Unbought Delicacies: Time for a well-deserved giveaway

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Time for a well-deserved giveaway

As a thankyou to all my blog readers who have helped, supported me and encouraged me, just been there for me over the past rough times, I've realised a big thankyou and a giveaway is long overdue! The giveaway is for a hat and gloves, knitted, of your choice. :) To enter, please just leave a comment below, and at the end of the month (August) everyone's name will go into my spiffy new tophat and I'll draw out a winner. Good luck :) x

9 comments:

Justine said...: Wow how kind. Please enter me!; 13 August 2013 at 20:49
menopausalrunninggirl said...: How lovely- please enter me xx; 13 August 2013 at 21:00
damsonsamba said...: Yes please; 13 August 2013 at 23:34
Ciao said...: Ooh yes, please enter me too, love the new hat by the way,
God bless xx; 14 August 2013 at 10:53
Karen said...: I live in the U.S.
If you ship here- Please enter me too !!
xoxo
(and if not- good luck to everyone else !!)
:-); 14 August 2013 at 11:35
MrsL said...: Certainly do, Karen :) Your name's going in
x; 14 August 2013 at 14:37
Unknown said...: waw yes please !! please enter me.; 14 August 2013 at 22:58
Simone said...: Such a lovely thing to do.I would love the chance to have some new knitted gloves and a hat.; 15 August 2013 at 09:52
Jo said...: Please enter me too

: ); 19 August 2013 at 21:38

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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Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Time for a well-deserved giveaway

9 comments: