One thing leads to another

Previously on Mum's Simply Living Blog ...

As well as finding the feather I also spotted, waiting patiently for a new owner, 

these pretty Grannies.

Grannies need looking after, don't they?

xx

One thing leads to another

Previously on Mum's Simply Living Blog (note the sentence about the junk shop) ...

DD has been invited to a 20s Ball and is looking for a suitable costume to wear. This dress immediately came to mind - beaded, sparkly and flapper-ish.

Hundreds of sequins and very small beads are attached to a very flimsy see through material base. There is no label in the dress and I'm not sure how old it is.

If you clicked back on the link you may have guessed that this was purchased from the JS but it wasn't a JS price - hence my avoidance of said shop for a few weeks!

Back to the Ball. I just happened to be passing the shop again this week and having decided that my curfew had ended, went for a rummage, and came out with this dressing up hat for 50p. (That's more
like it!)

Attached to the hat was this feather!!! A-ha!

One feather plus one sequinny belt, found in my ribbon box, plus one piece of wide elastic plus one handmade corsage = one feathery head-dress for a 1920's lady.

Some more items also slipped out of the shop with me. I'll tell you about those another time!

xx

Bloggy Blankets

Hopefully we now have another volunteer for our Bloggy Blanket. Thank you, Compost Woman. There is information on the Bloggy Blanket pages but I'll just summarise it here. 

1. Bloggy Blanket Chain. This is the blanket that I was referring to in my post. The idea was that the blanket started out as one square which was then sent to another blogger. The second person added a second square then sent it on to another blogger and so on. Some bloggers wanted to add more than one square which was great. Knitters can add on a knitted square if they wish to. As the blanket travels around Blog Land it gets bigger and bigger. Once it reaches a suitable size the last person donates it to a  worthy cause or deserving person. eg. Retirement home, hospice etc. In order to join in you just have to show interest via a comment. If this is the blanket you are volunteering for please get in touch with JuliaB over at Peacock Blue and exchange details. She would then send the blanket on to you for you to add your squares. From there you would keep hold of it until we find another volunteer. Details of the size of square are on the appropriate page. I log all the Blanket activity on a separate page so that everyone can see the blanket grow.
Pros = fun watching the blanket grow

no stress or hassle because there is no time limit

Cons = cost of posting the growing blanket on to the next person

2. Friends' Bloggy Blanket. If you wish to join in with this blanket all you do is crochet as many squares as you wish and then send them off to Fostermummy at My Beautiful Life who stitches them all together and donates them to charitable causes. Fostermummy also shows off the finished blanket on her blog posts.
Pros = fun noseying other bloggers' creativity
no stress or hassle because there is no time limit
Cons = cost of postage

3. The squares that I have been crocheting together are sent over to India via a contact I have in a second hand shop that I frequent. She has a few old ladies who knit squares for her but they cannot see closely to join them together. Whenever I call in I sometimes receive a bag of assorted squares (most are different sizes!) which I join together in my spare time. When I have completed a blanket I just take it back to the second hand shop and my contact takes them to her church to hand over to a doctor who goes over to India regularly to tend to some of the poorer people in different areas. These little blankets are destined for cots for the poorly babies. If you wish to knit or crochet some squares for this, or indeed sew or crochet them together yourself to make a cot blanket then you need to contact me for my details.
Pros = fun working out colour combinations and which squares will fit together

no stress or hassle because there is no time limit

Cons = none for me but postage cost if you wish to send me some squares

4. If you don't want to do any of the above due to cost of postage then I'm sure that there are places in your area who would be willing to receive your squares. Only recently I was given an article about a local hospice who wanted colourful homemade blankets for the ends of their beds. Local Old Folks' Homes also use lap blankets for their clients.
Pros = fun organising your own squares or blankets
fun organising other people in your area to contribute their crafty knowhow

no stress or hassle because there is no time limit

Cons = none really

Hope this helps and thank you again, Compost Woman, for your generosity. You should be able to get to my email address through my profile page if you have any more queries. Just let me know which blanket or blankets you wish to join in with. (Whoops! Never end a sentence with a preposition!)

Welcome to my new follower - a very talented crafter (including knitting and crochet!)

xx

Added later. PS If you don't know how to crochet and would like to there's plenty of tutorials on the web or why not look at Mum's Granny Along lessons here.

xx

It's a Sunny Day

Just the day for a walk.

It was cold but sunny and the tide was in. Wave to the sea please.

Did you see it wave back?

Note to self:- I must not call in the junk shop or the charity shop just because I'm passing.

Note to new follower:- Welcome and I hope you enjoy your visits.

xx

Junk Shop, Charity Shop and Hobbies

Quilting uses up an awful lot of thread so in a rummage in a bag at the JS I spotted spools of thread in an old plastic carrier bag. It took me ages to pull out the bobbins so I said I'd take the whole bag of stuff for £3.50. Here are the bobbins, both old and new, with some lovely big spools in there.

And the rest? I don't know whether I will use all of these but some may come in handy - invisible zips, hooks and eyes, darning thread, needles, trouser hooks and bars, eyelets, elastic, Wundaweb no sew hemming tape, cover your own buttons and various quick unpicks and needle threaders.

At the CS on the pound rail was 5m of sheer curtain fabric. Not a brilliant colour or pattern but quite floaty. Hmm - I need floaty dresses for dancing.

Do I feel another hobby coming on?

Maybe I could use this pattern picked up ages ago. I'll keep you posted.

xx

Cloud formations

Beautiful blue sky today with little fluffy clouds.

To be correct it's a mackerel sky.

"Mackerel in the sky, three days dry."

"Mackerel sky, mackerel sky. Never long wet and never long dry."

I sound like the Edwardian Country Lady. On the way back from my walk I just had to call in the Junk Shop and found this book (plus some homes magazines). I have her book of Nature Notes which is of a similar vein.

On her 'September' page there were no clouds but this picture caught my eye.

One of the weather sayings she recorded was 'Fair on September the 1st; fair for the month.' Now was it fair last Saturday? It's certainly fair today.

So suave

A ball of wool (20p) from the junk shop is keeping me going with the 2012 blanket. I decided to do some corner squares and edge them with this black wool. 

I thought they looked quite suave and masculine

 

so ...

... I did another one to send to Fostermummy for a 'man' lap blanket. (Please look at the Bloggy Blanket pages above if you want to know more.)

Happy crocheting.

TLC

Just a bit to get from this ...

... to this.

Nice one DH! :)

Welcome to my new followers. I do hope you enjoy popping in from time to time.

JS and CS

Oh my. The lady had a whole plastic linen basket full, FULL, of wool. I was tempted but I resisted and only bought a few (5) balls @ 50p each. I did feel a new granny blanket coming on ( similar to this) but I will not start it (no I will NOT start it) until all my other projects are finished.

Junk shop

I sounded convincing there, didn't I? We also bought a wardrobe from the shop to go in the bedroom we're decorating. This was a little bit more than 50p but considerably less than a trip to Ikea. 

These leather boots were hardly worn, fit and I liked them. I don't know when I'll wear them or what with, but I still like them.

Charity Shop - £4.50

Collections - China

I figure I've done enough de-cluttering for a bit. Let's bring something 'new' into the house. This pretty saucer was 10p from the junk shop.

I'm making up 'trios' ready. Once I have enough of them we'll have a tea party.

Hello and welcome to new followers. We'll soon have enough people for a tea-party.

I'll tell you what's brewin'

Remember this?

The teapot was from the Charity Shop. (I wonder why the spout is on upside down?)

It's probably why it was taken to the Charity Shop in the first place! The wool was from either the Charity Shop, junk shop or car boot - can't remember, but it was rescued by me. (Aren't I kind?)

Hey presto one kitsch Christmas present in the bag.

I can hear a cup of tea on its way.

One lump or two Mrs. T.? Who's a clever girl then!

PS Hello to Christine Rose and Helen. Enjoy your stay!

xx

Junk Shop Update

I bought  some balls of wool ...

... and a hat for 75p.

The cat thought it was an interesting buy.

The blanket's coming along well.

Puss is on guard!

To my new follower thank you for following my blog. I hope you enjoy your visits.

xx

Pretty pretty

I couldn't resist these drink mats from the junk shop, bought with a white jug (more jugs) and a glass pyrex bowl (more bowls) for £1.

Arum lilies

Summer flowers for a summer's day.

The weather was good ...

... and so was the car boot. Do you want to see what I bought? I'll show you anyway.

Homes mags - 10p each

Set of 3 wire boxes which I'll use for putting little presents in at Christmas -  £1.50

The wire boxes are similar to this box I got from the junk shop for 25p.

Cone of wool - 50p, sewing bits and bobs - £1

With the sewing stuff was this little beauty.

I don't possess any silk stockings! 

I used to sew and I might sew again - 6 for £1

2 Ikea baskets one for 50p and one for 75p. The necklaces were 50p and £1.

3 long swirly skirts - 50p each. 2 of the zips are a bit sticky. It's a good job I  have some spare.

So all that lot came to £8.75 (if I've added it up right). I've definitely got a smile on my face. We also got some watering pipes for the garden (£2) and some ring binders to put our music in (£2.50 for 6).

In the afternoon I went for a long 5 mile walk on the promenade.







We finished off the afternoon with a barbeque with DH doing the cooking (burning).