The Thread Shed & August Update

My OH hasn't really taken me seriously when I've mentioned that I plan to eventually start selling my homemade stitched products. He's rolled his eyes as I continue to accummulate piles of vintage, second-hand, thrifted and donated fabric and notions. However, when he saw the most recent zipped pouch I made he was quite impressed and suggested, with no prompting from me, that I get labels to identify my work. As it was something I'd been considering anyway, I ordered a small amount from Woven Labels UK to try.

I'm pleased with how they look; not too new and shiny, and a bit vintage to suit the sort of materials I want to use. The Thread Shed is what I've decided to call my garden shed where I'll do the sewing, when it's ready.

To change the subject somewhat - I recently took the plunge and listed some items on eBay to sell. I've bought/won many items over the last couple of years but been a bit apprehensive about selling. First, I had to get a new camera to take reasonable photos because I know it makes a big difference to selling success. The setting up of an account and getting used to what to do the first time also takes time and put me off getting started. But it's done now and I was quite satisfied with the outcome.

I listed 2 pairs of shoes, a set of tablemats and a book (see photos). People started 'watching' the shoes almost immediately and both pairs sold. Whoever bought them got bargains but I was pleased to get rid of them and to get a little profit in return. The tablemats also sold and winged their way to Austria. I wasn't happy with my description of the book , but couldn't think of how else to promote it. Consequently, it didn't even get any watchers. I'll probably list it again, once I've organised a few more things to join it.

August Simple Living Update

Getting rid of clutter was one of my downshifting aims listed on this post. I've made progress on the rest of the list too. The only item I've not managed to do anything about is visit the library. The spend recording list is progressing; food shopping costs are down 20 - 25% each week; garden produce has been used, preserved or given away (with a pot of jam and tray of homemade custard slices given in return - yummy!!); the £2 savings jar is filling up and I'm getting through my pile of unread books (just finished Tess of the D'Urbervilles and started Cold Mountain - going to take I Capture the Castle on holiday soon).

The few days away in Tavistock and buying a sewing machine bumped up the spending somewhat but a small amount of passive/non spending earnings was made including from ebay, various cashback cards and vouchers totalling £30. I haven't yet made anything to sell but have saved by giving homemade presents.

The weekends are normally quite busy for me but this one's going to be manic. It'll involve a church fete cake stall, singing practice, quilting club meeting, 10k run in Cardiff and a birthday.

Will need a holiday after that - Rhodes here we come!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Busy Bank Holiday

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing in a local antique/junk shop and came across a box of paper items. After an interesting rummage I decided to buy this old magazine and a couple of out-of-date maps. I aim to photocopy some of the images in the magazine and use them for greetings cards. The old fashioned themes and ideas will make the cards quirky and different. The maps could be used for wrapping, cards, envelopes etc as demonstrated so well by Bugs and Fishes.

A friend of mine was asked, with only a couple of weeks notice, to help organise a Food Festival in a small local village. She rose to the task and came up trumps despite it being a Bank Holiday weekend and lots of her potential exhibitors already being booked. I went along for a look (as she was kind enough to support me in my concerts) and had a nice afternoon browsing the stalls.

Although the sky was threatening it didn't rain and I enjoyed a quiet hour listening to the jazz singer/musician. A simple act of kindness, as I sat there, cheered me up for the rest of the day: A man from one of the stalls sat at the picnic table next to me and began sorting some of his wares. He asked to borrow a pen and luckily I had one with me which I handed over. When he had finished he gave me back the pen and handed me one of the items he had been labelling saying it was a Sticky Toffee Pudding. I offered him something for it but he refused and the look on his face showed that he was as happy to be giving as I was to be receiving.

The Food Festival was on Sunday. On the Saturday I went for run of about 7 miles with OH in the morning and with lots of friends to a 25th Wedding Anniversary party in the evening. Most of the friends were the same ones we went skiing with in March.


Hopefully, my next post will be a round-up of the success or otherwise of August simple living efforts.

Bye for now.
Teresa x

UFOs and a Bernina

I had a day off work yesterday to join my quilting group on a trip to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham. As always it was a busy, enjoyable and inspirational day and I'm sure there will be lots of photos and news about it here in Blogland. I bought a couple of bits and pieces but my main aim was to get a new sewing machine. The one I have is at least 20 years old and doesn't have many of the features and attachments that would save time and give a good finish. I'm planning to do much more sewing in the future so felt it was time to invest in a new machine. One machine looks much like another to me as I haven't had much experience with newer models, but with the advice that Bernina were good quality, I negotiated to buy one of the demonstration models of this (the 230 PES) machine at £100 off. I'm looking forward to receiving it after it's finished with at the show and had a service back at their shop.

In the true tradition of Blogland, I've taken a couple of photos of my Unfinished Objects (projects). Some bloggers show their UFOs in order to motivate themselves to get working on and maybe finish them. I don't quite know if I have an ulterior motive for showing these as I can't see me having time to pick them up any time soon. I only have 2 but they're time consuming projects and getting back into the right mind set for continuing will take quite some time.


This is a cardigan pattern and yarn I bought to knit about 3 years ago and started with enthusiasm. It's the only time I've bought a book of patterns and exactly the yarn specified, and it cost around £50 at the time. That's more than I've spent before or since on a similar project so I should really get it finished. I seem to remember that as I knitted the back (which is all I've done so far - up to the armhole shaping) it began to look as though it was going to be too small. What I should really do is get it back out, measure properly and if it's too small, un-run it and start again.

(The correct colour of this yarn is somewhere between the 2 photos)

This cross-stitch kit is probably even older than the cardigan project. I love the picture and know where I want it to hang when/if it's ever finished. The reason I lost interest in this was because I got to a point where I realised I'd made a mistake somewhere and the pattern is so small and complex it was impossible to find it. This means I'll have to adapt the colours as I go until the pattern gets a point where it's correct and the thought of that puts me off picking it up.

This weekend is, I hope, going to be a quiet one with some time for stitching. I've got a few quilt blocks ready to put a border on and another paper foundation block to finish. Some ebay watching time will also be spent because I finally got around to listing some items to sell for the first time last weekend. I've got quite a few watchers and couple of bids so I'm hopeful for a reasonable result. It'll be quite exciting watching what happens but I suppose that wears off when you've done it a lot!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Thrifting from Tavistock

I can always find lots of items in charity shops with potential to be revamped or used for sewing but I restrain my self from buying too much because I know I won't have the time and it will just get added to the piles of 'stuff' taking over the house. As I think I mentioned previously, I mooched around a few charity shops while on a break in Tavistock the other week. One of them had quite a lot of linen items and seemed to specialise in it. I had a sift through and was unable to resist these 2 little pieces (are they called doilies?). I'm not sure what I'm going to use them for yet but the cute picture printed on the one above and the pretty embroidery on the one below were too lovely to leave behind.

I also picked up a cotton blouse (which I didn't photograph) with the aim of using the fabric for patchwork etc. As it had a cream/beige background with a delicate pattern of green leaves all over, I thought it would make a suitable lining for the little bag I was making to fill with toiletries for my neice's bithday. It went well with the colour scheme and the apple design on the outer fabric.
I was pleased with the result as this was the first zipped bag I'd made with lining. It went together very easily and the lining makes it all look so much tidier inside. The only new part of the bag was the apples fabric, the rest (including the zip) were thrifted.

This week I am looking forward to a busy few days:

1. A work afternoon/evening out tomorrow consisting of a cricket match and BBQ
2. Going to see The Time Traveler's Wife with a friend on Weds
3. Going to the Quilting Show in Birmingham on Thursday with my quilt group.

And my OH has booked us a holiday at last after a lot of delaying and wondering whether either of the children could get time to come too. It's now going to be just the 2 of us and we are going to Rhodes in a few weeks!! I'd like to arrange for us all to go away next year instead. I like the idea of a little cottage by the sea but we'll have to see.........

Bye for now
Teresa x

"I Could of Told You That Your Not Right!"

If you find the sentence above irritating then we have something in common. I'm of the opinion that technology and laziness are having a detrimental effect on the natural evolution of the English language and as a result the meanings of words and phrases are changing so much that what we write and speak don't even make sense if analysed. This is happening all the faster with the 'help' of social interactive websites, message forums and texting. It also irritates me when words are too readily added to the English dictionary. It's my understanding that new words, or new meanings for older words, can be added if they are published when the new meaning is obviously apparent (but don't quote me - ha ha pun intended). In this age of immediate and overwhelming information overload, I think the criterion should be changed so that words aren't included until in widespread general use, as would have been the case in the past. These days, words are added to the dictionary that many people have never heard and they only become well known and well used BECAUSE they are in the dictionary - that seems completely contradictory to me.

I love reading and will read novels (modern and classic), non-fiction, magazines and newspapers as often as I can (after I've found time for stitching so not very often!). I usually have on-the-go a book on my bedside table and one at work to read while eating my lunch and usually take a couple on holiday too.

When reading classic literature from around the turn of the 20th Century, I'm always amazed at how long-winded and convoluted the descriptions of feelings and situations are, and how the characters state their case in such a round-about way. I enjoy reading novels written back then and having to decipher what the author means, even to the extent of having to re-read a sentence several times. I find it fascinating that social strictures were such that they had no choice but to go "round the houses" to arrive at what they really meant. Many words can be found in these novels that had different meanings at the time they were written from now. The word "awful" for example meant exactly what it says - "full of awe" and not as more commonly used today, "terrible or horrible". Other words from those times have been shortened (this is probably where the laziness contributes) such as one I found in Tess of the d'Urbervilles recently. The word was "compeers" and, in its context in the book, I understood the meaning but have not heard it in modern usage, only the shortened "peers". Compeers seems to suit the meaning of the word better.

I am constantly amazed when intelligent people use 'could/should of' instead of 'could/should have' and don't know (or care about) the difference between 'there', their' and 'they're' or 'your' and 'you're'. This poor grammar is gradually creeping into magazines and websites too. I've yet to see it in books and newspapers. Don't get me wrong, my grammar is not good by any means and I'm unsure of the finer points (I start sentences with 'but' and 'and' and end them with prepositions(Wow, a sentence with 3 ands in a row) and use too many commas) but I think the basic rules should have been, and should still be, a major part of primary learning. I also realise there are many people who have a reason for not understanding the written word as other people do, for example dyslexics, but I don't understand enough about it to know how they perceive words.

A friend and I were talking about what annoyed us about the general use of language today (which partly prompted me to write this post) and she mentioned that her daughter had taken English Language at A' Level. I did English Literature many years ago because Language wasn't available then. A seed has now been planted in my mind, as there's no reason why I couldn't take another A Level now. I will look into what the course covers and see if it inspires me. But now another train of thought comes to me - I won't have the time to do it for a couple of years at least and when I do, what use would I put it to?

Another aspect of language that interests me is idioms and colloquialisms and I have a few books on the subject that I occasionally dip into.

The books above are all ones that I own and have read.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant and I know it's a complete change from my 'normal' post......it's just a bugbear (now where did that word originate from?) of mine and it's good to get it off my chest. I quite enjoyed writing it actually and contemplating the English Language.

Normal service will be resumed shortly!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Tavistock Break

We decided to take the scenic route to Tavistock for our short break and drove through Dartmoor National Park.

The weather wasn't very good for taking photos but I tried to take a few as we drove and walked around a few little coastal villages the next day.

I love the look of these little, hidden streets but I think I'd feel quite cramped living there

This is the B&B we stayed at at. Very friendly and accommodating and excellent breakfast service. Although, I think the next time we go away we'll go self-catering so we can have a lie-in occasionally - it is a holiday after all!

On the way home (on the recommendation of a shopkeeper in Tavistock) we stopped at Castle Drogo, a National Trust site and the last castle to be built in England. It was full of lots of paintings, photos and items that belonged to the family that lived there which helped visitors to imagine what it was like living like that. Photos were not allowed inside the castle but it was a lovely sunny day so I managed to get a couple of the gardens.

I can't finish without mentioning the lunch we had in the cafe at Castle Drogo. We both had a large slice of quiche with salad leaves, mushroom salad and either potato salad (OH) or cous cous (me). OH had an individual summer pudding with clotted cream to follow and I had a cheese scone. I have to say it was all delicious and well worth a mention.

We visited a few charity shops in Tavistock and I picked up a couple of bits for crafting. More on that soon.

Bye for now

Teresa

July Update and Sewing Progress

Saturdays always seem to me to fly by in a flash, but today was an exception. Today seemed to flow at a normal pace and I had time to do some baking (muesli bars), fruit picking (blueberries), exercise and sewing as well as some housework. My OH and I are going to Devon tomorrow for a few days so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. I'm looking forward to the break and a few days off work.

On the sewing front, I almost finished 2 Rail Fence blocks for my quilt-as-you-go quilt and started another paper foundation pieced block. As you can see from the photos above my calculations were a bit out. I was one section short for the top one and had one extra for the other. I've sorted it now and they are almost finished.

July spending round-up

Seeing as it's now August, the record of my July spending and simple living efforts is complete. Spending overall was a fifth down on June which shows that I have cut down on unneccesary spending. Weekly shopping and fuel spending were not very different so I need to keep working on that. Eating out costs were double as we treated our son and daughter to a meal out. The main reason for the overall decrease was my reduction in general spending.


Time to go and pack for tomorrow now. I'll, hopefully be back with some photos in a few days.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Fruits of Our Labours

I should really say "The Fruits of His Labours" because it is my OH who does most of the work in the garden. Well, his work is beginning to pay off because a steady crop is being harvested now. The blueberries aren't very prolific but there's usually enough every few days to add to a desert for the 2 of us (DS doesn't tend to eat deserts).

I've started pickling the beetroot to make sure that none goes to waste. This is my first jar this year and I've also done another one that's twice the size.

The runner beans are producing quite a good crop already, even though the plants don't seem to be fully mature yet! To make the most of the single day of good weather this week, I sat on a garden bench in the sun on Saturday cutting these up for the freezer.

The carrots are also a decent size now; here are a few that were pulled on Saturday to use over the weekend. The redcurrents are from my organic box delivery.

Progress of a different kind is also being made in the garden. My OH has almost finished lining the inside of the shed with tongue and groove and has added some decking at the front to make steps. He's also taken advantage of a couple of dry spells to stain some more of the outside. The colour he started with on the back and side was too orangey so he's continuing the rest with a lighter, more honey-like colour.

You might well wonder what I've been up to while all this hard work has been going on. Well, I've been quite busy but haven't got much to show for it. Isn't it always the same with housework. Apart from doing the beans and picklng the beetroot, I made some scones and did lots of cleaning, washing and sorting; all with one eye on my sewing projects.
I managed a bit of cutting out of "Rail Fence" blocks one evening and had an hour last night to make a tiny amount of progress on my hexagons. A couple of weeks ago I tried some paper foundation piecing for one of my on-going-quilt blocks so I'll try and get around to showing that soon.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Weekend Walking in the Woods

We looked after my daughter's dogs again last weekend while she went to T4 on the beach in Western-Super-Mare with her boyfriend & my son. They had a fantastic time and, because they set off early and got there around 6am, they had a good position in the crowd not far from the stage catwalk. I don't know how they can bear being pushed and shoved and trodden on while standing up for hours on end in the middle of a 45,000 strong crowd, but we watched some of it on TV and everyone was having a brilliant time.

In complete contrast, my OH and I took their dogs to a place where there were no other people at all! We began taking a National Trust path through some woodland.................



...........then out into a wheat field................



........where the crop looked almost ready to harvest.
We walked around the wheat field and into a field of curious cattle. At this point, we put the dogs on their leads in case they decided to chase the cattle or vice versa. During a brief rain shower we sheltered under a large spreading tree with an audience. From here we had one more field to cross and we were back where we started. It was a lovely afternoon which, despite being a bit wet and windy, was warm and fresh. We live surrounded by some beautiful countryside but, not having dogs ourselves, tend not to go out amongst it 'just because'.... , so it's good to have these opportunities to appreciate our local area.


When we got home I spotted a couple of bags of fabric that I was given by a very generous lady at work so, as I had the camera still with me, I pulled it all out to see what there was and took a picture. There was a lovely variety of upholstery and curtain fabric which I started sorting and washing straight away ready to iron and tidy up.
There was a bit of a hiccough while washing the first load when the washing maching stopped and showed an error message on the screen, but we soon realised it was because there was a problem with the water pressure and by time we phoned the council it had already been fixed.
We're now starting to reap the benefits of planting the garden earlier in the year. Yesterday, we had some beetroot, carrots and runner beans. When they get to be too many to eat, I'll pickle the beetrot and freeze the beans. The carrots will keep well in a container of peat. It also won't be long before we have some tomatoes ready to eat so I'm looking forward to those.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Sewing and Singing

Another busy weekend has ended with more singing and sewing. I managed to finish this drawsting bag and pouch for a friend who's birthday was this week and who I met up with for a lovely meal out and a catch-up on Saturday evening. I just wish I could remember where I got the pattern from for the bag to credit them. The instructions for the little zipped pouch came from here. I modified it only a little, in that I took smaller triangles while shapng the corners so it was not so tall.


The singing this weekend took the form of a church service Sunday morning and another performance of The Witness at a church about 25 miles away. A few more dates are still to go but we've got a break now until September. Also taking a break for the summer are choir practice, singing lessons and ladies group so hopefully that will leave more time for sewing!



The meal I had out with my friend on Saturday was the second time in a week that I'd had a meal at the same place (my OH suggested we go there after our run/jog on Thursday and I'd already booked a table for Saturday). Our son came jogging with us and then to the meal along with our daughter and her OH, so it turned into a nice family occasion. I have a work meal out on Wednesday at a Thai restaurant and the last ladies group meeting before the break on Thursday which will be a BBQ. It sometimes happens like that and several functions crop up all at the same time!

I mentioned to my daugher a while ago that I forgot to photograph the bag I made for her to show here so she kindly took a photo and emailed it to me. The pattern is the same one I used for my own bag in a previous post but with less taken on the corners so it is not so boxy. She chose a couple of the fabrics and then I added to them with co-ordinating colours from my stash and patched it all together. It's basically a split 9 patch with extras added around the edge to make the full size.

When I made my list of aims for simple living, I also started a list of things I wanted to do. Not fancy or impossible-to-achieve things - just things I'd like to do one day, with a bit of thought and planning in some cases. I then immediately forgot about it until I checked the list so I think I'd better record it here too - to give me a bit of motivation.

- Visit Scotland
- Take a holiday in a Yurt
- Reduce the amount of hours I’m out at work.
- Sell my craft work
- Finish my quilts
- Run 5k in under 30 mins & 10k in under an hour

I was hoping to finish the Race for Life in under 30 mins this year but health issues slowed me down a bit so I was pleased with 34 mins. I've entered a 10k run for Sept so we must step up the training now.

In an update on "The Shed" - OH has begun painting the outside with a wood stain and cladding the inside with tongue and groove. More progress soon, hopefully with pictures!

Bye for now

Teresa x

The Shed Has Arrived!!

I was excited on the way home from work yesterday because I knew that our new shed/summerhouse would have been delivered and I wasn't disappointed. It's a good size but not too overpowering which I was a bit concerned about. This is the view of it from our front door and below that the view from in the garden.

I'm looking forward to collecting all my sewing equipment and clutter from all the places it's currently piling up around the house and having it in one place. Before that though it needs to be stained on the outside to protect from the weather. Inside, we plan to clad the walls for insulation, line the ceiling between the beams and add a floor covering. I'll then make curtains and get some shelves put up. I'm considering 2-tier curtains as it might be useful to have them so that the top can be opened independently of the bottom.

Watch this space! But progress may be slow..............

Bye for now
Teresa x

A Simple Living/Aim Update and a Bit of Thrifting

On Saturday I went to my monthly quilting club day where we were given the kind opportunity to benefit from the sad death of one of the former members by buying fabric from her stash that had been donated to the club. I didn't know the lady but I'm grateful to the family for thinking of us. I was lucky enough to acquire the pile above for £1.

This pile was vey kindly given to me by my daughter's boyfriend's mother after she heard that I was trying to quilt without buying new fabric and I'm very grateful to her too. I was also fortunate to find a very large piece of plain cream fabric (not pictured) in a charity shop for £3 that will be useful for backing/sashing etc. The browns and beiges will be added to the pile for my quilt-as you-go quilt and the rest will go to good use.

I've had a few lucky finds in charity shops over the last couple of weeks. This lovely skirt with appliqued flowers cost me £4. One of the leaves needs a bit of mending but apart from that it's perfect. I don't know where it was from originally because the label was cut out but could have been M&S.

This colourful dress which is from BHS was also £4 and will be ideal for taking on holiday. The shoes that can just be seen were £4.25 and are from Next. They'll also get plenty of use on holiday and through the summer.

Over the month of June I've been quite good in keeping my spending record up to date. I'm afraid it was a month with some unusual one-offs which made it much higher than it would normally be (that's what I'm hoping anyway). It was difficult to tell with it being my first go.

General summary of monthly efforts at simple living

- Grocery shopping. Generally 20% down on previous costs on average over the month

- Eating out. Ate out 3 times this month which is a bit more than average

- Lunches bought instead of making own - 1 (pretty good effort)

- Magazines bought. 1 (on top of 1 subscription)

- Home grown produce. Froze quite a lot of strawberries (may make jam with them). Used salad leaves a few times (unfortunately going to seed now - could have made better use of them)

- Baking/food from scratch. Potato salad, coleslaw and scones to take to daughters for BBQ.

- Throwing away less. Stopped using kitchen roll and started making recycled cloths to use instead.

Non-spending earnings
I've been trying to find ways of earning a little extra without spending much. This month I joined 'yougov' which is a site which collects statistics for various markets. You register your details and they send you surveys to complete now and then which you could earn money from. At the moment I've only accrued £1 for joining and entered one competition.

- Credit card cashback. £3.95 (I never pay any interest, only pay off balance each month)

- Competiion win. £50 voucher for clothes.

This has been a useful exercise for me and hopefully will get more helpful as I continue. I can then compare months and eventually years.

We're getting a shed/summer house for the garden this week and hopfully it'll be where all my sewing paraphenalia will go. It will be lovely to have it in one place and de-clutter the house a bit. More news and photos on that to come.

Bye for now

Teresa x

A Time for Stitching?

I sometimes think my blog name should have a question mark after it, if not 2 or 3!! I love doing stitching of all kinds; knitting,crochet, machine and hand sewing, but only ever seem to find the odd half an hour or hour to do it and that's usually later in the evening when the light's not so good and I have to borrow my OH's glasses to thread the needles! But, saying all that, I don't always regret the things that take me away from stitching. Last weekend was a typical example. It was very busy but diverse and I enjoyed every minute of it. To top it all the weather was lovely.

On Saturday afternoon I went with my daughter and OH to Dumelm Mill for a mooch around. I bought a couple of bits and pieces incuding a pinking shears with the remainder of my birthday money from March (not an earthshattering event I know, but I very rarely go out just to browse for the sake of it).

The picture above is a singing group I belong to who performed the musical "The Witness" on Saturday evening. (I am in the middle with the black T-shirt). There IS an audience there despite the misleading photo. My dad took it and he's sitting in front of everyone. We've performed this once before and have dates for several more performances in churches around our area.

I also take singing lessons with a different group of people and we have a concert oranised for this Friday. I'm apprehensive about it because the arrangements aren't going very smoothly and I don't feel I know my songs well enough. We have one more lesson to practice tonight so we'll see how it goes.

I was hoping Sunday would be a little cooler because I'd entered the Race for Life in a nearby town. But no such luck, so the 2000 or so runners/walkers on the day competed in hot and humid conditions. Not that there was much competing going on; it was all for fun and charity. I managed to finish in 34 minutes which I was quite pleased about considering the conditions. My dad and my OH came with me for support and when the race was over we settled down for a very welcome picnic in the park where it was held before moving on to a Country Fair at Garn Lakes, where my daughter was helping to promote a local Community Farm with her boyfriend, who works there.

It was a lovely setting for an afternoon out. Luckily they had plenty of cover and shade for the animals they took with them. These were mainly rabbits and guinea pigs that the children could hold and learn about.

So all in all it was a memorable weekend and I was not sorry to have had no stitching time. If I had to spend a whole weekend doing chores and housework, then I would be sorry, very sorry!!!
Time to knucle down to a bit now though - and I have a block to quilt by hand for Saturday and want to make a present for a friend who's birthday is soon.

Bye for now

Teresa x

PS I don't know why my landscape photos are so dark. I thought I'd lightened them before I saved them and the weather was anything but dark.