Making progress with my crochet throw

In my Top Five Etsy Finds post a couple of weeks ago I mentioned buying wool to crochet a throw for my chaise longue. As it's going to be quite the labour of love to complete this, I thought I would blog a couple of progress posts as motivation for myself to keep hooking!

The multi-toned wool is actually Turkish made - the Papatya brand - and I bought ten balls of it from NeedlesLoomsnHooks on Etsy. I was impressed with this company's good communication and prompt shipping. I'd definitely buy here again. Hopefully my estimation of how much I need will be accurate! I know NeedlesLoomsnHooks have a bit more of this gorgeous bright blue at the moment, but will it still be there in a few weeks?

From a heap on the carpet ... 

One ball crocheted, four days ... 

Two balls crocheted, one blister, eight days ... 

I found reading and crocheting at the same time is basically impossible, but audiobooks are a good accompaniment so this will be a good chance to get through the backlog I have built up over the past few months. I've already crocheted through Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk (appropriate considering the wool!). Now I'm enjoying Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and hooking through ball three.

#ThrowbackThursday - where we were on this date in Augusts past

Original Theatre Company
Three Men In A Boat

It's been a good August with Torquay feeling properly summery for most days and I love looking out across the valley from our flat to see white and pastel painted Victorian buildings reflecting the sunlight back to me or the stunning sunsets in the evenings. My memories for this date in Augusts gone by start indoors though, unsurprisingly in dark theatres. I can't remember which of two plays I saw closest to the 25th of August 2012, but it was either Original Theatre Company's Three Men In A Boat at the Devonshire Park or Bootcamp Theatre's The History Boys at The Underground, both in Eastbourne. The History Boys is one of my favourite plays ever and I remember Bootcamp making a great job of it. Three Men In A Boat was very funny and inventive too. I wonder if Original Theatre Company ever visit the South West?

August 25th in 2013 was a Sunday and I was harvesting fruit from our Polegate garden. Can you believe this display of blackberries? Our orchard hadn't done so well though - I wonder if the new owners have kept the fruit trees? This year's blackberry crops are apparently not going to be good anywhere in the UK and that's certainly true for the ones I've seen in Torbay. The GBBOers will have to find a different ingredient for their crumbles - here's a recipe they can use! It's such a worry that I even got an email from The Woodland Trust about it last week asking for observant folks to update their Nature Calendar with ripe blackberry sightings so they can track the arrival of autumn.

August 2014 was a strange time as we were selling our house, but by the end of the month the conveyancers still hadn't exchanged contracts as expected and we were getting very frustrated. On the 25th I had a couple of weeks remaining of my temp job at Wealden Council and was getting a lot of reading done, having published two book review trio posts back to back! I gave five stars to a brilliant novel, The Long Song by Andrea Levy, which is set in 1800s colonial Jamaica. It'a powerful and disturbing read which I thought managed to be far more than another novel about slavery and gave a fascinatingly detailed view of the plantations at that time.

On this day last year we were in our caravan in Wales and had (just about) conquered the Llandovery one way system. I loved this sculpture of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan of Caeo who was hung, drawn and quartered in Llandovery in 1401 for refusing to betray Owain Glyndwr to Henry IV. Llandovery is absolutely crammed full of history so I found it to be a very interesting place - and it had good little shops too. I also remember making a fuss of a small dog who wanted to play - and then getting a lengthy lecture from its owner about what a special dog it was. I forget which rare breed he claimed it to be, but I was assured that this little Scottie-like canine was worth about £800!

As for now - we finished furnishing our new flat yesterday as Half Price Bedz finally managed to deliver our bed. It's taken over four weeks and their communication skills are practically non-existent so we are not happy with them as a business, but fortunately the bed itself is nice.

I'll put together another ThrowbackThursday post for next month. It will be reminiscing about the last four years of the 29th of Septembers!

A tipple to celebrate

Gin o'clock! 

Have you seen these new tiny black gin bottles from Hendrick's? We spotted them this week and a Gin and Tonic in the blazing sunshine seemed the perfect way to celebrate finally undertaking the long haul back to Sussex in a hired van to retrieve those of our possessions that have languished in storage for two years. The excellent news, of course, is that both of Dave's cocktail glasses came through the experience unscathed! We shared out the 50ml of Hendrick's gin with another new find, Franklin And Sons tonic water, to create a very good drink. Franklin can easily hold its ground with Fevertree and Schweppes and I did like the gin which has a different taste to others I have tried. I learned that it is infused with rose and cucumber to give its distinctive flavour. And I kept the mini bottle which fits in perfectly next to my opera glasses on a bookshelf.

We hired a Thrifty van from Torquay for the move and spread the venture out over three days, staying with good friends for a couple of nights in Sussex. I can now add driving a large Volkswagen van to my skills list! This was actually a lot easier than I expected - I'd been dreading it! - along main roads and motorways at least. I was less comfortable in town though and now have a new respect for delivery drivers manoeuvring these vehicles all day. I did notice that the accelerator pedal was particularly high even after adjusting the seat as much as possible. I guessed the cab is set up for male drivers with generally larger feet so, if we were to hire such a van again, I would wear my heeled boots to lift my foot a couple of inches off the floor. On returning the van, Thrifty did sting us a £250 excess for obscure damage that we didn't cause so choosing to do the move ourselves didn't actually work out to be such an economical option after all.

My new bread box table 

At least we have all our stuff now and just about everything has been found a new home. My stripy tagine sits on an open display shelf in the kitchen and I'm showing off our fab new Joseph Joseph Prep Nest on another. Thanks Andy and Barbara - we love this! The arrival of the electric drill meant Dave was able to hang our beautiful new mirror and I found this wooden bread box at the Mare And Foal Sanctuary shop in St Marychurch. It's the perfect size to be a side table for my chaise longue! Art is going up, books are on shelves and our vintage floor lamp still works. Now we are just waiting for Half Price Bedz to (finally) deliver the beds to go under our mattresses today. It will be nice to be sleeping higher than the floor again.

Thanks for all your cards 

#SmallSteps week 7 and why pay twice for water?

If you're new to this theme, I am blogging a series of Monday posts about SmallSteps lifestyle changes I think might help our disUnited Kingdom communities to get through the post-Brexit turmoil ahead. You can read the first post here. Let's at least keep our towns and communities afloat and vibrant whatever the politicians decide for the country as a whole.

I've decided to keep a track of my attempts to practice what I preach! My five SmallSteps are:

1) to CheckTheLabel and BuyBritish whenever possible
2) to ShopLocal and spend at least £5 each week in independent local shops
3) to eat healthily and walk or cycle short distances
4) not to use self-service checkouts or Pay At Pump
5) to reduce food waste completely

So how did I do this week?

We bought a huge BuyBritish beanbag chair from Dunelm. It's brown faux leather with a soft suedy-corduroy upper and looks smart amid our moving in chaos - more about that tomorrow! Foodwise, we chose BuyBritish Wookey Hole Cheddar which is fantastically strong so great for grating into sauces, and a Free Range chicken which did initially seem expensive at over £7 but will do for three meals so works out pretty economically.

Muffins cafe, East Hoathly 

My ShopLocal spend this week is about £40, a fiver of which we spent at Drowers, the good hardware shop in St Marychurch, on nails and fixings to hang pictures and on a set of small caster cups. The remaining £35 was actually spent back in Sussex at a lovely little cafe-boutique called Muffins. It's in East Hoathly, near the home of friends who kindly put up with us put us up for a couple of days. Thanks Andy & Barbara! Muffins do good lunches - I thoroughly enjoyed my Deep Fried Brie with a huge green salad - and the cakes looked delicious too although I didn't have any room left to try one.

We have been making sure to go walking for at least 45 minutes everyday except for yesterday when Dave had his first tennis session in Torquay and I went for my first jog in months. Retrieving the bathroom scales from storage is a wonderful fitness incentive!


On a sort of fitness note, this week I want to talk about water, particularly the buying of millions of small bottles of mineral water which we spend a fortune on in Britain every year even though we already pay to have perfectly good water straight from our taps! I've happily bought into the 'wisdom' that I must carry a bottle of water when exercising and walking, but I don't like the idea of buying and discarding a plastic bottle every day or of supporting mega corporations who are effectively making water a luxury commodity instead of a basic right. This video from Story Of Stuff helped to make up my mind:

I was delighted to see a special filtered water tap on the kitchen sink in our new flat although a glance at the works underneath revealed that the filter system might not have been cleaned out in while! I have also rediscovered my old runners' water bottle so I am all set up to never buy bottled water again. If you don't have a long lasting bottle already, shops like Go Outdoors and All Outdoor have wide selections at good prices although I don't know where the products come from. Alternatively, you can BuyBritish and support our struggling steel industry by getting a Glogg bottle from Sheffield. Prices start at £8.50 for an elegant 500ml stainless steel bottle so it won't break the bank! Glogg also produce stainless steel pint cups - as seen at Glastonbury - which are ideal for festivals and picnics. Check out the full range in their video below:

SmallSteps will be taking a two week break, returning in September when I will be looking at where my electricity and gas come from. In the meantime, feel welcome to shout out your favourite / your own BuyBritish and ShopLocal businesses in the Comments. Make sure to say in which town they are so other nearby folks will know to look out for them!

Finally I have made a blog badge from my SmallSteps logo image. If you would like to join in this Monday (or any day) blog theme, feel welcome to display the badge and let me know about your post so we can link up.

SmallSteps @ Stephanie Jane

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Walking the South West Coast Path from Torquay

View across Torbay 

One of our main considerations when choosing Torquay as our new base was the availability of great walking routes near to our home. We had already tried a few rambles on Dartmoor when we were here in the Spring, but only managed one short coastal wander. We're rectifying that now and have been on a couple of good walks directly from our front door out along sections of the wonderful South West Coast Path and back home again. All car free so far which is great and we are also enjoying simply exploring the streets up around Wellswood, the Lincombes and St Marychurch. There is so much interesting architecture and green expanses that I don't think we will be getting bored walking around here any time soon!

Our first coastal wander took us out past the Imperial Hotel near Torquay harbour to join the Coast Path. We were actually directed through part of their car park! Once onto the Path proper, there are gorgeous views out to sea and across Torbay. It's all pretty easy going underfoot, albeit with steep step sections, so I imagine the Path can be walked at all times of the year to appreciate the differing colours and moods of the sea. We continued as far as Daddyhole Plain which is a limestone plateau 75 metres above the sea. Apparently Daddyhole is an ancient name for the devil and Kevin Dixon wrote an interesting article for the Torquay Herald Express about Daddyhole Plain's folklore. The only sort of unusual thing we saw up there was this stone bench created by the National Association of Master Masons in 1984.

NAMM stone bench on Daddyhole Plain 

Further walking, now fortunately downhill, took us to Meadfoot Beach which is considered one of the nicer swimming areas. The tide was in though so the beach was mostly a concrete promenade. Fortified and refreshed by locally made Marshfield Farm ice cream, we headed home following an almost hidden uphill path which began a little way along Meadfoot Beach, about in the middle of the parking layby. We ascended through pleasantly shaded woodland, emerging eventually in the Lincombes and near to home.

View across Torbay 

#SmallSteps week 6 and do we eat everything we buy?

If you're new to this theme, I am blogging a series of Monday posts about SmallSteps lifestyle changes I think might help our disUnited Kingdom communities to get through the post-Brexit turmoil ahead. You can read the first post here. Let's at least keep our towns and communities afloat and vibrant whatever the politicians decide for the country as a whole.

I've decided to keep a track of my attempts to practice what I preach! My four SmallSteps are:

1) to CheckTheLabel and BuyBritish whenever possible
2) to ShopLocal and spend at least £5 each week in independent local shops
3) to eat healthily and walk or cycle short distances
4) Not to use self-service checkouts or Pay At Pump

and this week I am adding

5) to reduce food waste completely

So how did I do this week?

We managed to BuyBritish duvets manufactured by Fogartys so our guest room now has almost everything - except beds! Foodwise, we bought UK lamb, tomatoes, potatoes and bread.

Hostess trolley from Vintage Now 

My ShopLocal spend this week isn't quite as astounding as last week, but still in triple figures at £245 because we found a beautiful mirror and this fun hostess trolley at Vintage Now Interiors in Newton Abbot. The trolley is going to make a perfect TV and hifi unit. We also were promised 'the best chocolate limes' from American Delights sweetshop in Torquay though actually our jury is still out. They are very limey, but not so chocolatey as other brands! Drowers in St Marychurch, Torquay, is a wonderful find - a proper old-fashioned hardware store where we bought lighter gas and a meter box key, and I found a gorgeous long rust coloured skirt for a tenner at Classic Clothes just down the road. St Marychurch also has the Precinct Bazaar which is a delightful Aladdin's Cave of a shop. We bought an adapter plug here before, this week I got yarn for making placemats!

We did drive to St Marychurch, but have otherwise been walking for all our Torquay journeys including our theatre trip on Thursday. We didn't use automated checkouts and, because we didn't drive much, we didn't need to buy any fuel.


My theme for this week is food waste. BuyBritish can be more expensive than buying imported goods, especially for good quality food, but I wanted to see how much money we might be wasting by throwing away uneaten food. Could I make savings to offset the increased spend?

I read an excellent blog post over at Milli Grace on this subject. Milli went on a Love Food Hate Waste jaunt to Smithfield's in London and some of the food waste statistics she relates are almost unbelievable. I was reminded of her post by seeing council issued food waste recycling bins here in Torquay. This wasn't something we had in Sussex, although we did have our own large compost bin for the garden. I wonder if the new people in our old house still use it? Space for such things is limited in the flat, but I found an elegant indoor compost bin at The Kitchen Shop on Torquay harbour front (another ShopLocal!) so we can keep track of exactly how much we throw away. So far this week it's just one withered celery stick, but I've only had the bin one day!

Left Over Lamb Pie recipe 

Love Food Hate Waste has great ideas for saving money and using up leftovers so it's definitely worth checking out their website. We already plan our meals and try to buy items with long use-by dates. However, I am always tempted by those bright cut-price stickers, especially on fruit and veg, and it's easy to get carried away buying more than we could eat so not really saving money at all. Now we have a full size freezer, rather than a caravan ice tray, I plan to make good use of it. We can buy larger pack sizes which usually work out cheaper per portion and freeze half for another day. The BuyBritish lamb joint I mentioned earlier will do for two meals. It has already been roasted and the meat we didn't eat is perfect for my Left Over Lamb Pie recipe. I submitted this to the popular Credit Crunch Munch blog challenge and you can see loads more frugal recipes on these posts. We're also looking into ingredient substitutes. Dave makes a delicious spiced beef mince dish which incorporates black eyed peas thereby reducing the amount of meat needed to make it filling. The peas are much cheaper than good mince! I will try to remember to blog the recipe next time he makes it.


Please do feel welcome to shout out your favourite / your own BuyBritish and ShopLocal businesses in the Comments. Make sure to say in which town they are so other nearby folks will know to look out for them! And let me know your food waste tips too!

Finally I have made a blog badge from my SmallSteps logo image. If you would like to join in this Monday (or any day) blog theme, feel welcome to display the badge and let me know about your post so we can link up.

SmallSteps @ Stephanie Jane

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One Man Two Guvnors @ToadsTheatre - we find great theatre in Torquay

One Man Two Guvnors in Torquay 

Those of you who actually know me in the real world might have been wondering when I would start talking about theatre in our new home town. Amazingly it only took just over a week from us getting the flat keys to sitting down in a beautiful little theatre for a well- deserved evening out! It wasn't a factor in the purchase, but we were both happy to discover the Little Theatre is a mere ten minutes walk away from our front door. We strolled down to check out the venue in daylight. It's a beautiful repurposed church (reduce, reuse, recycle!) and the resident company, TOADS (which I think probably stands for Torquay Operatic and Amateur Dramatic Society) have done a great job renovating the inside. There's now velvet drapes falling from the old stone arches all the way up the sides of seating which is proper cushioned theatre flip seats on a pretty steep rake so everyone gets a good view of the stage. I loved the monochrome paintings in alcoves high above the audience.

TOADS Little Theatre 

TOADS current production is One Man Two Guvnors, the farce which got such great reviews when it starred James Corden at the National Theatre. We didn't get around to watching the NTlive broadcast so jumped at the chance to see the play performed live here. It's a fantastic script and I thought TOADS did a wonderfully professional job. It's difficult to make such intricate chaos look easy and we certainly didn't feel like we were watching an amateur company. Everyone was perfectly cast and we loved the musical scene change interludes. I did start writing about my favourite characters, but soon realised I was going to be naming them all! As a story, One Man Two Guvnors is completely improbable which makes it all the more fun and we both laughed thoughout. I'd highly recommend this show to everyone, even if you don't really consider yourself a theatre person.

The TOADS production of One Man Two Guvnors runs until the 13th August so, if you're in Torbay, click through to the TOADS website and book your tickets before they all sell out!

A belated birthday present and starting to make a home

We have had the keys of our new flat for just over a week now and I am beginning to get used to the idea! We have done some exploring locally and found our nearest famous person, historically speaking anyway. I saw this plaque commemorating the life of wartime SOE operative Eileen Mary Nearne and snuck up the building's driveway to take a closer look and this photograph. Torbay Civic Society have an online map showing all the blue plaques they have sited and also produce leaflets giving further information about each person honoured this way. I shall have to buy Eileen's!

My chaise longue 

Our vintage shop searching came up trumps at Vintage Ladies in Newton Abbot where I spotted this antique chaise longue. It's not in the best condition, but was a good price and is wonderfully comfortable. Dave was kind enough to buy it for me as my belated birthday present and I am lounging on it as I type this. It's perfect! Vintage Ladies quickly delivered to Torquay too and managed to lug the thing upstairs and into our flat without too much hassle. The narrowness of the access corridor is proving a problem for getting furniture in. A super-comfy tub-style armchair Dave tried out at BHF would have been ideal, but would have required hoisting through a third-floor window and we didn't like it enough to go to that much effort!

One place setting completed 

I have resumed crocheting and am making up table mats while lounging on my chaise longue and listening to George Orwell on an audiobook. Perhaps too much mixing of eras, but it does all feel nicely retro. I'm taking advantage of a no listing fee offer on eBay to put a few handmade items up for auction. We might have a flat instead of a caravan now, but I could still use the space! There's craft supplies, coasters, headwear and bookmarks. Each auction starts at 99p and I am happy to combine shipping so do take a look and Grab yourself a bargain!

Now, the rain has stopped, the sky has hints of blue and we're off out resuming our furniture search this afternoon. Unless we get distracted by other ideas!

SmallSteps week 5 roundup & can we BuyBritish furniture

If you're new to this theme, I am blogging a series of Monday posts about SmallSteps lifestyle changes I think might help our disUnited Kingdom communities to get through the post-Brexit turmoil ahead. You can read the first post here. Let's at least keep our towns and communities afloat and vibrant whatever the politicians decide for the country as a whole.

I've decided to keep a track of my attempts to practice what I preach! My four SmallSteps are:

1) to CheckTheLabel and BuyBritish whenever possible
2) to ShopLocal and spend at least £5 each week in independent local shops
3) to eat healthily and walk or cycle short distances
4) Not to use self-service checkouts or Pay At Pump.

So how did I do this week?

The Soap Stall, Torquay Indoor Market 

My ShopLocal spend this week is a truly amazing £1028.75 because we have been scouring local furniture and charity shops for our new flat. Other than furniture though, I managed to find The Soap Stall in Torquay's Indoor Market (mentioned last week) and met Lee who runs the business. I bought two soaps here and will be returning regularly as Lee stocks such a tempting range of natural soaps and other bath products. One soap I bought was made very locally in Paignton.
As mentioned in an earlier post, we visited Daisy Cakes cafe. I also bought boiled sweets at The Bon Bon Shop on Torquay harbour (but they didn't have Chocolate Limes) and I got a refreshing Boosting Bomb Iced Tea takeout from Calypso when I went for a two hour walk exploring and forgot to carry a bottle of water (again!). I also liked Marshfield Farm ice cream which I tried at Meadfoot Beach Cafe. The blackcurrant flavour is divine and the cafe also has a box of books for sale in aid of Rowcroft Hospice. (Yes, I bought a book too!)

As well as that long walk, we walked to the Wellswood shops once to buy envelopes and I've walked to the nearby Co-Op for a loaf of bread which means all our journeys under about five miles this week were car free. I am yet to attempt cycling Torquay's hills though! And we didn't use automatic checkouts at Sainsburys or when buying diesel.

New dining set from Super Seconds 

I am hoping to get as much of the furniture we need for our new flat according to my SmallSteps principles and am pleased with how we are doing so far. Half Price Bedz of Paignton are an independent ShopLocal business and swiftly delivered our BuyBritish Dreamlands mattresses. The beds to put under them should arrive in just over a week from the same place. In the meantime we are being all studenty - sleeping on a mattress on the floor! We spotted this lovely dining set at Super Seconds, also in Paignton, and it was delivered the day after our purchase - great service. I have no idea who had the table and chairs before us, but they were painted up at Super Seconds so I am counting them as ShopLocal and Upcycled. We nearly couldn't have the table though - it only just fitted along the narrow corridor to our flat! Last and least - least expensive anyway - Paignton YMCA charity shop came up trumps with a neat little computer desk for Dave for just a tenner.

We are still on the lookout for a comfortable armchair and small sofa so I am keeping an eye on Preloved and eBay amongst other sites. There are a couple of second-hand shops in Torquay we can wander around before re-running the Newton Abbot and Paignton routes again. Maybe we will get lucky? Maybe our camping chairs will need to do us a few more weeks?!


Please do feel welcome to shout out your favourite / your own BuyBritish and ShopLocal businesses in the Comments. Make sure to say in which town they are so other nearby folks will know to look out for them!

Finally I have made a blog badge from my SmallSteps logo image. If you would like to join in this Monday (or any day) blog theme, feel welcome to display the badge and let me know about your post so we can link up.

SmallSteps @ Stephanie Jane

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