Mrs Moppe

In the Great Sort, I've unearthed, and emptied, three sets of IKEA Moppe Drawers. They're all around 25 years old. Over the years I've decorated the outsides in different ways. The 6 drawer set was covered with pages from an out of date Leicestershire A-Z map book. On of the 5 drawer units was decorated with "angels in art" after Christmas 1999, and was on my desk at school for two terms. The third set was covered in blue and white pages from a French Marie Claire Idées craft magazine. But they are all looking faded and tatty now. I think I may make them an autumn project and redecorate and repurpose them. 

I saw a 6 drawer set stained olive green in a CS for £9 last week. They were not very attractive imho.

How would you refinish these if they were yours?

Going Up Aloft!

The Great Stash Sort is just about finished. I have put some craft materials aside to take to the Big C Emporium in Wymondham, and delivered a huge box of paper, card, and old greetings cards to a very grateful local PreSchool. Bob has re-laid the loft boarding [put down by previous owners, but in a rather haphazard fashion] 

He reassembled the old bedroom furniture. My fabrics are all in labelled categorised boxes, my haberdashery and other craft stuff in drawers. Resources for youth work at Church and Holiday Club are all in one of the old cupboards.

I have a copy of the contents lists downstairs in the study, so if I suddenly need a scrap of leather, I know it will be in Box 7 and I can nip up the ladder to fetch it. At most I will have to move 3 boxes from a stack.

No more frustrated playing of Tower of Hanoi ! On top of the 6 drawer chest is BOX 18. This is labelled "Sort" and anything that arrives needing a home can [temporarily] go in there till it is properly sorted.

This ladder was a gift from a friend who had it lying around, and gave it to us soon after we got Cornerstones. Bob has now fitted a safety gran-handle on the side. Oh! I just realised my typo - but I think it is appropriate, so will leave it there. We're getting older, and it is wise to make things as safe as possible sooner rather than later.

Years ago, doing another loft sort in Leicester, I found a red paper heart on the floor. I think Steph made it in Sunday School. I hung it from a beam. 

I took it down when we left Kirby, and hung it in the Ferndown loft. And now it is in the Cornerstones loft, to encourage me on days when I feel overwhelmed.

The high chair is easily accessible, when family visit, and I have two more tasks fto finish - sorting toys and sorting wool.

I am so glad to have got things organised- and it should make crafting easier, now I can find my resources quickly! Grateful to Bob for all his help in the process.

Use Your Loaf

 

Have you got any linen, Mum? asked Liz, and sent a link to this site. There were a number of linen bread bags, all measuring around 30cm x 40cm with drawstring tops. Made of a natural, breathable fabric, these should keep bread fresher for longer. The ones on the website cost £17.50 - £24.

Liz makes a lot of her bread, but occasionally buys a fresh loaf from one of the local shops. 

In the loft, I found a piece of linen. Measuring 35cm x 90cm, It was a kitchen wall hanging from the 1970s, with pictures of herbs and spices. Exactly the right size for the project.  I cut it in half, seamed it and made a casing. Job done!

Maybe it is not quite as chic as the blue linen, but it does the job, and used fabric from the Great Stash [plus some blue cotton tape I already had]

Better than a plastic bag too...

Losing Weight - One Way Or Another

Right now I am working through all the tins and dried goods in the pantry, to minimise the amount we have to move in April. I recognise that having been short of cash in earlier years, I've developed the habit of keeping the larder stocked. I like to think that I can produce a passable meal 'at the drop of a hat' if visitors arrive unexpectedly. Using Roger's Wholesale is wonderful, and saves a lot of money. The box of 12 crumble mixes which cost me about £2.50 turns any leftover fruit into a quick pud. They are just past their "best before" - but honestly you cannot tell the difference.

I did consider putting a bag together for the weekly church food collection - but that needs a long use by date - and  I could only manage a bag of pasta and a can of apricots, plus pilchards from my larder - everything else was too old to give away [I ended up buying things] 

So we are "eating up the cupboards" ourselves - and a lot of the stuff is carb rich, rib sticking, winter foods. Breadmaking is a lovely thing to do, as is cake making. We had a hamper of Betty's Foods as a Christmas present - delicious cookies, sweets, jams...and there's still a Panettone in the cupboard. It must be eaten, I cannot throw it away.

Result - I am TOO HEAVY. My weight now is the highest it has ever been, even when pregnant. I'm hovering at the 70kg mark -around 11 stone in 'old money'. Perhaps hovering is the wrong word - that implies graciously floating. 

I'm working hard at doing 10K+ steps a day - even if they keep telling me this is just a figured used in a promotional thing for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, and hasn't really any relevance [and according to an 'expert' on Radio 4, women of my age only need to do 7K daily to maintain fitness] and I am trying to avoid between meal nibbles.

I've brought all the fabric down from the loft now. The remaining stuff was sorted - and very little kept. One bag was given to a lady who makes facemasks. These final two huge bags were given away yesterday.

So this means that in the past week I have actually disposed of 70kg of fabric- that's my own bodyweight ! Which feels good. The weight has gone from the joists if not my joints!

Had I The Heaven's Embroidered Cloths...

...Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I've loved that poem since my teens. Partly the whole "I being poor, have only my dreams" bit - which seemed wonderfully romantic to an impoverished student - but also the idea of these beautiful cloths of the heavens. I adore fabric shops - I'm not sure if Yeats, the poet, ever went into one - but if he had, he might have found them - deep blue and purple and black velvets of night, cerulean blue silks of midday, lapis lazuli taffetas  shot with gold and silver, shimmering in the summer heat, soft grey wool of autumn twilight. I can get quite carried away in a fabric shop - just drinking in the colours, feeling the textures, going all poetic, dreaming of what I could do with just half a metre of this one or that one? [I dream, but rarely buy!]

Is it any wonder that over the years I have acquired such a huge stash? Not that I have actually paid much for this stuff- generous people have given me pieces - other friends have downsized, and not wanting to send good fabric to landfill, passed it on to me. And if a garment is outgrown, or worn out, I have often saved just a remnant, it might be useful someday. And The Great Stash has been useful - for all those play costumes, Christmas Tree Projects, little bags for school activities...

On the spare beds at Cornerstones, I have my two Heritage Quilts - and I sat and talked with Rosie in the summer about all the fabrics - "Your Mummy's School Dress" "Grandad's Shirt" "Auntie Steph's Music Waistcoat"...so many memories pieced together.

But I can't take all my Stash into retirement. I got all the boxes from the loft, pruned them by about 50% and sorted the fabrics into different groups: 'proper' patchwork cottons and fat quarters, black and white fabrics, floral prints, large plain lengths, 'fancy and exotics' for costume making, etc. 

I posted in our local Facebook Sewing Group - and now the bags are labelled and lined up in the hall for people to collect

One lady is just learning to sew, and wants 'practice' fabric , another is into 'vintage' stuff, so snapped up the retro florals, a third is a patchwork fiend, and another wanted all the 'plains', one makes clothes for the children. 

And they all live within 5 miles of here. "but how can you bear to part with it?" they've said. Well, I have to - I do not have the space to keep it. All seemed so excited - a carrier bag full for just a couple of pounds. 

And I'm really happy to have shared the fabrics among this group of fellow stitchers. I no longer have all the embroidered cloths - but I still have my dreams, and I am richly blessed. [and for all that I like his poem, I still think WBYeats was a decidedly weird bloke]

 

Commercial Break

I'm not always up to date with adverts. I tend to record things and zizz through the commercial breaks. However I have recently been watching something on UKTVPlay, and you don't get a choice about these things. If I am not outside filling the kettle, or nipping to the loo, I do watch the ads. But I am obviously showing my age -because some of them make absolutely no sense to me at all. Steph, who knows about such things, would probably tell me that is because these particular ads are not aimed at my age bracket. I suppose I start concentrating on Wiltshire Farm Foods, Stannah StairLifts, and Royal London Funeral Plans [the people in that all wear purple clothes]

But can anybody explain to me why that poor lady is carrying a donkey on her shoulders before she eats her Super Noodles?

And that Smirnoff one

It sounds to me just like the tune to the popular American Christmas Carol "O Holy Night"

And as for the WHO Peppa Pig Handwash advert - for a start, the little song only lasts 10 seconds - you would have to sing it four times to ensure WHO level cleanliness. It is all about "Wash your hands" - so why does Mrs Badger get them to say "Wash our hands". And with the scrubbly bubbly lather, you cannot check whether they are properly doing fronts, backs, fingers and wrists...

Bob said he thought my hand wash song was better [well, he would, wouldn't he?]

But I do like the new John Lewis Advert - having spent the summer with a bright little girl who frequently delighted in putting on a show for Mum and Dad when they collected her from Grandma's Nursery.

My foray into advertising is doing OK. The knitting machine was collected on Sunday afternoon, by a young woman collecting it on behalf of her auntie. "She had one years ago and now wishes she had still got it, she's been on the lookout for ages" She insisted on paying £5 above the asking price too. Satisfying result all round, methinks.

I Love Niblings

No, not nibblings - snacks are not good for me - but niblings. I love this word- if brothers and sisters are siblings,  then nephews and nieces should be niblings. I have 1 niece on my side of the family, and 3 nieces, one nephew on Bob's side. The two oldest Almond nieces are expecting babies before Christmas. We're past the autumnal equinox, and the weather has turned- and so I got my knitting needles out. I dug out the Sirdar Baby Book which I bought when Rosie was born. I have definitely had my money's worth with this magazine. 

Already I have done patterns G,H, J, K and L - now I have knitted a jumper in pattern F - a fairly simple stocking stitch piece, with a cable strip up the front and a modern roll collar neckline.

I did it using some Sirdar Snuggly from my stash, in a soft pastel green colour - and found two perfectly matched buttons in my jar. Apart from the front, where the cable pattern took a bit of concentration, the rest of the jumper was quick and easy to knit. Ideal for relaxing in front of the TV. I knitted the 6-12 month size.

On Tuesday I was in Christchurch and walked up to the woolshop. Sadly they have reduced their opening hours because of the pandemic, so I couldn't go in to browse. The corner window had a cute display of baby jumpers showing all the colours in one of their ranges- and the side window had some girls' cardis knitted in Stylecraft Regatta - a pretty random dye yarn, which comes in 6 colourways. I quite fancy knitting one of these. I shall have to price it up. 

I've put my knitting machine online this week. It's not been used since 2015, and there isn't room at Cornerstones. I'm asking £15 for the machine, plus table, 3 extra carriages, a linker, pattern books, and 4500gm of coned yarns. It will be interesting to see if it sells.
I suspect that I am not the only person who doesn't enjoy knitting in hot weather - it is definitely an "only when there's an R in the month" activity for me!

What A Weekend!

Saturday's Yard Sale went OK. I got rid of about 40% of my stuff, and after allowing for cost of hand sanistiser, and a small gift to church funds, I was left with around £40 [we celebrated with an M&S Chinese meal-in-a-box] 

I think around 35-40 people stopped by between 9 and 4, we chatted, and I ended up giving away stuff or charging rock bottom prices.

It was all about clearing the decks, not boosting the bank account. I had a Freebies Area by the pavement, and much of that went. I still don't understand why!

One lady picked up the big sweet jar full of corks, and said "Are these FREE?" I explained I had planned to use them for a Kids Club craft this summer, but we'd not run the club due to covid19. She said could she have them? I pointed out the other two containers [around 300 corks in all] and asked what she planned to do with them.

"I play Real Tennis, and all the balls have to be handmade - the centre core is a piece of cork" [you can read about this here] She explained that she played at Canford School - where there has been a Real Tennis Court for almost 500 years!  That was quite exciting, to think my corks would genuinely be recycled into something useful.

Someone else arrived - having been to the church car park thinking the sale was still happening there. She then rang her sister - who bought up loads of my surplus Pyrex. They left, then her parents arrived, having been for their flu jab. * of my customers were on their way back from flu jabs! [We have ours next Saturday]

"You'll never get rid of that chair - who is going to want one dining chair on its own" said Bob. I pointed out that we did, back in 2012. I put a "FREE" sign on it, and a chap from down the road said it was just what he needed for his bedroom. He carried it away very cheerfully - along with a huge box of disposable cutlery, and £7 worth of other goods. I'd brought the chair back from the spare bedroom at Cornerstones [but left the beautiful patchwork cushion behind - that is not going!]

"Oh I know who you are!" exclaimed one shopper "You're the lady who tells the brilliant stories in the little tent, every summer. You remember, dear, they were all so exciting" [teenage daughter looks totally baffled by this] I felt encouraged that my annual contribution to the Fete on the Field had been appreciated.

Dorian Gray [the picture from the attic] went, and so did my huge map of the Underground. All the cross stitch threads and surplus reels of machine cotton, the sewing kits and embroidery hoops [three ladies said they were busy making dreamcatchers]
But two perfectly good coffee makers, and a box of Dolce Gusto Pods remain. 

It was great fun, the weather held, and people behaved impeccably. We went to bed at 10, both exhausted and got up bright and early to do the Livestream. Bob wore his new shirt, and best suit [which has shrunk during lockdown] I wore a dress, heels and tights - and felt vaguely uncomfortable.

And when we got to church at 9.20, there was no internet!! After all that rehearsing, and rearranging, and hours of work. Nothing. Evie, one of the musicians, rang her husband Andy [a computer genius par excellence]. He and Bob worked out the problem - the router Had Just Died. So we put out an apology, saying we'd record the service to release later.

I kept wriggling, and tugging the neckline of my dress. Things were not right. We went home - and I discovered I'd put it on back to front [in my defence, it is a plain over-the-head shift, no zips or buttons] 

So the weekend had highs and lows, good bits, bad bits and laugh-out-loud stupid bits. But I must not complain - some people have had much worse to put up with [dear Bless, over in the USA had a minor earthquake to contend with]

Thank you to everybody who clicked the subscribe button on the UCF church site, that has really helped boost our numbers - even if the other technology let us down.

 

Fat Reducing Exercise

No, not regarding my waist - but rather my waste. This is Zero Waste Week - and this year, I have been looking much more carefully at how I dispose of my waste, rather than the reduction aspect. After all, a truly ZW lifestyle is a long way off for most of us. I accept that there is inevitably some stuff to be disposed of each week. But how can I be more responsible about that?

Behold- the GunkPot. I sent off for this freebie from my local water authority. Find out more details here. The idea is that you collect gunk**, fat and grease from your cooking into this pot, then scrape it into your foodwaste bin. So much better than pouring it down the sink - where it will congeal forming ugly fatbergs in the sewers, or perhaps blocking your pipes. This little pot aims to help you, help the water industry and help the planet...

The info says "Save Money - Avoid the cost of an estimated 50% of sewer blockages by storing fat until cool enough to go in the bin, rather than pouring it down the sink. Start using your GunkPot today! Functional - It's easy to assume that the warm grease left in a pan after frying bacon or your Sunday roast would be ok to put down the sink and that if you wash it down with hot soapy water it will be fine. The reality is that the fat and grease will quickly cool and solidify, over time building up and blocking the drain or sewer. Using the GunkPot is simple and easy, simply store the fat until cooled and dispose in the waste. Easy to Use - When ready simply ensure all fats, oils and grease have cooled to room temperature before carefully pouring into the GunkPot"

The pot collapses for storage, and its efficient lid twists on and off easily.The package arrived with full instructions plus a useful silicone scraper and a bits-collector for the plughole. In the two weeks since it arrived, I have to say that the most useful part has been the plughole strainer! I have not actually had any cooking where there has been spare fat to scrape away [We've been eating far fewer fried foods recently - Bob is already aware of waist reduction] I know I could use an old margarine tub but this pot is compact, and once emptied, can be easily wiped and washed. 

In other news, a bag of winter coats, jumpers, scarves and unworn socks have gone to the homeless and needy families of Bournemouth, and some surplus crafting materials have gone to a friend who's making items for a charity fundraiser. I'll say more about my ZWW results next week.

** Gunk was originally a brand name, for a degreasing agent marketed in the US in the 1930s - but it became a popular term in the 1950s for the goo, grease, oils and fats which it removed . You can still buy Gunk today

It Only Cost Ninepence!!

"As a future knitting project, I'd really love a little navy collared cardigan for Baby" said Steph and sent me a picture [top right]. So I looked through my patterns, and found one that came from my dear friend Brenda - a lovely lady who died last year. I ignored the stripe and the embroidered ship's wheel. And did the collar and ribs in moss rather than garter stitch.[bottom right] All done and dusted in time for the Baby Shower.

Good old Patons, always  really reliable patterns. But this one is at least 50 years old- it originally cost 9d [in pre-decimal currency] I enjoyed doing it, and have now re-written the pattern in a smaller size, so hope to knit another one...

Sales Pitch

Mags asked about my Etsy shop. It's here. People seem to choose bizarre names for their shop - so I decided that as much of my stuff is vintage/retro I'd go for Mistress Marchpane - which is a vintage version of Mrs Marzipan [i.e. Almond paste] Currently I am selling off vintage kitchenware and haberdashery. Thus far I have had fifteen sales, in seven weeks. I think this is not bad going. I'm trying to keep my prices low. It is alarming that items which I first had in the 70s when we got married automatically count as vintage now!

Taking the photos and writing the ads takes time - but I've had some good customer feedback. Yes there are fees for using Etsy - but on balance it is easier than carting a bootload of stuff to a cold wet field and standing around all day hoping for a customer.
Much of this stuff has 'sparked joy' for me, but I really cannot justify keeping it all. This seems a sensible  way to declutter.
The proceeds have gone into my savings account, which had a small amount in it already.

And on Wednesday, I'd got to the point where I had enough money to consider making an appointment with the opticians for new glasses. This is wonderful, and I feel I have achieved what I set out to do. 
Except...following yesterday's visit to the dentist, the Spectacle Fund will be diverted to pay for the more urgent dental work [another crown] and I shall keep the shop going a little bit longer!

Going Off The Boil

 At the end of the kettle debacle on Sunday, Bob said "We have a camping kettle in the garage" but I pointed out we had decluttered that over the summer, when we passed on all camping stuff to a friend at Church.
But I still have my huge church kettle. It holds 14 pints and will boil enough for 50 cups of tea. It appeared in the school play in 2018, when the Giant's wife carried it - but it is not really serving any useful purpose. It needs to go.
It has gone into my Etsy shop, along with my Big Brown Vicar's Wife Enamel Teapot [NB the teapot is big and brown, not the vicar or his wife]I am not sure if either of these will sell. 
There are similar ones there - and I have priced mine slightly lower. After the excitement of five sales in the first week, everything has 'gone off the boil' a bit. I hope things will pick up again soon.
Do you sell on eBay or Etsy? and are you making mega-bucks?

A Very Odd Half Hour

I didn't sleep well on Friday night - and on Saturday morning I really didn't want to get up early [most days I am in the kitchen just before 7 making a cuppa] Bob made the tea at 7.30ish, and said he would bring me breakfast in bed a bit later. At 8.45, I was enjoying my coffee, OJ and pain au raisin, and doing the crossword when my phone pinged. The lady who was taking the magazine stash saying "I'm just on my way over"
I decided that I didn't need to rush to dress - after all, I was just going to open the door, say 'there is the box of magazines' and she would take them and leave. So I could do that in my dressing gown, and return to bed and my puzzle. Well - it didn't turn out that way. The doorbell rang, and I went downstairs.

"Hi, I'm Angela " 
"I'm Julie, I have that exact same Cotton Traders Dressing Gown" 
"Sorry, bad night- not got dressed yet. Here are the magazines! I am so glad to pass them on to you rather than just recycle them"
"Brilliant - I love Martha Stewart! Thank you so much!" She turned to leave
And this is when things went weird.
A petrol blue Skoda Kodiaq, identical to ours, was driving up the road, quite slowly. Suddenly it braked and Julie dropped the box of magazines and ran past our car to the kerb, shouting something.

A dog had run across from the road opposite, and gone under the car. The driver got out "What's happened? We felt a bump underneath so I braked"
Julie explained that she had seen the dog had actually run between the front and back wheels, and rolled over under the vehicle. It crept out slowly onto the kerb, shaking, and visibly distressed. Julie knelt down and comforted it. 
The passenger got out- she was concerned too. "Where did it come from?" Julie said"over there" and stressed that the driver had not run into the animal. We looked to see if anyone in the road opposite was missing a dog. The dog had no collar or identification.

The lady explained that 40 years ago they lived in our house- long before the Church purchased it . They were driving past en route to visit an old friend, and slowed down to look. They saw we had the identical car and were on the point of stopping when they felt the bang.
I was chatting to her, Julie was attending to the dog, and the driver called out to a man opposite [walking towards us and chatting on his phone] "Is this your dog?" 
The guy finished his chat and came across and said it was. Somewhere in all this Bob came outside [in his dressing gown] and got into conversation with the driver. Who, it turns out, sings in a choir with one of our church members.
The dog was shaking, and peed all over Julie's hand as she tried to calm him. "I was on the phone and the car door was open and he jumped out" said the owner. "Is your car OK?" he went to the front with the driver to inspect the damage, and was told the dog had not been hit by the car, he had run underneath it. "Come on boy" said the owner, and seemed to expect the quivering dog to get up and follow him. Somehow Julie ended up helping him over the road, and I suspect she gave the owner a talking to!

Bob and I stayed chatting to the driver and his wife, about the house, Jim-next-door, the male voice choir and other stuff. They went off to the old friend, Julie came back and picked up her magazines, said goodbye and drove off...and I went back to bed and finished the crossword. 
All's well that ends well...but it was a very odd half hour

Goodbye To All The Simple Things

I finally bit the bullet - I bundled up fifty craft/homekeeping magazines [The Simple Things, Martha Stewart Living, Country Living and a vast assortment of crafty and Christmassy publications] and posted them on a local fb group as FREE to a good home. Within 5 minutes, I'd had a message from a woman who wanted them all.
There is nothing in these magazines which merits them taking up bookshelf space. I could have put them straight into recycling, but that seemed a bit wasteful. 
I have enjoyed reading them - but all those recipes and projects are never going to be created in this house. I did make the Mollie Makes Mug Cosy for my niece, but I'm never going to recreate Martha's Alpine Village in cardboard and glitter for my Christmas Mantlepiece. And I can always find recipes on the internet if I have a sudden urge to boil pierogi, or ice a bundt cake. 
And the whole activity took less than 40 minutes, and definitely sparked joy!

In other news, I have just sold my first item on Etsy - my lovely Welsh Wool Cape. I was very fond of it, but I'm on a mission to raise funds towards new spectacles. I haven't worn the cape in the past year, so it is on its way to a young lady in France who declared herself "obsessed with owning a welsh woool cape"

Stable Relationship

Do you know the acronym STABLE? It stands for "STash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy"  Liz has a theory [and I believe it is a good one] that craft people often have two hobbies - [1] the performance of the craft itself, and [2] the acquisition of "The Stash" - the tools, materials and books relating to the craft. Many people get so caught up in the second activity, that they never really have time to pursue the actual craft itself. 
Just think about it for a second with these crafts*
knitting- needles, wool, patterns, stitch holders, row counters
dressmaking - patterns, fabric, pins, tape measures, buttons
embroidery - charts, needles, thread, aida cloth, hoops
cardmaking - card, dies, glues, punches, stamps, embellishments
woodturning - wood, lathe, chisels, oils, waxes, gouges, callipers
floristry - oasis, wires, tapes, vases, ribbons, secateurs, 'frogs'
Not to mention all the books, magazines and notebooks**

These are just random pictures grabbed from the internet of Stashes belonging to other people.
The "Really Useful Box Company" have made their fortune through people like this!
And if you are not careful, you forget what things you have in the Stash...Or something gets put away in the wrong place, and you end up despairing of ever finding it again, so you go out and buy a replacement [only to find the original the following day] I freely admit to owning a Great Stash. It is in constant use. Much of it donated by friends 'because I am sure you will find a use for it, Ang'
But I must be brutally honest with myself. I have a couple of hundred skeins of 6-strand embroidery floss, 3 sweet jars full of spools of sewing thread, 15 boxes of fabric [at least] two large containers of lace and ribbon, a dozen large glass jars full of buttons, a filing cabinet full of dress patterns. And then there's the papercraft, the flower arranging, the knitting and crochet, and the library of reference books...If I were to spend the next twenty years doing 2 hours of craft every day, I might possibly use it all up. 
So my Big Resolution for 2020 is that this year I will NOT buy ANY craft materials, equipment, magazines, or books. Anything I want to make must be created from things I already have. And where possible, I will pass on things to others, and diligently use up supplies.
I've already begun. A young friend at church told me she is learning to knit. She had been given a kit with one pair of needles and 3 balls of wool. So I gave her a bag full of different yarns and a few sets of needles. On New Year's Day, I was looking after Rosie and we decided to make some Thank You Cards. She coloured the cards [folded sheets of A4 printer paper] whilst I made colourful envelopes using the pages of an old magazine. 

Look at that concentration on Rosie's face! 
* all of these crafts happen in our home
** I knew a woman who said "Whenever I see a fabric shop, I always go in and buy a 'fat quarter'. I have yet to make a quilt though" How sad is that?
How have you reduced your Stash? 
Do you consider yourself to be in a STABLE Relationship?

Treasuring The Past, Investing In The Future...

It's definitely archaeology week here in Blogland. Sue has a lovely post here. Some more about Dudsbury Camp. After obtaining a Heritage Lottery Grant, the Guides set about building their round house. They measured out the site, harvested wood from the trees, and erected the framework. The walls were woven, then daubed with clay. A roof structure was added and thatched. Every age group, from Rainbows [youngest] to Trefoil Guild [retired] took part. A clay bread oven was built inside the finished house, so food could be baked.

The site is beautiful during all seasons of the year - the aerial view in this collage shows Ann's field at the top, and the site runs down through the woods to the river, which winds along the bottom.

The guides make good use of the site, and it is very popular with groups who come to camp - the House and Chalet providing permanent facilities, plus a toilet block - as well as plenty of places to pitch a tent and build a campfire.

They have another hut [donated by a very wealthy family] which is used as a teaching/activity space. Dress up as a Celt, make a Celtic brooch - learn all about the history of Dorset...

And as well as the Guides, a much younger group comes here on weekdays. The Muddy Munchkins - a 'Forest Nursery'- have fun under the trees in the mud kitchen, hunting the gruffalo, sitting under a shelter to read stories...Rosie would love all this!

On Sunday at the Apple Fair, the manager, Kirsty, was providing activities for younger children. The display inside showed the activities and ethos of this group.
Eagle eyed readers will spot the Gruffalo in two pictures- the first taken at 12.30 - the second later in the afternoon, after the children had woven a boat for him and Mouse. Read more about Forest Nursery here. I was extremely impressed by what I saw.

So that was my first trip to the Dudsbury Hill Fort - I am sure it won't be the last. A place where ancient history is respected, and lessons are learned. A place where young people are given opportunities to grow and develop, in beautiful natural surroundings.  

This is a campsite - the brick buildings are all more than 70 years old and very basic in their contents [although I am happy to report loos, showers and kitchen facilities are  modern and efficient!] I think it is great that so many volunteers give their time and energy to help the younger generation. Passing on simple skills, cooking, foraging, working as a team, playing together, sharing stories and making music...

Those of us who have grown up through Girlguiding, Girls' and Boys' Brigade, Scouting and other such groups, owe a debt of gratitude to such generous people. And it is important that we pass such values on to future generations.