Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

GQ such good news re your water - thank goodness they got in! Phew!

welcome Jonesy - all v helpful and friendly lot on here - hope I ve spelt you correctly - spelling isnt my strong point!:o

Prinzessilein - I had to kneel down and get the hight of my skirt measured too!!!!!!!!!!!! i thought it was just our rather old fashioned deputy headmistress!! Every Wed morning, after whole school assembly the boys would be sent out and we girls would have to kneel down on the floor and female staff would patrol the rows measuring the hight of skirt above knee and checking to see that we had bottle green school knickers on (uniform was also bottle green with an horrible hat!!) Looking back - in some ways I cant blame them - once out of school the 'in' crowd (of which, needless to say, I was never a part) would roll the waistbands up until you could nearly see their underwear as they walked. young girls still do this today! I knew I was getting old the first time I thought 'they catch their death' (of cold) :rotfl:

Well keeping to this diet and it is supposed to give one more energy - today I mowed the lawn; teak oiled the garden bench; read another chapter; got rid of or actioned 1/3 of my v full e-mail box (I dont deal with this @ night cos when Im tired I make mistakes - I know you lot will forgive me but you cant do that with business e-mails!); made a cake; saw a client; made some business phone calls and cooked meself a nice, healthy tea!! I will let you know the weight loss (or not) tomorrow night as am trying to only weigh myself once a week!

My friend is coming for coffee tomorrow am and will force most of the rest of the cake on her! Half of it went today to my client and her mum - they are really going through it at the moment with health worries and exam worries for the student. Bless em.
Must do more e-mails tomorrow!
Nite all - may you MMM tomorrow! Frugal dreams!

meritaten

OMG! I had a gabardine mack! I think it lasted me about the four years I was in Secondary school as mum bought it 'to grow into'. Sadly I didn't grow much! Still haven't! and it was unfashionable even then.
we didn't have school skirt inspections - but mini skirts were just coming into fashion and we all did the 'roll up the waistband bit' to walk to school, and then home again. not forgetting to roll them back down again while on school property and at home!
I don't know about other schools but our schools 'gym clothes' were our white blouses and our navy school knickers! until one year we had builders in and they kept whistling and calling out 'suggestions' while we were playing netball............our gym teacher wisely suggested we kept our skirts on - and had to do battle with the rest of the teaching staff who wanted 'tradition' to carry on! I loved that teacher - she was strict, but she was the kindest woman, and quite sensible for a teacher!


oh and the flower loom thingy has saved me loads of money! the little flowers I have made with it, and used to embellish knits and even the grandgirls trainers, look brilliant in different yarns, ribbons or even string! Paid for itself now and even saved me money. and its so much fun! (I think I need to 'get a life'?)

auntymabel

De-lurking to reminisce. We got detention if caught without a beret so we used to backcomb our hair at the front clip on our beret folded in half or quarter and comb over the backcombed hair. the beret was barely visible but technically complied with regulations.

kittym

Morning all, I'm in the wide awake club this morning.

Over did it the other day planting gooseberries, currents and dwarf apple trees which I had grown in pots as my old house didn't have a garden. I am not much of a gardener unlike some of you on here, however I like the fact that I can totally switch off and not worry about paying bills, what's for tea, hospital visits etc, but I need to remember that I can't do what I used to. (stubborn b*gger) that I am. :rotfl:

I had to wear straw hat in the summer and a bowler type in the winter and was forced to wear my hair in bunches :eek: not a good look when your a tom boy.

Not much MMM has taken place of late, and march's budget is totally out of the window. (To much temptation) I'm a devil when it comes to book shops, DD is the same. We have to go in, there's just something about them.

Well looks like it's time for a cup of char, have a lovely day what ever your up to. xx

P.S. any chance Vhalla that I can be cast as an Alice Tinker type character. Emma Chambers is her real name and she was best known for her role alongside Dawn French in the vicar of Dibley. Alice's character is me to a T. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

GreyQueen

Morning all.

I have no water coming through my ceiling, and that's a happy situation. I shall really appreciate being able to get my flat straightened out, the cupboard contents' barfed all over the other very limited space is rather trying, to put it mildly.

Jonesy88, hello and welcome to the the thread, looking forward to having you amongst us. We've got a lot of life experience between us and, if you pose some specific questions, I'm sure our collective brain power will be able to find the answers.

One thing you will find with a 100 y.o. old house as opposed to a 9 y.o. one, is that you will have lime plaster instead of gypsum plaster. Modern plaster looks pinkish on the skim layer, brown for the backing plaster underneath. Lime plaster was its predecessor and is a dirty white all the way through. It is very difficult to partially replaster a wall in modern and lime plaster, and when lime plaster gets knackered, it crumbles like breadcrumbs. You may well pull it off the wall by stripping wallpaper.

Indeed, if you are going to be stripping wall paper, I would highly-recommend NOT using a steamer and doing it old-school with a sponge and scraper. I've been booking repairs on thousands of houses for a decade and convos with tenants who have had their plaster come off in chunks usually reveal that steamers were being used at the time. Of course, plaster can just 'die' as they call it in the trade and spontaneously fall off the wall, even if you're sitting there watching telly.

I used to do DIY in a house I rented part of, built in the 1850s. Every darned little job caused about 6 others. But it had good bones and was worth it. But I flippin' hate lime plaster.

Oh, and another thing to watch out for is distemper. Not the dog disease, but a predecessor painting product to emulsion. Very commonly used on ceilings, less common on walls. It was inferior to emulsion and became obsolete but some b*ggers from the council used it on the ceilings of my parents' home before it was re-let in 1970 and we spent years wondering why the emulsion wouldn't stay nice until as an adult I read about distemper in a decorating book and the penny dropped.

Had to wash it off with rags and hot water, to get it all off right down to the plaster board, then emulsioned it. Ceilings I did this to 20 years ago are still flawless and haven't needed repainting since. When you scrub at a distempered ceiling with a wet rag, it goes to a greyish slime. You can't decorate over it, you need it off.

Oh, and look up lath-and-plaster ceilings as you may well have those.

vhalla1478

Morning All,

Welcome, Jonesy; hope you continue to post with us - everyone here is so interesting.

Those school memories are coming back thick and fast!

Meritaten, for gym we had to wear something called 'Bukta' shorts - the trade name, I suppose; they were like a short hairy divided skirt, worn for hockey and outdoor games and according to mum, incredibly expensive. I went to the local grammar school and my headmistress had delusions of grandeur, I think. Our school summer dresses had to be made of the same incredibly expensive material as Roedean or some such place with white pique collars. I must admit, though that the material never seemed to wear out and it had to be starched or you were in trouble: as you were if you didn't wear your bowler when in uniform. All it taught us to do was be sneaky. And as far as having a gabardine coat that one would grow into - I went through the same agony and looked like Dopey from the seven dwarves as although I reached my full height of 5 foot and eight and an eighth inches at 13 I never did grow into that d...ed coat. I think I rolled up my school skirt (gymslips until you were in the third year and then skirts), not so much because minis were in, rather that I would have tripped over it otherwise. It's a wonder we weren't all traumatised for life.

GreyQueen, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief for you; hope you're sorted completely soon. Your remarks about distemper also brought back memories of childhood. We had an outside loo and it was distempered. The paint bubbled off the walls and I spent the time I was in there, popping the bubbles - a forerunner of popping bubble wrap! The last house I lived in before going to Venezuela was a conversion of an orangery attached to the local manor house - the wallpaper kept the lime plaster intact in places. And my 16th century cottage had to be re-plastered in lime at a ridiculous cost.

Right, Folks, this is not getting the ironing done. Have a good day; speak later.

Viv xx

Oops -why is this bit underneath?

Kittym, I loved Alice Tinker in the Vicar of Dibley, I thought she was a most endearing character- I'll remember to put it down on the cast list.

Well done with your MMM, Lynn, that's what I do with cake etc - give it away!

Prinzessilein

Morning all!


Bright and cold here this morning.


I am fasting today - (I am on 5:2) - and also using up all my odds-and-sods of veggies...so it should be a nice cheap day food wise! I have just enjoyed a very tasty omelette (with 2 slices of wafer thin ham and some left over carrots, broccoli and green beans mixed in) for breakfast....I will spiralize and apple and some cucumber for 'lunch' ....and then it is veggie bake tonight.....(it is surprising sometimes just how MUCH you can eat for 500 calories!)


I will have to be strong though....off to Morrisons this morning! I really need to stick firmly to my list.....which is mainly milk, a few fresh veggies, and some dried fruit (for Easter Bread) ...I also need honey but will get that in town later this week.....oh and some mints. I usually keep a jar of mints for when I NEED something sweetish, and the supplies are running low....,..Main thing is - I will not go past the bakery in Morrisons!


I had a small Turkey Roast on Sunday (bought short-date coded and tucked into the freezer some weeks ago...love the freezer!) ...the pack said 'serves 2-3.'...seriously?...I make 4 -5 meals out of it! (and I don't have the smallest appetite!)....Honestly, I don't see how people could eat half of that in one sitting!


Off to do a spot of dusting before my driver arrives to go shopping....have a good day folks!

oldtractor

silvasava wrote: »

Haven't seen the new format - I like the one we've got! Just chuckling about the old school uniforms. I'd love to know who decided we should wear grey berets with a long blue tassel on the crown - just right for the boys school next door to play Frisbee with them. We also had to make our domestic science aprons in our needlework classes - heavy white cotton that was edged in gingham in your house colour - different times eh

some of the new format came up last night . I dont like it its not as clear.

misstara

Another one here who saw the new format yesterday and wasn't impressed. I couldn't find anything properly and was very glad when I went on later and it had gone back to normal.

I'm just getting packed at the moment ready for traveling back up the road, my wee holiday is over

Rose_Wood

Morning All

I missed the new format as was busy all day yesterday. In some of my spare minutes I tried dyeing an old jersey sheet with old tea bags in order to create a suitable skin tone to make an Asian looking doll for DDiL's shop but it is far too pale so will have to think again.

I got a good bargain from the charity shop the other day. I've put my blue patchwork quilt into my guest room so wanted to change the colour of the curtains and bedding which were shades of pink and cream. I found a pair of curtains exactly the right size and in the same design as the ones that were up but in blue and white - for £4. And to make it even better there was a matching duvet cover for another £4 in the same shop. There were no matching pillowslips sadly but I have put plain white ones on the bed. They don't show under the quilt anyhow and I can always trim them with some fabric that matches the patchwork quilt or embroider a couple of flowers on them. I had a spare lampshade in white that I got as a pair from Freecycle a while ago so was able to use that too. So I was very pleased especially as I had a blue jug with blue and white flowers in it that I'd found in a charity shop a few weeks ago that goes perfectly. So a brand new guest room for around a tenner.

I'm itching to do some more sewing but need more fabric first. I might have a quick trawl of the local charity shop this afternoon to see if I can find any suitable t-shirts I can cannibalise although I ought to do some ironing and housework first!

Rose