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 opinions to share with you all. In the meantime, I’ve learned some light editing skills, so hopefully in this season (I’m calling it a season to make it sound like the 6 month hiatus was due to something glamorous and official, like a writers’ strike, or actor diary conflicts, rather than overwhelm and lack of mental bandwidth) you’ll hear an upturn in quality. Except apparently in this episode, because I realised too late you can’t edit away wind noise. I’ll be buying a microphone for future episodes I think.In this episode I’m chatting about my plans for the newsletter and podcast for the next few months. I’m considering turning on paid subscriptions when I reach 1000 subscribers, which incredibly isn’t that far away now. For paid subscribers, I’m thinking of offering an additional weekly newsletter and a monthly podcast episode. I’ve been banking additional content, as a way to mitigate future periods of overwhelm. I feel strongly that I want paid subscribers to feel they get good value for money and my main concern would be that life gets busy and stressful, and the quality or frequency of my content drops off. Having a source of pre-written newsletter material to draw from, would give me peace of mind to know I could keep up with the frequency without too much stress.12 Week Year by Brian P MorganI hope you enjoy this short and sweet introduction to season 2 of the Craft & Thrift Podcast. Enjoy the ASMR ice noise Rosie and I generate for you at the end, you can see in the photo above how sodden and frozen the ground was on this walk.Speak to you soon! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

Andrew took this photo for me, I love how the early evening sunlight catches the chivesIt’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 to just enjoy the process and the journey with my plants. If you like knitting, sewing, thrifting & gardening, then Craft & Thrift is for you!In this episode I talk about my raised beds (inside and outside the greenhouse, plus the mega raised bed from the podcast episode below), my birthday blueberry bushes, starting a stumpery from the remains of a plum tree, and sourcing plants. I bought a selection of plants from a charity plant sale at the local botanical gardens, you can see my selection below. Mental note: write down the names next time, I can’t remember half of what I bought. Everything appears to be thriving though, for which I’m very grateful. I love the marigolds and salvia in particular.One of my favourite places for a snack, a cuppa and a book - in my greenhouseIt’s probably obvious, given I’m talking about the Chelsea Flower Show at one point, that I recorded this several weeks ago! We’ve been so busy with our house renovation that I haven’t had the creative bandwidth to edit and upload this podcast until now. I have been playing around with editing software though, so hopefully you enjoy the changes (mostly editing out an excessive amount of ‘umm’ noises). The audio quality sounds a bit fuzzy in the first few minutes but it’s actually rain in the background. I thought it would be a nice idea to record in the greenhouse in the rain, which makes for some lovely background noises at various points, but also makes it sound like there’s an issue with the audio in the first few minutes. I’m still a beginner at podcasting, as well as gardening…!My winter gourds are flowering!If you listened to the end, thank you as ever for your support of my little corner of the internet. I’ve got several draft posts waiting to be finished and published, so hopefully I’ll be dropping into your inbox sooner rather than later. In the meantime, may your sage flower and your strawberries be plentiful. Mine are getting munched by the slugs, but I don’t overly begrudge them, I’m just happy my strawbs are happy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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), plus the plants I choose, but in the short term it’s nice to have another big garden project mostly complete.I lifted the uneven slabs in the greenhouse, they made the greenhouse look unkempt. In so doing, I disturbed an ants’ nest, so I gave them time to disperse before I needed into that area to finish screwing the raised bed together. Turns out, if you kneel in a disturbed ants’ nest, even one that looks empty, they will get into your clothes and bite you. Luckily their bites were small and barely noticeable, but I still feel bad for them. And me. They’ve survived though, and taken up residence inside the raised bed, which is currently filled with a base layer of moss and straw. I hope they don’t mind when I fill the remaining couple of inches with compost.This is the blossom from the plum tree I talk about in this episode. It’s quite old I think, and doesn’t have a lot of blossom relative to the size of the tree, but I can still see it’s going to be an issue in the autumn trying to keep the dogs from eating the dropped plums. It’s also slowly bringing down the back fence, so unfortunately, once it’s bloomed we’re going to take it down and replace it with climbing plants instead.My daffodils are so pretty, and I’m very much enjoying bringing cut flowers into the house. I’m meeting a friend tonight and I’m going to take a bunch for her as well. It’s so lovely to be able to give flowers away, I definitely want to grow cut flowers this year and in the future. I’ve got yarrow seedlings in the greenhouse, borage in the raised bed, and cosmos in some of the garden beds, so we’ll see who survives and thrives. I’m also planning to plant marigolds in May.My Jazzy Rose sweet peas are coming along nicely, another week or two and I’ll be planting them out in the garden I think.I planted some nasturtium seeds in the long raised bed alongside the greenhouse, mixed in with leftover last year’s onion sets. The pigeons keep pulling the onions out, which is annoying, so I’ve mulched them with straw to help keep them hidden until they establish themselves. I have visions of the nasturtiums tumbling over the side of the raised bed later in the summer, I hope that comes to fruition!Basil, tomatoes, chillis, parsley and coriander are all doing well in the greenhouse. Once the raised bed in the greenhouse is filled with compost, I’ll be planting these little seedlings out. I’ve got an oregano in the external raised bed that is struggling, so I think I’ll move it into the greenhouse too. I’ll report back on their progress over the coming growing season!Another couple of links from this episode:* East Coast Organics* Vital Seeds* Jazzy Rose Flowers This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 a company called Vital Seeds, who produce their own seeds in the UK. According to a video I watched on Huw Richard’s YouTube channel, where the owners of Vital Seeds are interviewed about their principles and business, I should be able to collect seed from these plants and grow from them again next year.The sweetpeas are from Jazzy Rose Flowers, which is owned by Lisa Comfort, of Sew Over It fame. I followed a video on her Instagram as to how to germinate the seeds on the windowsill, before planting some today.The sunflowers are the variety ‘Hello’ and came free with my Gardener’s World magazine. My inner child is very excited to see how tall these grow. Fingers crossed they make it over the top of the fence, then I’ll be able to see them as I park my car on the driveway.From Vital Seeds I’ve planted:* Yarrow - Summer Berries* Borage* Winter squash - Desert Spirit Landrace* Parsley - Italian GiantI stole the picture above from the Vital Seeds website, but I really hope I get proper knobbly gourds in a variety of colours! I want to decorate with them in autumn, and then eat them over the winter.Most of the plants will be going into my raised bed, which is 95% finished! You can hear all about the construction in this episode, I’ve just got to paint it now.I’ll be writing or recording an update on the raised bed, about how I sealed it and filled it, plus my plans for what plants to grow. Here’s a spoiler picture though, of some of the plants being introduced to their new home.For now though, thank you for joining me on this episode recorded in my greenhouse! As ever, I very much appreciate you all for reading and listening to my content and I’ll see you again in a few days. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 there, sigh). I’m also hoping it will protect my back and knees over the coming years. Having spent a large amount of time weeding my gran’s veg beds over the last decade or so, I can attest that traditional height raised beds don’t necessarily protect your back, you still have to bend at an awkward angle to weed and plant.That’s the idea in theory, but I figure if it’s too tall in the long run, I can always remove the top decking board and cut the posts down to size. Tanya from the Lovely Greens (a very inspiring YouTube channel I would highly recommend if you’re into gardening and soap making) recommends sealing the inside of raised beds with silicone sealant, of the type used in vivariums and aquariums. This will apparently lengthen the lifespan of my raised beds significantly, whilst minimising the chemicals and microplastics that can leach into the soil from other methods of wood protection. I’m then planning on sealing the inside of the wood with linseed oil (similar to my compost bin) and the outside with Cuprinol garden shades, in the colour we’ll be picking to match the fence. The linseed oil and external painting have yet to be done, that’s the plan for my next set of days off.You can see from the picture above, taken just after we moved in, the garden hadn’t had much love in the recent past. The previous owner was very into growing veg, but hadn’t been physically capable of it for a while. The area where the raised bed is now, just in front of the greenhouse, was full of half-rotting rhubarb, old herbs growing wild, and bits of netting and plastic. In this photo, we were in the process of lifting all the gravel, hence the black plastic bags, pulling out all the rotten wood, and rescuing as many of the remaining plants before we laid turf.This was taken just after finishing laying the turf, less than a week after we moved in. We were on a bit of a deadline to get the turf down before it became too cold for it to survive. It was a mammoth task, but we managed it! I cleared all the rotten rhubarb leaves, finding some healthy looking rhubarb plants underneath, and moved the surviving herbs into other parts of the garden or into pots, whilst I decided where they would go next.And here we are today. It’s looking a bit chaotic because I’m mid-raised bed build. The pile of greens to the right of the image is chopped up holly tree, which will go into the bottom of the raised bed once I’ve treated the inside with linseed oil. The chopped logs on the patio table will either go into the raised bed or into a pile in a hedgerow in the front garden, to form a habitat for beetles and other insects. I’ve got 2 redcurrant bushes I’m hoping to replant behind the greenhouse, where they’ll get a lot of sunlight, and the remaining 3 pots of rhubarb in the bottom right will be either going to the next door neighbour, or back into the raised bed. It’s definitely a work in progress, but I’m getting there! The next step is to fill the raised bed, I had a metric tonne of topsoil delivered last week and I’m heading out at the weekend to collect horse manure to mix into the topsoil for added organic matter. And then the final, and most joyful step will be planting! This was on my Spring joy list and I’m so excited to almost be able to start.Thank you so much for listening to, and supporting my little podcast corner of the internet. I really appreciate you all for being here, for clicking like or leaving a comment. I hope wherever you are, you’re enjoying the spring weather (or autumn in the southern hemisphere!) and seeing signs of life appearing around you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 the two Bestie bags I have half-finished, plus take up a pair of trousers I recently thrifted. I forgot to mention this in the episode, but I also have a pile of mending I might try to work through, including sewing a chest patch onto a sweatshirt Andrew just downgraded to me. It’s not a colour I would normally wear but in an attempt to use what I’ve got, rather than over-complicating matters by needing to source Dylon at short notice, I’ve decided to sew a patch onto it and see whether I wear it in it’s current colour. I can always remove the patch and dye it in the future.I talk in this episode about a pair of Closet Core Morgan jeans I thought I had cut out…turns out I actually finished them and completely forgot. I put such faith in my smarts that it chills me to realise I’ve blanked on a whole project, but I finished these last summer when I was living with my in-laws. It was a stressful time for many reasons, so it’s not unsurprising that I’ve forgotten about these jeans. They were put aside because the button came off, so that will be a (hopefully) quick and easy repair.These are the Worker Trousers I talk about in this episode, you can see the zipper sag situation in some of the photos in that post. I’m keen to remake these jeans with a shorter rise, which I think might solve this issue. Or potentially combine the Workers and the Morgans. I don’t think I’ll get to this project during our sewing day, but I’m hoping this day will help me get back into the swing of sewing. Here are the links:* Closet Core Morgan jeans* Modern Sewing Company Worker trousers* Blackbird Fabrics Bestie bagI’ll let you know in a future post or episode how I get on! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 link at the bottom of this newsletter.In this episode, we’re diving into the concept of Seasonal Joy Lists. This is an activity I was doing fairly regularly, around once a quarter for a couple of years, but it fell by the wayside last year when I moved house. Essentially, you pick a number of activities to do purely for joy (no productivity or to-do list items!) in the next few weeks or months (you pick the time frame) and then you make a concerted effort to make time and space to do them. You might have come across this concept framed as ‘Bucket Lists’ or similar, I prefer ‘joy list’ because it implies less…death, which is a bit of a joy buzzkill tbh. This is another episode inspired by the A Beautiful Mess girls, they talk about it on their podcast here, and have printables on their website here. I’ve never personally used their printables, but they look very pretty and it would be nice to have a physical copy on your fridge or in your office. I personally find writing and sharing my joy list items on my blog is a great way to hold myself accountable. It’s harder to procrastinate something I’ve announced I’ll do on the internet!I like to structure my joy lists around the seasons, partly so I can plan activities around the weather, and partly because a ‘season’ is roughly 12 weeks, which feels a manageable amount of time for planning.Looking back on the blog, my last seasonal joy list update was April of last year, talking about my Winter joy list. I never set a Spring list, because I got wrapped up in the process of selling our flat and moving city. It’s been a real emotional rollercoaster, the last 9-12 months, and I still feel a lot of grief and homesickness for our old lives in Edinburgh. As much as I’m loving our new house, and especially the garden, it takes time to settle into a new place. We were in Edinburgh for around 18 years, so in a way I’m not surprised I still miss it. I thought reviving the seasonal joy lists might be a nice way to make space for activities that have no productivity element, aren’t essential to house renovations or related to work in any way. I’m hoping to use them as a way of exploring my new environment, and making space for trips to places that are a bit more out of the way, or involve a degree of planning. I’m finding it very easy at the moment to spend all my free time stripping wallpaper, or digging my garden, both of which are enjoyable in their own ways, but are also on the productivity spectrum. I haven’t decided yet what I’ll be doing for my Spring list, but I’ll be blogging about it here when I’ve made plans! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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, and her YouTube channel shows the step-by-step of how to assemble each project. She makes it all seem very achievable, talking as she builds about different methods you can try depending on what tools you own, and contemplating how someone doing a project by themselves might manage versus someone with a second pair of hands. In a YouTube world where DIY channels are often run by old, white, dudes making patronising and mildly misogynistic comments (“the missus is always getting at me for leaving the loo seat up but I’m not sitting down to pee” ), it’s refreshing to find a female-lead channel that is down to earth and to the point. There are no sexist asides about ‘erindoors, and the sound and video quality is generally good (another criticism of the sad dad brigade is their terrible videography skills, poor audio quality and general air of ‘that’ll do’ to their channels. And yet thousands subscribe, I don’t get it).Ana has dozens of plans on her website, I’ve already bookmarked the work bench, garage shelving, and Adirondack chairs. For this project, I wanted to use up scrap and remnant wood I had hanging around in the garage. There were leftovers from the compost bin (be sure to listen to that podcast episode!), pieces from broken furniture (the back board is the headboard of the previous owner’s bed), and flotsam washed up in the garage from our general renovation work. I also hoarded some hardware from our old flat, and made use of it on this bench in the form of hanging rails and hooks.As you can see, I had to Frankenstein some of these pieces together, to get the lengths I needed for the project. It’s sturdy enough for now, but it’ll be interesting to see how it fares over time. Someone on Instagram suggested raising it up off the soil to minimise the risk of the legs rotting, which is a great use for some broken paving slabs I found in the garden.The worried looking bearded man carving was left behind by the previous owners, in the wood store for the fireplace, if you can believe that. No wonder he looks worried. He has a German name inscribed on the back, but so far my googling hasn’t revealed much. Enjoy this photo of my slightly gormless-looking face, attempting to emulate his anxious expression. I hung him on the potting bench and I like that I can see him from the kitchen window. It feels like he’s bringing good garden and DIY vibes, and he reminds me of my Grandad John, who was also a gardening and woodworking enthusiast. I hope he’ll be very happy in my greenhouse.As ever, thank you for listening! I appreciate all your comments, likes, Buy me a Coffees, and DMs. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 yarn or the latest pattern release.The Sophie Shawl above, is one of my lingering 2024 projects I want to finish. Wearing it for this picture definitely motivated me to get it done, it’s so soft and warm, and I love the colour.The enormous gifted aran sweater I’m frogging and reknitting, as a gift from my friend Rachel, is below. I should have plenty of yarn for a sweater for myself, plus extra. I’m planning on holding the yarn double with Drops Kidsilk.The experimental glove, made with leftover tapestry yarn from my Heirloom Quilt Cardi, is below. You can see the ridiculously short pinkie finger! Trying it on for this photo reaffirmed my belief that I used the wrong weight of yarn, so I won’t waste any more time or headspace on this project, I’ll likely frog it. I do like the general idea and colours though, they remind me of Minimalist Machinist’s Fool(ish) sweater, made with autumnal coloured scraps. Perhaps I’ll try one of my own some day?The final version of the brown cable knit sweater I talk about in this episode. Annoyingly, looking back on photos, I found one from when I had cropped the length of the body, but not the sleeves, and in retrospect the sleeves were fine full length. I don’t know why past-Amy couldn’t see that, I think I was so far down the rabbit hole with this project that I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. The learning point from revisiting this project, is that sometimes packing something away for a period of ‘time out’, is no bad thing to stop yourself doing something you’ll regret later! Anyway, the end result is a totally wearable sweater, even if it wasn’t what I had originally intended when I set out to knit this project.And here’s the original green cable sweater, from back in 2016 (when I had a lot more hair!). You can see how much longer the sleeves and body length are in the original version.In this episode I mention the following patterns and yarns:* PetiteKnit Holiday slipover/vest* Aran sweater options:* PetiteKnit Moby sweater* PetiteKnit Storm sweater* My Favourite Things Sweater no. 18'* Woolly Mammoth Fibre CompanyI hope you all enjoy this episode, and, as ever, thank you so much for listening! I’ll be back next week with my blog goals for 2025. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 the end of planks of wood as he sawed away in the perpetually freezing garage. At the time I couldn’t wait to be released from my familial duties, but now I look back on that those memories with fondness, and realise the value of the confidence and skills it equipped me with for my adult life.I have been looking forward to my garden era for around 20 years now, and I’m so delighted to be finally here. One of my biggest sources of excitement is…wait for it…to be finally able to compost. That’s right, yer girl’s a dork.The concept of composting is so perfectly true to my environmental values. To be able to take literal waste, and recycle it into something useful, all whilst saving money on buying your own compost, is just so amazing. Homemade compost helps support the soil, and all the amazing organisms that live within that medium, which in turn helps support your fruits and veggies. It’s a win all round.I knew I didn’t want a traditional plastic compost bin, and Andrew requested a bin that looks aesthetically pleasing. I figured this would be a good opportunity to flex my limited DIY expertise, and learn some new skills in the process. Armed with my new mitre saw, and power drill, I have set to work. The above photo is my progress so far, I’ve still got the front and lid to build, then the whole thing gets painted with linseed oil. I’m really happy with how it looks so far, it’s a combination of 2 x 2” wood for the uprights, and shiplap for the sides. It’s going to look quite smart I think.If you’re interested in this sterling content, listen on! I also have a mild rant about sexism at the gym, and in similar male-dominated spaces, like the timber yard or DIY store.I bought the plans for this compost bin from Easy Plans Woodwork on Etsy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com

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 perfect time to finally commit. I’ve written a blog for many years now, my first official blog dates back to around 2010, but I was scribbling on Livejournal before that. Thank the internet gods there’s no evidence of the Livejournal days (although a small, nostalgic part of me wishes I’d kept it), and I’m definitely not publicly sharing my original blog. I’m glad it’s still live, for my personal records, but otherwise I’m happy for it to be semi-private. The downside of coming-of-age in the internet era is all your early, and extremely cringe, mistakes are still potentially public, for all the world to see.Handmade: Aquinnah scarf by Kerry Robb and Delia Beanie by Named ClothingThis first podcast comes to you from a dog walk, in Bught Park in Inverness. I want the podcast to have an approachable, chilled, ‘sending a pal a voice note’ vibe; it feels more authentically ‘me’ than a more polished podcast with intro music and sound effects. I also want it to be something easy (and thus sustainable) for me to create and upload, and I know from my brief stint on Youtube back in 2021 that creating and editing video and audio content can be very labour intensive. Initially I think I’m going to aim for a midweek, once-a-week schedule for the podcast, and see how it goes from there.It was a beautiful frosty morning here in Inverness, and these photos were taken on that very dog walk. I’m planning for the podcast content to be more relaxed, and informal, talking about my works-in-progress, and other life updates. Like my Notes from the Week posts, but in audio form. If you listened, thank you so much for taking the time, and I would love to hear your feedback! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com