Unbought Delicacies: March giveaway!

Thursday, 12 March 2009

March giveaway!

This is my giveaway for March - a lovely sea green washcloth, handknitted in organic cotton, plus a Bronnley lavender soap and a min gardenr's hand soap for those hardworking hands!
If you'd like your name to go int he hat, please post a comment, or e-mail me on Julian.Dean1@ btinternet.com.

Thanks!

btw - I apologise if the righthand sidebar is all over the place for you - it is for me, and I'm trying to find someone to help me with it, so please bear with me. It isn;t half annoying me, though LOL

9 comments:

Willow said...: I've just read your list of things to do in March Mrs L ... and it's inspired me, as I've been feeling a bit down in the dumps with an ear infection & dizzy head!

So, it's off into the garden today - check out the greenhouse, then clean out the hens.

Would love to enter your giveaway!

Willow xx; 12 March 2009 at 08:43
A Green and Rosie Life said...: I see what you mean about the sidebar. We're having trouble sometimes uploading posts. It comes up with a message saying we have tried an illegal move, usually when we have just gone back to sort out some odd line spacing that Blogger has decided to put in. Grrrrrrrr.

Rosie x (whose hard-working habds could always do with a little help!); 12 March 2009 at 09:12
Pixiedust said...: Can I enter please Mrs L. XXXX

PS You've got me hooked on Tales from Green Valley now. xxxx; 12 March 2009 at 10:42
thesnailgarden said...: My you have been very busy sowing seeds - I have only just bought my compost, I'm a bit later this year as my seedlings got very leggy last year.

Please enter me into your giveaway, my hands need some TLC, they could be used as sandpaper at the moment :(

Best wishes, Pj x; 12 March 2009 at 13:59
Anonymous said...: Would love to enter your giveaway! Interesting blog!! stef4916(at)gmail.com; 12 March 2009 at 15:29
Kat said...: May i join? These soaps look like they're something i need hehehe

katch05 at gmail dot com; 13 March 2009 at 08:56
Solorn said...: That washcloth is a beautiful color. Even if I don't win can you let me know what cotton you used so I can go and buy some?:) I know I shouldn't add to my stash but..it's sooo pretty!; 13 March 2009 at 18:00
Carolemc said...: Please enter me too Mrs L .... would go nicely with my homemade bath bombs if I ever get my act together!

Carole; 19 March 2009 at 12:57
Brenda B said...: Ah, never one to pass up a giveaway, here I am! I've been busy stagger sowing 3 types of heirloom tomato seeds too, naturally they'll all fruit together anyway, such is life.; 19 March 2009 at 15:51

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Thursday, 12 March 2009

March giveaway!

9 comments: