...a tidy for my allotment bag

My Mum made me the outer bit of this bag to keep my gardening stuff in and it has been extremely useful.  This little bag has been to the allotment almost as much as I have as we take it almost every time we go.  It has pockets on the outside which are really useful but the stuff inside can get quite jumbled - particularly the string.  Isn't it amazing how string (or wool / cotton) manages to wrap itself around anything it is near even when you are not moving it around?

So to keep the inside a bit more organised and to tame that unruly string I have made an innard for the bag with lots of sections and pockets to store all those things necessary for a successful allotment trip.  It is another one of my virually free projects (seems to be a bit of a theme for the year - making things from stuff I already have) as all but the electricity was not paid for.  The fabric - a kite/tent like nylon was given to me - I have had it so long I no longer remember who it came from, I was given the velcro and the cotton I used came free with my machine.  Bargain!

...list holders

The saga of our shopping lists (or more accurately lack of them) has been a long one.  We are very good at going to the supermarket and forgetting all those things we think about during the week and then within five minutes of getting home saying "Oh, I remember we needed....."

Apparently other people make shopping lists as they think of things - genius!  In truth it is not that we don't know we need to do it, it is the method of list making that is the problem.  What ever we try never quite seemed to work.  Then along came this gem of an idea on Etsy's Blog as part of their How-Tuesday series - http://www.etsy.com/storque/make/how-tuesday-make-a-hanging-notepad-12635/.  Dan and I made one each and that way we have a list for food and one for other stuff.  As you can see the other stuff one has been used (hence the ripped end tot he paper) when we went to B&Q today and it performed well!

The beauty of these are that, apart from the rolls of paper (5 for £2.99, they are calculator rolls) everything else was found around the house so the holders themselves cost us nothing.  Even better!