A little bit of thrifting amongst other things.

Doesn't time fly, I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post! It has been rather hectic here though, my 16 yr old got a flu type virus last week, which wiped her out but she still insisted on going to school for most of the week. She's a very dedicated drama student and no matter what the show must go on, she's at school today doing auditions for the sixth form play even though it's half term! Now my 3 yr old has the same virus but seems to be getting livelier today, I'm hoping she will be better tomorrow as we're hoping to go to the Eden project for the Halloween celebrations.

I've started baking a lot more now that the weather has changed, a bit of comfort food.

I've also booked a stall at a new local produce market, the first one is on the 21st November then it will be held every month. It's a very small market only 8 stalls so I was very lucky to get in there quickly and get a place. So I've had to cut right back on my computer usage and sew, sew, sew! This little lot is 116 w.i.p.'s can you believe!

and there's more this bag consists of 74 felt Christmas objects or will do when finished.

On top of all that I've been asked to be a school LEA governor again, my last governing body term lasted for 11 years, ending about 4 years ago. I was also working at the school then so it took up a lot of my time but I think I'll probably say yes as it'll be good to get back in the know especially as my 3 yr old will start school next September.

Now onto my recent haul of goodies.

2 boxes of 12 gorgeous Christmas baubles, the lady said she bought them 2nd hand 43 years ago and she sold them to me for 50p a box:)

Some books, love the cover of Calamity Jane.

I bought these in a charity shop and was very happy to find them, they were only a £1,

aren't they cute?

Some rather retro sherry glasses, again still in the original box.

A pretty rose coffee set.

A gorgeous Johnson Bros. Rosedawn coffee pot.

Some more posies to add to the ever growing collection.

A lovely wooden tray.

A blue rose cake stand as one can never have enough cake stands!

the same can be said for the jugs.

A wooden box of 20 picture bricks depicting scenes from snow white, apparently this is over 40 years old, it looks like it was hardly played with.

And finally a little bit of Fisher Price.

I'll leave you with this photo I took of my shoo fly plant's seed pod, which I think is beautiful.

Some sewing, a swap and a few books.

As Christmas is fast approaching and I have an ever growing list of Christmas things to make (sorry I mentioned the 'C' word twice in one sentence!) I thought I would tackle some of the things I wanted to make from some new sewing books that I have bought recently, I must apologise for the poor quality of the photos, the light is either too bright or too dull at the moment.

I adore all the Tilda books and must say I find them the best value for money as I always want to make just about everything in them plus there isn't any faffing about with the pattern pieces. The latest book is 'Sew Sunny Homestyle' and so far I've made the oystercatcher, birdhouse plant sticks,

mother and baby duck

seahorse and starfish

a couple of beach huts

and a long legged lavender angel.

These two are from 'Sew Darn Cute' I did change them slightly as they should be fleece teddies but I used linen and played about with the sizes. Lily says the larger one is a bunny.

This arrived in the post last week

so I quickly made the bag it only takes about an hour, I changed the button loop & didn't bother with an adjustable strap. I must say it is a lovely little bag in very pretty fabric.

I also made the bird mobile for Lily's bedroom, quite hard to photograph I had to hang it in the lounge as am awaiting a hook for her ceiling.

Now at the SCC we had a flutterby swap basically anything with wings, I sent these to Bloomin Myrtle

A felt butterfly brooch.

an amigurumi baby owl from Ana Paula Rimoli's book

and another owl made from a Sew Hip magazine pattern.

Whilst I'm talking about sewing I thought I'd show you these, which I bought at a book sale a couple of weeks ago. I've always wanted a darning mushroom but have never come across one at the boot sales etc. At this particular sale they have a bric a brac stall, I was just paying for some plates when out of the corner of my eye I espied this one and nabbed it quickly at 50p I was very happy!

The book is also delightful, even cheaper than the mushroom, 30p. It is Weldons Encyclopedia of sewing, old but I'm not sure how old as it isn't dated. It covers absolutely everything from applique, embroidery, smocking, dressmaking, crochet, tatting etc, etc. including patterns.

Well I can now concentrate on important matters - making lists of all the things to make for Christmas including looking through and drooling over an Australian Handmade Christmas special which I managed to find in WH Smith's.

Remembering.

My mum who passed away 5 years ago today.

Candy stripe pillowcases, rose tablecloth and curtains.

Gingham & roses button tin.

Gloves, evening bag and diamonds.

A 1950/60's coat used many times in dressing up games.

China with red roses.

Covered sandwich tray for party food.

Christmas cake decorations.

Just a few everyday reminders from around my home other memories can be found here in my post from last year.

Why I wouldn't be able to do the challenge of the utmost kind.

I have been reading about Dottie angel's challenge of the utmost kind and see that quite a few bloggers are joining her in a challenge of only buying handcrafted or second hand items for a year. I would love to do this, buying clothes wouldn't bother me I'd just have to loose some weight, I have a whole new wardrobe already here or of course I could make some. I've also got enough fabric/wool to last more than a year. Most other things I prefer to buy from charity shops/bootsales but my downfall would be books! I would probably not even be able to last a month without buying any. I do indeed buy many books secondhand.

Enid Blyton

Ladybird.

Children's books

Crafts

Cookery.

But I'm afraid I get reeled in by Amazon or the book people, click, click and they are mine.

I have to buy cookery books as I collect them 993 now, loving Economy Gastronomy.

And of course crochet, I've waited a long time for Ana Paula Rimoli's second book, it was worth the wait, gorgeous!

And I had to have the new Tilda book, loving this too and have made 7 things from it already. Sew Darn Cute is ok but annoyingly you have to enlarge the patterns, which is a bug bear of mine. Super Cute Crochet is indeed super cute.

I also had to buy Jane Brocket's book as I have her others.

Now you see why I would fail the challenge, these and many more were all bought in the last 6 weeks and I have Cath Kidston's Sew and another crochet book on order.

As Dorcas would say 'books are my one true weakness.' ;)

Sunny September in Cornwall.

Oh dear, we are now in the third week of September but this is my first post of the month! My internet access is very erratic at the moment. It usually runs at 1.4 but the past few weeks I have been lucky if it manages 194.0 kbps and then it keeps on disconnecting. My phone is not working either but will light up if someone tries to ring me, this then knocks the internet out altogether. As you can imagine it is taking me forever to do anything online so I haven't even looked at any blogs for weeks. Today it is on 384.o so slightly better than recently, this is one of the joys of living in the middle of nowhere and having a telephone exchange miles from your house!

Last week Mr CB had another weeks holiday and this time the weather was beautiful so we spent the week going on a few outings at home here in Cornwall. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Looe

Lanlivery show

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

Par beach

Of course no week off would be complete without a visit to Eden.

Now I've done this hopefully I'll have a chance to visit all the blogs that I read and can catch up with everyones news.

Thrifting, Holiday, Birthday & GCSE's

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I last blogged, time seems to be running away from me at the moment & I'm trying to catch up with all the blogs that I read, I suppose it will be easier now that Autumn is upon us! It was my eldest daughter's birthday on Saturday, Happy Birthday Jemma. She has recently moved out of her apartment and into a house with a garden so she had friends over for a barbecue, luckily the weather stayed dry as it has been awful for the past couple of weeks.

Mr CB had a weeks holiday and we were going to go away in our caravan but the keys have been mislaid, if they are not found we will have to change all the locks as you can't get replacement keys for the type of lock. Lily was very disappointed but we had some days out instead. We started to go to Dartmoor wildlife park, headed up the A30 towards Exeter then realised the wildlife park was over the other side nearer to Plymouth. By this time it was also raining so we ended up going into Okehampton, we looked around the town Charity Shop's and then the sun came out. So we headed over to the park and had a picnic, it's a beautiful park with a stream running alongside it and we found a really cute house in the grounds. It looks just like something out of a fairytale.

We went to Trethorne leisure farm one day, well for 2 hours! Saw some animals and Lily played in the sandpit and that was enough of that.

And we went up to Bude, it was quite sunny. We had a mooch around the town, bought some fish & chips to take to the beach for lunch, put our (my) shopping in the car and the heavens opened. So lunch was eaten in the car and this is what the beach looked like after.

If nothing else I did attack the charity shops a bit!

Some Enid Blyton.

Rowan & Patons wool at 50p a ball.

Some posies.

And plates.

And of course you need a bit of kitsch.

Of course last week held the day that we have been waiting for all summer, GCSE results day. I'm glad to say Jodie passed all her exams with 1 A*, 3 A's, 4 B's and 2 C's, well done Jodie! She has now enrolled in the sixth form to do A levels in Drama, B Tec music & performance, English language, Philosophy & Ethics as well as her gold arts award.

Crochet Hexagons, Amigurumi and Flowers.

At long last I have finished my hexagon blanket so now I really must finish the ripple.

But first I couldn't resist doing another hexagon using a different pattern this one has 3 different hexagon motifs, one has lots of clusters, one with a few less clusters and the third has fdptr so you get 6 lines from the fourth round to the first (like the blue & red one in the photo) All the hexagons will have a final & joining round in pale cream.

This is how far I've got only another 100 or so to go.

I've also made a cushion, yet to be backed, in 100% cotton for a change I usually use DK.

A little wallet to hold my store cards etc.

I haven't done any Amigurumi for a while except for Jodie's jigglypuff so had a little play making

this little jelly fish,

who spends most of his time hanging around in the bathroom.

Finally some flowers made whilst sitting outside on the few dry days that we have had, some are brooches and the smaller ones are going to be made into headbands..

I've also bought this gorgeous Kaffe Fassett wool and a circular knitting needle to make some socks. I haven't knitted for years, I think the last time was when I made a set of Jean Greenhowe scarecrows when I was pregnant with daughter no 2 who's now 19!

On Saturday I had a lovely surprise in the post, a beautiful flower brooch made by Lyn. We were swap partners for the freestyle swap in May and she sent me the brooch as she felt there wasn't enough handmade things in the swap. There really wasn't any need as I was delighted with my swap but it was wonderful to receive this one, which I put on straight away as I was on my way out wearing a taupe top, the perfect match.

Thankyou Lyn it was really kind of you.