And then there were two

 I have finished the second little quilt - the fabrics were not what I might have chosen had I been buying them and not had them given to me and yet when mixed in a random fashion like this they don't look too bad at all do they?  I machine stitched the patches together but did the quilting by hand and I tell myself that the childlike stitching enhances the naive effect of the random patches - that's my excuse and I am sticking to it! 

I used an old sheet to back them and for the wadding an old cheap duvet which we had bought for peanuts in France and then discovered that, as always, you get what you pay for and it really wasn't much good but folded and fitted into a cover I made from an old flanelette sheet it provided a comfy bed for Thomas in the days when he liked to sleep on the window sill in the sun.  I removed the casing and inside was a thin layer of fleece; it wasn't of even thickness but for these covers it won't matter. So none of it cost me anything - I like that!  What shall I make next?

Now all we need is a nice warm day to sit out in the conservatory with a cup of tea - just now it is only 8 degrees out there so you'd have to wear a coat and be quick about drinking a hot drink!

Now for something completely different - earlier today I read an article here about food waste which really insenced me - I wonder what you think.  The supermarkets throw away tons of food every day which is past its sell by/use by date - it seems that Tesco, the only supermarket to publish their figures for waste (for which Brownie points to them) threw away 28,500 tons of food in the first 6 moths of last year!  That's approximately 57,000 tons of food in a year by one supermarket and to think there are people starving in the world!  Why do they stock so much more than they can sell I wonder it doesn't sound like very good business practice to me.  I can't imagine that we wouldn't be able to find a substitute if we happened to discover they were out of stock of an item occasionally so where's the problem?

The whole business of sell by/use by dates on things annoys me - we have become passively dependent on the manufacturers and stores to tell us what we once would have known for ourselves.  Did our mothers or grandmothers have such dates on the food they bought?  Of course not - they knew by looking at it, smelling it and feeling it whether or not it was safe to eat but we seem to have lost the ability to trust ourselves when it comes to this.  Why are we told to keep jam refrigerated surely the whole purpose of jam is that it is a way of preserving fruit.  If you keep it in the cupboard it might after a while get a little mould on the top but does that mean it must be thrown away?  No of course not just remove the mould and it's fine to eat - I also sniff mine and if it smells wine-y I might dispose of it but this is unlikely unless it's many months since it was opened.  I have a pot of yoghurt in the fridge which is past its use by date by about a week but I smelled it and tasted a wee bit and then plopped a portion on my stewed fruit and it was just fine.  No wonder we are told that we throw away 30% of the food we buy if we follow the manufacturers' and supermarkets' guidelines.  They of course have a vested interest in selling us more!!  I suppose they are afraid that if we are left to trust our instincts (whatever happened to those?!) we might eat something harmful and then sue them. 

Now I am not advocating that we eat meat or fish that isn't fresh and maybe if you purchase ready meals it is difficult to tell if they are OK or not done up in all the packaging but surely we can see if fruit and vegetables are OK and by that I don't mean perfectly shaped and polished and all exactly the same.  We know what is acceptable and what is not and if we don't then maybe we should.  I can see future generations who have no idea what food really should look and smell like and which will be in total thrall to the supermarket who will tell them what they can and can't eat.  How scary would that be?  Bah Humbug I say!!  What about you?

Food for thought

Over the Christmas holiday I came across this journal given to me many years ago by my pen pal in America and which I had used to jot down my thoughts etc in diary form. I hadn't used it for many years - it sat forgotten on the bookshelf - and I started to read through some of my entries.

Anyway it got me thinking of how my life has changed since the time I used to write in the journal and what with New Year being a time for reflection on times past and of the future I got to thinking how I would like to change my lifestyle back to how it used to be back then. I was always busy and often stressed but I seemed to do so much more. I worked on the allotment as we grew a lot of our own veggies, I baked bread, went for walks and came back laden with blackberries or crab apples which I turned into preserves, I bought organic whenever possible and I was a vegetarian. We kept chickens and as far as we could we tried to live a self sufficient green lifestyle.

I think it all changed when we went to France where it was difficult at that time to find much organic produce, being a vegetarian was very hard, I was cooking for just the two of us and my husband is definitely a meat and two veg lad so whereas cooking a vegetarian option for my daughter and myself as well as meat for him didn't seem too much of a hassle now it seemed that I drifted into eating what he liked as it was easier.

I love the quote on the bookmark - so true!

Then I came across this book in the library - I was shocked by what I read. I know that a lot of food is wasted but hadn't realised just how much perfectly good stuff is sent to landfill or used to make biofuel. Apparently if we wasted less there would be sufficient food in the world to feed everyone but we in the developed world demand cheap food which must look good (no knobbly potatoes nor twisted carrots allowed) and be available as and when we want it regardless of season. Then when we get it home we often don't use it all and it goes to waste again.

Next time I was in the library this book called to me and I took it out. It tells in diary form of a year the author (who must be a social historian I think) spent living as she might have done in the 1790s - a project she undertook as she too was shocked having read "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence. The Garden Cottage Diaries was an interesting easy to read book which I really enjoyed. Again it got me thinking.

Then yesterday I read about Carol Klein - someone who I aspire to be more like both in attitude and looks - I once took a photo of her to the hairdressers asking for a similar style! - and I discovered that she is just one year younger than I am. If you saw her programme on Friday and saw her at the top of that ladder hacking at an overgrown clematis you will be as surprised as I was to see her age and especially to discover that she has apparently had both hips replaced.a

So there is no excuse - I must get up off my bum and get going - I have been under the impression that I am now an old lady (I have had a bus pass for some time now!) and therefore can't be expected to do this or that but now I see age is not a number it is an attitude. So my resolution for 2011 is to get out in the garden more and to grow more food, to return to my preferred vegetarian diet, to purchase less and to use everything I buy (I have started washing out my plastic bags and reusing them as my mother taught me!) to waste less and to consume less and to make more of my own food from scratch. Maybe then I will sleep better at night having spent my days working in the fresh air and being physically active. I have no desire to return to the 1700s as indeed the author of the book said herself - she relished electricity and a soft comfortable bed, to have water on tap etc. but I want to be more in control of what I eat and how I live my life.a

a

I do seem to have ranted on a bit but you will also be glad to know that another of my resolutions is to be more active and to spend less time sitting at the computer - to this end I will be blogging less and it may be that I don't get to comment as often as before on all your posts for which I apologise.

Scrooge or eco warrior?

I noticed this sign earlier this week so yesterday I went inside the church and bought some Christmas cards - I know I have said I can't bear to think about it till nearer the time but the first year we were back from France and I went to buy some charity cards at the beginning of December they had packed up and gone! They are only on sale from now till 4 December apparently.

As you may already be aware Christmas is not my favourite time of year - I don't know why as I love the reason for it, the carol services and the spirit of goodwill BUT I could count on one hand the number of Christmases that haven't ended in tears, usually mine. I loved it when my daughter was little and I was kept busy making angel costumes out of old net curtains and searching the shops for a Care Bear she really really wanted but now well.....

Am I the only one who feels the stress mounting when the October magazines come out filled with all the things I should be doing in order to have a proper spectacular Christmas? I should have made my puddings and cake by now so that they can be maturing nicely - why? We don't actually like Christmas pudding and when I make a cake it is usually only me that eats it and then I get depressed as the pounds I have managed to lose pile back on. I should be making lists and buying gifts (cashmere cardigans and stocking fillers at £30 each? - who are these people anyway?) along with sheets of wrapping paper and ribbons, filling my freezer with food to feed the hordes of visitors (what when we are never more than 4 including my sister-in-law and daughter and this year my daughter will probably still be roaming round Australia) and generally preparing to deck my halls and to be merry - well Bah humbug! I won't do it any more. I refuse to worship at the altar of commercialism in the cathedral of Tesco!

I have decided that this year instead of sending gifts to my friends I will enclose with their cards a little handmade Christmas decoration - see above - and a note explaining that I have decided to give the money I would have spent (usually only about £5 each plus postage) to charity and suggest that they give to charity too instead of to me - many of them have already been told of my decision anyway. So to this end I am now busily making some little decorations that will fit nicely inside the envelope with a card. I will make little sachets like the one below from recycled papers stamped with a potato cut - I am having such fun here!

Now tell me, honestly, can can I claim this as being in the interests of reducing my carbon footprint and helping to save the planet (as well as my sanity) or am I actually just a miserable old bag and a Scrooge into the bargain?

PS Just realised that it might look as though I have but 3 friends - those are just the first 3 tree decorations I have made more will follow!

This and that

I feel like the girl at Weightwatchers who has gained a pound or two instead of lost any. I haven't kept up with my 20 minutes a day just lately although I think that overall I might have done an average of that - will I have to wear a Bad Girl badge?! I am sorry to have let you down girls.

I did make this on Sunday evening though - not sure quite how long it took and I don't think I will bother to make its partner!

I used the cut off sleeves of one of my daughter's sweaters left here for me to take to the charity shop but of course being a sleeve it got wider towards the finger end and although I did compensate in some way for this by taking it in a bit along the seam it is still too wide at that end and I think my blanket stitch has stretched it further - no gold stars there then!

I spent last evening with my crochet hook as I had an idea to make another necklace but using lots of motifs in different colours - failed again as I didn't have the colours I would have wished and am determined not to go out and buy any more yarns - my stash is big enough as it is. Why is it that however many buttons/hanks of wool/pieces of material one has there never seems to be quite what one is looking for amongst it. Wouldn't it be great if we could get together over a coffee and exchange our bits and pieces - someone else's scraps always being more exciting than one's own!

This is my next project - some lovely leather pieces. We have Pittards leather factory here in our town and their shop is full of lovely leather things and tables laid out with skins and smaller pieces of beautiful leathers for sale quite cheaply. I want to make a bag from these as I love their colours together. Watch this space!

My other project progresses slowly. We spent much of Sunday out in the garden and have cleared a small area which we think will do to start off with and now have to finish digging it over and adding compost as well as laying the paving stones to make a larger area for a bench.

Having woodland on our boundary is lovely but the weeds and brambles do come through to our side of the fence of course so much of the afternoon was spent trying to hack our way along the outside of the fence pulling away the weeds and brambles as well as cutting back our rosa rugosa bushes which are in danger of taking over too! Will that count as creativity I wonder as if so I am in credit for my 20 minutes!!

I'm on a roll!

Have done the flowers and attached them to the bag - what do you think?

My original flower had another layer of crochet behind the fabric but it wasn't quite large enough and didn't really show and after trying to make it bigger I thought "Oh *** it I will just have the 2 layers"!

But did I rest on my laurels? Oh dear me no I am on a roll now so I got started on my next trial and error project some felting. Having been inspired by Jills pieces of needle felt here I thought I'd like to try embelishing using needlefelt and this is my first attempt. The grey fabric is part of a wool jacket that was too big for my husband so when he was throwing it out I rescued it and cut it up and felted the material and saved the rather nice lining fabric too. How's that for recycling?!

Apologies for the poor backgrounds in the pics but it was the only place I could prop up my offerings and tip the Anglepoise lamp complete with daylight bulb to shine on them and give sufficient light for a photo - roll on summer and bright days for photography!

Green shelf

Just a quick post - I can hear the water running in the guest shower-room so our friends will be surfacing soon!

Thought you might like to see my little shelf. I had seen such shelves in various books and magazines and wanted one for a narrow wall alongside the back door in my kitchen but couldn't find anything to fit. Found the pine shelf in a charity shop for £2.50 and brought it home and got D to cut it to length and make the bar along the bottom for me..

I then painted it Tapestry Green and distressed it a little and waited to find some old hooks to put on the bottom.

Couldn't find anything at all suitable so got the idea of using doweling which D cut and fitted and I painted and distressed again - am really pleased with the finished effect and it fits perfectly.

The pleasure I get from something made do and mended is far greater than if I had been able to buy something ready made and I keep looking at it and enjoying having it on my wall. What do you think?

Hope you all have a good weekend and to those in UK hope the Bank Holiday surprises us with some good weather for a change!

Jane