Gadget Pouch for Upper Arm with Dog Bag Pocket

These warm days have presented me with a problem, now while they are lovely and I'm not knocking them  I do usually have to wear either jeans, a jacket or both when out walking in this country.  So this usually means I always have somewhere for dog bags and my mp3 if I take it.

Summer dresses however do not have the necessary pockets so I have been finding that I sometimes have to take a bag, a bag with three dogs in tow is not very practical, I just feel too overloaded so tonight before we went out I quickly stitched this little pouch to go on my arm.

I know you can buy them but it is just a pocket with a strap after all so I just recycled a bit of denim and it was ready in about fifteen minutes.

It is nothing fancy but it serves the purpose and I can fit the dog bags in the front and tuck the excess wire down the side of the gadget.  A couple of bits of Velcro to make it stay put and it didn't fall off so success.

The good thing about making it myself is that it is exactly the right size for my mp3 (creative Zen x-fi, I have had it about five years, amazing sound) just fold and place on where you need to stitch.

There we have have it, I didn't set out to make anything today but things you need in a hurry are always the most satisfying however rough around the edges, if it does the job that's what matters.

Charity Shop Finds and Cruelty Free Hair Care

I have had quite an absence here again with the main reason  being I haven't really had any new makes to share. There have been a few new recipes tried out but in the teatime rush they have been whipped up and consumed before any snaps have been taken and before you know it,  it's a new day!

So now the summer is here I hope to be a bit more organised and not leave so long between posts. On the topic of being organised I began to declutter yesterday, I have taken two large bags full of clothes to the charity shop and there is still more to follow.  I bought the two items I am about to share with you a few weeks ago but even then I had in the back of my mind that quite a few things needed to go.

I don't like waste so I always try to get a lot of wear out of my items or modify them but there does come a time when some things are no longer looking their best or you just shove them to the back of the wardrobe all the time.  When this happens as it did to me, a big sort out is in order.

Quite a few of the items came from the charity shop to begin with or were handmade, there was a time when I couldn't let handmade stuff go but I had to get over this or have no hanging room.

Here are the two dresses I picked up for £4 a piece...

I like this as I have another floral one and they do not require an iron.

Now this one will need tweaking as you can see how it hangs on my mannequin, the sides need taking in, shoulders taking up and some adjustment under arm but then it will be fabulous.

So really when I keep finding super items like these I don't have much of a need to make anything just resize. This is something I have been doing for a few people recently and in particular with maxi dresses I don't where all the giants are that these things are supposed to fit!

Moving on, I have been doing a lot of research this week on trying to find a hair colour that has not been tested on animals.  You would think that would be fairly straight forward but it appears that unless you want to dye your hair violet, electric blue or green there is not a lot to go on as all articles direct you to these sorts of items.  That is great if that is what you are after but I just wanted a blonde shade.  I did find some good reports about Naturtint (available from Holland and Barrett) but then I read as many bad reviews and that put me off.

Well after seeing a comment that Boots do a lot of cruelty free as do Superdrug I had an aha moment as I already use the naturals make up from Boots and I knew that was ok and the body lotion from superdrug.  So I went off in person to see what I could find.

Here is what I came back with...

I will let you know how I get on with the colour, it is £3 pound cheaper than my usual as well and it may not lift as well and I will do a patch skin test first.  I also found Daniel Field are cruelty free and have really good reviews but you cannot lighten only add colour with those, worth remembering or one to try when I have more grey. The superdrug shampoo I bought is half price at the moment also.

It was a whirlwind visit to Meadowhall to get these items as I can't spend too long in there, back now so I really should do some more sorting. Now I saw a little video by Marie Kondo who said if I don't feel joy when I hold an item it has to go!  Well I don't know about that, because some days we would be throwing the whole contents of our wardrobe out wouldn't we?  I have not read her book has anyone else? I would love to hear your thoughts on it.   I am certainly trying to make more of a conscious effort to control the contents of the house, items just seem to breed don't they?

Holidays and Charity Shop Finds

It's been a while I know but I have been so busy!  No new makes to share as there is nothing I am really inspired to put the time into at the moment with other things going on.
We had a week  away at Whitby for half term but that was cut short due to the horrendous weather, when we left Sheffield I swear the sun was shining and, despite the forecast I had hopes it would not be a total washout.  I was wrong, as we got closer the sky got blacker and it didn't really stop raining until Thursday evening when we came back.  The worst of it was the wind which was so icy I pretty much lived in a hoody with a coat over the top.

Now as we live in England of course we are used to this kind of thing on holiday, the problem is as we have three dogs we can't even go off and do indoor types of things because we can't take the dogs in and for some ridiculous reason you are not allowed to leave your dogs in your own caravan.  I don't understand this as on a cool day with a window ajar they would just settle down and go to sleep!

So all we could do was walk around in the cold and wet or sit in the caravan. We did manage to travel over and see my sister in law at Bridlington which was good and she allows dogs!

Here is the scene from Whitby Abbey which is beautiful but it really was cold.

Before we left we also had a bit of a drama with the caravan and the motor mover battery went flat, it rolled on our drive and scraped underneath.  My husband now needs to repair this, after looking around for a 'new to us' caravan we have decided we will make the repairs then sell it but not replace.

After eight years of caravan holidays it is a little sad but with my boys being older now they do not really want to be cramped if we are confined due to bad weather. We are restricted as to how often we can use it as I follow term times but my husband has to book his holidays way in advance and we are still met with restrictions as to which ones will take three dogs so enough!

After doing a bit of research we have found some delightful cottages in England that accept three dogs and while we still will not leave them unattended, at least I won't have to pop on a coat and waterproof shoes to go for a visit to the toilet/shower block.  There also won't be the ongoing costs of insuring and maintaining a caravan that is not used so often.

Now don't get me wrong I still think caravan holidays are incredibly cost effective for families, our first was only £900 we did it up ourselves and had lots of cheap, fun holidays in it.  My children were younger then and I have to say camp sites have become more expensive especially if you take pets.  One that I looked at wanted an additional £7 per night per dog! Why for goodness sake? They stay in the caravan with us or are on a lead as we leave the site. Plain ridiculous, so for a weeks holiday that is an extra £147 (for our three dogs) on top of pitch, awning and extra  people (your pitch cost only covers you for two adults) all that so your dogs can sleep in your property while it is parked in a field.

I know I am starting to rant so I will stop. Of course it was good to get away and be together it just felt like the end of an era for now at least.  I think if you are retired and you can take off for a trip when the forecast is good then that is just great.

So in addition to the holiday I have been working on a short course on Future learn, introduction to Italian.  It runs for 6 weeks and I am on week 4,   I am really enjoying it and had there been an internet connection at the site I could have got a bit done there, but there wasn't.

We had a walk to the local charity shops today, a glance on the rails didn't reveal anything suitable to wear or use for fabric but I did get a number of good books, a couple for my son and the rest for me.

The Hundred year old man who climbed out of a window,  I have to say I have had before from the library and I didn't get far with, but everyone has told me it is really good so for 79p I thought I would maybe give it another go.

The bottom three look a bit different so I thought I would try them, I do find I want to read something of a different genre sometimes but don't know where to start.

I read this last week...

This was really good, if you enjoyed 'Outliers' or 'Blink' and have an interest in motivation and what drives people this is worth a look.