Not impressed.

Hello. I was in town today, library, bank, a couple of shops, cat food, coffee and a few other bits. I was passing a jewelers shop, they are full of Christmas stock at the moment. I wondered why this rather posh shop had lot's of these ugly brown bags in the window. In my opinion they are not at all attractive, in fact I think they are pretty awful, wouldn't be seen dead carrying one. Then I noticed the price labels, WHAT, £728 for that, chuffin crazy. I haven't the faintest idea who would want to pay that sort of money for a brown plastic bag with a bit of leather trimming on it. 

Crikey, the window was full of them, all the same boring brown, all cost an arm and a leg. Yuk, they are so ugly.

I will never understand the hunger for a designer label. What's a bag for anyway? There is only one purpose for carrying a bag, and that's to cart stuff around in it. Most of the time I don't even carry a bag, unless it's one of my shopping bags, or a rucksack. My pockets are quite adequate for keeping my purse, camera, keys, and phone in. 

Designer bags do nothing for me. This is my hold all, it's great for a few days away. This is far better than a posh bag, because it cost me no money at all, it was given to me. 

This bag is handy for a day out, carry my sandwiches and drink, and a few other bits and pieces, a brolly, a fold up rain mac. Another really useful bag, and it cost me no money at all. It belonged to my mother, it has great sentimental value, she died 35 years ago.

Designer bags? No thanks. Labels do not impress me at all.

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

Recycling Upcycling Queen

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

More free stuff

Hello. It's been foggy here all day, and a bit damp and miserable. I got a call from my friend asking do I want to break up the other two single beds they want to get rid of. I said I would do, after my walk. They came apart quite easily, and now the wood is stashed in my garage. I think I would be the ideal candidate to work in a bed factory now I know how they are assembled, ha ha. 

It's not long now until my friends will be moving, there isn't much left in the house. The furniture removals company are going to do the whole job of packing everything up and transporting it up to Scotland. They are driving one of the cars as well, as my friend is not used to doing long journeys in her own car. 

I was very kindly given a freebie. They bought a posh car four years ago and a cleaning kit came with it. As neither of them wash their cars, it hasn't been used. So now I have everything I need to keep my own car clean. The roads round here are filthy at the moment, what with tractors dragging the mud out of the fields on their massive wheels. It's not worth spending a lot of time on washing cars for them only to get dirty again half an hour down the road. 

This kit will come in useful , though some of it I won't use, so I will donate it to the cat stall at the Christmas Fair next week. 

The new brochure has arrived for the Baths Hall and the Plowright Theatre in town. I've had a flick through it and there's a couple of shows I am interested in. I will have to get them booked early because I like to sit on the front row.

All is well here at Tightwad Towers. Heidi has decided she rather likes snuggling into my dressing gown on the landing carpet, so I have left her there. I have got my old copies of Countryfile magazine out again from 2011. No need to buy new ones, I can't remember what I read five years ago, so these are just fine.

My first Christmas card has arrived, Carol is always the first one I get. Now she has moved I don't know her new address, I'll have to send her a text.

I hope we have a better day weatherwise tomorrow. Whatever you are doing, enjoy your Sunday. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Recycle and 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

Let's have a catch up.

Hello, I've been AWOL, apologies for my absence. Apart from not having much to say, I've been helping my friend Helen deliver her parish newsletters, and done some Bailey dog walks for Joyce, as she has needed to rest her leg. So all good stuff, lots of walking. 

I didn't see the super moon the other night, but last night there was very little cloud and it lit the back garden up nicely.

This morning it was at the front of the house at 7am, still visible, with a whisp of cloud floating by.

Hey, look what I found. Someone very kindly has bagged up all their spare apples and hung them on the railing for anyone to take. Thank you, I'll have one of those.

 Tonight I've made a big pan of broth and vegetables.

Soaked the Scotch Broth Mix overnight, and added carrots, potatoes, parsnips, an onion, the last bit of broccoli, and two apples. I used half the packet, which was as you can see 50p, it makes four large portions, or five not so large. This will put hairs on my chest, it's lovely, and very cheap. I will eat some more tomorrow, and freeze some.

I had a phone call from a local WI group, asking me to do a frugal money saving talk. I've booked them in for January. I haven't done one for ages, it will make a nice change.

Pussy cat rescue news. Someone contacted us about a stray kitten seen wandering at a caravan park. Sue and Janet went to have a look for it, and found it in a pond. The poor little might was half dead. The man who owned the place waded in and got it out. They had it checked at the vet. Luckily we had a spare pen for it, and now it is being looked after and making progress.

There are some new exhibitions starting soon at the Arts Centre, one of them sounds really good. It's called Radical Craft, Alternative ways of making. There is a tour with the Curator on Saturday, I'll go along to that. Someone has blogged about it here.

Has anyone found the videos by Graeme Stevenson on yoootooob?  He is an artist who travels around chatting to other artists about their work. Claire Bremner produces some stunning work, and demonstrates her techniques as she talks and paints. Have a look if you are an artist, or if you aren't. She makes it look so easy.



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

A day out at the Festival of Thrift.

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

All snug and warm

Hello. So I said to my friend a year or so ago, let me know when you have finished with that jacket, because I will have it. I had forgotten all about it as it was mainly spoken in jest thinking she will have a lot of years wear out of it. I saw her last week, and she gave me the jacket. What a fantastic surprise. It's bloomin lovely, warm, padded, lots of pockets, covers my bum, furry hood, just the job for walking about in the depths of winter. There's nothing like being prepared for bad weather. 

I have got some brilliant friends.
Thanks for popping in, thanks for sending your walking mileage, I will update the page soon. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

It's just criminal

Hello. I don't think the Love Food Hate Waste message is getting through to people. Hugh Fearnley has a long way to go to convince everyone not to chuck things away that might have a useful life elsewhere. He has been instrumental in convincing supermarkets to sell wonky veg, and hopefully that will become more acceptable as more people join the war on waste. 

Take a look at my little haul yesterday, this food cost me no money at all, it was free. I happened to be walking through the market late afternoon just as they were starting to close down and pack away. A chance of some reduced strawberries possibly I thought. After finding some at 50p something caught my eye on the adjacent stall, a young assistant was sorting through the stock and putting some items in the wheelie bin. I had to notice that didn't I, that's what I do, notice things, ha ha. 

I said, 'you're not throwing them away are you?'  He said yes. 'But there's nothing wrong with them', I protested. He said they wont last till Monday. My hand was in there when he said I could take them. Never mind the embarrassment of scavenging in bins, free food hits the spot with me. especially when they have only been in the bin for less than a minute. I am sure they will taste a lot better than bought ones. The spuds needed a wash and they are fine. 

Hugh would be proud of me. I think I'm going to make a habit of going to town late on a Saturday and walking through the market to the car park at the back. It's not that I can't afford to buy these things, but I just can't stand seeing food being thrown away. It's criminal when so many people haven't got enough. Hugh needs to start targeting markets.

It's a sunny day outside. Grass needs mowing. Enjoy your Sunday. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

PS. Just remembered, it's the end of the month. Walking Group members please send in your mileage, let us know how you are doing. The target for 7 months is 583 miles for those doing three miles a day like me. I am off out now, which will take me to 584 yipeeeee. Do not worry if you are taking things at a more gentle pace, any walking is better than no walking. It has been proven time and time again, that there are many health benefits to regular walking. There are no negatives at all unless you push yourself too hard and risk injury, so don't do that. Just do your best.

500 free bricks

Hello. Another glorious day, lets have more sun, yipeeee. My brick pile sort of grew, I had to build another one. I thought I was only going back for one more load, but surprise surprise, it turned into three. The grand total is 500 free bricks. Chuffin amazing isn't it, and if I haven't got enough I can go back for more. Blimey, I could build an extension to my house, ha ha. And on top of that, I had an email from a friend saying she had seen a pile of bricks in someone's front garden. Oh no, I think I have enough. 

Here we go then, start by removing the two dividing centre pallets and one at the front. I am trying not to make a mess with the compost spilling out all over the place. 

I filled all the containers with compost.

Rocky enjoying a spot of sunbathing keeping an eye on the proceedings. 

Now all the pallets are removed, I have started digging it over. I need to shrink this pile and tidy the edges before I start laying the bricks around it.

Here is the wood which now needs disposing of. It has been suggested that it could be placed at the bottom of the beds and compost laid on top of it. A good idea in theory but I am not going to do that. If I were to bury this my raised beds would be five feet high. It would need a lot of bricks which would need mortar to hold them together. My beds are only three bricks high and I am not using mortar, just laying them loose. Also, I would need to remove all of the compost before I put the wood in place, I don't have the room to do that and no where to put the compost. So, these will go to the Council dump and be put into the wood recycling bin. If anyone wants them for burning they are welcome to take them. I will ask around but if they are still here in a weeks time I will dump them. A lot of it is rotten and not even fit for burning.

Work will be resumed in the garden tomorrow after Crafty Club. Lots to do.

I found out today that Jo Brands One Hell of a Walk documentary will be on BBC 1 on Thursday night at 9pm. Have a look at it because I might be on it. There again, my bit might end up on the cutting room floor. I did three short interviews, so you never know, you might see my mush, but you might not.

That's all for tonight. Thanks for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

PS. I think I have just deleted a comment on the previous post. I am getting reader comments coming into the spam folder, and if I am not concentrating I accidentally delete them. Strange that I am getting hardly any spam these days. When I got tons of the stuff I went through every one of them to make sure I wasn't deleting a genuine comment. Now that isn't happening and I am not so careful with my checking. Sorry to the person who I zapped. I must slow down and not whiz through so quickly. The reader asked if I was putting mortar between the bricks, which I have already answered here. 

Bricking it.

Hello. Today magic happened. There was I cleaning up the stack of bricks I had managed to scrounge, thinking I hadn't got enough and still needed more, when my friend Helen (not doggy Helen, another Helen), came round and told me there are 100 bricks going free for collection. Someone she knows is knocking an outhouse down and they want to get rid of the bricks. If I went straight away I could have them. I dropped my tools and went.  

When I got there, it was only three streets away, I found three guys dismantling the brickwork and they were chipping the cement off as they removed them. How wonderful is that, clean bricks no work for me. They loaded 100 onto a trolley and pulled it out into the street and loaded up my car. They then asked if I wanted some more because they had plenty. I thought 100 was enough for one trip, don't want to bust a spring, so I went back for the second load. Then they asked if I wanted more, so I am going back in the morning for a third load. 200 bricks stacked behind the garage, more to come. That's the magic of living in a village when everyone knows somebody who might be able to help.

This is the next raised bed to be dismantled, it's the one next to the summer house. All the wood will have to go. It's served it's purpose when I built it seven years ago, the pallets were the only free wood I could get, now I am going to replace it with free bricks. I like free.

I've just watched the last Mr Selfridge, it was a sad ending when he had to leave the store. Happy that he got his woman though. Lucky Katherine Kelly got to snog Jeremy Piven.

I had a long chat this morning with my computer man Mark, he rang from Australia. He posted a picture on his Facebook page standing next to a truck, he is a volunteer fireman and they put him through his training and test so now he has a truck licence. He is coming on leaps and bounds since he moved out there, he is making a good life for his family.

That's me done for a Saturday night. I'll get off my bum now and do my three miles. Enjoy your Sunday, I hope we have good weather like today. We'll catch up soon. Toodle pip.