The Tougher Thread continues.....

HelenYorkshire

Applemint try freegle etc first for a freezer, or ask around. I got a nearly new one for free after someone moved house :j
You can lay a defunct fridge on it's back to make a sealed, vermin proof chest for all sorts - garden chemicals/paints (so the dog can't eat them); sacks of dog/cat/chicken food... I did wonder about filling it with sawdust and using it for a root cellar but wasn't sure about the airflow thing.

Lucielle I just eyeball it - fill the container about 1/3 full of pricked sloes, sprinkle in sugar so as it falls in the gaps it comes to same level, top up with spirit of choice. Shake when you remember. If you use a wide necked jar then when you're done with the berries (you've either drained and rebottled or drunk it!) you can get them out and make a boozy jelly/sauce/compote thing

Igamogam I saw the advert for that and my first thought was "a 9 tog duvet worth £49.99? Yeah right". I guess it's a coupon-collect deal?

I'm trying to get into gear to go to work - fortunately I can pick my times as long as it all gets done in daylight!
Happy Sunday everyone

cleggie

Hi All!
Hope you are all having a relaxing Sunday?
I am very wary of the DM duvet deal too, although i havent tried the M&S value ones- how much is it for a double from there, and are they decent (as opposed to being filled with air as most cheap ones)?

I am on a mission to get me and the kids some snow boots this year, as our feet were really cold last year because we didnt have snow boots . They are SO expensive!!
I looked at the ones that Jackie posted, but i need something that goes further up the leg. I am guessing that eBay is the best place!
I did my winter shopping yesterday in primark:

3xPJs
3xSlippers
3xDressing gowns
3xFleecy blankets
2xHats
2xGloves
3xThermals
5xThick socks
5xUnderwear

Spent £70, but thats all my winter shopping done apart from anti freeze (waiting for lidl to stock theirs again) and the snow boots.

I have finished the list for Xmas this year and as the budget is much smaller than in previous years, so is the list! But i dont think i am all that worried because the kids only seem to want new DSi XL's each, and i already have bought those!

Having a nice relaxing day today. Just getting all the uniforms ready for school tomorow, and pottering about doing housework!!

jackieglasgow

Cleggie, have a wee look at all the snow books on the Decathlon site, they have some excellent footwear, and also give the thermal ratings, and details of the lowest temps they can deal with. The ones we bought the boys from there last year were fantastic, and with their salopettes on they were snug as bugs.

littlecal

Cleggie,I was in M&S yesterday and they had a few duvet cover sets in the sale,nice navy blue,double for £15, bah I need k.size:(

There weren't many though,just odds and sods really.Did pick up some of their green pea candles (in mini kilner jars) for £2 each instead of £7.50,so they will be added to the present stash! HTH

cleggie

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Cleggie, have a wee look at all the snow books on the Decathlon site, they have some excellent footwear, and also give the thermal ratings, and details of the lowest temps they can deal with. The ones we bought the boys from there last year were fantastic, and with their salopettes on they were snug as bugs.

Thanks Jackie- i dont know why on earth i didnt look at other ones when i clicked on your link in the previous post- D'oh!

littlecal wrote: »

Cleggie,I was in M&S yesterday and they had a few duvet cover sets in the sale,nice navy blue,double for £15, bah I need k.size:(

There weren't many though,just odds and sods really.Did pick up some of their green pea candles (in mini kilner jars) for £2 each instead of £7.50,so they will be added to the present stash! HTH

Thanks Littlecal- i am in town on Tuesday so will have a look then. £15 isnt too bad, as long as they are decent, so thanks for letting me know!

Mrs_Veg_Plot

[

Grey Queen I'm with you on the tight leather trousers, yummy Hugs Hester[/QUOTE]


My OH's long hair and motorbike are long gone but he still looks great in his tight leather trousers that lace up the sides from top to bottom .

Frugalista

Bought a pack of diced beef heart and a pack of beef liver yesterday. The idea was to give the dogs a treat - but, having looked at it again, it looks rather nice (especially the heart).

Has anyone got any recipes or ideas, please?

GreyQueen

Oooff, am I tired or am I tired. Feel like someone pulled my battery pack overnight and I'm running on residual power only. Mainlining second gallon of tea, still in my jammies, but there's a lovely sunny day out there and I will (I WILL!) go to the lottie after a light luncheon.

:wave: Hello Seraph123, Louise3965, Kittikins, Morag1202 and Puddleglum and Applemint.

Re the Early Neo flint tools, they are mostly small scrapers, occasionally the tips of knifeblades, not big exciting stuff like axes or small exciting stuff like arrowheads. I've had an ambition to find a flint arrowhead for as long as I can remember and never have yet; the flint guy at the museum says they're pretty rare. He reckons I have a good eye for finding flints which I can only attribute to an arty-designery background; went into that as that's the way my brain works, so it's wired to see patterns.

The flints look anomalous when I'm digging and closer examination reveals the flaking and the symmetry. I've got hold of one of yesterday's right now as it came home with me in my pocket by mistake; its 3.5 cm long by 2 cm wide and has a curved edge made of the outer stony bit of the flint, with a natty white line, then you can see the flaking which has made the cutting edge. These little slicers and scapers fit perfectly into the hand and are pretty damned sharp. Read somewhere (National Geographic probably) about a surgeon who'd done operations with neolitic tools; they are as sharp as the best modern steel, apparently.

I have a coupla Ferrero Rocher boxes of 'em in my lottie shed and take them up to the museum on rainy days. They'll go back in the soil when I've finished admiring them. Modern lottie site was fields and probably not built on from ancient times so the modern soil level seems to have reverted to the Neo level. Can't think if why else all these flints are in the top 1-4 inches of soil.:o

Mind you, I cannot tell you how many kilos of glass, rusty nails and misc carp I have levered out of the same plot. It's a horror. Would love to know the back-story of the plastic sugar basin and the 1950s lino fragments.......:rotfl:

Applemint I feel your pain in having great curtains that just aren't quite the right size for the windows which you have. Seems to me that no matter how many pairs of curtains you have saved in the loft (hi Mum!) you never have the right ones.

If you doubled-up the length, the side which was glass-wards would fade in the light but if you want to halve them so you have 2 but they are still a bit too short, you can tweak a curtain's length in a couple of ways (and I'm sure someone here can think of others); add a bit to the bottom or add a bit to the top.

Due to a lifetime of skinthood, I have often had to finesse things without sufficient fabric but even though it's a compromise, I don't necessarily want it to look bodged. On thing you can do with a too-short curtain is to get a smallish amount of fabric of the same weight and type, of the same width, and insert it into the curtain either by making a fresh header out of the new cloth, or by being really really sneaky and cutting off the curtain below the header zone (allowing for seam allowance of course) and inserting a strip of matching fabric, then re-attaching the curtain to that.

You could also do this at the bottom as the two bands will look more intentional than one. My training was to take an accent colour from the pattern (if there is one) and use that for the insert. Only match a background colour if you can get a perfect match as a near-miss will look terrible. Best to take the offending curtain to the fabric shop to be sure of the fabric. The weights of both fabrics will have to be very similar or the whole thing will hang strangely. And, if the curtains are the washable kind, wash the new fabric before you insert, or it'll probably shrink and go funny the first time you launder the re-made curtains.

You can also use this technique to widen a curtain which is otherwise perfect put the edges just won't meet across the window. Of course, Mum always taught me to shorten curtains from the top as it's much less work; remove the header line/ tab top and cut out the excess, re-attach and bob's your uncle.

There is a very-useful-to-old-stylers book by Jocasta Innes "The Thrifty Decorator" which is widely available in a secondhand hardcover edition as it was a Book Club Associates publication in the early Nineties. It's one I classify as a "keeper". Turns up at c.s. and bootsales as there's a lot of them about. HTH.

Yesterday I made 2 fruit crumbles from whoopsied fruit and baked them at the same time as I totally refuse to fire up a whole oven for one piddly dish. Nomnomnom........

OK, quick read of the threads, wash and dress, get some groceries in and then lunch and up to the lottie. Hope you're all getting some lovely autumn sunshine.

Love and peas, Mrs Flintstone.

ETA re Applemint's freezer problem, I'm sure Frugal Queen posted about an identical problem and a fix in the past few weeks. She blogs as frugal-in-cornwall if you want to have a looksee.

VJsmum

I too am still in jammies. Feeling a little out of sorts, not sure why.

I often feel a little "down" at this time of year - end of summer and all, until i give myself a kick and realise that i can't feel like this for the next 6 months.

The fact that i'm supposed to be working isn't helping - loads of boring paperwork. Only me and DD here today, so we are treating ourselves to whoopsied fillet steak for tea. :T

OK maybe if i get dressed, bribe myself with a trip to the garden centre (for manure for the veg patch, lovely ) then i might get something done.

But maybe another coffee first.:D

smileyt_2

CRANKY40 wrote: »

. We did however have some of the ashes placed in glass hearts for a very reasonable and smallish sum of money by a company called Bath Aqua Glass who have very sensitive and caring staff. As the elf said when we received them "Look mummy, daddy is always in my heart now".

Cranky40, that brought more than a tear to my eye. xxx

WCS, Ginnyknit and Lisakay, I am up for a mini toughie meet up

Well, I am very sorry to disappoint you all, but nothing happened in the park this morning. I had a perfectly normal dogwalk without encountering any crazed, sex-mad people . Mind you, I'm not out of the woods yet - we still have this afternoon's walk to get through .... :eek:

I slept in until nearly 10 o' clock this morning - I can't remember the last time I did that. I still feel as if I could sleep for hours. However, I have a hen house to dismantle and clean, and I want to do some batch cooking later so that I have some meals for the week ahead.

I'd best go and get on with it then!

Oh - before I forget - a friend of mine went to Wilko's yesterday and said they were selling off all their seeds for 5p/packet. So if you are passing a Wilko's on your travels this week, it might be worth popping in and seeing if your local branch is doing the same.