Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

cheerfulness4

Well done on those bargains, Misstara. They never reduce the apple turnovers at ours. My brother treated me to a fresh cream apple turnover on Saturday. YUM!

Viv, once you start browsing those plants you'll need willpower of steel. I could buy everything. There are such beautiful things to be found. The clematis I'm waiting for looks so pretty.
I'm still looking online today but we've spent enough this weekend.
DH has just treated me to a lovely bamboo. Its never going in the ground as I've seen what supposedly non-intrusive ones can get up to once planted but this will reside in a metal container and get potted on.

Silva, Sarah Bernhardt is on my watch list on ebay.

Having a break from all the work. Out elder neighbours are intrigued and have decided to have a sort of their garden structures today but are getting in a pickle with the lifting so DH has said he'll nip over the fence once they had their cuppa.
Isn't it nice when we're all out enjoying the sun and getting some gardening done. The elderly man next door was dying to know what was in our grow bags and was delighted when he found out they were all potatoes. He seems to have fond memories in the day of growing his own tatties.


Prinzess- your posts about you and your mum sharing meals etc sound so cosy.

good_advice

Do I need it? can I use it? or throw it out then!
Today oh and I are dedicating today to decluttering/minimising ONCE AGAIN!
Have done this the last few springs.

Getting near the time when we will be empty nesters and will be left with photos and memories. Visiting family.
Sad to see things go, pass things on and CH the unwanted
BUT it has to be done once in a wile.

Rosanna79

Hello Viv, My domestic science / needlework teacher was called Miss Chapell, pronounced Sha-pelle (although her uncle , a dustbin man in a nearby market town was allegedledly called plain Chapel! ) In recent times I've heard that these teachers had such a hard time in the school staffrooms from other teachers because theirs were not academic subjects that they went into their classrooms and made the pupils' lives hell. I've heard from many other women my age group- I'm 66 -of very similar experiences of needlework etc teachers during their schooldays. Although this may be an explanation it does not excuse the appalling impact on the more sensitive/ nervous child. Although I have made some of my own clothes I've recently contemplating enrolling in a dressmking class to upgrade my skills-my craft teacher doesn't do clothes-but even now 50+ years later the fallout of those school years remains with me. Whilst I was doing a rag rug making course with my current craft teacher one of her colleagues joined the class as a student. She taught dressmaking and just being in the same classroom I picked up the same nitpicking /intolerant vibes as all those years ago. My craft teacher confirmed my assessment of this other teacher's approach so I avoided enrolling in our L/A classes! However a recently opened fabric shop which has a coffee shop and runs classes seemed to be a more possible option? I do wonder how many other women from our era have been seriously hampered from developing the practical skills in make do and mend as a result . Once I began to believe in the possibility that I could actually recycle/up cycle and make things it was amazing what I was able to do! My craft teacher somehow helped to switch on my creativity and the ideas keep coming! She simply does not see me as a clumsy clot and even though I can struggle and may need a few attempts to do something, inevitably I do eventually manage whichever project I'm working on.

vhalla1478

Hi again,

Yes, it's appalling, isn't it Rosanna, how these teachers behaved towards pupils they were supposed to be nurturing. I do remember now, that the sewing and domestic science teachers were the only ones without gowns (ie no university degrees at morning asembly )- and boy, did they take it out on the pupils. We used to have a double needlework lesson, first thing on a Monday morning, and one particular girl was nearly always off school that morning, she was bullied so badly by the sewing teacher. The fact that we were the 'academic' class probably made it worse. But good for you that you've overcome it.

Cheerfulness, guess who has a huge basket of gardening goodies waiting to be paid for??! I'm going to leave it in there until tomorrow morning to see if sense prevails (fat chance).

The weather has at last cleared so now I am going to get rid of some of that chalk! And, as it's lighter in the evenings I'm going to get on with my rug later which I've shamefully neglected these last few weeks.

Viv xx

Hard_Up_Hester

My needlecraft teacher made me redo all my sewing as i'm left handed and she insisted I sewed with my right hand. It's fortunate that my mother had a sewing machine & let me use it, otherwise I may never have sewn again!
Hester

GreyQueen

My domestic science/ needlework teacher was a total beyatch. Years after leaving school I bumped into her working as a supervisor at a factory where I was a summer temp. Still a total beyatch............:(

zaxdog

Off sick from work with a rotten cough/chest infection.

BUT I did make enough salt for the next few months and a batch of lemon salt for when Mr Zaxdog brings home the fish he catches.

MMM'd by having a NSD. Turkey chilli from freezer, frozen rice packs a freebie from work. Mended a crochet blanket and hung out in the sun to air :j

silvasava

I thought it was just me that had a harridan for a domestic science/needlework teacher. Mine was also a total b**CH In my last year we changed teachers and I came top in needlework ( 'cos I'd topstiched my cuffs!) I was so gobsmacked I asked my teacher if she'd made a mistake!!! I was always bottom with the previous one. Luckily my mum sewed so it didn't scar me for life but I'm still not a confident cook although no one at home complains lol

maryb

you should try being taught needlework/domestic science by a nun:eek: There were three of them and I had, at various times, the two who were lacking in sympathy

But I had to board after my parents died and I was stuck at school one half term because I couldn't go to my sister's. I never minded that because there were only a handful of us, we used to have the run of the place and they gave us nice food to make it up to us.

I was bored so I asked Sister Pauline (the one who wasn't a harridan) if she would show me how to make a dress. I went to Bon Marche (which had a cashier in a little booth with whizzy wires overhead for the assistants to send you bill and money) and bought a pattern (Maudella, I seem to recall) and some cotton and took it back. She showed me what to do and, bless her, never batted an eyelid at how short I wanted it. That kindled a love of sewing that has lasted ever since

luxor4t

I seem to have been very lucky, two of the school's three school needlework teachers were very good.
There was a snobbery about subjects like cookery, needlework etc in our former grammar school turned comprehensive, in those days (early 70s) and if you were seen as academic you were steered towards subjects like Latin, German or Economics for O-levels.


I was well taught at home by my mother & granny and made many of my own clothes. Later I voluntarily asked my favourite 'Domestic Science' teacher for a few extra lessons to fill a gap in my 6th form timetable, and found myself doing an embroidery course that lead to the old CSE qualification as well as the A-levels. Loved it!