I love free furniture.

I love free furniture.

free recycle skip diving

Hello. Question, where can you get free furniture? Answer, from a skip. I found these two bedside cabinets the other day, not a mark on them. The house had been empty for a long time, it has recently been bought and a skip appeared on the driveway. It's on my walk, I pass it every day, and when I saw these I was so excited. 

There was no one around so I asked my friend up the road if he knew who had bought it. Yep, go down the next street and knock on a red door, so I did. Permission was granted to remove said furniture. I immediately went home to get my car, as it was in danger of raining. 

They are smashing. My first thought was to find a home for them because they won't fit in my bedroom, then I had a look around and thought they would look nice in my living room. 

This is a bit of a messy spot, the brown stereo unit next to the chair is about forty years old, it was cheap and chipboardy, and is too big for the space. I think it's time to get rid of it. I have to keep the tall cupboard behind the chair because it has a false back in it, it was made to cover up the electric meter behind it. Stupid place to put a meter.

Hey, look at the difference, a lot better. I moved the coffee table next to the chair and the cabinets fit perfectly either side of the alcove wall. This room used to be two smaller rooms, the previous owner knocked them through. I'm chuffed to bits with this.

The moral of this story is keep your eyes peeled for any skips which appear on people's driveways, they might be throwing something useful out. Always ask permission to remove items you want. They will always say yes. I love free stuff. 

My dinner yesterday was very simple, tagliatelle and frozen vegetables drizzled with toasted sesame seed oil. Only takes a few minutes to simmer in one pan. My lunch today was a bit of a mishmash, iceberg lettuce, potato salad, Danish Blue cheese, and tagliatelle, with a splodge of tartar sauce. 

I was up late this morning so I am a bit behind. I'll get off now and catch up. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

No problem, I'll make one.

No problem, I'll make one.

home made recycle sewing

Hello. Thank you for the many more messages coming in. You are so kind. I'm taking one day at a time, looking for things to occupy my time and my mind. Can't sit around feeling sorry for myself. Bugsy had the best life ever, I made him that promise when he first came into my life. For the last few years he knew he was the King of the Castle, mooching  around his domain,  checking on his subjects, letting them know he was boss. Nothing bothered him, he was so laid back. The last few months while he was living on the table we had conversations, face to face. He knew he was loved. We were a team, I am grateful that I have lovely memories of him. 

 I'll tell you about a little invention I made yesterday. I bought my sewing machine about the time I retired, nearly eight years ago, it was just under £100, nothing fancy, it does what I want it to do. 

This is the piece I am working on at the moment, patchwork pieces. I cut out some brown strips of fabric for the tree, it's a heavy material and frays a lot. I laid them out where I wanted them.

Hand sewing was going to take too long, so I thought machining would be best, but the pieces were in danger of falling off while I was doing it. I need a wider flatter surface around the machine to support it and  keep it all flat. 

I could make one out of wood, but that might take a while, and it's too cold to work outdoors at the moment. So, I had a look around and found a sturdy cardboard box that I brought my groceries home in from Aldi. Measured the height, exactly three inches, perfect. I cut an aperture in it, the width and length of the machine base.

 Covered the top with sticky white glossy paper, and slid it onto the machine.

Perfect. Now I have a flat surface to support my work, and it cost nothing.

Does the job just fine. A good invention I think. 

It's lunch time and I am going out this afternoon, so I'll sign off. Don't forget, tomorrow is the 1st of February, the day the Walking Group clock in with their mileages.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Recycling Upcycling Queen

Recycling Upcycling Queen

free make a bag recycle sewing

Hello, and welcome to Tightwad Towers Recycling Centre. There was a knock at my front door this morning, my friend Bob was on his way to the council dump when he decided to call in here first in case there was something in his car that I could make use of. Most of it was packaging, but I had to rescue a few things. I'm not sure if I actually need them, but I couldn't see them thrown away. I can probably use the two big frames, but the smaller ones might go to the charity shop. 

I do need a small lamp shade, but I these are going to be too big. Probably charity shop. Three cushions. Don't need them myself, but I could take them apart. They have too much stuffing in them, I could make four cushions for the church. My goodness I've got loads to do now, I'm going to be busy trying to keep up with all this recycling upcycling lark.

I made a sign to go on the lamp post on the High Street near to the Village Hall. It's simple, didn't want to spend too much time on it, as it will only be up for six days, then put away till next year.

Two shopping bags made today, with the fabric from one of the beds. They are a slightly darker shade than they are here on the photo.

So, that's what I've been doing on this chilly but dry Sunday. The days are very short now, it's a job to get everything done in reasonable daylight. I've got to go. There's a ginger cat demanding my attention, he wants to snuggle up to me. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Recycle and reuse

Recycle and reuse

free recycle reuse

Hello. I didn't get to dismantle the beds the other day, it was raining, is it ever going to stop! Well it did stop today and as I was passing my friends house, I noticed she had put two of the beds out on the front lawn. That's handy I thought, so after lunch I took my bag of tools and went round there to attack them. 

I slashed the fabric around the edges with a Stanley knife and unscrewed as much of the wood as I could. The tough bits gave way with a bash from a big hammer.  

I am trying to salvage as much as I can, that blue fabric on the top bed is lovely and ideal for shopping bags. I broke it down to manageable pieces to fit in my car, and will sort it out later. The wood can be separated into useful pieces and put in the garage, aka the wood store.

My friend gave me a bag of smellies, she doesn't like toiletries that are heavily perfumed. I will use anything if it's free. The handwash can be used as shampoo and bath foam, the small soaps I will pass on to Janet to be sold on the cat stall. I will wear the socks.

It was library day today. It has changed from a Monday, because the van parks on the health centre car park and they said it was taking too much room up, so they changed the day to Tuesday because it's closed on a Tuesday afternoon. The bin collection day has changed as well. It used to be on a Monday, now moved to Wednesday, just about getting used to the new routine.

I didn't do a walk yesterday because of the rain. People have been asking what next when we have all finished at the end of the year. I think it would be good to have a new challenge, but I'm not sure what. I will carry on walking and will record my mileage on my calendar, and I hope everyone else will do the same. Keeping healthy and looking after your body is not a one year experiment, it's forever. Come next spring and I hope to be doing more long walks.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Shopping haul and a job to do.

Shopping haul and a job to do.

budgeting shopping recycle

Hello. It's looking like it might be a busy day, so I'll fire this one off super quick. Last minute decision last night, go for the yellow stickers at Tesco. A good haul, all with 75% off. The man with the ticket machine said not so many people come for them now, it used to be 90% off. This saving is fine by me. Other foodstuffs were bought as well. No need to go again for another couple or three weeks. 

My friends in the next street are downsizing, moving up north, and they need to get the house cleared. There are four single bed bases to get rid of, no one wants them, not even charity shops. The council will take weeks to come and pick them up and they don't want them lying around in the front garden. The plan is that I  dismantle them and salvage any timber that might be useful for other projects and take the debris to the tip.

Must get on with the job. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

A day out at the Festival of Thrift.

A day out at the Festival of Thrift.

crafty stuff enjoy free holidays/days out recycle reuse Scrapstore

Hello. Yes, I was in Redcar yesterday for the Festival of Thrift. Apologies to those who live not far from the site, Cherie and Brenda and anyone else up in the north east, but I did not make up my mind to go until 10pm on Saturday night so there wasn't time to make arrangements. I had been mulling it over for a few days, ever since I saw Max tweeting about it. I considered making it into a two or three day jaunt but was undecided. 

Then I had a closer look at the festival web site and thought a lot of the activities and entertainment was geared up for children and families. Also advertised was food, workshops, films, talks, and shopping, none of which I am particularly interested in. The only things that did interest me was the arts and crafts and the upcycling, not really enough to warrant the time, effort, and cost to get there and back. 

However, when the tweets started coming in after the first day, with reports in the local media, I thought I might give it a whirl. My Saturday was a bit boring so I thought perhaps I ought to get up off my backside and just do it.. 

The event practically took over the whole village of Kirkleatham. When I arrived at 11.15am the road was blocked by a massive queue to get in the car park. It crawled along at a snails pace. I was not best pleased after driving almost two hours. The road to the main entrance was closed to all except disabled and trades people, so I followed the signs straight on for the car park. Just as we were coming to a roundabout I could see the queue stretching a long way into the distance, I hate queuing. Just off the roundabout to the left is a Business Park, and being a Sunday no one would be working so I thought why not park there. Good move, others had the same idea. It was a few minutes walk back along the road to the entrance. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded paying £5 to park, but I wasn't going to sit in that queue. 

The event practically took over the whole village of Kirkleatham, it was spread out over several fields, and there were stalls and suchlike inside the Museum buildings as well. It took me a while to Find Max McMurdo next to the big green Gumtree bus. Those of you who saw Shed of the Year will remember him as being one of the judges. His face regularly comes up on the TV as inventor and upcycler on other programmes. Max has a book out, his first upcycling book and it appears to be very popular amongst thrifty people. If you want to have a butchers at it, click on this Amazon link. No I am not getting a cut in sales, I just think he is a thoroughly nice guy who works very hard. 

With a steady stream of visitors waiting to speak to Max, I hovered for a few minutes and watched him dish out his words of wisdom to enthusiastic upcyclers. 

That was tempting, the weather was hot and I could have murdered a pint of cider, but knowing that I had to drive home I supped the watered down apple juice in my bottle brought from home.

There was much to see and do. The solar powered cinema was closed for lunch, and as I didn't fancy being squeezed into a box with other sweaty people I decided to give it a miss. Nice idea though.

Lots of wood about. Two owls for sale, can't remember how much they were though.

There were stalls with all kinds of craftwork. Blocks of wood with letters carved into them, £6 per letter. I did think of getting my name but I am much too tight to part with £30 on an impulse buy.

In the stable block there were artworks from local artists. I must say though that there was only one which looked interesting. One stable had nothing in and was lit up with a coloured light. Another had a moving film of horse racing projected onto the wall with a makeshift steeple chasing jump built of branches in front of it. And two others were empty. It was a bit gloomy in there, with not much to look at. 

There was a little courtyard with vintage camper vans, which was nice.

This one was for sale, 7,000 quid if you are interested. Looks fully restored on the outside but you will have to put your own innards into it. Mind you, thinking about it, it has an 02 number plate so it could be a kit car built from scratch.

Lots of vintage stalls to browse. One thing I can't understand is that once something is given the 'vintage', label how come the price rises, and rises, and rises. Baffles me that people will pay silly money for old tat, when probably family members will have cupboards full of the stuff stashed away somewhere. 'Spose it's a bit like antiques, the older something is the more valuable it becomes.

There were various cooking smells wafting around, and long queues at the stalls. If this was a thrift festival, why didn't more people get organized and take their own pack up from home and have a picnic. It was the ideal weather for it. 

Jam making demonstrations here, and if you took your own fruit you could turn it into jam yourself and take it home in a jar.

The church was used for sewing sessions. Make a patchwork block and it will be added to a quilt.

Choose your pieces of fabric and sit at a machine, someone will tell you what to do. The little girls seemed to like this activity.

I had a peek in the museum while I was there. 

This old dear looks happy enough perched on her stool, with the cooking pot on the fire. Fish for tea tonight.

How about a swing in a hammock. Looks very relaxing, the young lady is gently rotating the line of swinging hammocks on a turntable.

Hairdressing was popular, get your hair done in a vintage style by ladies wearing forties dresses, outside their vintage caravan.  £5 a go.

My overall view of the festival was that's it's a great day out, and if you live close enough you could easily find enough to do for two days. There is no entrance charge, free to get in. The entertainment is free, and a lot of the childrens activities are free. There are drop in sessions if you want to attend some workshops. If you have money to spare there are plenty of crafty type stalls which will gladly relieve you of it. I picked up some cards and have checked out web sites which you might like to take a look at.

Sarah Turner makes hand made lighting, sculptures, and artworks upcycled from waste materials. Mainly plastic bottles and cans. www.sarahturner.co.uk 

Sarah Oatley is a textile artist using a wide range of fabrics, mainly recycled and vintage. www.drawnthreads.co.uk

Abigail Lagden creates fabric sculptures and mixed media canvases, using Powertex.
www.curiously-contrary.co.uk

Scrapstore was there, only they call it Percy Creative Reuse Centre. It's at Commerce Way Middlesborough. Here is their link if you want to check it out.

I left about 3.30pm and decided to take a look at Redcar seafront while I was there, but I'll leave that for another post. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

A day out up north

A day out up north

holidays/days out recycle

Hello. It will be a short post tonight because I'm a tad tired. I've been out of the house for eleven hours today, driven 220 miles, and walked around for seven hours, now I am falling asleep. Here is a little clue as to where I've been, I went up north to visit an event and this big green bus was there. 

Pictures tomorrow. Toodle pip and goodnight.