Treasure-hunting at home challenge

bellaquidsin

Hi, I've been contemplating making some crocheted jewellery as I am allergic to metal. I have been held back by my own self imposed retraint of not spending money until I have used up my existing stash. My stash of crochet cottons (a carrier bag full) does not yield the required colours. Then I thought...., I will only need small amounts of each colour so perhaps I can use embroidery thread and I have loads of that - somewhere. More buried treasure.

Bella.

BigMummaF

+) The foodie stash is going down & I can actually see the back of one freezer this morning after another deep freeze diving session This evening's meal will use up the remnants of the macaroni--bought before the :doh:pasta-is-pasta-is-pasta :idea:--to make mac cheese to go with a gammon hock. I found some chicken stock too, so I'm thinking the gammon bone will make another bit of stock & Pup can have some chicken & ham infused rice & couscous this week. Mince & wraps are defrosting in the fridge for tomorrow's meal & I spotted some chicken breast I can get out tomorrow for Weds.
-) I have finally succumbed to the phenomenon that is AppF00d I was very good & only ordered things I will definitely use like the flours, but also fear this could be dipping my toe into shark infested waters if I'm not careful.

+) Went thru my collection of jam jars & matched lids to pots then only kept the larger ones to use for storing things like pudding rice & pearl barley. Just had a thought--perhaps a 340g size would be big enough for cotton buds :think:..I'll have to experiment.
-) The jars look nice & keep the contents protected, but take up a lot more room than the plastic bags did & can't be squished into submission either

+) Found a new bottle of :staradmindrops.
-) Spent a perfectly good Sunday afternoon deep cleaning the downstairs loo :doh::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

bellaquidsin wrote: »

Hi, I've been contemplating making some crocheted jewellery as I am allergic to metal. I have been held back by my own self imposed retraint of not spending money until I have used up my existing stash. My stash of crochet cottons (a carrier bag full) does not yield the required colours. Then I thought...., I will only need small amounts of each colour so perhaps I can use embroidery thread and I have loads of that - somewhere. More buried treasure.

Bella.

That sounds a great idea Bella. Let us know how you get on:)

ginnyknit

You must post some pics Bella when you have made your jewellry, sounds very interesting!

I wanted a posh shopping bag and remembered I have some jute charity bags stashed for Christmas so am going to sow some crocheted flowers on them that I made excess to requirements for a cushion cover i made last week. Then I found a peice of aida thats meant to be a bell pull which will do perfectly for Dgs's birth sampler. Wondering what I can find next????

[Deleted User]

BigMummaF wrote: »

+) The foodie stash is going down & I can actually see the back of one freezer this morning after another deep freeze diving session This evening's meal will use up the remnants of the macaroni--bought before the :doh:pasta-is-pasta-is-pasta :idea:--to make mac cheese to go with a gammon hock. I found some chicken stock too, so I'm thinking the gammon bone will make another bit of stock & Pup can have some chicken & ham infused rice & couscous this week. Mince & wraps are defrosting in the fridge for tomorrow's meal & I spotted some chicken breast I can get out tomorrow for Weds.
-) I have finally succumbed to the phenomenon that is AppF00d I was very good & only ordered things I will definitely use like the flours, but also fear this could be dipping my toe into shark infested waters if I'm not careful.

+) Went thru my collection of jam jars & matched lids to pots then only kept the larger ones to use for storing things like pudding rice & pearl barley. Just had a thought--perhaps a 340g size would be big enough for cotton buds :think:..I'll have to experiment.
-) The jars look nice & keep the contents protected, but take up a lot more room than the plastic bags did & can't be squished into submission either

+) Found a new bottle of :staradmindrops.
-) Spent a perfectly good Sunday afternoon deep cleaning the downstairs loo :doh::rotfl:

We keep jam-jars for preserves and also keep lentils and stuff in them. It's a shame they are more bulky than the plastic bags, but they are so much nicer. I welcome ideas for jam-jar uses. Cotton buds is a good idea. We have painted them and used them for desk tidies in the past and I love my button jar too. Anyone have any more ideas?

[Deleted User]

ginnyknit wrote: »

You must post some pics Bella when you have made your jewellry, sounds very interesting!

I wanted a posh shopping bag and remembered I have some jute charity bags stashed for Christmas so am going to sow some crocheted flowers on them that I made excess to requirements for a cushion cover i made last week. Then I found a peice of aida thats meant to be a bell pull which will do perfectly for Dgs's birth sampler. Wondering what I can find next????

I like jute bags - even though they're just for putting shopping in. I think your idea of crochet flowers sounds lovely. And AIDA cloth is very expensive, so well done for unearthing it:D

bellaquidsin

ginnyknit your idea of decorating jute shopping bags with crochet flowers sounds lovely, might have to give it a go. Oh..., where will it all end?

At the moment from my 'treasure' hunt I am edging hankies with crochet, making a grannies flower garden crochet blanket, made two dozen cards with existing stash and sent them off today to be sold, and now the necklace. I have made three tiny flowers so far after a few false starts. It was so lovely sitting in the garden with a coffee under the blue sky listening to the birdsong making a prototype. A treasure in itself.

I'd like to post piccies but to date that is not one of my skills, but will try.

So much to do, so little time, but NEVER bored.

Bella.

Herbaholic

What a super and inspirational thread, I found it on Friday and over the weekend we did a little treasure hunting here. DH pulled out the sofa (something we don't do very often as its so heavy and found a newish pair of casual trousers that he'd forgotten he had (no idea how they got behind the sofa though). So now don't have to buy another pair for our hols in July (think we got them for last years hols), also found the missing CD for the French course we bought last year (and was going to buy another to replace it). I found a couple of little cross stitch keyring kits and a bookmark kit stuffed in a drawer that I'd forgotten I had and they'll be perfect to take to stitch whilst on holiday, and I was going to buy some 'small projects' to take with me, so something else that we needed and had to get now not needed and money saved.

Also unearthed a hat I was halfway through knitting that is to go with a scarf I'd already done for my little neice as part of her xmas present, I started knitting them in January and forgot about them, so guess what I did this weekend? I now have a homemade Xmas gift finished and another hat on the go for one of my other neices.

DH went through the DVD shelves and found about 150 hours of boxed sets or films we'd bought and not watched that we'd forgotten we had, in our defence we don't watch much telly just a couple of hours before bed to wind down and we'd bought a lot of the box sets in sales and from car boots, then got sucked into the movie channels. DH has made a list of all we have to watch and which shelf its on and its next to the TV now so we can easily select something. So now we're going to cancel the movie package until the winter and watch something from the stash when we want to watch the TV. Not sure how much we saved over the weekend by doing this must be something like £160ish saved by cancelling the movie package for the next 6 months and with everything else I'd say about £220 and that's just from the front room! We're going to do more treasure hunting this weekend, I'd never thought of it as treasure before, just stuff, so thanks Budgeteer, you've changed my preceptions of the stuff we have and saved us a couple of hundred quid. I wonder what else we'll find that we forgot we had?!

Herby x


Herby x

rosieben

budgeteer wrote: »

We keep jam-jars for preserves ... We have painted them and used them for desk tidies in the past ...

I re-use my jam jars for jam and for storage but never thought of painting them :T I'm going to paint one to match my bathroom for cotton buds!

I used an empty Marvel tub (the small one, about 4" tall) covered it with pretty paper, and that makes a great desk tidy. I'm looking for uses for the taller tubs now.

this is a great thread!! :T

Tregemred

Thanks budgeteer for starting this thread.

I too am guilty of stashing stuff and forgetting about it but since discovering this forum I am forever trawling through my house on the search for that thing you know you've put somewhere I also am easily distracted and have to be disciplined about accessing this forum.

My excuse at the moment is I am waiting for the pressure cooker to cool down so I can add the beans to my latest rubber mince concoction. Speaking of the pressure cooker, it was the elephant in the room until about 10 years ago. Mum gave me one pretty soon after leaving home but I was always wary of using it having seen her using one at home :eek: For long and complicated reasons, I had to use one and overcame my fear but life moved on and it got shoved in the back of the cupboard only surfacing when we needed to use it as a saucepan. Since discovering MSE and OS, it was bought out again. I can do red kidney beans in 10 mins (plus overnight soak, boiling for 10 mins, bringing up to pressure, then cooling) I still think I save gas as they normally require 10 mins boiling plus over 1 hour simmering (cogs grind - 10 minute boil, 5 minute up to pressure, 10 minute cook, total 25 minutes, from over 70 minutes).

Thanks for the inspiration everyone. Looking forward to trying your ideas soon.