Making Good Use

The Words Wood and Trees Spring to Mind

There are two ways to look at a problem, and we either live in a house that is too small for us (my preferred opinion), or we have waaaaaaay too much stuff (probably the true problem).  Either way, I'm trying to clear some of the accumulated cr*p into more manageable amounts.  This afternoon I thought I'd try and tidy up some of the piles of books that I have littering the dining room.  Because I sell second-hand books on both Amazon and Greenmetropolis, there are, literally, hundreds of books crammed into a smallish room.  I have one very large bookcase from Ikea where everything is neatly stored, and a much thinner bookcase where books are more or less neatly shelved.  I've also got a lot of boxes of books shoved under other items of furniture, and quite a few rather unsightly piles of books like the one below.

I usually have a rough idea where a book is if I've sold it, although sometimes searching for the darned thing can take a while, as I crawl around on my hands and knees pulling out boxes, and searching through piles.  On really unfortunate occasions, it can take two or three goes through the various piles to actually locate the required tome!!

I didn't actually get that far with sorting out the books as my eyes alighted on a rather nice three-storey plastic storage unit which has been lurking under the side in the kitchen since we moved in (now almost three years!)  I suddenly realised that the trolley would be ideal for storing some of my craft items which had been shoved on aforementioned bookshelves wherever I could find a space.  On closer inspection the trolley only contained a bag of dried out garlic cloves, a cloth bag, and the cling film, foil and sandwich bag packs, and an embarrasing amount of dust - ahem!  Not exactly a good use of the item. So I rearranged a few items on the kitchen shelves, stored away the cling film and foil, threw out the garlic cloves and thoroughly washed the storage unit.

I took all my craft items off the bookshelves, which left me with ample room to store a lot more of the books on the shelves.  Which in turn freed up two rather nice plastic storage crates (a corner of which can just been seen in the top of the photo) - now in the bedroom holding piles of fabric for crafting, and the space in the kitchen where the storage trolley had originally been is now home to the laundry basket.

Without having thrown out one single item the house feels a bit more organised.  Just wait until the weekend when I have a really good go through the books, then, hopefully, I will be able to see the wood for the trees!

Tuesday

For once, today has been lovely and sunny and bright in south Essex.  I always feel so much more invigorated when the sun is shining and the unexpected brightness of the day has prompted me to do all sorts of chores around the house.  There is a line-full of washing, hopefully, drying in the warm (well, relatively) air.  I've done a pile of ironing and now there is only one suspect item in the bottom of the ironing basket, although, of course, it will soon be filled up again when I fetch in the aforementioned washing. The bathroom has been given a really good clean, I even tackled the mouldy bits around the edges of the bath by giving them a good soak in some thick bleach - horrible smell but wonderful results.  The hoovering will be done shortly - before the wonderful daylight fades.  And, best of all, the local hospice charity shop has called and picked up ten carrier bags full of books, and a bin bag full of other bits and pieces - hoorah, I can finally move around in the shed again.

I also finished off the small embroidery from yesterday and put it on to one of my card blanks.

Even the garden is beginning to show signs of life again in the sunshine.

This is Jew's Mallow (or Jew's Button) just starting to flower.  It's a gorgeous egg-yolk yellow flower when fully open, and it really cheers up its corner of the garden in the late winter.  I did give it a rather severe hacking back last autumn so wasn't too sure if it would spring back to life this year. Luckily, it seems none the worse for it's haircut!

It's Raining - Again!

When it's a wet and windy January afternoon - yet again.

The best bet is a little light embroidery,

Followed by a cup of tea and one of these.

Yup, Spring must be fairly close if even Aldi have now got Cadbury Creme Eggs on sale.

In Which it's Nearly All About Dishcloths

I went and tried my luck with my cotton dishcloths in the posh Emporium shop in Billericay this morning.

I'd got organised with some labels, having spent quite a while swearing and getting in a pickle with the computer in P's study as it's the only one with a printer.  Eventually I was pleased with the result and stuck them on to some old-fashioned luggage labels.  Each dishcloth had one of these labels attached yesterday so that I would be ready for the off early this morning.

Weeeeeell, I wasn't laughed out of the shop but if I had sold them to the shop at £2.50 each (well below the £3.95 I sell them for myself) then the shop would have sold them retail at £5.99.  Now nobody, not even in 'loadsamoney' Billericay, is going to pay £5.99 for a dishcloth so that was the end of that.  I'll just continue selling them myself through ebay.  Perhaps I was being totally naive but I had no idea shops had a 60% mark-up on such items.  Anyhoo, the chap who'd ordered some plain dishcloths from me a couple of weeks ago was well pleased with them when they arrived, and has ordered a further ten.  So that order should keep me out of mischief for a little while.

Whilst I was in Billericay I, of course, had a tour of the charity shops where, once again, pickings were very lean.  I'd all but given up finding anything at all when I discovered a box of fabric pieces in the last charity shop.  Sadly, 99% of these were nylon, polyester, and even crimpelene (you don't see much crimpelene these days - thank goodness), but there was a rather nice little bag of patchwork pieces, all cut out and ready to go.

Each piece is approx. 5 inches square and there are about 20 of each fabric.  Happily, they also appear to be 100% cotton.  Not sure what, if anything, I can do with them but for 50p (and that included a small piece of red check gingham too) I wasn't going to leave them behind.

One Done

Finally this morning, after much huffing, puffing, and putting it off, I got out the sewing machine and stitched up one of the bags I cut out last week.  I don't know why I make such a palarver out of doing this as it only takes me a minute or two to get everything set up but somehow, in my head, it seems to be a mammoth task.  Oh for a space of my own where I could leave the sewing maching set up and ready to go whenever I wanted.  Yeah, right, dream on!  Meanwhile, back in the real world, the dining table has to be cleared, the machine lugged out of it's storage space, extension leads plugged in (which necessitates shifting a rather heavy desk to get to the socket), and everything threaded up and ready to sew.  It really isn't a big task, but I don't half use it as an excuse to put off doing anything!!

The bag went together really well and the John Lewis fabric was lovely to sew.  To brighten things up a bit I used a rather 'loud and proud' fabric for the lining.

This piece had originally been a sheet and I picked it up at the car boot last summer.  It gives a nice bit of pizzazz to the slightly more sober and wintry outer fabric.

I even toyed with the idea of carrying on and sewing up the second bag that's cut out in the same fabric, but then I thought - nah, why tempt fate, the second one could easily go 'a bit Pete Tong', and packed everything away again!

A Woman's Work ....

For some very strange reason I seem to have been gripped by a manic need to start Spring Cleaning, even though it is only January.  Perhaps it was because I was away from home for over two weeks and when I got back I saw the place through 'new' eyes, or perhaps it's because the dust bunnies were massing into serried ranks in P's study.  Whatever the reason I've been polishing, dusting, hoovering, scrubbing, sorting and tidying with an unheard of (for me) vigour.  I think I'm finally getting to the end of the odyssey, although there is still the ever-present mountain of ironing to get through, and I'm quite pleased with the results so far.  Even P has been galvanized into sorting out huge piles of unread legal newspapers, and to going through some of his clothes so that we can now see the top of the dressing table once again (before, the pile was so big that half the mirror was obscured as well!!)

Although the house is now looking much better, sadly all my plans for a bit of crafting have come to nought.  The bags are all cut out and ready to be sewn up.

Two from the John Lewis fabric I found last week, and one in a lovely Laura Ashley rose print fabric which Mum let me have.

A tiny bit of embroidery was achieved yesterday evening, again from the vintage iron-on transfers. 

I'm going for a more spring-like theme now with a pansy

and a gambolling lamb waiting to be stitched.  It could be some time!!

It's Getting Better Every Day

Although the noon-day shadows are still very long, and the sun is still low in the sky, I can at least feel safe in the knowledge that it's getting better every day - as in the sun is setting later each day.

This picture was taken at pretty much 12 noon today (please excuse the cr*p in the background, but the garden is like a wasteland at the moment with the lawn resembling a cross between the Battle of the Somme and a swamp).  The shadows are undoubtedly very long still but, according to the BBC weather website (which also gives the sunrise and sunset times), in the past three and a half weeks since the winter solstice we have already gained about half an hour extra of daylight each afternoon. 

I can tell that the sun is creeping slowly but surely back over the horizon as even the washing gets a teensy little bit of sun on it around noon.

This is my all-time favourite tablecloth, guaranteed to brighten up even the dullest, darkest day.

The mornings, however, are still a totally different matter.  It is very dark until at least 8.00 am, and even later if the day is grey and overcast.  For some reason this morning I was awoken at 3.30 am (probably Maurice le Souris on one of his nightly perambulations!!)  I opened the bedroom window to get a bit of fresh air and within 15 minutes I could hear the first train of the day trundling through the station.  Fifteen minutes after that the dawn chorus started although dawn was at least 3 1/2 - 4 hours away.  I was a bit surprised to hear the birds so early but it was a lovely sound to drift back off sleep with.

Santa's Final Delivery

My last Christmas present arrived this week, and it was well worth waiting for.  My sister had very kindly bought me a metre of incredibly expensive fabric from Persephone Books.

It's called Black Goose and is by E Q (Elsie) Nicholson, originally designed in 1938.  The fabric is just stunning and I know I'll never be able to take a pair of scissors to it.  What I would really like to do is to have some of the fabric stretched over a canvas frame so that I could hang it on the wall.  It really is a work of art - thank you very much S, I know getting hold of this was a bit of a pain for you.

It Makes You Think - Part Deux

P and I have been reduced to only one drinking glass each for the past few months after a small accident occured whilst washing up.  I have been combing the charity shops for suitable 'new to us' drinking glasses ever since but with no success.  I did find three orange and red stripy glasses in one local charity shop but they were rather heavy, I didn't much like their lurid stripes, and they wanted £1.50 for them.  Today I popped into Woolworths - having been lured in by their humungous 'SALE - Items from £1' posters in the window. 

These rather tasteful arctic-blue glasses were 49p each (and no, they weren't in the sale).  They were just what I've been looking for - the right size, the right weight, and a rather pleasing colour.  I bought the only four they had left.

I really don't want to make a habit of buying new when second-hand would do fine, but, really, these were not only what I had been searching for for months, they were also a darn good price.  I just couldn't resist.

It Makes You Think

Just after Christmas Mum and I made use of the free Asda bus which picks up from the top of Mum's road and takes you directly to the local Asda superstore about 3 miles away.  It was ages since I'd last been to Asda and we had a jolly good time there, being especially pleasantly surprised by how cheap Asda is compared to Sainsburys.  What was particularly impressive was the range and prices of their children's clothes.  Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that I pick up lots of clothes for DN on my travels round the local charity shops and car boot sales but I'm beginning to have second thoughts as some of the charity shop prices are as expensive as buying the items new in Asda.  On the day we went Mum bought DN two pairs of trousers and three long-sleeved tops for the princely sum of £9.  That was £2 each for the trousers, £2 each for two of the tops and £1 for the third top.  All the clothes are 100 per cent cotton, fit him beautifully and are really stylish.  When local charity shops are charging £1.50 - £2.00 for long-sleeve tops (most of them originally from Asda) you really have to think twice about buying second-hand.

I like to do my bit for being green and prefer to buy second-hand where at all possible, but with prices like those it seems stupid, to say the least, to not buy new.  My only reservation is where, and under what circumstances, the clothes were manufactured.  I didn't check where the new clothes had been made but I suspect it will have been somewhere 'iffy' like Bangladesh or Mauritius.  I don't like to think I'm encouraging this type of sweat-shop labour but, on the other hand, with prices like those it seems a no-brainer to buy something that is brand new as opposed to pre-worn.  I will continue to check out the childrens' clothes in any charity shop I'm in as I've had some lovely items for DN over the years.  He looks particularly nice in his 'new' winter coat which I got for him for £2 at the car boot last summer.  The lady I bought the coat from assured me it had never been worn, and I can well believe that as it was in beautiful condition with no name written on the name tag.  Also, some of the charity shops do have childrens' tops for 30p or 50p and I'm very happy to buy anything suitable at that sort of price, but £2 for a pre-worn bog-standard boy's top - no, I don't think so.  Not now I know I can buy new for the same price.

Armed with this new knoweldge my trip to the charity shops in Billericay resulted in pretty slim pickings this morning.  There were a couple of very nice how-to photography books which I've listed for re-sale on Amazon and this lovely piece of fabric from John Lewis.

It's 100 per cent cotton upholstery weight fabric and was only £1 for a 96" x 60" piece.  I nearly fell over when I realised I'd actually found a bona-fide bargain, and this was in one of the more 'upmarket' charity shops.  I feel a few new bags coming on.