The Vintage Magpie

Thrifty Friday Giveaway!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am having a giveaway today! 

I am conciously trying to not buy (a) anything I don't need and (b) anything I already have!  In this picture I have doubled up on two things.... the first being the cups, and I think a girl can be forgiven for collecting the set, but whilst charity browsing the other day I came across something gorgeous that I couldn't leave in the shop, even though I already had one..

this gorgeous little cow milk jug... perfect for serving afternoon tea!  In the first picture you may be able to spot my first one, given to me by my brother many years ago which I cherish.  But in a moment of clarity, once home, I realised that I had neither (a) the need for another one and (b) the space (check the dresser!).

So, this little cow needs a new home, and being that all my readers are of a similar ilke to me, I know that she will be cherished whereever she goes! 

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, giving her a name, and one of the Fraser brood will pick a random number from the comments on Sunday.  I will post her to anywhere in the world, so don't be shy - leave a comment!  The giveaway will close at 12 noon this coming Sunday, and I will announce the winner in my post on Monday - what a lovely way to start the week!

Have a great weekend, and good luck ! XX

Secret Savings

 I think I may have mentioned before that I am notoriously bad at saving.   Money burns a big hole in my pocket.  And in these frightening times I have decided I will use any tips I can find to help me save the pennies.  So this is a tip I found, and I like it (which is always a good start), and I thought some of you might be interested.

Firstly, you have find an old book, one that you are not intending to read again!  The day I found out about this tip I got home to find the above pictured book on my doormat, with this leaflet inside...

and decided to take it as a sign that this was meant to be!  A free book turning up just when I need one.  I have decided to recycle another book from our shelves to send re-cycle.

So.... the first thing you need to do is take a deep breath, and then cut a hole in the book.. about 3" by 5".

This is now your secret book.  Now everytime you stop yourself from making a purchase of something that ..

(a)    you really don't need
(b)    you could buy cheaper
(c)    you already have

you put the money that you have saved into you secret book.  Then you set a date (the same date every month) to pay whatever money you have saved into your savings account, minus 10%.  The 10% you can spend on whatever you want as a treat for saving so much money!

On the day I discovered this tip I we were coming home from a long day out, and the inevitable question arose..."whats for dinner?".  Mr F immediately suggested that we pop in the nearest supermarket and buy a chinese ready meal pack.  I took a deep breath and said no, I have things at home I can russle up for tea, lets do that instead.  I calculated that by the time we had stopped at the supermarket, bought the chinese meal and probably about 10 other things we didn't really need, it would have come to at least £20.  So, once I had cooked the dinner and cleaned up afterward I took £20 out of my purse and put it in my secret book..... what a feeling!  I was saving!

So, I will let you know how I get on.

I have put the book on the book shelf along with all the others, and have not told the management of my plan.  I think he might be quite surprised by the end of the month!

I have also kept the pieces of the pages I cut out of the book, as this made me feel a little sick at time :0, and I am going to use them up in some mixed media sort of way!

Let me know if you are joining in, and how much you save each month!!

Best of luck! x

PS. I AM HAVING A 'THRIFTY FRIDAY GIVEAWAY' this Friday because I have found myself with two of the same item, (!) .....  hope to see you then x

Seedy Saturday!

The Saturday before last we took the children along to an event  in a local village on the edge of Dartmoor, Bovey Tracey.  The event was called 'Seedy Saturday'.  It had been organised by the village's Climate Action group, to promote growing your own veg etc and to encourage people who have unused space in their gardens to share it with people who do not have any growing space.

We were invited to take seeds along to swap, and you could also buy other seeds to add to your collection.

There were helpers on hand to advise the children what seeds to buy, when to plant them and then a little workshop to let them plant some seeds of their choice in eco-friendly seed pots.  There was a lovely community atmosphere there, were every one was doing something for the greater good.

It was a lovely day, and the children were totally engaged by it.  Their faces lit up when they were asked to plant some seeds and draw some pictures.

Once home we ordered one of the eco-friendly seed pot makers.

Its called a Paper Potter.  Its an amazing little device that helps you to make little seed pots out of old newspaper, so once grown you can put your little plants into the pot or ground without having to disturb them as the paper is bio-degradable.

So this weekend Issy, James and Lauren have been kept very busy planting!

 

 Lettuce and cress ...

To the point where we are running out of windowsills!

But their enthusiasm is infectious.  And it fits in just nicely with our economy drive!  Home grown veg will be quite the money saver if it works.  We are putting potatoes egg boxes this weekend, we have never planted these before so any advice would be gratefully received!  We are planning to plant them in a large dustbin or something similar as we are restricted on planting space and have heard that Good Friday is traditionally the day to plant them out.  We are all pretty much novices when it comes to growing vegetables, we have grown tomatoes, corgettes and herbs before, but thats about it. This year we plan to be much more ambitious!

Roll on the spring, lets get some sunshine going on!

Hope you have a good week x

Weekend Bliss

I have had two deliveries this week, which I have planned in order to get some weekend bliss time.

The first is the yarn above, Buffy sock yarn from this very talented lady's new Etsy shop.

The second, a book called Knitting Vintage Socks. 

My plan of action is to encourage all three children upstairs to play (obviously some chocolate and  a dvd might be involved) whilst I light the fire and sit in my favourite chair and begin a venture into a new craft.

Oh... I can't wait.

Have a great weekend everyone xx

Rummaging

The other day I had a '10 minute gap' to dash into a local 'junk shop'.  Luckily it was all I needed to uncover this little treasure!

I fell in love with the picture, all lovingly hand embroidered, and am now in two minds... I think I am going to take it out of the frame and make it the centre square of a log-cabin style patchwork cushion,

I've always loved this cushion in Caroline Zoob's book, but then it makes such a lovely picture in the frame.

I just can't decide.

What do you think?

Lazy Sundays

I love Sundays.  Especially the afternoon, after we have been out for some fresh air in the morning.  I like to hide away in my sewing room and potter.  Radio on, cup of tea, sewing machine on... and just potter.

I tend to hide away there whilst everyone just relaxes, but its funny how gradually everyone seems to gravitate to my room, not saying much but just doing ...

a bit of sewing ...

or a bit or sorting...

or a bit of Sunday snoozing....

I love afternoons like that.

Hope you had a lovely Valentines weekend x

Madeleine

I couldn't resist taking this little doll home, when I saw her in a local charity shop for £5.00 yesterday.

I remember my mum having a box of similar dolls, her favourite one being a black doll, which she put too close to the open fire one day and the dolls head cracked.  She has been a big hit with my girls who are taking extra special care of her, and I am finding her in various spots around the house at the moment snuggly wrapped in a blanket or snuggled in amongst other toys!  I am having a hard job confining her to my sewing room.

We have named her Madeleine because she reminded the us of similar toys that were taken to the Bagpuss shop.  Oh how I loved Bagpuss when I was little and I can always remember the start of  it, the little mice, the rag doll, all of it.

Each programme would begin the same way: through a series of sepia photographs, the viewer is told of a little girl named Emily who owned a shop.

However, it did not sell anything; instead, Emily would find lost and broken things and display them in the window of the shop, so their owners could one day come and collect them. She would leave the object in front of her favourite stuffed toy — the large, saggy, pink and white striped cat named Bagpuss. She would then recite a verse:

“

Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss Old Fat Furry Catpuss Wake up and look at this thing that I bring Wake up, be bright, be golden and light Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing

”

When Emily had left, Bagpuss would wake up.

The programme shifted from sepia to colour film, and various toys in the shop would also come to life: Gabriel the toad and a rag doll called Madeleine. The wooden woodpecker bookend became the drily academic Professor Yaffle, while the mice carved on the side of the "mouse organ" (a small mechanical pipe organ which played rolls of music) woke up and scurried around, singing in high-pitched voices.

The toys would discuss what the new object was; someone (usually Madeleine) would tell a story related to the object,often with a song, which would be accompanied by Gabriel on the banjo and then the mice, singing in high pitched squeaky harmony as they worked, would mend the broken object. The newly mended thing would then be put in the shop window, so that whoever had lost it would see it as they went past, and could come in and claim it. Then Bagpuss would start yawning again, and as he fell asleep the colour faded to sepia and they all became toys again.

“

And when Bagpuss was asleep, All his friends were asleep. The mice were ornaments on the mouse organ. Gabriel and Madeleine were just dolls. Professor Yaffle was just an old wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker. Even Bagpuss himself, once he was asleep, was just an old, saggy cloth cat, Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams, But Emily loved him

”

I thought it was so magical. 

Anyhoo - Madeliene has a porcelain head and is filled with wood shavings in her body and soft stuffing in her arms (one of which looks like it has been part eaten by moths).  The lady in the shop said she was made around 1940s/50s.  I don't have much knowledge about dolls though...  I would love to know some more about her - if you know anything about dolls I would love to hear from you.

Have a great weekend everyone, whatever you do xxx

Simple Pleasures

Yesterday was a good day.  Country Living dropped on my doormat first thing, I went for coffee with Asti and met up with the lovely Kathy from My Life of Beads, and....

I treated myself to some beautiful new Rowan tweed wools which I plan to make cardigans and tank tops out of for some new up and coming jointed bears that I have in my mind.

Oh and had a good rifle through the vintage button box at the wool shop

Mmmmm.  A very good day indeed.

Change

In this little part of Devon, we have gone from this....

to this in three days.

It is insane weather here at the moment.  It feels like the world is going mad.  One minute we are snowed in, and we are sledging, the next there are floods and this morning we have a spring in our step because the sun  is shining on the beach.  

And in Australia they are on fire.

Mother Nature is showing all her sides, what a powerful force she is.

I hope whereever you are, you are all safe and well.
xxx

Narnia

It doesn't snow here in Devon.  Hardly ever.  So the snowfall over the last week has caused mass hysteria in our house

'Everywhere looks like Narnia mama!'

The excitement as they came out of school the first day it started to snow was magical, and knowing that it probably wouldn't hang around for long meant that we headed straight for Dartmoor, with the sledge in tow!

And we all laughed til it hurt!  There wasn't inches of snow, but what was there was compact enough to get a great speed out of the sledge!

There is a whisper that more snow is on its way this weekend.  We have everything crossed!

Hope you are enjoying the weather while it lasts, have a great weekend xx