Tuesday 26 March 2013

Simple decorations for Spring and making stuff

Thank you again for taking time out of busy lives to leave comments here.   I greatly appreciate that you do that - it is the glue that keeps us together I think. Note that I tried a bit of Derren Brown psychology in my last post title!

Please do not post on pinterest etc - I think I might have to write this each time sadly.

  I have recently read how blogs are on the decline as social media sites are on the rise and that the interest is more in the photographs than the words.  Mmmm - I will ponder this very carefully.  

Anyway...

Chapter One
A few years ago an elderly gentleman was selling some of his old things at a  car boot sale - I remember him well.  One thing that he had for sale was a swan's egg - kept in an old cardboard Easter Egg (that strangely had part of both edges cut off) - we had a chat about it I remember.  It was his as a child - about 65 years before.  Mmmm - I was not too sure about a buying a swan's egg....not too comfortable....but thought that I might use the old cardboard egg for something.  Gentleman insisted that I took the swan's egg too - all for 50p...mmmm....still wasn't sure about that swan's egg....

Roll forward a few years and I remembered those eggs the other day....(they lurk in the 'Spring/Easter Cupboard' - which in reality is the top part of the 'Christmas Cupboard'...oh dear). I had to sift through "one or two" other vintage cardboard eggs BUT I am NOT going to show you a lot of old seasonal things this year...no...no...no.  This year we shall focus on a few bits...


So decided to decorate the old cardboard egg - it no longer fits together as it has been cut off in places.
Just some little bits and bobs glued on - nothing in particular - old bits of lace,  1930s ric rac, hairpin lace doily inside (not quite seen in photo....just as they state in magazines....I find it very irritating when they do that....), crimped some old fabric and voila!



I did have some mini chocco eggs....but I ate them during the 'crafting process' (by  fancifying 'making stuff' we can  write a book based on some nice photos and a little bit of wordage...I notice that quite a bit in Smiths also..mmmmm again!!!!) so had to make do with some flying saucers....then I ate those too.....its hard work taking photos...


Sifted further through the 'Spring Cupboard' and got very sidetracked by some very nice bits and bobs but settled for some old tins as a backdrop (noticed on ebay the other day that a nice old bunny tin that I also have sold for £65!!  Bronte also has one in her bedroom....)


This squeeky lamb was the children's and two/three years ago I threw it in the bin....it has a VERY LOUD SQUEEK AND DROVE ME MAD.....Bronte secretly rescued it so it earned  its place in the Cupboard forever.


I was going to fashion some wheels and have SQUEEKY LAMB  pulling it along but I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO DO THAT so had to settle for close proximity work instead...hope that is ok.



Tra la la to you all




I am rather partial to a nice bunny tin......sorry that you can see bananas peeking over the top far right...that would never happen in a book!

Chapter Two

Whilst gandering in Smiths ( irritated by magazines wrapped in plastic so preventing the gandering process but serves me right) I noticed a proliferation in dyed eggs this 'saison'.  Nothing new of course - been happening for hundreds of years and I too have been an egg dyer since a child.  What is that  I hear you say - you demand proof!  Read on reader.

  Back in the 70s I was quite a crafty child (no comments please) - rural living meant that natural resources were close at hand and it was a time of rekindling 'old crafts'. For example I remember very well my mum and I  fetching in the last bits of straw from the field so that I could make  corn dollies (tradition determined that the last of the straw would be used for this).  Basic corn dollies are soooo easy to make - I still have my corn dolly making booklet that I used to help me.  Similarly with egg decoration -  I still have the same book that I used then to help with making natural dyes.  My favourite decorations were made using wax (old melted candles) drawn (using old ink nibs...that I still have...oh dear) on the egg and then dyed using onion skins or red cabbage or anything that might add a bit of colour.  After dyeing you simply melt the wax away to reveal your masterpiece.

....and here is one that I made earlier...

....quite a bit earlier.....


....1977 in fact.

This diary of mine is from 1975 and I was still dyeing eggs two years later.  How this egg has survived many house moves over the years I do not know - it is a blown egg, not boiled, so no 'counter forces' from within. This particular egg I made as a Christmas present for my mum... by the way I would also have a go at making the things on Blue Peter. Did you do that too?  I remember making a pin cushion from an elastoplast tin (in the shape of a flower) and a pencil case (in the shape of dog) from a washing up liquid bottle.  
Good times!


I was an avid and meticulous diary keeper from the late 1960s to the 1980s - if need be I can tell you what I ate Easter  1975, what I did at school and  probably what the weather was doing.  The big event for a Friday in March was that I went to the library and got a book out about decorating eggs (and I had chips and pie for dinner at school) ....by nature I am a do'er and if I have an idea I will act upon it.

Life for me is not about: 'I wish I had...'  life for me is about: 'I am glad that I did...'

It was only in the last three years or so that I got rid of the basket that I describe above.  Here I am detailing the price as always - this was some Christmas money that I had saved - I was given 50p by my Granny that year.  The basket  was one of those larger wicker lidded ones, I lined it with some old fabric (old for then!) and made little pockets to keep my sewing bits in.  So nothing has changed has it really. I remember the jacket that I also describe my mum has made - it was a 1940s style that was popular that year. You cannot read it properly but I also write how my mum managed to squeeze a skirt for me out of some leftover fabric from making two jackets for an uncle!!!!!

Most weeks and  most days I was busy making something - I must have been a one-child industry I think!


 Above I also document how I learnt a new string game - My teacher Mr Everett taught it to me - it is the one about  a rich man sewing up sacks of gold and then in the night robbers come, undo the sacks and steal the gold.  I have done that little game many, many, many times for young children and they are fascinated by it.....just as I was all those years ago.   I still love string games and know how to create an Eiffel Tower out of a single piece of string...

Cat's cradle was child's play...!


Below I detail how I would like to make a patchwork quilt.


Instead of leaving it and not making a patchwork quilt I did something about it ("I am glad that I did") and  did indeed go on to make that quilt, using all  bits of fabric leftover from  old dresses that our mum had made.  I still have it...it took me several YEARS to make by hand because for some reason I chose a pattern that had lots of small pieces in it (plus I was busy making all that other stuff!!!!).  I went on to make about one a year by hand - using scraps.  One quilt I went on to sell at a car boot of my own....I had hand quilted it.....why, oh why.....(an instance of 'I wish that I had not...')

On one day I might make a hedghog (sp).....


...and the next a tote bag.

I decorated the pocket with fabric crayons (I remember that bag very well...the first of many...ha ha) and topped the day off with making a sand frog and a 'tiny felt mouse' (oh and tidied out a cupboard too I notice)

  Sign of the times that I made Womble bag - I remember that I made the pattern out of newspaper just as I do today! I used fabric pens to design a stencilled W on the apron that I made too. This was all for the Womble that I also designed and made myself - I cut up some old brown courdery trousers to make it I remember.


Remember you're a Womble...

The written word has always been very important to me - a way of documenting thoughts, doings and events...just as a blog does today.  Though this blog does not document everyday (or indeed every day!)  life it does log one aspect of it that has been a continuous thread (see what I did there!).  

Did you/do you keep a diary too?



Still not sure what to do with that swan's egg....

Toodle pip and tatty bye in equal measure

La Cootard

PS:Have had some interesting emails regarding pinterest lately.  Odd that despite me saying otherwise some have told me that they knew better and  that I really would like to have my photos there and that my photos should be shared with others to see.  Funny because I don't think that and sharing right here is what this blog is for....I am quite happy with my little corner of the blogosphere thank you very much and I do not need to justify why that is so.   Quality not quantity!















51 comments:

  1. ~Jenny as said before...I am with
    YOU in heart and soul with Pinterest! Stick to your guns....My friend! ~ Like you I like a chat or two and words......Well they come easy P~ easy to me...
    LOVE all you have documented and kept in your diaries....~ I always kept a diary too! Still do I just call it my Gratitude diary..... ~Wishing you and yours all the blessings for the coming holidays...Thank you for sharing all your delightful Easter tins and (Swan eggs) with US all...~With kindest thoughts...Maria x Just keep being YOU! hehe...

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    1. Thank you dear Maria
      It is very much like a chat over the garden fence - I like that analogy
      Belated happy Easter to you dear
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  2. Love the Easter tableau, must hunt out my decs for the old Easter twig. Wish I'd kept a diary, i'm surprised that you found the time with all that creativity! Catx

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    1. Hello and happy Easter to you - in the age before 24 hour telly and gadgets I think it was easier!
      Thank you for calling in
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  3. Oh my!! How have you managed to keep so much from your childhood?! When my mum moved out of the family home she left most {well everything} in the loft...never seen again. All those school reports, cards notebooks - quite sad.
    Im not surprised you needed to eat the sweeties, all that serious graft {or is that craft?} you'd need something to keep the spirits up.
    I use my family blog as a diary, a way to keep track on where we're at and what we've been up to...knackered if the whole thing disappears!
    Thanks for popping over and your kind words
    Nicky
    x

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    1. PS
      What were you up to on the 2nd Feb 1971?
      x

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    2. Dear Priddy Priddy - a bit of rummaging has revealed my little diary for 1971!!
      On the 31st of January I document that Apollo 14 was about to be launched. On Monday the 1st of February I document that there was a 40 minute delay in Apollo 14 being launched and 'we do think that it will be landing on the moon'. On the 2nd of February I am pleased to announce that I had a row with Carol Hart and that whilst at school I had to do some washing up for Mr Henderson. I continue that though I didn't get many sums wrong it was a 'bad day'.
      I hope that this helps
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  4. Reading between the lines here you and I are much the same age. And yes I did keep a diary, and yes I did make things all the while. One Easter I made a paper daffodil to my own design, sent it off to Blue Peter, and received a special badge as it was going to be on the show, and it was, on a shelf behind Valerie Singleton's head ... at my primary school I was famous for a day ;)

    Re Pinterest, I think a lot of folk don't understand that a) Pinterest strips exif data from your images so they can no longer be proved to be yours,and that b) although yes, Pinterest can drive traffic to a website or blog, having images repeated over and over devalues them, both literally and in Google's bot's 'eyes'. Me thinks it's about time we addressed all the copyright issues that have arisen since social media arrived. (I'm assuming by the way that you are using a no-pin code here for each image.)

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    1. Hello Annie
      How lovely for your 'make' to be on BP itself! Fame comes in many guises
      I agree about the Pinterest thing - I have recently found a site that takes photos from pinterest - strips them of the data then reposts them on Pinterest and then the link is back to their site with adverts. Nice work if you can get it. They removed my photos from their site as soon as I asked but I can see that there are others from 'our' blogging community being used. I agree about the de-valuing - beautiful items that must have taken forever to make next to one showing how to make modge podge doesn't quite cut the mustard for me
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  5. Trudie went to Elton Johns house??? I decorated a tin with old pennies because Valerie Singleton told me to and used nail varnish to keep them shiny and it worked (still have it). Love those memories EE xx

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    1. Good for you and the old penny tip - thank you for that
      Trudie (one of my sisters) trekked to his house in Virginia Waters with Karen Simmonds just so that they could gaze at his house! Not quite as grand as it reads!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  6. I used to start every year as a child very enthusiastically, new diary in hand, at the start there would be entries every day, then random entries and by July no entries at all. How I wish I had perservered. Love your rabbit tins!
    Have a great Easter.
    June

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    1. Happy Easter to you too June
      I like a nice tin...or two...
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  7. Fascinating, Jenny. I remember being able to do the Eifel Towel string thing too! xx

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    1. Huarry - could be start a 'String Game' Club - members would have learn the mysterious art of Eiffel Tower making!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  8. Jenny, I'm so, so glad you never throw ANYTHING away, what a wonderful insight into you 'makings'. I wouldn't know what to do with the swans egg either! You could try poaching........;) x

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    1. Ha ha - a bit like eating a goose egg...just doesn't appeal!
      Dom would quite like me to throw some things away I think!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  9. So sweet that you still have all those old things! ~ Those are some of the best treasures! :) Happy Easter!! xo Holly

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    1. Happy Easter to you too across the oceans
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  10. Hello! What an interesting post! I'm going to lay my head down on my pillow this evening wondering why the man kept a swan's egg in a container with the edges cut off. Hmmm....
    I too kept a journal all of my young years. But I kept it in a coded language so that my pesky little brother wouldn't discover who I was madly in love with. Darn if I didn't include a cypher!
    I have to tell you that I had my own Pinterest boards under my blog name, and all of a sudden I would see that 2,000 people a day were coming to my blog. It absolutely freaked me out! I like that our community is mostly filled with women of our age who want to get to know each other. It's so lovely. I now use Pinterest under a name that doesn't connect to my blog as a way for people to find the patterns and tutorials I share. No one knows it is connected with me, and the strangers have stayed away! Your ongoing battle with Pinterest fascinates me. Identify yourselves you thieves!
    Wishing you a joyous Easter holiday! Elizabeth, Creative Breathing

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    1. Hello Elizabeth - glad to read that you are like me in that odd things keep your brain whirring at night! Good idea with your Pinterest boards. I too had a spell where thousands were visiting each day - but silent visitors - not that I expect everyone who visits to leave a comment but I found so many not saying anything but happy to use my photos elsewhere all a little disturbing.
      Happy Easter to you too. I hope that your husband was able to bring some more hot cross buns home for you
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  11. Just back from my diary vault...sadly 2nd Feb 1971 was blank but I bought a brush nylon blouse on the 6th, it was a Saturday! EE xx

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    1. This made me laugh - I hope that you still have that blouse...sounds a real delight.
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  12. I kept a dairy off and on. I would go for months and then disappear for months. It is so funny to read the pages now from when I was in middle and high school. This boy and that. I'm the same way now (with writing - not boys ;) I feel like my blog fills the missing links in the written ones of the diary. Swan's eggs must be tough shell. Just please don't ever break it - eek. Then again maybe it is petrified inside now? Maybe he thought it was good luck or something?

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    1. Indeed pam - keeping a diary can be hard going every day! Reading them brings back lots of memories though - boys and all! Re: Egg - maybe he was one of those egg collectors and had a whole lot of them hidden!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  13. I only kept a diary for a couple of years in my teens.I remember being a member of the Osmonds fan club and we had a secret code so even if I were to find it in my mums loft someday I wouldnt be able to decipher it!!

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    1. Ha ha - I like that idea of a code very much Anne. Crazy Horses...
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  14. I hope blogs -with writing - are not in decline! You keep writing about what you like and there will be many others in tune with you. I too hate the wrapping on magazines. As the price goes up, my urge to make sure what I am buying is worth it increases- every little.... Love the Easter tins, can't have too many...I kept a diary for a short while and I still have it. It's a Mickey Mouse one. It has very short entries and mostly says, 'went to school did SRA cards?!'

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    1. Indeed feliciy - I like to know when I am spending my hard-earned money on. Increasingly I find too many big photos (nice though they are) and little substance....I like to find both together. I am partial to a nice tin I must confess....crikey!

      I am curious to know what SRA cards are?

      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  15. I am almost lost for words. All those years of crafting! Blimey. I mostly spent my childhood reading ...or riding my bike. Hated sewing and knitting and rarely made anything crafty. You, my dear, are one-stop crafty wonderland.

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    1. Hello dear
      Pre-telly days might have had something to do with it! I did lots of cycling too - the nearest town was a few miles away so I either walked or cycled. Weren't the days longer when we were children?

      Thank you for kind words
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  16. oh you make me wish I had kept a diary - alas, I started many but was never consistent. I do have quite a lot of things from childhood though, and have managed to prevent my husband from throwing quite a lot away.

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    1. Thank you for calling in. Each year I discard a little bit more of the childhood bits...even I cannot keep it all!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  17. I love reading your posts and once again I have enjoyed every bit of this one! I never kept my diaries even the Muppet diary that I won by identifying some of the characters, Oh well but I do love writing on my blog!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words - I like talking as much as like writing!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  18. I love your little bunny tins... so sweet. I had a little chuckle over your diary entries. I kept diaries for many years when I was a girl and it is a hoot to go back and read the ridiculous things I wrote.

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    1. They are tremendous fun to read aren't they. Of course as a teenager I knew it all and could provide solutions to all of the big issues of the day!
      I hope that you had a lovely Easter
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  19. What a great post, I kept a diary for a couple of years in my troubled teens which I still have - they make interesting reading!

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    1. Ah yes - the troubled teens. In the TTs a diary was a place to vent my spleen
      Thank you for calling in
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  20. Jenny ...yes I kept Diaries during my teenies years, mostly about boys and kissing and things ?
    I too was always very very crafty as a child, i remember making a pair of ballet shoes out of thin cardboard and gluing pink satin all over them, green ribbons were also added, they fitted a treat!

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    1. I am a little shocked Ms Daisy!!!! Kissing!!!
      Love the sound of those ballet shoes - the closest I have come to that is making a pair of flip flops for the children....
      Happy Easter to you
      Jenny

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  21. What a lovely Easter post Jenny. I adore all your things, the bunny tins are gorgeous and your super decorated egg filled with flying saucers ( I didn't know they still made them!) is so pretty.
    Loved the diary bits too :)
    x

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    1. Thank you once again Barbara - I hope that the weather is calmer for you now! I like a nice flying saucer!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  22. Lovely post and pictures. I too adore the written word and always feel cheated when only a picture is given to us. I enjoy pinterest, but admit a lot of time on there is spent fevently repinning pictures with the orgin and any story which I may be able to find. I think pictures without words can give one a kind of visual overload and decrease brain cells. ha ha! Thank you for sharing Easter with us, always enjoy your posts. My diary is buried in a pale yellow 1970s suitcase ..... now there is a thought .... Minerva ~

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    1. Please dig out your diary (surely worth doing just to re-visit that suitcase!). I can understand the lure of pinterest and realise that many/most people love it...just not for me.
      Belated Happy Easter dear
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  23. Happy Easter Jenny,Lovely blog,I must confess I read it quickly whilst hubby was out, he thinks I spend too much time blogging and not enough time houseworking!!! Toodle pip!Pam.

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    1. Oh dear naughty Pam!! Get on with the housework dear!
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  24. love that post. clever custard hx

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    1. Thank you and happy Easter (belatedly)
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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  25. I'm having a Darren Brown moment. Seriously. On March 4th, a few weeks ago, I remembered a day on March 4, 1974 when I was sitting on the grass in California outside my university English class (I know, I'm showing my age here). And someone, maybe even me, had written a poem called March Forth and I thought that was ever so clever. Which, thinking back, it really wasn't. But anyway, now I see your beautiful blog and what day is showing in your diary? March 4, 1974. This is truly remarkable and somewhat creepy, don't you think? And now I see what you were doing on the very same day that I (or someone) marched forth.

    Thanks for the memory!

    Shelley

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    1. Not creepy Shelley - it was just destiny! March Forth does indeed sound very clever and witty. Small wonder that you are The Keeper of the Apostrophe with you English studies in Cal-i- forn-i-a. Were you blown off the Island this weekend??
      Best wishes
      Jenny

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