Found, Free and Thrifted

I’ll admit it. I’m a hoarder. Not to the extreme of the people seen on Hoarding: Buried Alive, but to the point where I hold on to things in case they’re useful for a crafting project. I guess that makes me a Crafty Hoarder?!

It’s not necessary to part with masses of money in order to craft, as I’m sure you all know. In my case, things being cheap tend to mean I buy more...!

Here’s some recent additions to my crafting hoard that have been found, free, or thrifted!

Once or twice a year, I have a massive clear-out, donate anything saleable to charity and recycle whatever else I can. The last mass-clearout was in January, but I didn’t dare enter the attic, knowing that what lurks in there is about twenty years of stuff belonging to five people!

This week, my Dad went up into the attic intending to clear out some stuff for a car boot sale and brought out three boxes of ring-binders from my school, college and uni days!

I was never going to look over that stuff again, so into the recycling went the paper!

Amidst all the old work was a folder of stuff from my school’s ‘Work Experience Week’. I was lucky enough to score a placement with an interior designer, which meant I got to measure rooms, draw scale diagrams, put together an inspiration board and go on little trips--one of which was to Design Centre Chelsea Harbour.

This meant trawling through showrooms looking at swatches and samples.

This meant yummy sandwiches in the Dome Café.

This meant that when I cleared that folder, I found these:

Although the samples are only small, there’s no way I can just throw them out.

So I’m hoarding them until I come up with something! They fit in just fine with my box of fabric scraps that I refuse to part with!

Another thing I seem to be gaining a collection of is lace and embroidery thread. I’d like to point out that I haven’t bought any embroidery thread since I made an embroidered cushion for my Nanny, last year.

Everything else I’ve come into possession of since then has come to me courtesy of my lovely Nan herself (who receives them from a friend). This week, she brought me these:

I have never seen such a nice collection of colours! The vintage lace is lovely too--I'll have to think of a special project for that.

As for the embroidery threads, I’m thinking of some different coloured necklaces along the same vein as my pearly necklace.

One of the perils (and bonuses) of being a crafty hoarder: people give you stuff!

Something I’ve parted with money for recently are these two lovely boxes:

Both came from a charity shop and cost a tad over £5 for the two! I bought them with assemblage projects in mind. I haven’t started yet but hopefully soon I’ll get out the glue and some interesting bits and pieces, and get crafting! 

So what about you guys? 

Do you have any recent found, free or thrifted items?