Thursday 21 January 2010

First Snowdrops Of The Year! A Cheery Sight!

Hope you've all had a good few days.
Look what I found this morning when I went to feed the rabbits!
The very first tiny, tiny snowdrops. Just peeking out, and shaking out their pretty little white dresses, like ballerinas getting ready to perform.

There was no sign of them yesterday. I wonder if I had hurried them on a little. You see on Sunday when we cleaned out the chicken shed, the last couple of shovel fulls of dirty bedding/litter would'nt fit in the bags for the tip. So a scattered it on the garden beds, thinking it will soon get dragged down by the worms and composted. Now as you know (or maybe not) animal bedding - when soiled with the muck and urine, heats up quickly, so I wondered if this little heap had warmed the soil enough to force the snowdrops. No snowdrops in the rest of the garden yet.
Anyway - they are pretty and a welcome sign of the coming Spring. Have you got snowdrops yet?

Just a couple of pic's of Carbooty finds - nothing too pretty, but useful!

Oh - and you will see my super new jam pan I found at the Recycling Centre.



Yes, another hotwater bottle - a Girl can't have enough! This one is so small and dinky, I shall have to make a little cover for it, its ideal for popping on my neck/back to warm the sore bit. Hubby P suggested I make a kind of haversack - a portable back warmer - going a bit far I think.
I managed to pursuade a stall holder to sell me the pinking shears he was using to cut up card to make labels. They were/are a really good sharp pair, I've been looking for some for ages, he sold them to me for £1 - a bargin I thought.
And a book - there are so many at the carboot, and for pennies - how can you not! This is rather cute - all about pigs, ideas for sewing projects and patterns and templates. I've decided what I will do is take copies of the templates - make a file for them or something, because its only really the templates that I use. Then I can sell the book on (ebay) or give it to the Charity shop - I think I will do this with a lot of my crafty books - they take up such a lot of room.
These little piggies are so cute - I can feel a piggie themed project comming on!

A lot of people collect pig things - they are such amusing animals. Hubby P has a thing for them, he would dearly love to have some pigs. He has to be content with his pottery ones for now - most Christmasses I buy him a new pig. Although this year I found him a sweet little vintage squeaky Donkey! - and Yes! he was delighted!

I found a pile of these too.



They are the very old heavy cardboard files with hessian spines, and lots of interesting age related knocks and stains. They have been used in some sort of engineering office I think. Not everyones 'cup of tea' I know - but I love old paper - printed, plain, stained, crumpled or whatever. I just love the colours, texture, and how they look when put together - well - you know what I mean!
I thought I could cover some of these, a montague even - with some of my stash of interesting vintagey magazines, newspapers, and childrens books.



Look - I even found an old Camberwick Green book - bit tatty and some pages show the work of some little busybody, working away with their crayons. But how nice it would be to have a Camberwick Green File! I could keep all my piggy templates and whatnot in it.
I'll let you know, and take some pic's when I've had a play around with them.
On to Thrifty Snippets!
'You'll have the shirt off my back' was Hubby P's initial response to my - well, what I thought was a tentative enquiry about letting go of his favorite jumper. I reasoned that although he liked the jumper, he had had it for many years - it came from a Charity shop, and Yes - I know it always washes well, but it was getting beyound even my mending/darning skills.
He only wore it for work, it often came home covered in ink, but it was dropping apart - curiously just around the neck and shoulders -- no holes in the body!
What I did'nt mention was the fact that I really fancied having some of those knitted cotton dishcloths. Trying to be Green you see - No more J cloths for me I thought, when I can knit some, which will wash and wash again!
It wasn't untill I looked at the price of the cotton for knitting on ebay that I thought Ummmmm
I could buy a dozen packs of J cloths for the price of that cotton. So I looked about for a cheaper option.
The 'option' was on Hubby P's back!
One nice big cotton jumper - that will do nicely. It was falling to bits - Honestly!



So I unravelled it, and experimented in knitting it up.



And it seems just fine. Admittedly it is a bit of a grey grubby colour, but then the wool/cotton is a grey with a dark fleck, so no pristine white/cream dishcloths for me. But Hey - so long as they do the job, and they wash well, they will just fine.
(Please don't look at the quality of the knitting - its not one of my - better skills shall we say. A dish cloth is about all Ican manage! lol!


And what have I spent my day doing ? Well! - polishing my suitcases - as you do!
Another exciting project in the planning stage - suitcases needed!

That will keep you guessing! More of the Suitcase Project later!
xx That's all for now xx Take care xx