Craft & Thrift Podcast

According to my substack, my last podcast was released on June 30th, 2025. That was almost 6 months ago, and corresponds almost exactly with when life got busy and stressful with the renovation of my house. Want to know more about my newsletter and podcast plans? Sign up here! I’d always planned to come back to podcasting, I love a good yackety-yack and apparently have no end of thoughts and opini...

Life has been pretty busy recently with DIY projects - filling holes left behind by the electrician, sanding walls ready for decorating, researching & planning a new kitchen and bathroom. I love learning a new skill, so on the whole I’m enjoying renovating the house, but it hasn’t left much bandwidth for actual creative work. I treated myself recently to a Woolly Mammoth Fibre Company Patreon memb...

Andrew took this photo for me, I love how the early evening sunlight catches the chives It’s been a little minute since I published a podcast, but join me in my greenhouse to listen to the rain and talk about how the garden is growing. I find it so hard to be a beginner at anything, there’s a lag between the vision in my head and the skills I need to achieve the vision, but I’m trying really hard...

A little departure from the norm today, as I chat about my current reads-in-progress. I’m trying to prioritise reading, as a way to spend less time on my phone. It’s as simple as taking my book downstairs in the morning, so it’s more to hand throughout the day when I want to sit for 5 minutes. It stops me reaching for my phone on autopilot. If you like sewing, knitting, gardening and other sustain...

I’ve been talking a lot about raised beds recently, and you’ll be pleased to learn I think that period is nearly over! I built my last raised bed, the one in the greenhouse, last week, so now I’m focusing on filling and painting them. I’m sure I’ll mention them again in a future post, since I’ll be proudly showing off their new paint job (Cuprinol Garden Shades in ‘Urban Slate’ is our choice), plu...

Those who have been following my blog for a few years (love you!) will have heard me talk about the Hobbit Robe. I’ve mentioned it on and off in various newsletters and Instagram posts, but I’m finally on the home straight. The end is in sight and I’m so excited about the first morning I get to wake up, don my wool quilted Hobbit robe and take a turn about my garden (pipe optional). A few links I...

I have had the loveliest, most calming and soul-soothing time in my garden this afternoon. The sun shone, the birds sang, and I quietly pottered between the greenhouse and the raised bed. As I write this, I’ve sown parsley, sunflowers, borage, winter squash and sweetpeas. It’s so delightful to have started to sow my own seeds, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for 20 years. I bought my seeds from...

Nothing grand of note to report in the podcast this week, other than some little updates on ongoing projects. I almost didn’t post a podcast episode, but there’s joy to be found in the little things, especially in these dark days. A few rows of knitting here, an hour spent in the garden there, for me these are the wee bitties that add up to peace, joy, and living a creatively fulfilled life. The C...

If you follow me over on Notes , you may have seen a spoiler of my raised bed. It’s a bit of a beast, standing at 72cm high (roughly hip height on me), I’ve built it from decking planks and 2x2” timber. The aim is to be able to grow a variety of fruit and veggies, without the dogs charging through my plants or toileting in inappropriate places (Badger took to pooping on the rhubarb for a while the...

Wearing the repaired sheepskin coat and Morgan jeans! I recorded a podcast last week about a sewing day I had planned with my bestie, who came to visit our new house for the first time last week. It was a lovely to see her, we went for a walk in Glen Affric, did a charity shop trawl and got coffee, and talked about house and garden plans for both of our new homes. We’re both in the renovation phas...

This is a bit of an unstructured ramble (‘twas ever thus) about my upcoming sewing day with my bestie, and my project plans. I was trying to find a photo of my Closet Core Morgans and came across this picture, taken by Andrew, of me photographing - if I recall correctly - a caterpillar. I am however wearing the Morgans! All the links are at the end of this post, but my main aim is to finish off th...

I stumbled across this idea, after reading and listening to Internet People . I recently picked up the Artist’s Way, a book by Julia Cameron about unlocking creative potential, and almost immediately became overwhelmed by the amount of work involved. Internet People are currently running a series on their podcast, where they’re attempting a bare minimum Artist’s Way. Each week they’re discussing a...

Hello everybuddy! Thanks so much for listening and supporting my little podcast. And thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to my Buy me a Coffee. I got this lovely message recently, “listening to your podcast and reading your blog is like having a nice chat with a good friend”. That’s exactly the vibe I’m going for, I’m so glad it’s coming across! If you fancy contributing, there’s a l...

This is a slightly more introspective episode, in which I talk about my life or core values. This was inspired by a podcast episode from A Beautiful Mess , where Emma and Elsie, two sisters who are serial entrepreneurs, talk about their core values. These are the principles or guiding themes by which they live their lives. I thought it was a super interesting thought exercise, that you could exami...

I recently went down a YouTube rabbit hole, emerging triumphant from the other end with the confidence to attempt to build a potting bench for my greenhouse. My ‘toxic trait’ as the kids say, is seeing someone do something on the internet, and assuming I can do the same. This time, I was watching Ana White , who lives in Alaska and builds her own furniture. She gives away free plans on her website...

I think this is the last of my goal related blog posts and podcasts for now! I know not everyone enjoys discussing goals and aims, it can feel like a stressful time of year with a constant narrative of self-improvement. I love goal setting, but I’m also bad for using previous goals as a stick with which to beat myself, if I don’t manage to achieve everything I set out to accomplish at the start of...

I love this time of year for goal setting, I’ve already written one blog post about my sewing goals for 2025, and here is the audio form for my knitting plans! This year, I want to try to be more intentional with my knitting, purposefully picking projects based on things I would like to wear or yarn I would like to use, rather than magpie-esque jumping on the newest shiny thing, be it thrifted yar...

Back in 2020, at the height of lockdown, I completed the Love to Sew Podcast ‘Create your Dream Wardrobe’ booklet. It was an illuminating process, that happened to fall at the same time as Me Made May. Andrew helped me document my outfits during that period, and through that process, I realised a lot of my wardrobe wasn’t serving me. Taking some time to really think deeply about my sartorial value...

This episode is a slight departure from my normal content, but still in the realms of handicrafts, in the sense of building things with your hands. I was lucky to grow up with a DIY Dad, an experience I didn’t value at the time, trailing bored behind my parents in Wickes on a Saturday afternoon. I spent many dull teenage hours, handing tools to my Dad as he crawled under floorboards, or holding th...

Thanks so much to everyone who listened and commented on my last podcast episode, I really appreciate all your support! This episode is slightly longer, talking about my current main two knitting works in progress. The associated blog post is going to morph into a ‘show notes’ structure, because Substack auto-publishes the podcast to Spotify, and the blog post I wrote last time looked a bit odd ov...

I’ve been contemplating starting a podcast for a while, I’ve just been nervous to say that out loud. It feels very self important; the imposter syndrome part of my brain wonders what original thoughts or content I could possibly put out into the world. But recently reaching 500 subscribers (welcome to my new followers and thank you so much to everyone, new and old, for being here!) seems like the...

I made a reel over on Instagram back in September, about my process making this denim quilted vest (the Wildwood vest from Helen's Closet). I'm slowly moving away from Instagram but I'm proud of my video content and don't want to leave it behind! I'm also aware that there are people on Substack who may not follow me on Instagram, who might find this video footage interesting. Either way, it's a we...