After returning to work for two days on Thursday and Friday last week, I was free on Saturday to attend a local Zero Waste event, to which I took a couple of bags of unwanted stuff. I was glad to take them and free up a bit of space in the sewing room. I'm always putting aside things I no longer want or need and they build up over time.
The event was at a new venue in the playground of a primary school. Luckily, there was a car park I could drive into, which is very unusual for these events, and which made it much easier to drop off and allowed me the opportunity to have a look around for once and see if there was anything I wanted to take home with me.
It was a lovely sunny morning, perfect for this kind of event. I didn't take much home, just a hand brush to go with the dustpan in the kitchen. The other thing I brought home with me was this book which I have started reading and am enjoying:
The remainder of Saturday I spent working on my Diamond Fields patchwork project. I am limited as to how big I can make this quilt, as I have a limited amount of the grey background fabric. To date, it's looking like it will be a lapsized quilt/wall hanging. I've also decided to start making super small hexies again, from fabric in my scrap basket. I'm not sure what I'm going to make from them yet, but it's fun making them and using up otherwise unusable bits of fabric. Waste not, want not, etc.
On Sunday, I had to get up at 5.30am to take OH to the airport to catch a flight to Spain. He's gone away for a few days with some cycling buddies, so I am on double dog walking duties and all other dog care in his absence.
As I had to get up so early, I decided to make it worth my while by checking out if there were any car boot sales in the vicinity of the airport and as luck would have it, a rather large one was restarting that morning, so I decided to take the dog with me and it doubled as her walk for the morning.
Here's a picture of the car boot in a large field:
I was there very early (7am) and as a consequence I had to pay more to get in at that time. I found out when I left, that it only cost £1 after 9am, so in future, if I decide to go again, it will be after this time. There were, however, long queues of people waiting to get in as I left at 9.30am.
The boot sale itself was pretty big, with lots of stalls, some selling new stuff, some second hand. I enjoyed a good walk around, but I didn't have a whole lot of money with me, and to be honest I didn't see a whole lot of stuff that I needed. I did buy the following though:
This small lacqured box with a bird motif for 50p. (I have a very small collection of boxes with birds painted on them.)
A large unopened bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum for LB, a gift for next Christmas, it's her favourite tipple. This was £10 and was an unwanted gift. It would probably cost twice this amount if I bought it at the supermarket.
I managed to find three wine glasses for £1, which we urgently needed. I did buy some new ones at Christmas, but they are too tall to go in the top tray of the dishwasher and too fragile to go in the bottom tray, so I will donate them. These are a much better size and are a bit more sturdy.
I also bought a box of Rescue Remedy lozenges which are supposed to be good for clarity and composure. They are orange and elderflower flavoured with added vitamins and taste nice enough. They are out of date, but I didn't pay much for them and I don't worry too much about such things.
Another thing I bought was this collander for 50p. It said on the back that it could only be handwashed, but I've put it in the dishwasher regardless and it seems to have come out okay. I think the copper colour on the bottom probably wears off in the dishwasher, but I'm not too concerned about this.
Finally, I bought some fruit from a stall selling it by the bowl. I bought tangerines, bananas, plums, flat peaches, grapes, avocados and melons, all for £7. I think I would have paid a lot more for these at the supermarket. The quality was pretty good too.
I was pretty restrained on this occasion, but I would probably go back, even though it is a 30+ minute drive from London, as there are very few car boot sales in and around where I live and it makes for a good morning out on a Sunday.
Having said this, I did get lost on the way back, due mainly to some road closures and I ended up almost in Ealing, West London, which was very annoying. I found myself going the wrong way on the a circular road around London and didn't realise until I'd got this far west. I did get home eventually, but what a waste of petrol and time. Not cool.
I spent the afternoon continuing with my patchwork and I have to admit that I did go back to bed for a couple of hours after such an early start. All in all, it was a slightly more interesting weekend.
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