Bargains galore

I was visiting my Mum the other day and we were discussing our lists of things to do...I'm in the process of compiling my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (I've thought of 64 things so far) and I was telling her that one of the things on my list was to learn how to knit socks because I've always been a little intimidated by them, which kind of makes me want to conquer them. She told me this little story that her mother told her.

My Nan was the youngest of 13 children and spent a lot of time alone with her Mum as her brothers and sisters had grown up and flown the nest by the time Nan was born. Her mother taught her to knit at a young age and they would often spend evenings together by the fire knitting. Apparently my Nan always had problems turning her socks and her Mum would tell her to leave them by the fire when she went to bed and the sock fairy might help her out. So my Nan would go to bed, leaving the hardest part of her sock project on her chair by the fire, and when she woke in the morning, the sock fairy would have visited and turned her socks for her. Isn't that a sweet story?

Mum and Dad have just treated themselves to a new set of wooden garden furniture and offered us their old set, which is brilliant because ours cartwheeled down the garden during the spring gales and kinda broke the table. We haven't been able to afford a new set this year and this will do us for a while, especially as I hear that August promises better weather (yippee!) Don't they look great?

I shall certainly use them whilst I read through this little stack of books that I got from someone on our local Freecycle group. If you don't know about Freecycle, its a really eco-friendly idea - anything you don't need any more you offer to the group and give it away free, and you in turn can ask for anything anyone else offers up. Recycle, reuse, repurpose! Most areas have a local group, so why not join and do your bit for the planet.

The same lady was also giving this big bag of fabric scraps, lace, ribbon and stuff, so I grabbed that too *lol* I think it's been in a cellar or a loft though because it smells a little musty, so I'm going to wash it and air it all well before I use it!

Today was an unusually sunny day compared to the weather we've been having lately, a little windy but, *shrugs* can't have everything. M and I decided to walk the dog across the fields to the football ground where there is a big car boot sale held once a month and there was some great stuff. I held back a little because money is tight till M gets paid, but I treated myself to the Completed Illustrated Stories of The Brother Grimm, a great little book about the wild herbs of Britain and how to tell what they are, what's poisonous, what's not, photos, their uses, and how to prepare them. I'm a bit of a Hedgewitch at heart and I use natural herbs and remedies where ever I can. I have a small herb garden, but I haven't used it much this year because the caravan's in the way.

I also got three balls of yarn which are lovely and a set of dominoes which I plan to use for jewellery. Since seeing all the lovely domino jewellery on Craftster I've been keeping my eye out for the white dominoes and they're not easy to find round here! We mostly have a black heavily embossed domino, which I think is made locally.

My latest crafty endeavours have been a Cheshire Cat hat based on the Kittyville hat. I've done the crown and one ear flap so far. The colours are much deeper IRL but the flash bounced!

I don't claim the original idea for this, the lovely Catpants did one for the Fairytale Swap on Craftster and I've been coveting it ever since!