Crafty Corner

Oh we have been busy in the Jumbles and Pompoms household today. Firstly, Junior J and P has made this scarf:



Yes, really! Take a closer look:



She made it out of an old t-shirt dress. Do you want to know how? Well here's Little Miss J and P to tell you:

What you need:

. An old t-shirt or t-shirt dress
. A pair of fabric/sharp scissors


Step 1 Cut along an old t-shirt/dress side seam and cut off the sleeves so you can lay it out flat.

Step 2 Cut your t-shirt/dress into a triangle.

Step 3 Cut tassles into your fabric triangle along two sides.

Step 4 Tie the tassles together in pairs.

Step 5 ….And you’re done!

While Junior was busy tieing her tassles together I finished off my crocheted cushion with flower embellishment and here it is:



And here:



And here is a close-up of one square with its flower:



If you remember I based the cushion on Do you Mind if I Knit's beautiful sisterhood crochet blanket pattern here. Do check out her lovely blog and her very easy to follow tutorials perfect for dumbos like me. I did enjoy the crocheting experience but I have to say the sewing of the squares was a major chore for someone who is pretty hopeless at sewing. Next time I join squares together I think I'll try crocheting them together rather than sewing.

Right, my dears, that's enough creative activity for one day methinks. TTFN.

P.S. I'm going to attempt to post our creations on www.kootoyoo.com . Why don't you pop along and see what other crafty bloggers have been up to this week.

P.P.S. Also, take a look at the "At my House" post on Buttons by Lou Lou and have a nose at what other bloggers have been doing round the house this week.

Ye Olde Village Fayre

Oh, I do like a good village fete/fair (not sure what the difference is I'm afraid). I see that a number of bloggers have been posting about their visits to village fetes this weekend, and I am no exception.

We stayed in Surrey this weekend with friends and visited the Old Fair of Abinger. It was a close to idyllic afternoon: the sun was shining (mainly) and we let Junior and friend roam around at will while the grown ups had a civilised time chatting, strolling around the many stalls, partaking of ye olde cream tea (yes, for once, dear readers, the flask stayed at home) and the occasional drop of "medieval mead", watching the children's races and tug of war and enjoying the thrills and spills of a jousting tournament.







Joy of joys, there was a bric a brac stall to visit. How about that for devotion to duty? This is what I got: Another coffee pot (£1) to add to the collection:



Just thought I'd show you some of my collection of coffee jugs - the Meakin ones:



Some rather groovy table mats (20p):



Lastly, these glass bird paperweight lovelies. £3 for the two but worth every penny don't you think. They are Wedgwood glass and I'm very pleased with them.



Hope y'all had a great weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead.

Walks, Waves and Witchcraft

Just returned from a week away in beautiful Cornwall - the third time we've visited in as many years. This time to the North Coast near Padstow. Oh what a lovely week we had. Weather was mainly glorious. Went for splendid coastal walks and surfed (or should I say body boarded) EVERY day.

Perhaps I've given the impression that I've been body boarding every day. No, dear readers, not I. I had a great time watching and waving at the two body boarders extraordinaire, sitting and staring into lots of lovely space, reading, stretching my legs now and then and drinking coffee from one of our numerous flasks. Just in case you wondered, we brought 4 on holiday with us: one for mine and Mr J and P's coffee, one for Junior's hot chocolate, and two food flasks - one for Mr J and P's yogurt making activities (yes indeedy) and the other for food just as Mr/s Thermos intended.

Now I hate to bore you all to death but here's a few of our snaps:

This was taken from Trevose Head overlooking Stinking Cove and close to Booby's Bay - good names eh?



This one's similar to the one above only with some pretty pink flowers in the foreground!



I had this part of the beach all to myself. Everyone else was at the other end (no rude comments please Mr J and P).





Mussels!



Riding the waves: the J and Ps in action.



You may be wondering about the word "witchcraft" in the title of this post. Well, on Wednesday, we decided to bypass the famous Lawnmower Museum in Newquay (How could we! I hear you cry) in favour of the far more interesting Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle (sorry, all you lawnmower enthusiasts out there).



This is a house spell or blessing which apparently means "May you always have a home to live in, clothing to wear, food to eat and someone to love". Remember that when you next send a housewarming card.



Want to see some interesting artefacts? Well here we go:

A cocke ring:





A heart thing complete with nail clippings. Nice.....



Miss Wagging Tongue - indeed!



And for all you knitters out there:







Cripes! Scarey huh?

My charity shopping mania was seriously curtailed during the holiday. We did, however, stop off at beautiful Wells in Somerset on our epic journey back home to London (8 hours of roadworks and delays). Wells is the smallest city in England and has a lovely cathedral,



a Bishop's Palace in beautiful grounds with a moat and Vicars' Close which is supposedly the oldest residential street in Europe (14th century).



Couldn't do the sites justice as we only had a very short time there and, of course, I just had to scurry off to do some very quick charity shopping. I bought two single candy stripe sheets destined for Junior's bed. Mind you, what with her very annoying habit of bringing felt pens and biros to bed with her, I might have to think again...

Hope y'all had a happy and fruitful week.

TTFN.

Charity shopping and camping - a fine combo

Last weekend was officially the start of the camping season for the J and P household. Camped on a lovely peaceful site in the heart of beautiful Kent countryside close to Faversham and Sittingbourne. Glorious weather, excellent company, delicious food and copious amounts of wine made for a very successful weekend.

Saturday, bypassed the cute and fashionable Whitstable (will camp there in June with other friends) and spent much of the day in Herne Bay otherwise known, apparently, as Hernia Bay on account of the droves of elderly folk who retire there! As promised, in my previous post, dragged family and friends around the charity shops. Well, this is what I got:



Beautiful bedding: everyone's favourite - a candy striped double sheet (flannelette - v snuggly and soft)for £1.30, a pretty yellow and white striped cotton double sheet for £2.50, and a peach woollen blanket with satin trimming for £1.99 (v handy for chilly nights in the old tent). Now what else......



A beautiful orange rayon scarf for 50p. Sorry, photo is not brilliant - must get to grips with this photography lark.

A brooch with wooden flowers and beads (£2):



A rather fine looking flask (£2.50):



I have to say that Mr J and P and myself are a little obsessed with flasks. We are a family of 3 and we now own a total of 8 flasks plus 2 insulated mugs. Is this a cause for concern or perfectly normal behaviour????

The piece de resistance this week has to be this glorious apron for 75p.



I thought, at first, it was a home-made creation but it's good old Marks and Spencer. I love it!

I really do enjoy seeing what other people buy on their thrifting jaunts. If you do too, take a look at Her Library Adventures and play along.

Another excellent site is Thrifty Treasure . Check out her fantastic 100th Post Giveaway. Enjoy!

Charity shopping frenzy

Hoorah, the weekend is almost here! This week has gone by and I haven't reported on my recent charity shop finds. Well, last Saturday when the weather was semi decent (Sunday - it poured), we went to Leigh on Sea which is a cute little place next to Southend on Sea for those of you who don't know it. Lots of lovely charity shops - so I was in my element. Here is what I got:



A rather cheerful table cloth (50p)which, contrary to what I said in an earlier post about not using table cloths, is now firmly on the dining table - beautifully ironed as you can see.

A Van Gogh piccy which I bought for the frame - which, although a little chipped, looks the perfect sort of thing for Mr J and P's Grandma Gladys' rose painting. Gladys was a prolific painter of mainly flowers and the odd nude (and when I say odd......). Will show you the roses (and possibly the nude if you're lucky) later. Anyway a chipped frame for 65p - a bargain methinks.



A tin of buttons for 70p. Now what to do with them is the question..... Suggestions (nice ones, if you please, Mr J and P) welcome.



A lovely mint green teapot (Poole pottery) for £1.29:



A pretty blue jug for £1 and then later I discovered a whole stack of blue and pink bowls in the same design (Grindley Lupin Petal) for 20 p each! I bought 2 blue ones and 2 pink ones much to Mr J and P's dismay and when I suggested to Mr J and P that we should buy the whole darn lot seeing as they were only 20 p each, he declared that he wanted nothing to do with my bowls and went off in a little huff! Well really.....



I still haven't quite got over not buying a whole stack of lovely pink and blue bowls that we don't need; but don't worry folks, we're off to Kent this weekend (camping in the Sittingbourne area) and I'll be dragging Mr J and P and friends around the charity shops - you see if I don't.

Crocheted small grany square cushion in all its glory

Yes. I've done it! At last. Here it is - a proper cushion and all:



Here it is again:



And here it is again - just for luck!



Really enjoyed the crocheting experience and loved playing with the squares and deciding which colour should go where! Did not enjoy sewing the squares together. I'm not the world's most patient person and my sewing skills are pretty rubbish. But I managed it in the end (just don't look too carefully). Backed it with a shrunken woollen blankie from the charity shop and Bob's yer uncle.

If you remember, I was inspired to do this by Do you Mind if I Knit's lovely scarf here. Well, recently I noticed that she has a tutorial for her beautiful sisterhood crochet blanket square here. I really like her step by step tutorials. They're perfect for dimwits like myself: excellent photos, easy to follow instructons and lots of encouragement. Well, inspired by this wonderful tutorial, I thought I'd experiment a little and lookee here:



Yes, five granny squares already. How did that happen? Methinks another cushion cover is on its merry way (to go with the other ones I'm planning with some vintage fabric I've got plus I was planning to try my hand at making some patchwork ones). Oh well you can't have enough cushion covers don't you think?

We stayed in a windmill

Yes, how cool is that? For the Bank Holiday weekend. Little old us. In a windmill. Have a look:

The windmill in all its glory:



The stairs!



A small person on said stairs:



A four poster bed:



Views from the windmill (not the world's greatest piccies but you get the idea don't you?):





We stayed in lovely Rutland. It's the smallest county in England and has some very pretty villages. Rather like the Cotswolds only minus the hoards of tourists and ye olde tea shoppes (mind you I've got nothing against ye olde tea shoppes).

On Friday, we travelled up to Rutland via Northamptonshire and stopped at lovely Oundle and a place called Woodford Newton where we discovered the grave of Coco the Clown of all people.

A piccy!



Saturday: charity shopping in pretty Oakham. Lovely dishy thing useful for containing bits and bobs and beautiful 70s tray. 75p each.




Then a walk near Rutland Water. Glorious.

Sunday was a visit to Stamford in Lincs. Beautiful old city. Then onto Uppingham for the event of the year in my opinion - their Scarecrow festival. I love it! Here are just two of the entries:





Roll on the next Bank Holiday is what I say.