Unbought Delicacies

Monday, 18 June 2012

Serious de-stashing required

Oh dear. I went up to the cabin yesterday afternoon to find something I needed; I was able to go straight to it as I remembered which crate it was in, but when I'd found it I spent a wee while looking through some stuff up there. Have now decided I need to use up what I have - apart from anything else, it will make room for more! lol So, I've decided whent he time comes to just go up to the cabin, take thefirst wool/fleece/fibre/paper/fabric that catches my eye and bring it down and make it into something - either for me, a present or for the shop. I don't hoard wool etc I don't use, or will never use, just for the sake of it. As well as being a serious knitter, I also run a knitting/craft business, so yaboo to those who say I'll never get through it and why keep so much!! It's my stock in trade and I love it.
I'll put up a new page on my knitting blog I think for all the stash-busting projects I do, and I might also make a new spinning only page.................... so many possibilites. My net is well organised, unlike my life lol

Sunday, 17 June 2012

MrsL's property of the week

Wow - take a look at this one :) Stunning house with working water mill where the current owners mill flour; beautiful setting, gorgeous house, idyllic grounds, sensible price too..

http://search.struttandparker.com/residential/property/10320?from=home

Friday, 15 June 2012

Living large in a tiny house

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/living-large-in-a-tiny-house.html

Found this very uplifting and inspiring :)

English wine making

The lovely MarkD, formerly of River Cottage , and his first wine grape harvest - the video is well worth watching, take a look at the wonderful press that's used for the grapes

http://www.otterfarm.co.uk/blog/

Photo by Mark Diacono from Otter Farm blog

Martha's school dinner blog

Remember that? Lates update is that the school have told her, on direction from the local council as I unerstand it, that she is no longer 'allowed' to write about and photograph her meals on her blog.

Disgusted.

http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/

Would it not be better if their energies were irected into providing decent meals for the children rather than trying to cover up the crap they've been serving them and effectively gagging a young girls' freedom of speech and honest opinion on HER OWN blog?

Good news for the corn crake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-18446921

Love this little eccentric bird!

(pic from RSPB/BBC)

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Pincushions that make you smile

Well - they made me smile :)) Aren't they just lovely - simple, effective, useful, pretty.

I picked up the link to this blog http://scrapbookfreubelen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/speldenkussen-in-een-notendop.html on Facebook.

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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