Coming up all 'Cabbages and Roses'

Today, after a week of no shopping, I went into the thrift shop in town. It was busy, but I managed to bag myself a Cabbages and Roses long blue knitted cardigan for £10!!! Amazing. I love Cabbages and Roses clothes, but have to restrain myself because of the cost. So, I was almost jumping into the changing room with this one. Actually, stuff that idea - I was buying it even if it didn't fit - I was just so excited. It has some slight pilling and was missing a button (easily rectified as there was one on the inside - So, I took that one off and put it on view, and sewed another spare button I had into it's place where it couldn't be seen). I feel like the cat that got the cream..... I love thrift shopping just after Christmas - it is AMAZING what people choose to get rid of!

Nothing to do with thrift shops

This post has nothing to do with thrift shops. However, I have been busy making cards. Albeit Christmas cards for NEXT year! I always feel inspired by Christmas when it is all around me, and not in June or July when I start thinking about making cards. So, this year I am making them now - while I still feel inspired. I will post some pictures once I am done.


Next year is going to be one of action. I am going to try and get an etsy store up and running at the same time as doing my regular job part-time. I also want to get involved in some volunteer environmental work. It will be interesting to look back in a years time and see what I have accomplished (or not).

Saving the Best for Now

Just a quick post inspired by an article I recently read in a magazine regarding saving things for 'best'. When I have done this in the past I find I hang on to cosmetics until they go past their 'sell by' date, or a moth eats through my favourite jumper. In the end you end up throwing the 'best' stuff away! So, I have decided that I am no longer saving things for 'best', I am going to use and enjoy them NOW!

Handmade Stuff

It occurred to me last night while watching Kirsty's Handmade Christmas on TV that I can upcycle things into notebooks fairly easily. A wonderful lady called Isabelle Ting showed Kirsty how you can simply bind some pages into a book. That got me thinking as to the different types of things that you can recycle or upcycle into book covers. An Etsy search showed that some people were already doing wonderful things with old Board Games, Starbucks coffee cards, Playing Cards and any old bits of old leather. I have lots of things that need a reuse, but nothing that immediately springs to mind as an obvious candidate for a book cover....... but I love the idea, and will certainly be thinking of a new and novel way that this skill can be used to upcycle!

I hate it when this happens

It's been a long time, and a lot has happened. Since the last post my OH decided that he no longer liked me and dumped me, I gained a job and lost a job, and have now settled into a routine of blissful freelance work. However, I have been dreaming of starting my own Etsy store. Gathering all my crafts into one place to decide what I am best at, and may be of interest to other people, as well as reading books about how to go about it. It is gathering momentum, and so hopefully early in 2012 I will be online.

The rest of the time I have been browsing my favourite thrift stores - and had some amazing finds, from lovely pashmina scarfs for £2, Armani Jeans for £6 and a hardly worn Jigsaw tweed jacket for £10. It's an odd experience being able to 'upgrade' your wardrobe from a thrift store, but when I was working FT I just didn't have the time to browse these places. It's easy to fall into the drudge of high-street shopping and buying the same as everyone else. How boring.

Really felt the chill yesterday with winds howling around the UK, so I decided to finally sew some thermal interlining into my bedroom curtains. What a difference - it instantly felt warmer up there! Another job off the list.

Thrift Shops

I am amazed at what I find in thrift shops / charity shops. Brand new things (and some of them expensive) never worn or used. I'm not complaining, because recently I found a few things I had been considering buying new - but these things have a habit of 'turning up' in charity shops around here, so I waited, and sure enough they appeared!


The most recent example of this was an automatic pet feeder. I had been thinking of getting one for the chickens for a while (they are both overweight and so if I put all their food in their run for the day at once, they stuff it all down too quickly). These things are £25+ new. In the local charity shop - new - £4. It is even better than the one I was considering as it is clockwork instead of requiring batteries..... so better for leaving out in the winter.


Now I just have to 'chicken' test it while I am watching - so see if they destroy it!

I'm a thrift shop addict

OK. I have to confess I am getting addicted to thrift shops. I just don't get the same buzz when I go into a chain store and see rows and rows of the same thing. The thrill is finding that one item before someone else does, in your size. That happened to me today, but as I was with my OH I felt I couldn't try it on (as we were in a bit of a rush). So, I put it back and decided to come back later when he had gone home. It was probably less than an hour, but when I went back it had gone! I was gutted.

I have now learnt (albeit the hard way) that you have to buy it when you see it - or risk it not being there when you get back!

June 7th 2011

It's amazing the things that you can find to do when you have the pressure of a thesis to write. I have done more craft projects in the last six months than the entire year previously.


So, I have decided to start blogging. Yet another distraction. Lovely.


A bit about myself. 


I love all things recycled, up-cycled, hand made, second hand, pre-loved.. you name it. Things that have had 'other lives' seem to have so much more character than the things you can buy new. It's almost as if having been pre-owned gives them a history. Just because you no longer need / want / love something doesn't mean that someone else won't. I like the idea that things I no longer want can still be useful to someone, and that they will continue to exist and serve a purpose for someone else.


I also like making things, or up-cycling things. If I can buy that old chair or table and repaint it, or find a new purpose for something then I am happy.


So, this aim of this blog will be to document my thrifty / crafty existence, and hopefully pass on some tips and ideas to others.


Live simply.