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Charity shopping, planting and making – my fun weekend :)

Posted by on Monday 18 April 2011 in charity shopping, growing, making, wood stuff | 4 comments

Last night on Twitter, I asked people to put their hands up if they’d had a lovely afternoon in their garden/at their allotment yesterday and I got a sea of hands waving back – it is really bloody lovely out there at the moment, isn’t it?*

On Saturday, I blew my no spending month thing out of the window by going to a craft sale at Kirkgate Studios in Shipley – well, actually, I only bought two balls of wool and a postcard from there but since I was in Shipley… As with most poorer areas, you’re less likely to find exclusive designer goodies going for £1 but with eight charity shops, there is at least plenty of choice.

I bought 13 books. Thirteen! But 10 of them were (drama) work-related and two Monica Dickens books I’ve been considering buying off Amazon/Abebooks for a couple of months, so it wasn’t all spur-of-the-moment spend-spend-spend. Plus, eight of the books were in a 4-for-£1 offer so all 13 books cost £7.70 in total — not too bad. (And I’ve already found seven books to give away under my “buy 2, get rid of 1 old one” rule.)

I also bought a cute small plate to be our kitchen soap dish for 50p, another little dish for 50p because it was a tourist souvenir from Baghdad (and how often do you see those?) and a fake-patchwork duvet cover for £1.50, which I’ll turn into a cheat quilt like Lynsey’s from SwirlyArts made this time last year — again, something else I’ve been looking out for because I love Lynsey’s quilt so I was very happy to find it :)

Anyway, after all that spendery on Saturday, I declared Sunday would be a day for the garden. I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped (I’ll have to have some time off this week to get the rest finished) but I potted on lots of tomatoes & pumpkins, sowed nearly all my potatoes as well as more lettuce & annual herbs. I also made two new scrap wood planters – not the prettiest but certainly the easiest ones yet.

I believe the sides are old scaffolding planks or similar — John’s dad had a trailer full when we went over the other day. He said “they’ll be great for burning” until he saw me hugging them to my chest and squealing with planter-building delight. They’re about 3ft by 1ft by 8inches deep, with reclaimed decking for the bottom supports. Again, they’ll be lined but I think I’ll see how far I get cleaning them rather than painting them as I like the character of the wood. (Apologies for the somewhat shadowy photo – was in a hurry, camera battery was dying.)

I also made some super quick wire wall mounts for some herb pots in the greenhouse – I’ve run out of room on my staging/the floor at the moment so wanted these little pots (and five with baby sage seedlings in them) out of the way. I’ll have to make sure they don’t dry out too much but they’ll probably be fine for now.

Oh, and I also cleaned the windows for the first time this year on Saturday evening – they were, as you may expect, rather filthy but I did a rather good job, even if I do say so myself – not a single water spot in sight! ;)

* (People in parts of the US still in the soggy tailend of winter and people in the southern hemisphere who are heading into full on winter – sorry to gloat about our sunshine. We’re just not used to this nice weather in the UK and you know, talking about it is our national pastime.)

What did you get up to this weekend? Any frugal fun? Or planting progress?

4 Comments

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  1. Jono / Real Men Sow

    That greenhouse racking is an amazing idea! I really admire your practicality and ingenuity.

    And I think everyone deserves to treat themselves to books once in a while. :)

  2. Jen

    Hey Louisa, sounds like a very productive day. We’ve been reclaiming our back garden from neglect, so last weekend we finished a new bed, planted lots of seeds, cleared a wild patch and put up our engagement-present temporary green house (we got married last year, so its taken a while!) Hopefully we’ll have courgettes, various lettuces, potatoes, tomatoes and sunflowers soon (and maybe even a blog post about it all…I’ve been very quiet recently)

  3. Lynsey aka Swirlyarts

    Our quilt is so lovely and warm and is great for snuggling up with on the sofa. Can’t wait to see yours when you have finished it. Oh and don’t forget to use a thimble as sewing through a duvet can be a bit hard on your hands!

  4. louisa

    Hi guys, sorry it’s taken me a little while to respond!

    Jono: thanks! I think 13 books is more than a treat though, I think that’s more of a glut :)

    Jen: sounds like you’ve been busy too – do blog about how your growing is going – am following the RSS feed :)

    Lynsey: great advice – there are lots of hexagons to sow around so my hands will need all the help they can get!

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