the green gal

What a week already

It may only be halfway through the week but I've having a pretty good one already. I became a year older on Tuesday, that's not the interesting part, the interesting part is that hubbie and I spent the day in Lewes, Sussex.

I've fancied visiting Lewes for a while as I had heard that it has a quirky bohemian vibe with lots of interesting shops to browse around. The rumours were right! Following recommendations from some lovely people on twitter we visited The Needlemakers – the home of several independent artisans and sellers. One particular shop, Revive All, is an absolute treasure trove of all things vintage and ancient. Every inch of floor, wall and breathing space is taken up with vintage clothes, books, maps, jewellery, ration books, just everything old you can think of. Marvellous.

 
The Needlemakers

And then we just kept coming across antique shop after antique shop. And they were proper junky, bits and bobs types of antique shops rather than the ones where you need to take out a mortage to buy a serious-looking cut glass bowl.Restraint was exercised and I walked away with only a pure wool blanket, made in Northern Ireland and bearing a sewn-in name tape declaring it was once the property of a P. Cummings…

A lovely day was had by me and my patient hubbie and I can heartily recommend Lewes for a wonderful day out. (By the way, have you spotted my flourishing salad leaves in the background? Ignore the unhappy rain-starved lawn.)

So then on Wednesday life got even more interesting.

I attended my first auction. And I bid on the one lot I wanted. And I won it! Or whatever is the appropriate term for successfully bidding on a lot. I did go a smidgen over my planned limit but I still nabbed a bargain. Here are a few of the bundles of matching silver cutlery, there are more than 60 pieces in the set.
These won't be put in a cupboard to save for best, this is now our everyday cutlery (I don't believe in keeping things for best, shouldn't every day be the best?). Although there is one bundle of small oddly-shaped spoons whose use baffles me.

Following this success I decided to make my first envelope cushion cover! (Of course, how else does one follow a trip to the auction house?) I've made other styles of cushion cover but not envelope. I had an urge to make a linen cushion so I did, with a couple of strips of ribbon sewn on too. What do you think?

And then to top it all off, I got the news that the green gables product pages are live on notonthehighstreet.com! So, as well as my shop on etsy, for those who'd rather spend in sterling than dollars, you can also find my handmade pieces for sale here too.

So, all in all, a pretty good week. And the rest of it is promising to be just as good with our wedding anniversary on Friday (yep, birthday and wedding anniversary within three days of each other, not the best planning) and a few friends are coming over on Saturday for a little garden party, keep your fingers and toes crossed for good weather.

How's your week shaping up?

PS (I know I'm not writing you a letter but this is still a post script) There's a dinky little interview with me here on Popular Crafts' website, if you fancy reading it…

My first swish

This is a top I swapped for one of my dresses at the Daisy Green swish at UK Aware on Friday. As it was my first swish I wasn't sure what to expect but it was super easy. I took in a few of my clothes that I no longer wore and could pick the same number from clothes that other people had brought in. I took in three dresses (which were quickly nabbed) and I took home this top and a T-shirt. Jury's out on whether I keep the T-shirt, I'm not entirely sure if it's me but if not, I'll just redonate it to a charity shop. However, I LOVE this top!

Daisy Green holds swishing events throughout the year, check out their website to find a swish near you. Soon you could be walking away with an updated wardrobe, for free!

Where I find gardening help

So, the sun is shining and the sound of garden centre tills is ringing in the air, it's time to get gardening! I've already made a start on some of my veggies – first and second early potatoes are in as well as red onions and a couple of rows of spring onions and leeks. This weekend I added the first row of salad leaves and also bought a couple of flowering plants to help attract bees and butterflies into the garden (and give them somewhere to feed). Following advice from the lovely chaps at Buckland Nurseries in Surrey, I went for Verbena and Veronica which will hopefully produce blue and pink flowers in a couple of months' time.

But enough about me, I want to take this opportunity to pass on some of the people, websites and books that I find hugely helpful in my growing attempts.

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Websites

growveg.com is a v clever website that lets you draw your plot, plan your crops (it automatically works out how much space you need for each), work out crop rotation and saves your plan so you can adjust and add to it over time. You can trial it for 30 days for free but then there is a fee of £15 for a year. Give it a go for the free period and see how useful you find it.

www.bbc.co.uk/gardening Whatever you need information on in life, the BBC can usually help and gardening is no exception. Whether it's veg growing or flowers or shrubs or anything soil related, this site is bound to provide you with some guidance.

Soil Association If you're interested in growing and eating organic food, then the Soil Association is the organisation for you. They are the sort of governing body of organic produce, not just food, and have a lot of info on eating healthily for yourself and the planet.

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People

The Alternative Kitchen Garden I found Emma as @akgpodcast on twitter and she's always been very patient giving me advice on my amateur gardening questions. Check out her podcasts on her site or look for a copy of her book.

Alys Flower is a newish presenter on Gardeners' World and, although she's not been a hit with some of the diehard fans, I think she's fab. She has a new show that started last week called The Edible Garden where she tries to grow as much of the food she eats as possible in her garden. Do take a look if you get a mo.

James Wong has also had a series on the BBC (I'm not on commission, honest, the Beeb just makes some really good programmes!), which I love, called Grow Your Own Drugs. It's not quite as debauched as it may sound, James tells viewers all about how to use plants to ease medical complaints. Even if you don't end up getting off the couch to make any of the potions, it's great telly and James' beaming enthusiasm is refreshingly cheering.

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People

Grow Organic is a Dorling Kindersley book, if you're familiar with this publishing house you'll know that every book they ever make is beautifully pictured and designed and has failsafe information. I find this book hugely useful as a relative novice and I'm sure the more experienced could make use of it too.

The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency is the bible of growing your own and going it alone. John Seymour was the founder of the self-sufficient lifestyle and from growing basic veg to having a smallholding, John is your man to help you.

Complete Guide to Gardening Season by Season This isn't a book for veg growers but for everything else growing in your outside space it's brilliant. By dividing up advice season by season it makes it easier to check what your garden needs to help bring out its beauty. 

So, those are just a few of the people and places that I find advice and inspiration in the gardening world. I hope they prove useful to you too. If you have any particular gardening gurus, I'd love to hear about them.

Swishing and skincare

Today I am off to UK Aware at Olympia in London, will I see you there? I'm going wearing several hats (metaphorically, actually wearing multiple hats would not only look silly but also make it difficult to fit through Tube doors).

I'm going as press with my First News head on, as just me because I find all things environmental v interesting, plus I will also be joining the Daisy Green gals at their swishing spot! For some reason they think I might be of use with the clothes sorting but I think there's a good chance I'll just ooh and aah over the lovely stuff people bring. I'm taking a few items of my own with the hope that I might be able to update my own wardrobe with others' cast-offs. I will report back!

In the meantime, you can pootle over to Almost Frugal from midday where I've written a guest post on how to make your own skincare…

Have a lovely Friday, folks!

Can you love a sewing machine?

If so, I think I'm a teeny bit in love with this one. I found it languishing on the floor in a corner of an antique junk shop in the pretty town of Westerham. It must have been waiting for little me to come along and rescue it I've always admired these beautiful old Singers from afar so I'm super chuffed that I now have my own. It looks like it could work, with a bit of tlc, but I think I'm going to need some help learning how to use it. The shuttle alone has me confounded, so any help or advice gratefully received!

Breathe in the spring air

It's a beautiful day here, I hope the sun is shining where you are too. And, as is only fitting on a sunny spring day, I have been behaving in a most typically Sunday way.

1. Took the dog for a long walk in a nearby wood. Saw lots of little tufts of green leaves so hoping they'll turn into bluebells soon.

2. Went to the garden centre and bought lots of organic peat-free soil for our raised veggie beds. Last year we totally underestimated how much soil compresses down over time and our vegs didn't have enough soil to grow in. I've learnt my lesson, have thrown on lots more soil and will wait for it to settle down before sowing.

3. Planted my chitted first early seed potatoes in a low stack of tyres. This worked really well last year as you just keep adding soil and another tyre as the plants grow. Plus, it frees up the beds for other crops. I got my tyres from our local garage. The owner told me that all of their old tyres are recycled but growing potatoes in them sounded much more interesting! You can read here how I got on with my veggie endeavours last year.

4. Hung a load of washing outside on the line to dry, wind blown dry clothes are somehow lovelier than those which have air dried in the spare room.

5. Completely unrelated but I just spent a v enjoyable half hour photographing the reels of thread I bagged at my favourite antique/secondhand store yesterday. I already have wool that matches perfectly (no prizes for guessing my favourite colours) so snapped them too. I may not have photographed them outside in the spring air but the warm sunshine was flooding into the room making the light the best it's been for photo taking all year.

6. Will soon be off for another dog walk, then a read of the papers with a drink or two in the local pub, followed by a bowlful of homemade leek and potato soup at home. Pretty much a perfect Sunday! Hope your weekends have been equally or even more lovely.

The Challenge

So, I've decided it's high time I set myself a new challenge. A proper one that will take a decent amount of effort and last a while. 

When I was nine years old I gave up sweets for Lent without telling anyone. I wanted to see if I could go without for six weeks and by keeping it secret I didn't have the added help of my mum keeping a beady eye on me. After the allotted period I emerged on Easter Sunday brandishing a carrier bag half full of confectionery, having stored it under my bed. My family were suitably impressed and my mother insisted I took the bag into school to show and tell, and probably so that I'd have to share the stash and so not OD on sugar.

Three plus years ago I turned veggie. The main reasons being health and environmental benefits and animal welfare concerns, but a little part of me also wanted to see if I had the willpower to do it. After all, crispy duck pancakes and bacon sandwiches were two of my favourite meaty meals. But nearly four years on I'm as committed as I always have been and have every intention of staying meat-free forever.

So, I have will power and previous record directing it at abstaining from various foodstuffs. My latest challenge doesn't involve food but clothing instead.

For one year I will not buy a single new item of clothing. Starting today (although I could have got going a while ago as I haven't been stocking up on new threads) I won't buy a single new item of clothing. Instead I will make do and mend items I already own, buy secondhand or (I'm the most nervous about this one) make my own.

Some might say I could go further and eschew the purchase of all clothing for a year but I'm not about winning rosettes for extreme behaviour. To totally rule out taking ownership of a new or not-new item of clothing isn't particularly practical or realistic. After all, even cave folk made themselves a new loin cloth/toga/whatever you call their garb from leftover animal skin from time to time.

Plus, by boycotting all clothes I may turn off readers and be dismissed as too idealistic. I'd like to take this opportunity to show others, as well as myself, that buying £3 outfits from Primark, just because you can, or changing your wardrobe every season isn't needed to look and feel good about yourself. When it comes down to it, most of our purchases are suggested and decided by someone sitting in an office a long way away and their highly-skilled marketing company. And then there's the labour used to make the cheap clothes so many love. However much we might not want to believe it, no high street store is guilt-free of using cheap labour – people who work incredibly long hours in harsh conditions and don't even take home a decent enough wage to live on at the end of the day. We can't keep buying and binning clothes and not think there's a catch.

Over the next year I'm going to find out just how well I can be dressed without the use of virgin clothing. Hopefully it will benefit my wallet and the local charity shops I support, it will mean I don't contribute to the misery of many garment workers, plus improve my sewing skills and leave a few items out of landfill. 

Now, where did I put that pattern for handmade knickers…

Do you really need to print that?

Following my last post on recycling, What's in a number?, I've unearthed some more stats! I've never been the mathematical type so I'm not sure where these numerical urges are coming from, I think they just make interesting reading.

This time, paper gets the maths makeover… 

24 is the number of trees it takes to make one tonne of newspaper

70 per cent less energy is needed to recycle paper than it is to make new paper from virgin pulp

1 tree provides enough oxygen for three people to breathe

38 is the weight in kg of newspapers that the average Brit gets through in a year

10,000 trees are chopped down in China each year to make holiday cards

324 litres is used to make 1kg of paper

20 million acres of forest would be saved if half the world's paper was recycled

73 per cent less air pollution is produced by recycled paper than that made raw materials

115 billion sheets are printed on by personal computers each year

Right then, who fancies planting a tree?

Greening your gift wrap

I know. Seven is an odd (literally) number to use here. Well, I have seven ideas to share, did you want me to leave out a couple to make it a more sensible-sounding five? Just skip two when you get bored.

So, here are seven, count them, ideas for how you can minimise expense and waste when wrapping your presents this Christmas…

1 Wrap your present in a present

There are some staples in life that you can never have enough of, tea towels being one of them. Wrap up a gift in a fetching tea towel so your giftee gets not one but two presents! And there’s no waste leftover.

If you want to steer clear of possible washing-up faux pas, wrap your present in a handkerchief (clean, please), scarf or even an item of clothing. The person who receives this unconventionally wrapped present will love the concept of bonus wrapping.

2 Make a wallpaper gift bag

Look at a gift bag and you’ll see how simply it is made. It’s a bit like you started wrapping up a box but stopped after you sealed one end. Punch holes in the other end (which has become your bag opening) and thread through some ribbon or string to make handles or to close the bag. The great thing about using wallpaper is that it’s super sturdy so won’t collapse under the weight of a hefty gift and will probably be reusable.

(There is a great tutorial on making gift bags as part of the 12 Days workshop)

3 Keep it simple

You can’t go wrong with brown paper tied up with string. If it’s good enough for Julie Andrews, it’s good enough for everyone.

4 Get your pens out

But if you think that’s too plain-looking, after you’ve wrapped your prize, decorate it. You can go old school (ie act like you’re six again) and go crazy with the glitter glue and poster paints. Or, go for a simple motif like spots. One or two colours dotted all over the parcel will look simple but effective. And it’s not because I, er you, can’t draw.

5 Fox them

No, not some elaborate fox fur wrapping, how wrong that would be! No, confuse the lucky gift recipient by wrapping their treasure in a box wholly unrelated to it. For example, put a book or a DVD in a cereal box, stuffed with old newspaper to stop it rattling around. A word of warning though, don’t put your gift in a box that housed something more expensive as you don’t want to see disappointment on your loved one’s face. I’m speaking from experience, in my teenage, more materialistic days, I received a cuddly toy in a Converse Allstars box…

6 Make it Look Good Naked

Not you, the present. I'm not going totally Gok Wan on you but if your present is already a v pretty thing, don't cover it up. Tie a ribbon around it with a gift tag cut from an old Christmas card and give it as it is. Works great on plants, not so great on socks. Unless they're gorgeous-looking socks of course.

7 Not seriously though…

I don’t really advocate this unless you reuse the wrapping, but you could always try kitchen foil. It’s cheap, it requires only tearing not cutting and no sticky tape as you can scrunch the ends. And the idea came from Gavin and Stacey’s Christmas Special last year so I can’t claim the credit! Just reuse the foil on your turkey later, please…

If you have more genius, or just quietly useful, green wrapping ideas please share them here. Happy wrapping…!

Christmas is coming...

I know you don't want to think about it, it's only November for goodness' sake! There's no stopping it, Christmas is coming and, as I have recently discovered, in the land of homemade craftiness it comes early.

I decided to make as many gifts this year as possible. I won't be forcing my handmade efforts on people that I don't think will benefit from them (the men in my life can breathe a sigh of relief) but there is always the worry that handmade is seen as second rate to shop bought. Most people I mention this concern to say what I personally think, that homemade takes effort and thought and is more personal than something bought from a shop. Here's hoping my gift recipients feel that way too!

Plus I'm trying to make use of fabric, paper, just stuff I already have or buying secondhand, to make my gifts a little more eco-friendly. It's not bad for my wallet either.

Providing me with inspiration this season are the super creative Kirsty Neale and Julie Kirk and their 12 Days: a Copy and Paste Christmas workshop which I've blogged about before.They have been providing loads of ideas for a variety of projects with really clear tutorials and if you're not signed up yet, it's not too late! If you're in any way feeling crafty and want a bit of Christmas pizazz in your life, do check it out.

I won't post here any piccies of the gifts I've made as I don't want to spoil it for the folks who'll be unwrapping them in less than six weeks! Yes, that's right, you've got just over five weeks till C-Day. However, those who don't know me, and therefore are unlikely to expect a present to come their way, can look at my Flickr account, if they fancy it.

One pic I can show you is a rather nifty gift bag made from leftover wallpaper (believe me, it's a big print and makes a fine feature wall, honest), courtesy of the 12 Days ladies. 

And, to add to my excitement this week I received in the post a prize! Yes, I won something. It wasn't a cheque from the lottery sadly, but almost next best, is a prize from the fab Asking for Trouble folks! They make super cool kitsch designed stationery and gifts and I won this gorgeous notebook (and was sent a bunch of postcards and a calender too) in a little competition they recently ran. Only trouble now is that I never want to deface the virgin paper by writing on it...

Happy Christmas preparing!