Sunday 31 August 2014

Free curtains

Hello. Howzit goin? All is good here. Guess who I met tonight while bimbling around the village. Go on, guess, bet you don't get it right. I met George Formby, amazing eh! This guy was the spitting image of him. He was out walking with his friend, Joanne from the 1939 house, remember her? Put '1939 house' into the search and you will find lots of photo's of her house. Of course she was dressed the part, that's how she lives her life, everything about her is 1940's, and her friend George dressed the same, flat cap and braces. He even spoke like George. He earns his living by appearing at events, playing his ukulele and singing just like George. What a lovely couple they made. I cursed because I didn't have my camera with me. 
Here we have a picture of my dinner. I made two portions so it was mixed veg curry for two days. A tin of red kidney beans, grated carrot, chopped up pickled onions because I have run out of big ones, runner beans, sultanas, and courgettes. And very tasty it was too.  
Yesterday I went a ride out to Barton, haven't been there for ages. I had a look round the Ropewalk art gallery. They had an open exhibition on. I must say the paintings were not my cup of tea, only one or two caught my attention, the rest were pretty boring. It looked like very little effort had been put into them, just dabs of paint sploshed about. 
I went to the Waters Edge country park and had a walk round there. There were Canada geese and ducks on the pond, with two swans. I love the colour in the hedgerows at this time of year. 


This is the dead head of something, sorry don't know names of plants, but look how amazing it is.

Several spiders had taken up residency in this seed head. Isn't mother nature wonderful. 
I am following the blue route.

And the Humber Bridge which you have probably seen in my photo's before.

I am keeping my eye on the skip and had another look in today. There is not much in it at the moment but I thought I spotted what might look like bags of curtains. Luckily a young man was just coming out of the house, so I asked if I could have them because I can make shopping bags with them. He said, yes, help yourself to anything you want. I nearly fell in the skip reaching for them, ha ha. I pulled five bags out, and this is what I have.

This is a nice set of curtains, they will fit my windows so I will keep them. 
These look like they have never been used, still in the original wrapper. On opening them I found only one curtain. It's massive though, could easily be cut in half and two shorter curtains made out of it. I won't bother though, maybe make bags with it or take it to a charity shop.
Another still wrapped set of curtains, but sadly only one curtain. It's lovely thick fabric. Not really practical to make white shopping bags, I'll think of another use for it.
The rest are curtain liners, with one set of blackout liners. Amazing that I got all this for nothing. Must keep watching that skip.

Thank you very much to the lovely reader who sent me some beads and sequins. I am already thinking about my next picture, so they will be useful for that.
Toodle pip.

21 comments:

  1. I can't believe the things people throw into skips! It's not a huge amount of effort to drop it at a charity shop or something. Glad you found them and can make use of them!

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  2. I am so glad you went diving, I can't cope with waste and it would be so wasteful for the material to be simply chucked. I bet you do great things with the materials.

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  3. All of that post- meeting "George", the lovely meal and the curtains for free is pretty darn impressive, Ilona! I've just made curtains for my house and am in need of black out material so it's a shame the skip wasn't nearer me- I'd have raced u to the skip for it, hehehe!
    Look forward to seeing the new bags and artwork,xxxx

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  4. What an amazing find! I'm always a bit shy of looking into people's skips but perhaps I should do more of it. The fabric was much too good to throw away.

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  5. What a great find, Ilona. Curtains are so expensive, how could they just dump those? But lucky for you they did. I've never managed to find much in skips but some of my over-the-radiator airers were rescued from outside a neighbour's house a couple of years ago...and I did knock to ask before I took them.

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  6. I often get mad on bin day seeing the things people chuck out. I have rescued a few things for ourselves or to give away. Anything we can no longer use or no longer want is rehomed or recycled if at all possible. There are so many ways to give things away now - charity shops, charity/recycling bins, freecycle and similar, charity shops, community places and groups, friends/family/neighbours/colleagues, selling online/carboot/garage sale/free ads/shop windows, cash for clothes, council recycling eg textiles, electricals, donate to jumble sales/fetes and probably a couple more I have forgotten about!! We have a regular scrap man who will collect white goods, metal etc which saves paying out council a tenner to take it away. We have also left a couple of items outside our house with a "free please help yourself" sign.

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  7. Like others I cannot believe what people throw away, really happy you went for a wee dive:)

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  8. What a great recovery from the skip :) Would the single curtains be useful as tablecloths, perhaps? The green one could be quite festive for Christmas. The white one could have some embroidery sewn on it, or used as a cover for a table in a booth. Also could have grommets added and used for a shower curtain, with shower liner at the back. I'm sure you'll think of something terrific, but just thought I'd add few thoughts. Liz

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  9. We are sponsoring a "free cycle" at our church in October. We ask everyone to bring anything they want to clear out of their garage (except clothing), and we have an open grab bag day. We are usually stacked high with items from used computers to bicycles, to curtains and bedding, to toys, etc., etc. These things are all gone within two hours!

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  10. How lucky that you walked by the skip when you did! They should have been taken to the charity shop rather than thrown away, that was naughty of them. It was just chance that you rescued them. I am sitting on a chair that was just dumped, also the rug in my living room which is lovely was just out on the street. It did take a bit of nerve taking them, but a friend helped me by collecting them in his car. I hope you enjoy the curtains, there looks to be some nice ones. Have fun up cycling!
    Sara

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  11. Woohoo - good find! Isn't it amazing what some people throw out! They could at least donate them somewhere, but at least you saved them. I found your blog through Cynthia's at I'm Retired...will keep popping back - I love to see a bit of life so far away.

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  12. It's great you saved the curtains and will use them to make some of your great bags :) It just makes you realise how wasteful we can sometimes be. I will always take any unwanted items to the local charity shop or pass them on to friends rather than just bin them.

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  13. I can't believe someone would through those curtains in a skip! Freecycle/charity shops would have appreciated them. I wonder if was a hoarder living there and whoever was helping them became overwhelmed and thought it would be easier to just chuck everything. That's the only thing I can think of. Great find for you though. Debbie

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  14. What a great day you had Ilona!
    George Formby and freebies!
    I am reading a free kindle book at the moment(I down loaded the free kindle for pc from Amazon on my mini laptop and use it like a kindle).
    It's all about starting the day positive and you attract positive things.

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  15. Lovely day out and a great find. What a dreadful waste it would have been otherwise.

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  16. How lovely that you were in the right place at the right time for those curtains.

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  17. My late mother was given an unwanted baby George Forman Grill
    She always called it the George Formby!

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  18. Yes , I would have gone and knocked on the door as well, I love a good skip

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  19. You had great finds... Strangely enough it is very rare for someone to have a skip around here. I think they cost a lot to hire because of landfill charges. Everyone who has a car takes stuff to recycling centre or charity shop. My husband still dives in the gutter for discarded nails, screws, loose change! And (I'll say this quietly) matchboxes! He has been collecting them all his life - one day he might sort them out.

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  20. My lounge curtains were out of a skip. A cheeky chappy dumped them in my relatives skip. Luckily for me they were the right size and style I wanted , albeit a different colour. Nevertheless I kept them, had them drycleaned at £16 and they have been hanging proudly since I moved in my house two years ago today. Visitors think I am joking when I said they were out of a skip !

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  21. Has the world gone mad or is it just me. I suppose you are preaching to the converted here Ilona but it seems a mad world where new items still in the wrapper are just thrown away. The same could be said of food waste, small cheap appliances treated as disposable and potable water cleaned and delivered at great expense flushed down the toilet!
    On the subject of food waste I noted in a recent post you mentioned potato growing in your area. Have you ever given any thought to gleaning? I know some farmers contracted to grow potatoes for fast food outlets and some supermarkets can only sell potatoes of certain sizes/dimensions dictated by the company - the rest rot or are ploughed in. Even if they are independent growers many crops are harvested by machine and there would probably be much left in/on the ground. With the farmers permission a bit of gleaning could add a whole new profitable dimension to you country walks!

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