredibly large head!), and are the 'trendy' squared-off shape which pretty much all glasses seem to be these days.  The best thing is they're made of anti-allergy metal which, fingers' crossed, will mean I no longer have a sore spot behind one ear where the arm of my glasses sit.  I had my old glasses for 10 years or so and despite taping the ends with sellotape a la Jack Duckworth, I've had a constantly weepy sore spot behind just one ear from an allergy to the nickel.  Luckily, I only need to wear glasses for watching telly, the cinema, theatre etc, and for driving.

At the moment my new specs are pristinely clean, and being kept lovingly in their case when not perched on my nose.  For sure that level of care won't last long, but for now it is a joy to be able to see a bit clearer and through clean lenses to boot.

Pillowcase Book Bags

After a busy afternoon hunched over the sewing machine, I actually did get all three pillowcase book bags sewn up and finished.

They all turned out quite well, and I'm feeling smugly satisfied that I actually got my act together and sewed them up - instead of procrastinating for weeks which is what usually happens!

Vintage Pillowcases

I've found a few nice vintage pillowcases recently (or pillercases if you'm speakin' Bristle).  I love some of the patterns you get on old pillowcases and the ones I've found were not so precious that I felt bad about cutting them up to make book bags with.

I found this one last week in a charity shop in Bristol.  It's pure cotton and those lovely fresh roses on a white background somehow remind me of summer nightdresses when I was little and sun-dried washing blowing on the line.  If it hadn't have been in such a pickle - someone had really cobbled the side seams together at some point - I would have even been tempted to use this one as a pillowcase.  As it is I'm hoping it will make a nice book bag.

This is another one I picked up in a charity shop on a previous visit to Bristol.  There is something very vintage Laura Ashley about those tiny white flowers on a dark blue background, and it reminds me of tiny cottage bedrooms with a jug and bowl set on a pine chest of drawers.

This incredibly 'busy' orange and white one is the second of an unused pair I found in a charity shop in Billericay.  I'm not sure I would want to sleep with a pattern which is quite so migraine inducing, but it certainly makes a very vibrant book bag.  Somehow the orange and white reminds me of a certain type of sweet wrapper when I was little, I think they were called Spangles.

After spending quite a pleasant hour with a hot iron, a tape measure, and a piece of dressmaker's chalk, these are now all cut up and ready for me to get the sewing maching out.  I'm hoping I might manage to sew them all up over the weekend - finger's crossed!!

Thursday Has Been a Bit Frustrating

A bit of a boring post today I'm afraid.  For a start, there's no photo as my computer downstairs is still refusing to acknowledge the broadband connection exisits so I'm having to use P's computer in his study, for which my camera is not yet set up.

P has been working from home today and has now had to take to his bed because of a very bad headache - which means I have to a) be very quiet whilst using his computer and b) I've been unable to add anything on ebay this afternoon as he needed to use the phone and my computer (where the photos for ebay are stored) needs to use ye olde dial up which means the phone line is out of commission.   Are you with me so far?

This morning I had an opticians appointment, the first one in many many years.  I don't know why I'd not been for so long - except that I get myself in quite a nervous pickle about going to the opticians as I'm always worried they're going to announce I need to visit my GP ASAP because they've picked up I've got a brain tumour or some other deadly ailment!!  I know, I know, it's completely irrational and eyes are very precious and should be checked every two years.  Anyway, after several nervous trips to the loo, I finally left the house and practically ran to the High Street (I was running rather late because of the countless trips to the loo).  The stupid thing was that after all my fretting and worrying it was all good - my eyes have only deteriorated a bit, nothing untoward was picked up re: my general health, I don't need bifocals, and I got to choose a very nice pair of new glasses which are apparently anti-allergy so won't irritate me like mad behind my ears, which my old glasses have done for the past 10 years or so!!  I felt like I was walking on air when I came out of the opticians I was so relieved, and I don't have to go back again for two whole years.  If you think I'm irrational about visiting the optician you should see me when I have to go to the dentist - it's not a pretty sight!  Back tomorrow with a photo or two (fingers crossed!)

Keyrings

A few years ago P and I went for a long weekend to Oslo.  The felted goods they had for sale there were just fantastic - as were the prices - and, sadly, the only thing I could sensibly afford to bring back as a souvenir was a felted keyring.  The keyring was great as the large piece of felt on the end of it meant I could always find my keys in the bottom of any bag.  Of course, this often meant heavy pulling on the felt part and so, eventually, the felt came away from the keyring.  I did toy with the idea of trying to mend it but somehow I never got around to the job, and I'm not sure how well it would have held together anyway.  For the past few months I've been keeping my eyes open for a nice replacement keyring, but I've never found one I really liked.  Until Saturday that is.  DN, Mum, my sister and I were strolling along Corn Street in Bristol (site of the Bristol Nails - origin of the saying 'cash on the nail'), having a look at the rather nice craft stalls that were there, when I spied a stall selling painted wooden Russian Matryoshka dolls - and keyrings.

She's sweetly pretty and beautifully painted.  DN picked out his favourite colour for me and for £1.50 I was all set up with just the sort of keyring I had been looking for.  Large enough to find my keys in the bottom of my bag, and just that little bit unusual.  I was well pleased!!  Of course, I wish now I'd bought a few more but hey ho! perhaps the stall will be there again when I next visit Bristol.

A Couple of Nice Finds

Yesterday, Mum and I took ourselves up to the Whiteladies Road area of Bristol again to have a mooch about, check out the charity shops and have some lunch in the lovely Fresh and Wild on Queens Road. 

I managed to find a couple of nice things in the charity shops.

A fabulous vibrantly coloured 100g skein of Colinette Grafitti wool.  I'm not sure what I'll do with this but at 99p it was definitely coming home with me.  The colour is called Blue Saturn and it is the most fantastic mixture of aqua, cobalt, speedwell and sky blue mixed with flashes of deep deep purple.  Delicious.

In the same charity shop I also picked up this rather nice Orla Keilly-style purse / wallet for 75p.  This was rather fortuitous as my old faithful Radley purse has got a bit of a dodgy zip these days and I keep finding all my loose change cascading to the bottom of my handbag.  I had toyed with the idea of having one of Cath Kidston's rather nice PVC purses for my birthday but they cost £25 so this was a much better alterantive!

Speaking of Cath Kidston, Mum and I also had a look in her new shop on Park Street in Bristol.  It is a lovely big shop and appears to stock her whole range of items.  But, somehow, Mum and I were just a tad disappointed by it all.  The felt mushrooms which I'd been quite coveting were very 'nylon-y' to the touch as was a knitted doll which was for sale at £25.  The T-towels, although having lovely prints on them, were rather thin and perhaps not really up to the job of drying dishes.  But what I found most amazing was what I assume is a new line for CK - bags made from vintage fabric (not vintage CK just ordinary vintage) which cost £36, or £25 for an unlined one which was only big enough to hold a purse and a mobile phone!!  Somehow I think I'll stick to making my own!

Spring Forward

This was the weekend I've been waiting for since the end of October - the weekend when British Summer Time finally arrived.  Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to move all the clocks and watches in the house forward by one hour and to know that it will stay light now until almost 8.00 pm.  In a couple of months there will still be streaks of light in the sky at 10.30 pm and by the middle of June until 11.30 pm, if it's a very clear night.  I just love this time of year with a whole spring and summer to look forward to, not only the lighter evenings, but being able to eat our evening meal in the garden (weather permitting of course!), a new growing season to enjoy, and a whole new season of car boot sales to look forward to.  Utter bliss!!  The first evening of BST was celebrated this year with a delicious cheese fondue (the fondue burner behaving itself impeccably this time), and some very spectacular thunder and lightning just as it was getting dark.

I called in to the 'Coffee and Jumble' at the local church again this morning and picked up a few vintage children's records.  To be honest, it was the artwork on the sleeves that sold them to me (although at 10p each they were also a great bargain.)

It's the little black kitten howling her head off that I really like in this picture, although the unbelievably non-PC mother cat about to give her errant offspring a good old wallop for losing his mittens is quite amusing too.  Can you imagine having a child's record with this image on the front these days - 'Health and Safety' would have a fit!

And this artwork with the three blind mice looking like extras from 'Reservoir Dogs' was just too good to leave behind.

Even better, the records themselves are on bright red vinyl.  I remember as a child having a record that helped me to learn my alphabet which was on rainbow coloured vinyl.  Which seems a very modern idea for records that were made in the 1960's.  Years later, as a teenager, it was quite the thing to have 'pop' singles which were printed on coloured vinyl, or even picture discs or, best of all, the 12 inch version of something on coloured vinyl.  Whoever originally owend these records was obviously a very careful child as all the sleeves have survived intact too.  Something which none of my very old records still have.

P often talks about a story-telling record he had as a child which was all about Dominic Dachs und die Katzen Piraten (Dominic Badger and the Cat Pirates).  I think that was LP sized and P says he used to listen to it over and over as all the characters had different voices and there were all the sound effects to enjoy too.  It must have been a bit like an 'Afternoon Play' on the radio, but for children - which sounds a lovely idea.

I'm off to visit my family in Bristol for a few days so posting on here will be a bit sporadic.  The weather forecast looks quite promising with some spring-like weather in the next few days.  It's made knowing what to pack a bit difficult, but it'll be nice to see everyone again, and to be able to make use of Mum's broadband connection (we're STILL on ye olde dial-up here!  19 days and counting!!)

Whilst I Was Incommunicado

Whilst I was miserably offline I took delivery of a couple of very nice items.

I know a wheelie bin may not be everyone's idea of an exciting delivery but I've been waiting over four years to get my paws on one of these little beauties again.  I plainly remember the shock I felt when being told that Basildon Council didn't provide wheelie bins and that I would have to cart my rubbish about in black plastic sacks.  At the first place we lived here we did have a dustbin, but for the past three years we've been reduced to a black sack only.  It normally lives outside the back door, but in the summer months when the sun is beating down on it (and its malodorous contents) it has to be dragged across the garden to a shady spot.  I'd been used to having a wheelie bin for my rubbish for the previous 10 plus years and was most put out to find myself without one.  Things were particularly onerous when it came to garden waste as everything had to be shoved into a bag little bigger than a plastic carrier.  Not an easy task for things like grass cuttings, but nigh-on impossible when dealing with rose or holly prunings - the spiky bits would always poke through the plastic and scratch you as you were manhandling the darned bags.  And you were only given a dozen bags per year for garden waste, if you wanted more you had to pay for them - bloomin' cheek!

As soon as I saw the long-promised garden waste wheelie bins being delivered to our road I made sure that the one with our number on it was safely stowed away behind a locked gate.  I really could have kissed it I was so pleased to see it.  I spent one blissful afternoon clearing only a tiny part of the garden and merrily shovelling fallen leaves and all sorts of cuttings into the wide-open mouth of the bin.  It was sooooooo easy compared to forcing things into a small bag, and pretty soon the bin was full to bursting.  Sadly, it won't be emptied for another 10 days, but I'm already eyeing up all the other bits of the garden that can be tidied up, and their contents so easily disposed of.  Hopefully, the next improvement will be a black wheelie bin for the household rubbish, and then I'll feel that waste-wise we've finally moved back into the 21st century.

The other delivery was something much more conventionally pleasing.

Mum got me this book as an Easter present, and it is fantastic.  It is full of the most wonderful embroidery transfers and they are all iron-on.  There is a pattern for every taste, and any occasion, and apparently each iron-on transfer is good for up to nine uses.  There are also some fantastic photos giving lots of ideas of how to use the transfers.  So far I've only done one of the patterns but I've got loads and loads of ideas for using them in the near future.  I've got a picture in my head of me sitting at the garden table on a warm sunny afternoon happily stitching some of the patterns from this book and admiring my newly tidied-up garden.  That is if it ever warms up and stops raining!!