My name is Jenny and I am a minimalist....with cheap firewood

Starting off with my usual no Pinterest request - please - not everyone feels the same.......perhaps don't pin this to show that you do read blogs too


Inside there really is a minimalist trying to get out.  I love it when I have a clear out and there is SPACE.  I like SPACE.  Problem is SPACE is also whispering to me: 'Fill me with something'  in that naughty way SPACE does.

Just after Christmas we had a radiator moved - it was a long horrible looking thing that offended my sensibilities greatly.
Moving the radiator created a lovely bit of SPACE.
The other day I popped round to my favourite junk shop (a proper old junk shop which is full of junk...the one where I got my old trunk from...yes, that one).
Outside was a chair....
I do not need a chair....
I had only just created a bit of SPACE.
Chair was £2.
I went home.
I do not need a chair.
Saw the SPACE at home.
Oh,  a chair might fill that bit of space nicely.......

Chair just needed a little bit of freshening up (I don't think that this is the  pastel shade from that book is it  Hen ?)

I managed to add a few bits in....Clock bought from Greenwich Market circa 1989....was one of a pair but at 14.99 I could only afford the one at the time....used my bus money to pay for it...kept perfect time ever since.

I have also managed to go back in time...!

I am rather partial to a nice bit of crochet...

Vintage crochet post coming up.....

Artful display.....................

  There is still SPACE....just not so much of it.
We shall call this colour 'Bird Cage Blue'  - ha ha

 I am trying hard to be a minimalist

Sadly junk shop had two of these chairs.....and I wouldn't wish one of them to be lonely.....

 £2 for an Ercol chair -  it was cheaper than firewood!

I know that I have gone about this before but my NUMBER ONE reason over the decades for buying vintage/aka (and better known as) 'second hand/used/damaajed/shop soiled' goods is that they are either  CHEAP or CHEAPER than new. There is no doubt that DIY and second hand has resulted in us savings thousands of pounds over the years.  Whilst we/I can now afford to relax the grip on the household budget old habits die hard (I STILL have only the one pair of shoes....but I have a few tablecloths...).    Second reason being is it usually well made.  Third reason is that it is often unusual...I like to be different. Fourth reason is that it just makes sense.

 My sister Gail tells me that car boots and junk shops in my area are much cheaper than in her neck of the woods - that of course is my undoing.....but, as I have consistently spouted here, saving money on X means that I can spend money on Y.

Let us to the maths here - simple schoolboy stuff - where 'V' is vintage and 'mc' equals money/change, square that and of course it results in : V = mc² 

Please apply the 'Theory of Spending Thriftily' - V = mc² (Pat. Pending) whenever and wherever you can **!!

 My name is Jenny and I am trying to be a minimalist......

PS:** Unless you see something really lovely.... that you know you might never see again..... in which case you can merrily justify the expense to yourself in that convoluted way of thinking that we/I have....."Well I only spent £2 on a chair so surely I can spend X on tablecloths Y"....

PPS: Writing book as we speak.......

PPPS: TV series in progress...

PPPPS: Holding off blogging for a while as I feel I am getting a bit boring: 'Oh here is another beep, beep bag', 'This is a tablecloth', 'Here is car boot treasure'. YAWN. A bit like the SWAMP of magazines and books on making stuff and 'crafting' - talk about cashing in...leaping onto a band wagon...  I don't buy magazines much anymore but recently decided to splash out a hard earned 4.99 (could have bought two and half chairs with that money - momentary lapse in the THEORY OF SPENDING THRIFTILY!!!) on what seemed like a nice one the other day.  It was wrapped up so that I could not scan insides - I stupidly thought that would indicate NEW ideas beyond my imagination.  WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY THAT WAS.   It is all getting very samey, some ideas are just plain DAFT and in fact very similar to all that stuff I was making back in the 70s !!!!  I will direct you back to this post here to illuminate you further on my thoughts about such matters.   If I am boring myself then I must be boring the pants off you too.  Thinking of re-inventing myself and coming back with an entirely new theme. Also don't like the fact that I have not got the time to visit your blog  and that then becomes too one-sided and expecting everyone to LOOK AT ME....I don't like that either..if you are kind enough to read this then I should be kind enough to read yours....reciprocity Timothy!

PPPPPS: 'We did not realise that you were so sour Jenny...'

PPPPPPS - got that off my chest

PPPPPPPS - we are all different....

PPPPPPPS - I may delete this......

PPPPPPPPPPPS - I will calm down shortly

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPS - Need my breakfast............

A mountain of other things in the world to worry about

'Crafting with La Cootard' Weekend

Great to see some of you at the 'Crafting with La Cootard' weekend extravaganza ..I hope that you enjoyed making your items.  Most of you managed to make something that bore a vague resemblance to the 'show pieces' but  there were one or two notable exceptions. Though tempting I will not stoop so low as to name and shame here - but if you are now looking at a misshapen 'purse' with a zip that doesn't zip (thereby undermining the entire zippage principle) then IT MIGHT BE YOU!!!

I am sorry that some of you did not quite grasp the essentials of purse making (what a waste of EXPENSIVE glue that was....).  If you are now lacking your finger prints you only have yourself to blame - I TOLD YOU NOT TO PUT  GLUEY FINGERS TOGETHER.

Watching the re-runs of 'The Great British Sewing Bee' was a little painful ('It could have been ME') but as the needs of the guests come first.....and some of you INSISTED (badgering is not a pleasant trait Punter X) we all had to endure.

 Well done to P-M for 'attempting' piping - I am not piper myself but FOR GOODNESS SAKE PUT SOME EFFORT INTO IT!!!  Mind you I could not say anything at the time...'She who pays the piper...' etc, etc...

Still, I managed to ignore most of the attendees and carried on making my own thing in a corner.  What do you expect for £9.99....my COMPLETE attention...that would cost an extra £4.99 AT LEAST.

NO photos of the event itself or other makes.  Sorry that some all items just did not pass muster

Let us call it tough love and leave it at that...

 However I did manage to take lots of photos of the one thing that I made....funny that

As per tradition we did our usual conga to the sea front - P-M leading the way of course (some people...).  I know that a few of you were begging (unseemly behaviour to be honest) to be in the photos but  if you are past your sell by date then admit to it and LET IT GO!

The vuvuzelas (smuggled in by YOU KNOW WHO) were a bit much for 8.30 in the morning and I will sadly be enforcing a full scale ban for next year.  I have had complaints from the  Neighbourhood Watch committee and they are threatening to strike me off the 'Pooper Scooper' task force if it continues. No 82 is keeping a log....

Due to 'popular' request I dug out the umbrella that I had 'refashioned' last year using the same material  used for the bag  (who can forget THAT event....sadly seared in to my memory bank for all the wrong reasons..).

You may recall the 'chair makeover' from a year or two back (following the 'Car Booting with La Cootard' event)  - again using the same fabric as the bag.

 If I cover a three piece suite with the same fabric and run up a suit I could camouflage right into the background.... with my rucksack on my back..Val-deri, Val-dera, Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha........ha

See you next year!

(Two days that I will never get back....)

PS A sadly serious Pinterest request....again.....I think that I have made it clear that I like my photos to stay here thank you)

All vintage embroidered tablecloths are equal - though some are more equal than others....

Thank you again for very kind comments about my half baked wrap dress - I will have a go at completing it  all being well!  Just a word about top stitching - I can 'hold the line' so long as I don't blink!  If I blink the whole thing goes Pete Tong and wobbly!  I am thinking of manufacturing an eye lid propper upper!!

Delighted that Ann won The Great British Sewing Bee - a triumph of, and for, attention to detail and no shortcuts (cough, cough....)

Adding in my usual no Pinterest request - thank you - though I see that someone has already posted them there - despite no pin, etc, etc, etc. Today  I am very much feeling like giving up with blogging...

 I am rather partial to a nice embroidered tablecloth - one or two of these I have shown before but as I got these out when my sisters came to stay at Easter time I thought I would photograph some of them 'en masse' as 'twere.

I have taken other photographs that show these tablecloths with the 'matching' china ready for tea time!  I will post those separately I think

This may seem a bit odd but these are not necessarily my favourite tablecloths - I have some quirky printed ones that I like muchly and some embroidered ones that are not so 'fancy' but have little details that I love

 I would like to eat these....

And these......

The one below I have shown before but always worthy of another outing don't you think.  Swags and garlands aplenty

And some all together

The one below I have had several times over and a damaged one I made into a bag.... I have got other pieces left over from it somewhere

I particularly like embroidered wild flowers -  clover, buttercups and daisies are especially lovely

The detail of the falling petal I particularly like

 Too much?

The one below has a few broken threads.... and sister Sue dropped jam on it..... gasps of horror

Go on - get your cloths out and use them.  That is what they were built for!

PS: Just adding these photos in for Barbara - sorry that my email is soooo useless and slow Barbara so posting these to show the backs for you!