Welcome to my first Make Do & Mend!

mend

A post dedicated to all things preloved.

I grew up with a mother who bought us lots of bits and pieces from charity shops, car boot sales and nearly new sales as well as turning things we already had into something new.

It was the best thing, as we had everything we could have wanted, at a fraction of the price of buying new!

I have inherited this love of getting a secondhand bargain and we have a great selection of charity shops in Weston-super-Mare, in Worle High Street. Anything I find is "new to me".

I popped in to drop off some old housewares yesterday and ended up with this little stash!

I bought an old wooden tool box (perfect for storing my scrap book paper), a set of 8 champagne saucers with a delicate gold floral pattern around the rim, a Polaroid Instant 10 Land camera (which I can't get film for but will be a great prop in my family photography), a set of 40 metal anchor buttons (which I am going to sew on some rope to make curtain tie backs in big boy's room), some royal blue ribbon with a crest on (perfect for jubilee crafts), some crochet flowers, 3 antique pattern trays, a set of little coasters in a tin (really I just wanted the tin) and 4 old bells which both the boys will love playing with.

All that for £25! Whilst this isn't strictly a 'Make do' it is using something I found secondhand and turning it into something new! Post on the tie backs to follow!

See what you can find secondhand this week and let me know! Did you pick up a bargain and use it for something else?!

charity 5

charity 2 (1)

charity 1

charity 1 (1)

charity 4

Charity

If you have read my blog before, you will probably have seen that my brother lives in New Jersey, America. He is getting married at the spectacular Castle on the Hudson in Tarrytown, New York on 29th June.

My big boy is ridiculously excited, obviously about being the ring bearer at the wedding but also about seeing their dog, that he calls Molly-a-doggy, at last!

We Skype a lot. Most weekdays in fact, and they have a chat over our lunch and Uncle's breakfast.

Last night the marvellous TransAtlantic Mom gave me an idea and here it is.

A paper chain countdown!

We made it this morning, out of some of my old scrap booking paper, cellotape (then masking tape when that ran out) and have hung it across the fireplace.

Every night we are going to count the sleeps and rip one off until it is time to fly!

Big boy loved helping make it and it is a great way to manage his excitement, whilst learning new numbers!

I've had that song in my head all day. The one from the Wizard of Oz. Why? Because today the dummy went with the bins! My big boy never had one, I tried and he kept spitting it out, clearly not fooled by just sucking, and was quite happy having a boob full of milk then nothing.

However, small boy loved it from the moment he took his first soothing suck.

He was very particular for someone so small and whilst I tried a few different brands there was only one that would satisfy him. His "chav dummy" as my husband called it as it had I heart Mama written around the edge!

How rude! Doesn't he know how hard it is to find something with Mama on it. (Hoping they will call me Mama for as long as possible, but sure, as soon as they go to school, I will be Mum even though I don't think Mama is babyish at all.)

But you could have knocked me over with a feather, when, at 9 months and 4 days his gums were so sore with the top molars coming through, that he couldn't bear to have the dummy anywhere near him. Nothing but cold yoghurt would help for about 6 days. After the 6th day the dummy and chain were still on the side in his bedroom and I had asked lots of friends their advice as to whether I should just throw it away.

Some said yes, get rid of it while you can others said no, that he will want it again in a few days when the gums settled back down and then there we will be trouble if it's gone out with the recycling!

So 3 weeks and 6 days later it came to this morning. Monday. Rubbish day.

As he has not made a fuss at bedtime, fallen asleep in the car without it, I thought it has got to go!

So no tales of a dummy fairy here. No dummy tree with a magical present waiting. No little babies on the other side of the world  who need his precious dummy.

It is a relief to have got through that milestone so painlessly. I have friends who are about to tackle it with their almost 3 year olds and I don't envy them one bit.

Dummies are a saviour and the route of all evil in one! Your best friend and worst enemy when it is time to let go.

Good luck to all the parents who are about to and have been through, this sometimes, agonising process. If you have any tips I can share with my friends, please do!

dingdong 1

dingdongdummy