We all love a freebie

My workshop has been a huge source of excitement for me because it means that I can now build all those wonderful projects on the  'Ana White' website that I've drooled over for months but lacked the real space to be able to get started. Space is no problem now though and with everything pretty much sorted and put away I'm ready to start hammering and drilling.

But first........

One of my daughters works at a local department store and I've been the lucky recipient of plants and hardware that was destined for the tip - all free of charge. The latest exciting load included plastic crates full of tester pots of paint, mainly Crown but also Laura Asley and Farrow and Ball. Luckily my daughter was also renewing her bedroom furniture at the time so I inherited an old (well not that old really) chest of drawers that was the perfect size for all these pots of paint. The drawers are a cheap Argos make so I had to reinforce the bottoms etc first but lookit

 3drawers full of Crown tester pots.

1 drawer full of Dulux tester pots

Loads more tester pots waiting to be sorted and hung.

I am going to have a field day making colourful bird houses this year. While emulsion paint cannot survive outside alone, coat it in outdoor varnish and it's good to go.

While we're talking freebies, look what else my daughter got, though she did have to pay £1 for each case this time - a saving of around £98 so well worth it. She got 2 for me and 2 for my husband and these could not have come at a better time because I was close to buying a set of 'Drillall' drillbits from a shopping channel despite dubious reviews online. 

I must also show you the handle to the door of my workshop. I couldn't find a proper pull down handle in any of my tool boxes nor Mr CH's toolkits but I'm way too tight to consider buying one at ridiculous prices or waiting 3 weeks for delivery from online shopping - I want what I want when I want it! Nosing around Mr CH's now 1/4 smaller workshop (due to my moving in ;) ) I found an old bricklaying trowel - least I hope it's old and figured it would make a cute door handle

Inspired.com

OK so I missed 'Showcase Saturday' this week but I honestly have a good excuse - I took my daughters to see 'Warhorse'. That's a good excuse right??
So maybe it wouldn't be ordinarily BUT the nearest cinema here is 2 hours drive away and because the city gets busy and car parking a premium we have to make sure we're there early which means a 7am start out. Plus because we never go to the city due to the distance we tend to arrange a shopping trip so although we started out at 7am the movie didn't start till 2.45pm and then by the time we get out we have a 2hr drive back.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem because hubby and I would share the driving but hubby stayed home so I was the only driver. Also not normally a problem but I have Narcolepsy and although medication has my sudden sleep attacks fully controlled I do have to pay heed to any warning signs of tiredness. Basically if I get tired I have to nap straightaway, if  I don't I will hallucinate, become punch drunky sounding and not be able to concentrate.
We made it home by 7pm though with just one ten minute nap needed by me - yay!

Getting back to my excuse though, the above is the reason I missed saturdays blog, though I have no excuse for not then picking it up Sunday except that I've been busy building a stone wall all by myself and was too knackered basically!

Those excuses sound feasible and acceptable yes?

Anyway I decided to showcase a few blogs today instead because there are a couple of blogs newish to me that I am totally in awe of and want to share.
What makes a blog / site awesome to me? Well content mainly and the style of writing but if I'm honest then freebies are always a winner, so on that note;

'The Coffeshop Blog'

This site is awesome and I so wish I had found it months ago.
I regularly take part in the 'EditMe' challenge and that is how I came to discover this amazing site. It is full to the brim of FREE actions and presets for manipulating your photos and give professional results. It also has a multitude of FREE textures and digital papers to further enhance your images.
No need to worry about knowing how to use them either there are tutorials galore on Coffeshop.
I have downloaded several actions and I have to say they are amazingly easy to download and use.
The tutorials also cover how to use the downloaded actions, presets etc etc and how to get the most from them.
A coupleof my favourites include 'Coffeshop faded daydreams'  and 'Coffeshop vanilla latte action'.
If you have any interest in working with, manipulating or even just enhancing images using most of the current software available then you need to check this site out.
Anything I blog about it will never do it justice, you need to get over there, check out what's available and simply play with them.

'Free Digital Scrapbooking'

Scrapbooking and cardmaking is something I'm hoping to do more of this year and digital scrapbooking has taken my fancy, I've even started with digital stamps that I can then colour with Promarkers (though I've yet to find a bleedproof cardstock).
This site has heaps of awesome, adorable scrapbook kits FREE to download. These kits include everything from background papers to all the embellishments you need.
Easy peasy to download and there is so many different themes to choose from that you will definitely find something you like.
Check it out and enjoy your downloads.

'Sawdust and paper scraps'

I don't remember how I came about finding this blog but I've been hooked on it ever since and regularly spend more time there than is probably strictly healthy.
Sandra is a diy'er, builder of "stuff", house renovator plus a wife and mother to boot and the projects she has completed are nothing less than amazing and very professional looking.
I always like to hear of like minded women who are willing to give power tools a go but Sandra even puts me to shame and I'll use most things cept the dreaded table saw.
Sandra has built an amazing master closet equipped with drawers etc all made by herself. Seriously you need to check the master closet out, any one of us would be sooooooo proud to have built something like that.
Then there's the craft room table, seriously ladies you are soooo gonna slather over it, it's just so amazingly lovely (that's as long as you roll the tongue back in after seeing the entire craft room that is!) And what is even more amazing is that Sandra gives tutorials for that table (which is easier to make than it looks), even the corbels and doors - swoon!
Sandra really is a talented lady and she has inspired me to have a go at making built in units myself. I usually limit myself to furniture makeovers or building small things from scrapwood but I am now going to indulge in actually spending some money on NEW - yes brand spanking new - materials and build the built in bathroom unit and built in bedroom closet that I so want but couldn't afford.
THANKYOU Sandra, you amazing lady!

I wasn't going to add images but hey, I can't resist because I really am so amazed at what Sandra has accomplished.

Told ya! Gorgeous aint it! Stop slathering now ladies.

I soooo want this closet. A lady made this - how ruddy cool is that!

So there you have it. Hope you enjoy those blogs as much as I do.
Thank you for staying this far, leave a comment if you fancy it I do try to email reply to all comments though I can only do that if you're not anonymous!