Thrifty finds and a little mending

I always enjoy poking around Charity Shops, especially when I am visiting different parts of the country.

On our recent trip to Canterbury I spent a happy hour wandering around the many Charity Shops they had, including an Oxfam book shop where I found an excellent copy of a children's song book, music as well as words.  Lovely to keep at home for when our 4 year old granddaughter visits.

In another shop, one which was aptly devoted to a children's charity, I found a little girl's pretty pink duvet cover and matching pillow case set.  The design was fairy princesses and castles which was very appropriate for Little Granddaughter who loves anything pink and princesses are high on the list too.  Reasonably priced so I bought it as a little gift from Canterbury. Spare bed linen for children is always useful.

 

Isn't it pretty?

 

 I washed it yesterday and as I ironed it this morning I discovered a little hole in the duvet cover.  No problem as I knew I could cover it with a little heart shaped applique. 
Took about 15 minutes, and here it is:

 

Can you spot my applique?  It's the heart directly above the princess's head.  I used Bondaweb and tiny hand blanket stitch in a matching embroidery floss.  Hope our little girl likes it too.

 

I pass on a lot of things to our local Charity Shops so it's nice to find useful bargains myself.  I am a fan of "making do and mending" and not throwing away items that still have plenty of life in them.  So my two Canterbury finds fitted my bill exactly.

More decluttering and Gift Aid

I had a very successful morning last Thursday. Normally I am at my Patchwork Group meeting but had to give it a miss as my husband needed the car.

So I decided to use the unexpected time to complete the clearing out and decluttering of my wardrobes in our bedroom.  DH handed down all the things in the top cupboards before he left so I didn't have to struggle going up and down the set of steps to reach things down.  The bedroom floor was covered with a random mess of handbags, scarves, cloth bags, all sorts of precious memories such as the lacy hand knitted shawl I made for our son and the lacy hand knitted shawl my grandmother made for one of my nieces.  Even some vases!

So I had a thorough sort out. I was quite ruthless and my the end of the morning I had a large bag of rubbish for the bin and two carrier bags of things to take to the Charity Shop. Over the years I have found that a good rule to follow with decluttering is to immediately take bags of clutter to the Charity Shop.  That way there is no chance that you will have second thoughts and the decluttered items get out back into your cupboard. So, next day off they went to the local Hospice shop.

In the UK we have an excellent idea called Gift Aid. If you are a tax payer you can make arrangements with charities so they can claim an extra 20% on your items that they sell.  So if the Charity Shop sells £100 of your unwanted decluttered belongings they earn an extra £20 making a grand total of £120 for the good cause.  I have Gift Aid arrangements with three Charity Shops in my town. As I declutter I visit each one in turn, donating those particular things and giving the shop permission to use our Gift Aid arrangement.  I have no idea how much money the shops earn from my unwanted goods but the Hospice shop emails me a note ( I think every quarter) and tells me how much extra cash they have earned from my Gift Aid. I didn't think I had taken so many items into the shop in the past three months but last week I received an email which said they had gained an extra £13 from my donations.  This was a real surprise to me....... £130 for that good cause from a few no longer needed things!  I tried to think back. What had I taken into the shop? About 7 T-shirts which no longer suit me, a couple of paperbacks and perhaps a couple of pairs of shoes? It's so good to know that your decluttering means money for very well worthwhile causes. A great incentive for me to carry on gradually going through all my cupboards and drawers and getting rid of things I NO LONGER NEED!

I read a post on a decluttering website last week where the author stated that it is OK to give away/ pass on/ throw out things that you have been given but actually don't want or need.  This is actually quite a hard thing to do, especially if, like me, you were brought up in post war Britain where nothing was thrown away, everything was used and recycled.  However, since my recent campaign of having a major decluttering I have given several unwanted presents away.  I rarely use scented candles but had acquired a collection of fancy wrapped boxes of them. So I passed them on as Raffle prizes.  Out of my house but hopefully now being used and enjoyed by someone who likes to light scented candles in their house! And on Thursday I finally threw away a pot plant that has languished on my bay window for several years!  How crazy is that?  I never liked the plant, it was always straggly and looked messy but because it had been given to me I felt honor bound to keep it. I cannot even remember who gave it to me! But, hot on the heels of my major wardrobe decluttering success I took the bull by the horns and threw the dreary straggly plant into our green recycling bin.  Now it will be made into compost so nicer and better loved plants can be grown.

So, my Decluttering Tips are:

1.  Take small steps: one drawer or one section of a cupboard at a time. That way you will complete
     the task and feel successful.
2.  Give yourself permission to pass on unwanted gifts.
3.  Take the decluttered items to the Charity Shop straight away (or throw into the bin!) before you
      have time for second thoughts.
4.   Make sure you deal with mail the day it arrives: junk mail in the recycling bin, bills paid
      immediately, statements etc filed today. Otherwise you will end up with a heap of unsorted
      paperwork like me! That's another of my tasks!

Have a great Decluttering Sunday!
   
     

Gifting a baby quilt and starting de-cluttering

So far there hasn't been too much sewing happening here for a variety of reasons.

At the end of March we returned from our 3 months in New Zealand and there was lots to do - house, garden, catching up with family and friends etc.  We also had a short trip to Holland to visit friends over Easter and in addition I had two unexpected trips to A & E, one in Amsterdam and one back home.

However I have managed to embroider and sew on a label for my Peter Rabbit Quilt and this was handed over to my next door neighbour this morning.  Her daughter had a baby girl a few days ago so this is for Eadie.

 

I made the quilt top a couple of years ago and then it was put away in the cupboard.

Last year, as part of my finishing UFOs campaign it was finished.  Definitely a quilt for a baby girl I think, with so much pink included. 

So, I hope baby Eadie enjoys it as a playmat and as a quilt for cuddling.

 

Eadie's baby cousin Freya was born only three weeks before so both of the baby quilts I have gifted so far this year have gone to the same family.

 

Our Dutch friends were so kind and looked after us so well whilst we were staying with them. We met again their elder daughter and her two little children, Nolan-Jay and Eden-Rose. Eden-Rose is a delightful 3 year old and typically "into pink".  She also loves her cuddly toys and dollies and her favourite pastime is tucking them up and taking them for a walk in her dolly pram.  So, as part of a "Thank you" to our hosts I am making a very pink Doll's Quilt for Eden-Rose.

 

Lots of hearts which have been attached with fusible webbing but I am now hand blanket stitching round them with matching embroidery floss.  I love blanket stitching so this is a very enjoyable part of the quilt making for me.  I will add two borders and perhaps even a little pink ric rac for extra embellishment.

De-cluttering is uppermost in my mind at present.  As I was unpacking from New Zealand I decided it was time to go through every cupboard and drawer in the house and throw out as much as I could.

Last week I started on my wardrobe and so far have taken three bags of clothes to the Charity Shop, a paperback I finished reading since I came home and returned lots of unused medicines and dressings to the chemist's for disposal.

I have really got the bug now and am determined to be ruthless and give away anything I have not worn/used for a long time.  This morning I made another visit to the Charity Shop, taking 5 T shirts and a pretty skirt that I have not worn for probably ten years.  I doubt I would now fit into it and it is definitely too young a style for me.  However, each time I had sorted through the wardrobe, back the skirt went because I thought the fabric was so lovely I should make some cushions from it.  Well, that has never happened, so out it went this morning.

My aim is to sort through a cupboard or a few drawers each week until the job is DONE!

Has the Spring cleaning and de-cluttering bug got you too?