My Teddy Bears

It all started with one giant teddy bear I found lying face down on the curb. The BF wined 'You don't need that', but I just couldn't leave it behind.

Now the BF even brings me bears and other stuffed animals when he sees one in the trash.



A while ago I found Teddy & Pencil's blog. Teddy and Pencil are two little bears who talk about their adventures and their concern about this world. When I wrote them I rescue abandoned bears they dedicated a post to it, which you can read here and where you'll also find some more pictures of my bears. Thank you so much, little bears!

Unfortunately not all stuffed toys are worth keeping, but that doesn't mean they have to be thrown away altogether.

I really wanted to save little Piglet here, even though after washing he still looked very used. But only then I noticed the ugly suction cups and decided he was going to be cut up.

Poor Piglet, but I needed his insides to make these cute felted pin cushions. These are another result of my use-up-all-my-old-wool project, which I talked about in my post about discarded knitwear. Now for sale in my Etsy shop.

The Television

When I wrote about our couch I already said that between earlier and later photos of it, the television in the picture had changed. Here's how:

After we had found the couch my BF was bragging about it to a friend who then, looking around him at the table, the dresser, and some other stuff asked: What are you still looking for on the curb, what more do you need? Th BF replied: A larger TV! Sure, said our friend, like the neighbours are just going to hand it to you. True, even when on several occasions elderly neighbours moved to a home and left us with a fridge, vacuum cleaner and cooker, their tv's were sold or they kept them.

But a few weeks later when we almost finished our tour and turned the last corner we saw a man coming out of his house carrying a huge set. Before he even put it down we asked him if it was broken. He said only the scart socket was a bit loose. So we took the chance and I went for our cart.

At home it turned out the scart connection was really bad, but a makeshift repair with tape and toothpicks solved it. And we went from a brand 'X' 50 cm (which the BF now has in his bedroom) to a Panasonic 70 cm screen.

Technically it has never been in the trash, as the man literally handed it to us. I just had to buy a new remote for it. We forgot to ask...

My Laundry Baskets

If you read the post about My House you may remember the BF and I are neighbours. That means we have to have a lot of stuff double, but we share the washing machine. It’s in my place for practical reasons, but I don’t mind doing his laundry as long as he cooks for me. Which is pretty much every day since we freecycled a cooker with an oven for him from an old guy next door.

The only disadvantage is it involves using a load of laundry baskets. Four at least: one to collect my laundry, one to collect his, one to bring his clean stuff upstairs and one extra just in case I forgot to bring the empty one down again. Luckily I didn’t have to buy any. Of course they don’t cost anything retail, the other day I saw them on sale for two euro’s, still I’m thinking that’s a total of eight euro’s not spent and four plastic items not made especially for me.

This yellow one is from the fifties and I found it twenty years ago. They still made strong stuff those days, it’s simply unbreakable. But I’m afraid it’s not very eco-friendly. So I think if I ever decide to get rid of it I’ll have to bring it to the chemical waste depot instead of leaving it on the curb.

This grey one had a few cuts already, but it was still perfectly usable, but guess what? The evening after I took the picture I was able to replace it with another in the exact same model and brand new.

A few days later the Gods of the curb rewarded me for my frugality I think when I found this extra large basket. It’s nice to have things in natural materials and this one certainly can’t have been cheap and it’s in mint condition. It will be very practical for the summer, when I often have two machines full hanging to dry outside in the yard.