Must try harder...

I really must try harder with blogging! Yet again, it's been more than a week since last my last post - where does all the time go? Note to self: "Be more organised"

I didn't make it to the auction last week - something to do with us waking up late, which always seems to happen here at the end of the holidays! However, I did make it to a fleamarket, where I found these lovely Anchor tapisserie wools and embroidery threads for 10p each!

After brief blurry moments at Christmas, my camera has now given up completely so I had to use our old Canon digital camera to take the above picture. When I say old, I mean one of the first digital cameras - it takes great photos (if you take time to tweek all its settings) but its battery only lasts five minutes and it's huge to carry around. I've been looking at new cameras but there are so many, I just cannot choose - megapixels, optical zoom, memory, this battery, that battery - I just want to point and shoot to capture the moment and take appealing pictures of things that I make!

I wonder what will be next - these things usually come in threes in this house. The lawn mower went out with a bang just before Easter - well, it was more of a whine, actually, with a couple of bits flying off mid cut and a puff of smoke!! Hubby always listens to his MP3 when mowing and, apparently, the mower went out to "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon - I can't hear that song now without thinking "Lawn mower's on fire"!!

Well, I must get back to the kitchen to bake cakes and flapjack as all the tins are empty and that just won't do! Let's just hope it's not the Kenwood next!

Bye for now, x

Thrifty Finds

I love having a good old rummage in charity shops and at jumble sales and, last week, managed to do quite well at both! I found these at my favourite charity shop:

The tea cups cross stitch was hastily whipped out of its horrid pink frame and washed ready to be turned into something where the time and effort that have gone into its tiny stitches can be appreciated! The extra wide, old wooden rolling pin is just perfect for pizza dough - my growing son's ever increasing appetite requires larger and larger pizzas!! And the frame, well, I can never resist a wooden frame - this pine one looks as though it has never been used and cost 60p!

At the jumble sale, I picked up a large, thick cotton, floral bedspread for 50p - again, it's been in the washing machine, line dried and awaits its next adventure! I'm not sure what that will be yet but I love its pastel shades of lilac, pink, peach, grey and lemon. I found a gorgeously soft and fluffy cashmere jumper for my daughter that looks as good as new for 25p! I am always on the lookout for 100% wool items for felting so you can imagine my delight when I was hit on the head - yes, hit on the head! - by a gorgeous red with purple, pink and blue fair isle lambswool cardigan!! A lady was sorting through a large pile of her rummagings and, obviously, the cardigan was not for her so she hurled it the 6 feet or so back to the crowded jumble table! "Thank you", I'll have that!! It was scary in there - quite a bit of elbowing and shoving going on! Jumble sales are becoming increasingly hard to find - this one happens every couple of months and is always well supported.

I might go to an auction this week - something else I love to do when I have the time! And, of course, I shall be back for a rummage in my favourite charity shop!

Off to crochet more summery flowers now using bamboo yarn, which is gorgeous to work with. I am going to try to post more than once a week but, as with everything that I plan to do, it's getting around to it!! There are simply not enough hours in the day!

Bye for now,

Rebecca x

Thank You!

Well ... here it is ... my first post on my first ever blog! After months of deliberation and being nagged by my children, I've finally done it!

At around this time last year, a young recruitment consultant told me that I was 'high risk' and would not be able to 'hit the ground running' in any of the jobs he had available. Why? Well, thanks to the support of a wonderful husband, I had been able to leave full-time work in 1993 to raise two children, look after my family and home, whilst also doing voluntary work in school, small part-time jobs, and achieving a first class BA(Hons) degree in English!

I decided that, if I was so very unemployable, I would find a way of employing myself! And, one year on, I am doing just that. I have my own very small crafts business called rebeccamaryjane's (you can find me here http://www.folksy.com/shops/rebeccamaryjane, I do freelance work for my local council running art and craft sessions for youngsters during the school holidays and, just a few weeks ago, I taught my first adult craft workshop!

I am extremely happy, much more than I ever could have been in an office. Here I am enjoying my sewing, knitting, crochet, thinking of Eastery things for the youngsters to make next week, whilst watching the the garden in all its Spring glory - who would have thought that work could be so much fun! I am so lucky - "Thank You" young recruitment consultant!