Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

jinny

Morning
Thanks for all the dpn encouragement and tips
I'm determined to master knitting with min bagpipes!! Lol
My grannie knitted my dads socks with pure wool as the nylon irritated his feet and made them itch.
I remember her little pattern book. It had patterns for knitted underwear!!!!!
I've been advised merino wool is a compromise for wool
It's expensive but you don't need much to knit up a pair.
I'm more looking forward to honing my darning skills
thanks to Grey queens tutorial.
When my kids were little my aunt used to knit them sweaters.
I thought hand knits made kids look cared for. They got to an age though when they hated hand knitted sweaters.
I know you can buy some lovely fine socks but I want a transportable hobby so socks fit the bill as well as being useful.
I crochet everywhere waiting rooms and buses ect
I find it medative. It isn't very relaxing learning dpns
Grr but I got there.

I'm only 4ft 11and 3/4 too
My mother was only 4ft 10.

vhalla1478

Good morning All,

I'm obviously totally rubbish at visualising what you all look like; Lynplatinum, I had you down as an athletic blonde lady of about 5 foot 6 inches with very thick blonde hair - There must have been a resonance with a girl called Lynn that I went to school with!

Prinzessilein, what a good idea to use yoghurt instead of mayonnaise - I'm going to try that after I buy 'new' vegetables on Monday.

Kittym one last stab at visualisation - are you soft and sweet with enormous eyes and everyone wants to pet you??!!

Cheerfulness, I had to smile about your mentioning concocting meals out of odd ingredients. When I came back from Swaziland in the mid 1980s with two children and a mortgage to support on my own, for lunch when they were at school, to save money, quite often I used to have onion rings with spaghetti and if I was feeling flush there would be a sprinkling of cheese on the top!

We've been talking about 'nice' films; this is really an obscure one and you do have to be prepared to read the sub-titles as it is in Danish (it won an Oscar as the best foreign film some years ago) but it is a lovely film, slow, but a wonderful story, called 'Babette's Feast'; I really recommend it. The original story was written by Isaac Dinesen, the pseudonym of Baroness Blixen the heroine of 'Out of Africa' (although, having read her biography she turns out to have be not so nice as portrayed by Meryl Streep), another of my favourite films although I generally cry when I see it as Kenya looks so much like Swaziland. A last film for now, how many of you enjoyed 'Gosford Park?' I loved the mixture of an Agatha Christie type mystery and a huge gathering of almost every British actor of a certain generation!

I really must go and get organised, bed to make, ironing to put away, food to organise for tomorrow night, before I can even think of sewing. Talking of food, I'll put a recipe on later - if the weather continues to improve it will be lighter dishes soon. By the way, I've never heard of this 5:2 diet?

Viv xx

[Deleted User]

Good Morning chums ,bright and sunny here in the Garden of England :)I shall be pottering around this morning generally tidying up before the weekend,then this afternoon I am off to history to learn the ins and outs of the Battle of Sedgemoor. Our tutor is such good fun, and we have such a laugh I enjoy every bit of my Friday afternoon history club.

DGS Henry had his parents night as has suprised us all,all of his teachers are so pleased at what a polite, and very bright little lad he is. Dad and Mum looked at each other and said 'Our Henry?
This is the little boy who makes Just William look like Mary Poppins. Apparently his homework is neat and his handwriting easy to read and all of his homework is not only turned in on time, but beautifully handwritten.No copy and pasting done in a rush for Henry.He researches every subject properly, and shines at each one His Geography and History teachers are argueing over him as they both want him in their GCSE class and he will have his options soon

I am so pleased as he is a good kind-hearted lad, if a bit noisy at times, and besotted with football like most 13 year olds.He has always seemed to have walked in his next brother's up Jack's shadow as Jack is very bright and catches on to things very quickly and easily .Everyone thought Henry was a bit of a plodder when it came to schoolwork but apparently not :):)So this weekend I will treat Henry to something nice for working so hard ,not sure what it will be yet but hard work deserves a decent pat on the back.
Children are a never ending source of amazement at times ,but I have faith in them all and they all have a good work ethic instilled by Dad and Mum which is invaluble I think.
NSD today or tomorrow then Sunday will be the start of a brand new month so the budget starts all over again.Well done to those getting on with dpns,they can be confusing but if you have a couple of corks one on each end helps sometimes.My late Mum taught me to make socks and turn heels and much as I enjoy knitting and can make most things and follow even a complicated pattern(i used to make fair-isle jumpers)Nothing would induce me to knit another sockOne thing I would happily go out and buy :):)
Right time to get a wriggle on Have a good day chums what ever you are doing
JackieO xxx

oldtractor

some kindred spirits here! Issac Dineson books and the Chalet school!

vhalla1478

Hi again, just popped back on to say have a wonderful meal out, Cheerfulness; I empathise with you, when there are financial difficulties, the thought of it is always lurking in the back of your mind, getting in the way of living. And the sleepless nights! You both deserve a treat - Enjoy!!

Hello, oldtractor - I'm not even going to try to visualise you at the moment; my imagination is most definitely boggling. Are we all around the same generation as we seem to have cultural tastes in common or maybe just kindred spirits?

Viv xx

kittym

Morning all

Thanks Ches and Lynplatinum for the tip with bicarb. I bought a bargain second hand air vax lightweight cylinder vacuum for £10 after managing to blow my other one up the other week. I never thought about bicarb luckily I have some in the cupboard so will give it a try just know.

Vhalla my DD describes me as bagpuss as she says that I am soft, cuddly and slow to go due to arthritis. I am in truth 5"6 with long curly brown and grey hair. I do have big brown eyes and I am definitely cuddly, but it was all bought and paid for by me. lol !

Well I'm off to give the bicarb a go. Hope you all have a lovely day xxx

GreyQueen

I've just done some re-organisation inside my food cupboard (a double wall unit which is pretty shallow) using cut-down scrounged wine bottle boxes, the kind which each hold 6 bottles, from the supermarket.

Lookin' pretty good in there now, and many things which were prone to fall about the place are now neatly corsetted by cardboard to stay where they're blimmin' well put. And no money spent on containers, either.

Plus I've found a tin of spaghetti (must've mistaken it for baked beans when shopping ) which I didn't recall having, so will be having that on toast for lunch, then hitting the street to go to the allotment. I'm pretty knackered but the greengrocer tells me weather is supposed to be rainy tomorrow and today is gloriously sunny, so I shall re-jig my plans for these next 2 days to take advantage.

vhalla1478

Hi again, Everyone,

I'm just sitting down with a drink after lunch before I start work on my rug. I'm experimenting with the bread machine today - there was a recipe on the side of the wholemeal flour bag, meant to be done in the old-fashioned way without a bread machine but the hardware that looks like a bicycle chain inside my arm and elbow prevents me from having the muscle to knead by hand so I've adapted it and will post it later if successful.

In the meantime, here's a lovely, light recipe - you can halve this if these quantities are too much. I'm making it for tomorrow night as we're having a three course meal and it's nice and refreshing.

Steamed Lemon Mousse - 4 servings

6 eggs, separated, 150 grams butter, 150 grams granulated sugar, grated rind and juice of a lemon.

Put the egg yolks, butter, sugar, lemon juice and grated lemon rind in the top of a double saucepan or in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water. Stir with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens; it mustn't boil or the eggs will scramble. The secret is to keep the water underneath only just simmering and to stir until the mixture reaches custard thickness and no longer. Remove from the heat and continue to stir until cold (this takes less time than you would expect - a few minutes.

Stiffly whisk the egg whites and fold them into the mixture. Turn into a buttered or oiled (vegetable - not olive oil, it has too pronounced a taste for this dish) pudding basin, then cover the basin with a plate or a cap of foil. Stand the basin in a saucepan with about an inch of gently boiling water in the bottom. Cover the pan itself and steam for about an hour or until the mousse is firm.

Leave to cool, then invert onto a plate or dish and decorate with thin lemon slices round the base - however it tastes just as good without doing that!

I must get on with the washing up and then a couple of hours on the rug. I'm in awe of all you ladies who knit - I can knit but it seems rather tedious to have to make the fabric before you can sew it! I love to see hand-made knitted items, though. Ps managed to get some wadding from daughter-in-law so I'll maybe tackle the prototype of my double oven glove later as well.

Viv xx

nursemaggie

Cheerfulness your not littlies you and JackieO. Sorry to disappoint you Lynplatinum I'm the littl'un only 4 ft 9in.

I have shoulder length white hair and wear glasses. Thanks to NBI thread I have lost 6kg since December.

I listened to 84 Charingcross Road on Woman's hour must be about 30 years ago.

As for fellers Horace and Sailor Sam are both women.

good_advice

Hello make do, mend and minimize MSE's
Just having a coffee and reading through the last few pages.

Bit shocked at Gray Queen being nearly 6ft tall.
I just put a biro mark on the wall above my head and yep! still the same 5"5". Got the tape measure out of my knitting bag.

I keep bussey doing bits and bobs around the home.
Yesterday I had the slow cooker on for a veggi casserole. DD is vegetarian. In went diced potatoes, carrots, parsnips and leaks. Made a tomato sauce. Cooked for 5 hours on low. Tasted delicious and DD was pleased as low in calories.
Then we had lemon jelly and icecream a bit later.

Making do - I cut my own hair. chopped about 2" off the bottom. It was getting a bit long. Now back to shoulder length. DD checked it over and tided the straight line a bit. Not that it matters to much as I nearly always tie it back/up.

I have been minimising today with the paper shreader and recycle bin. Tossing out some papers we no longer need.
I do not keep old out of date bills/papers.

My new camera has arived! Small and light. Quite compact. Just right for a coat pocket or bag.
It is a white Sony DSC-WX350 with 20x zoom.
I bought a new girly pink case from Amazon for it. The case has a lanyard string so can go around my neck when out just walking with no bag.