Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

potplant

Love making and mending, so really enjoy reading this thread. There's a lovely website called The Sewing Forum, full of extremely knowledgable and helpful people who I'm sure would be able to help you alter the clothes perfectly - how lovely to have such a windfall!

good_advice

Funny old day. Started off rainy and then sunny. Husband took the dog for a walk and her swim. The mutt has only to see a bit of water and jumps in.
Splashed about in the cannal today. Disturbed all the ducks.....
came home and I gave her a bubble bath and shower. Clean Lab now.

Just thinking... our previous retriever hated water and was to big to lift into the bath. That dog cost us £40 pluss several times a year to go to Pets at home for a shower and groom.

No mending today. I have been on the desk top alot looking for a new compact camera in white or silver. 10-20 zoom.
Sad my old Kodak is now in the bin - after I dropped it on the floor.
Many people now use their phones to take photos. I like my camera and use it often.

Sending good wishes...

GreyQueen

Vhalla, you could call him your inamorato (you'd be his inamorata, the feminine ending, see?). Or your SO (significant other).

Back in my wee flat, letting the washing machine take the strain, pootling around gently drinking tea and sorting some stuff out to go to the chazzer later in the week.

HOWMUCH

vhalla1478 wrote: »

Plough Pudding 4-6 servings

225grams plain flour, 125grams shredded suet, salt and black pepper, 2 chopped onions, 125grams bacon bits, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage and/or parsley, 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar, 125-225grams pure pork sausagemeat (best to take good quality sausages out their skins rather than using cheap sausagemeat)

Mix the flour, suet and a little salt and pepper in a bowl and add enough cold water to make a firm dough. Roll out on a floured surface to make a rectangle about 1cm thick. Mix the onions, bacon, herbs and sugar with the sausagemeat and spread evenly over the suetcrust. Season well, then roll up into a sausage shape. Roll this securely in a well-floured cloth (I use a large, white table napkin) tying the ends with string and plunge into a large pan of boiling water. Cook over a moderate heat for just over 2 hours. Unroll the pudding, put it in a baking dish and bake in the oven at 190 degrees/gas mark 5 for about thirty minutes or until lightly browned. It's fantastic served with redcurrant jelly and cabbage, greens or carrots.

Viv xx

Well this is something I can use the YS Pork(82%) sausagemeat I got for 20p a 500g bag it was reduiced from £2.50 in Sainsburys they had loads just after the new year so I got 10 my daughter had 4 off me. Thanks Viv

Oh and the aran for DGS is coming on a treat the back and the right side is finished not sure if I will put an open ended zip in or buttons.
I should get it finished this week as he has gone to stay with his dad until Thursday so my 2 half days and evenings will be straight home after work. I miss him when he goes we've been a big part of his life since he was born as our daughter was very ill and in hospital and too ill to look after him. I stayed in the hospital with her for a week and then came home with the baby and she stayed there. So when she came home he was sleeping through and in a routine. She had swelling of the brain after the epidural. She has made a full recovery and returned to work when he was 6 months old to continue her training as a GP.

HOWMUCH

Hello and welcome to all the newbie peeps, just caught up on the reading since I was last on.

cheerfulness4

Hi everyone, and lovely to see all the new posters. Kitty, so pleased to see this thread is helping you feel more confident with moving on since being poorly.


Viv - could he be called DB= dearly beloved?


knittingcathy- I've had a nip on youtube and lifelines are really very clever, although I think I'll follow better when I have the sound up (DH watching Mr Selfridge so I'm on mute). I've never heard of this before and I've been knitting since a little girl and I'm 51 now!
Got totally distracted by the lovely lacy designs in the patterns.


I've browsed The Sewing Forum, too, Potplant. I discovered it a while back and find it very interesting. Glad you reminded me of it because I've not been on recently.


I'm not a fellow boater like Elisa but I also was wondering something Silva. What colour is your boat? When you finish scraping it down do you paint it then or is it tar type stuff? I know nothing about boats.


Well today was a NSD for me. About time too. I'm off to a little market in the next town with DH and mum & dad tomorrow so I wanted a little money on hand in case I spot something nice while there. Love a market!


DAY 15

Money Spent Today - £0 Vouchers Spent - £0
Money Spent in Total - £41.67 Vouchers Spent in Total - £0
Money left in purse - £3.33 - Float left- £2.08/£15
Jan non-foods left- £1.85/£15



Good Advice, did you pick your camera in the end. Annoying as it is to break something like that, it also might be quite fun choosing a new one. (the shopaholic in me coming out!)


Oh and knitting update - finally going the right way again. Don't ask me for how long, though. I'm usually so good at knitting, too. Can't think whats got into me.
I definitely blame the telly and daren't pick it up tonight while Call The Midwife was on. It occurred to me that I'm at the same place now as I was the week before last while I was watching it, I think. :cool:

Rose_Wood

Evening Everyone

I thought you might like to see a quick project I did this evening as I had a spare hour. I turned an old striped jumper into a bag. I had tried felting the jumper by boiling it but it didn't shrink so I think it didn't have a high enough wool blend. However, I thought I'd turn it into a bag anyhow. I just cut the sleeves off and rolled and hand-stitched them for handles and then cut off the main part of the jumper under the neck and ran a seam across whilst I had my sewing machine out. The top of the bag is the ribbing turned over and machined as it was quite deep and the handles were then hand stitched on.



Rose

Lynplatinum

Evening folks

Hi Kitty - welcome :j

I have found these folk very inspiring too - am seriously impressed with Jackie O's NSDs - amazing - why is there always somat that I need?

Well - tidied spare room! Shoved rubbish into box room. This is not good as it could lurk behind the door for months, no I lie - its years since son left home and there is still stuff of his left in there!!!!:eek:

Stuff that had been in the spare room - acting as an attranctant for random dust with no where else to live!!

Hoovered and made bed - serious polishing will happen tomorrow so nice smell of lavender polish will remain!! (Also back was starting to hurt).
But to compensate - I have taken 3 bags of rubbish to the tip and gone for a walk with a friend today and put my hyacinths out to acclimatise before I plant them. (Each year, after the Christmas decs go down I have a bowl of hyacinths growing where the Christmas tree sits - makes the place seem less bare and reminds me that spring is on the way!

Now, I ve noticed dust that is gathering behind a radiator in Miss Haversham-like swathes - and that the lamp shades need a dust!! How much do I normally go about my business not noticing these things?? My house is not a pig sty - honestly - in fact I often get comments like 'I dont know how you work and keep your house so clean and tidy' but when some one is coming to stay it puts all of one's little unnoticed corners and strange habits under scrutiny (thats me self criticising not my guest!)

Does anyone else do this?????

BTW - NSD today - yea! Also several items not just lined up for decluttering but actually OUT of the house - gone!! (double yea!)

Happy MMM day tomorrow folks!

janb5

JackieO wrote: »

I only like bran flakes for cereal and found that the Aldee ones are pretty good and are only about 80p odd a box.The box gets decanted into a storage box anyway then the cardboard goes in my small stash for DGS school projects :):) the lining paper is used in lining a tin when I make a cake so nothing gets wasted in my house.

The 'Dorma ' brand was fantastic and I have a pair of pink striped sheets that I bought in Kennards in Croydon in the 1960s for my eldest DD when she moved from a cot to a single bed to make ways for her new baby sister.I still have the bed ( a passed on one from a friends cousin, whose five sons had slept in it and was bought pre-war ) and the sheets which cost me then around a fiver. Which I saved for with my 8/-(40p) a week family allowance that started when my second child was born. £5.00 was quite a bit of cash in those days when my housekeeping was £8.10.00.(£8.50p)

The bed is an iron frame with lattice diamond pattern open fret base and wooden head and tail board. I have over the years changed the mattress and its in my spare room, and is one of the most comfortable beds you could sleep in.

It was bought in 1934, and had as I said five different boys in it then came to me in the 1960s and both of my children have used it over the years and now anyone who stays the night gets to sleep in it and everyone says how comfortable it is .

I sometimes sleep in the spare room in the summer as its at the back of the house and is a lot cooler in the evening.The sheets I washed this week, as last weekend my sis-in-law was down and stayed for the weekend. They are as good as the day I bought them, even though they have been washed countless times over the years.One of my 'best buys' and every time I wash them I remember my eldest DD getting so excited about being a 'big girl' with a grown up bed :):) She is 48 this year :) and a wee bit bigger than she was then with two grown up children of her own now :):)
My DDs said 'never get rid of the bed Mum as it reminds us of growing up' I wouldn't anyway as its a perfectly good bed and mad to last ,well it had for over 80 years now, I wonder how many other folk have got passed on things that are still servicable.My ironing board is a huge 'Beldray ' one that I got with saved green shield stamps in the 1970s and is still fine,if a bit heavy to carry around :):)but then I was a lot more agile 45 years ago:):)

Jackie- is your bed a Vono bed as it sounds just like mine? Just to say that the inner liner from the cereal packet is great for keeping uncut bread fresh or for putting sandwiches in- seems to stay fresher longer. xx

silvasava

elisamoose She's a 21ft Westerley - about 40 years old. She's been sailed single handed by a man so although she's sound and up together she's still virtually original below deck!! Some serious updating required. I'm a novice sailor so at the moment she'll only be sailed locally this season.
The 'gang' on here have seen my first attempt at recovering so I'll wait to post the pictures when I've finished the lot!!

Re Beds - I had my single bed from home when I got married (for the spare room!!) I don't know where my mum got it from but it was still going strong when I passed it on so that must have been the best part of 60 years old & yes - it was a Vono - with a mesh mattress support with springs going to bars underneath. I remember loaning it to a friend who's husband fractured his spine & spent weeks recovering - must have done the trick 'cos he's fine now!
They don't make them like they used to