Same old, same old...but some new charity shop finds.

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo just lately. My third year blogoversary was in November and I forgot to mention it.  I tend to have a quite routinised lifestyle and seem to talk about the same things all the time; charity shopping finds; walking, crocheting projects; excursions with family/ friends etc. I worry that I'm boring! 😢 The thing is I love reading about other people's everyday lives; it's the details I find so fascinating, so I can only hope that many of you are the same.

Our weather turned very cold in the third week of November. On Wednesday 21st the temperature dropped to 1.5 degrees and reached the giddy heights of 3.5 degrees later in the day! I hardly walked all that week. Just managed a 4 mile walk with my daughter on Friday before the school run.

It was a very good week for charity shopping, though.  This was last Saturday's outfit. We went to Emmaeus for a little rummage and I bought 3 bangles for 50p each, a flower brooch and a green necklace. They had quite a lot of wool which they don't usually have, but I was very restrained and didn't buy any! I also bought a winter coat BNWT by for 3.50 in the Wood Green Animal charity shop during the week as well. 

These were last week's purchases, too. Yellow kimono: 4.50 and Phase Eight wool dress 2.99 both from Great Denham, Barnardo's. I was checking the sale rail and spotted them, I find it hard to resist kimono type tops...

Boots bought a few years back from The Reuse Centre 2.40 and yellow shiny tights I've had for years and cannot remember where I got them from.

All jewellery and scarf charity shopped.

It was my youngest brother's birthday so we went to Kettering on Saturday evening for a birthday meal celebration. We went to 'The Hare' in Loddington. When my mum was alive she loved to come here and it's also where we celebrated her 70th birthday; on that occasion she arrived in style in a white limousine accompanied by all her grandchildren!

Here we are waiting for our food to arrive.

I bought this jacket in the Cat's Protection charity shop a while ago for 3.50. Checked/gingham tunic charity shopped but grey leggings bought from Sainsbury's and boots online retail.

All jewellery and scarf charity shopped.

On Monday I walked 8 miles along the river to Great Denham. It was a chilly day and a bit gloomy but I enjoyed my walk; I feel guilty if I don't go out walking at least three times during the week. 

On Tuesday I went to the food bank and in the afternoon I went to Rushden on Tuesday for a quick rummage. The Sally Army yielded a brooch; a necklace and a pair of summer trousers. I bought a grey Italian dress (see below) for 2.99 in the Cancer Research shop and a pair of earrings for 50p in The Heart Foundation. I like buying some summer items in the winter. I put them away after washing them and they're such a nice surprise when I swap my wardrobe over in the Spring.

I really like this kimono - it's yellow!

Black jeans 79p sale rail in Barnardo's; blue top by Gudrun Sjoden charity shopped in the same place  for 3.99. Boots bought in Oxfam. The yellow bangle is one of the three I bought at Emmaeus last Saturday.

All jewellery and scarf charity shopped.

Because the weather had been pretty miserable I concentrated on my crocheting. I got to 72 squares and decided I had enough for a reasonable size blanket  as if I continued with the original plan of 144 squares I may not have had it finished until after Christmas - and it was for a Christmas present. So, after having played around with the squares I ended up with ten rows of seven squares. Then I had to crochet them together....

One of the best things about crocheting as far as I'm concerned is choosing the colours. With this project  there is one row of pinks, blues, purples, greens, grey and oranges and red and yellows, and one row of mixed colours drawn from the ones I've listed.

It might look a bit wavy but once the squares have been crocheted together using grey wool in single crochet  stitch and a border added, it will look both squarer and more finished.

 I'm already planning the next stash busting project which is a slightly different version of the same pattern; and this time I'm going to go for completely random colours! No colour scheme whatsoever just random colours. I'm quite excited by this as I always have a colour scheme in mind when crocheting but I'll use a toning colour to join the squares which will bring it all together - I hope!  I've  still got so much wool left to use up...

As I've been crocheting as much as I can I haven't got much reading done this month - only 5 books in November.  I read 9 in October. If only I could crochet and read at the same time I'd be laughing! I am catching up with 'Vanity Fair' on my laptop as I crochet so the brain is being stimulated. We've been watching 'Beck' on BBC 4; it just goes from strength to strength, I think.  There are 10 books in the original series and I've read them all;  of course they are now extending the story lines. We've watched 'Little Drummer Girl' on BBC 2. H'mmnn, she did all that for love? I don't think so - but of course I haven't read the book and screen writers do take liberties sometimes...

This is the grey Italian dress I bought for 2.99 in the Cancer Research in Rushden. Charity shopped, Monsoon cardigan from the Red Cross a couple of years ago for 1.99; orange tights from the Cat's Protection League and shoes from Primarni 5.00 in the sale.

All jewellery and scarf charity shopped.

I bought this tunic recently but can't remember where; it may have been the Willen Hospice shop  in Newport Pagnell and it's by Lily and Me. Cardigan 1.00 rail in the 3:16 charity shop and leggings 79p from Barnardo's. Boots on line retail.

We had a national food bank drive in partnership with Tesco last Thursday. I had a two hour stint in our largest branch of Tesco; giving out food bank shopping lists. Most people were happy to take a list and many people donated items. I'll find out when I'm next at the food bank how much was donated; it's usually several tonnes of food!

I also went to the hairdressers...

All jewellery charity shopped.

I walked for 8 miles on Friday; just around the area where my daughter lives.   There's quite a lot of concrete paths around where she lives; a combination of concreted farm/bridle tracks and an old RAF base. It had been very wet for days so I wanted to avoid fields.

At the weekend OH and I went for a rummage in Newport Pagnell. I picked up a leoprint soft jacket for 2.00 in the Hospice shop. We stopped at the Barnardo's in Great Denham on the way home and I bought from the sale rail: a spotted blouse/tunic for 79p; 2 pairs of leggings at 79p each; a skirt for 79p and a jumpsuit (in thin material so only for the summer) - also 79p and finally a multi-coloured necklace.  All for less than a fiver. Didn't I do well?

Cardigan bought from the Independent Charity Shop. Dress by Primarni retail. Boots present from daughter. Tights and scarf charity shopped.

All jewellery charity shopped, except earrings from Bedford Market about ten years ago.

There are some flowers that look just as good as they start to fade as when fresh; hydrangeas, for example. I don't know what these are but they're beginning to fade and I think they're lovely.

The Karina blanket is finished!

Joined with grey single crochet stitch and six rows of double crochet in the border. I might just join the next one with an 'invisible' join..

I'm very pleased with it.