make do and mend for tougher times

Hardup_Hester

PIC, most school run a 'Keep Kids Safe' system you should be notified if your child doesn't arrive at school. I'm pretty sure this is a legal requirement.
Hester

[Deleted User]

prepareathome wrote: »

My mother would no more been seen with a scarf on like that than been seen naked,

mine never wore one either, said they were so `common` well we were surrounded by hilda ogden types with just a couple of `refined` women in the terraced houses. Mum came from a family with servants in black with white aprons. I don`t know how the heck she adapted when she ended up in abject poverty in liverpool after the war but she did and only by sheer grinding hard work to make ends meet. She was never one to stand and gossip anyway

Bigjenny

I had one of those cupboards when I married in 1966, very useful in a small kitchen.

GreyQueen

fuddle wrote: »

I would love a 1940's head scarf. Anyone know how to tie one and what shape of material they are?

Is there something in the air? I had my long thick hair up in something approximating a French pleat the other day and was thinking to myself that a Forties headscarf would rock to cover that lot for messy housework!

Women definately had 'dos. My Auntie (now 71) settled on her 'do as a young woman in the 1950s and has it permed, washed and set at the village hairdressers. They must get soooo bored with doing the same old same old. Nan (her Mum) also has a nice old lady perm and has hers done as well. Neither of them have washed their own hair for decades. It's a different world.

fuddle wrote: »

My grandma had a kitchenette but not at all enamel, more like Formica. It was bright blue in colour and had her conversions scribbled on some paper. My grandma only wore a headscarf tied under her chin when she went out but were talking 80's here when I was a little girl.

Oh, we had one of those when I was growing up. It was cream-coloured and the inside of the pull-down flap was something like Formica, white with random black squiggles on it. Long since gone. I always admired them as I thought they were a neat design; they even had little knife slots. I'll have to ask Mum what became of it. Y'now, haven't remembered that for 20+ years............

When I lived at my previous flat, the only kitchen storage was a couple of shelves in a boarded-up fireplace and the walls were too carp to risk attaching things to (1860s house in very poor repair and needing, amongst many other things, a total replaster).

I begged a red Formica-topped cupboard, with sliding doors, from my Nan which had been in her kitchen all my young life but which was demoted to the wash house because her council had installed a fitted kitchen. Was a bit sad that I had to leave it behind. It had a single drawer the width if the unit and sliding doors of plywood. The red Formica top was cross-hatched in lines forming black diamonds.

I've often thought that these retro cupboards have a lot to recommend them, expecially for those of us who are in rented accomodation and can't/ don't want to commit to fitting anything which might get grief from the LL or cause loss of money because you can't take it with you when you move.

Well, better get the brekkie and get ready for t'office. Last minute chnage of plans last night meant my parents are coming up to the city tomorrow and we'll threaten the lottie with cold steel. Although I'm cream-crackered after work, I was thinking along the lines I'd better get up there tonight and tidy it up a bit, can't let them see it like it this.........

Think this is the gardening version of running around tidying the house before your Mum comes over?:p:o

have a good day, peeps, GQ x

fuddle

My grandma didn't have much money at all and I always thought it was strange how she would go to the hair dressers every week for a 'set'. It was a joyous occasion on the weeks when she could get a perm and more fool the person who didn't compliment her when she did so!

Me, well I do take pride in my appearance but I cut my own hair. I is flecked with the early signs of grey and growing. I'm secretly pleased I live in a time when it's socially acceptable to be pretty much au natural. It is in my head anyway

Wanting to investigate Bee keeping. I suspect it's an awful lot of expense to set up and only will lead to heart ache and disappointment but... ah, a little knowledge is a good thing to have huh?

mardatha

Fuddle if you look for RATIONING REVISITED its a blog and also on Facebook - she has 3 young children and is doing wartime food and trying to stick to the rations. I hate cooking but I've done some of the recipes she posted and they work well.
What I loved best in the Farm prog was the tractor and Ruth trying to get it to go :D

VJsmum

paidinchickens wrote: »

Had a bad day yesterday as Hubbies youngest decided rather than going straight to school he would wonder round the estate calling for people :eek: I told him the dangers of this only a few months ago and said I don't mind if he takes his time getting home but in the morning he has to go straight to school and walk down the road everyone walks down as if something happened no one would know until after 4pm. I don't expect the kids to understand the dangers but when hubby doesn't see what the fuss is about it feels like pushing treacle up hill with a fork.


PIC x

Belated happy birthday :T

My kids schools now have a system where we get a text if one of them doesn't arrive for morning registration. We once got a text even though DD had gone on a school overseas visit! You'd think they'd have been informed...

This morning I am going to try and tidy / clean the house. I won't get it all done but I think I will start at the front door and work my way in. My former cleaner is calling for me tonight to go out for a drink, so I don't want her thinking i'm not managing!! :cool: I am hopefully going out for lunch with a girlfriend - get me, quite the social butterfly today - to offload about DD as this morning I am going to enquire about her moving schools. It has only been 4 days but she is hating it and I think if she is going to move she'd better do it quickly. THe school she is at is only 9 miles away but involves 45 minutes on the bus and then a short train. She leaves at 7.20 for an 8.45 start and similar coming home. The one I am looking at is a 10 minute walk away and all her friends are there. I think the biggest factor in me not saying "tough, get on with it" is that she is so calm and rational. She will generally look for the drama in everything but is just calmly saying "I hate it - I have made a mistake". So fingers crossed that there is a space.

In other news, I might go blackberrying again over the weekend. We got a few the other night but I think they aren't quite ripe enough yet. Maybe this late burst of sunshine might help? Trouble is they will have to go in the freezer that I am still desperately trying to empty...

Ho hum pigs bum - time to shift mine, I think.

have a goodun and wish me luck

FairyPrincessk

monnagran wrote: »

Hi all.

Malfiore: Was it you who wanted to know if I had any interesting books about the 40s? Someone did and I can't for the life of me remember who.
.

Ohh, it wasn't me but I'd love to know about interesting books from the 1940s:):j

Possession

Fingers crossed for Miss VJ. It's really hard isn't it? We have to apply for DS's secondary school within the next 2 weeks and I'm constantly re-thinking our decision, particularly as we have the 11+ here which adds another layer of uncertainty!

GreyQueen

Good luck, VJsMum.

On reflection, looking around at the chaos in the flat, if I'm going to fit 3 other people (brother will ride up with the parents) I'd better do some sorting out here.

An hour on the domestic front will show results, an hour on the lottie tonight will make very little improvement.

Housework, it just never goes away, does it? I have loads of ironing too; one shirt, one pillowcase, 3 hankies............