Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Swampmonster

I was wondering if anyone could help me.

I've got a pair of leather boots that are a little too tight round the toes for me, so I bought some leather stretch spray from po*ndworld but im really not sure how to use it.

Hope you don't mind me asking.

Thank you in advance

Skintmama

Hope people don't mind my contribution but I was so excited that I couldn't keep my latest mending exploit to myself:j
Some years ago I got a sofa from Refurnish but all the zips were broken on the cushions. I have been managing by trying to arrange them so that this did not show. This worked fine as long as no-one sat on it!

Anyway, inspired by this thread I thought that there must be a way- short of replacing all the zips. Thanks to a YouTube tutorial I spent a happy afternoon tussling with pliers and the zips. All are now closing nicely and it looks pretty good. I feel great as I am trying to make my home look better with minimum spending involved.

Thank you all for the tips that you share so freely.

GreyQueen

:T Well done, skintmama. The sense of mastery, as well as the money saved, is very exciting and you should be pleased of yourself.

I've just spent some time on the pooter with Word and the 'table' function, creating the credit and debit pages for my 2016 diary. I have bought a certain charity's diary for about 15 years which has these, so went and got one ready for 2016, got it home and found out they'd reformatted the insides minus these pages.

Which was a deal-breaker for me as this is how I organise my finances so I took it back the same day and got a refund. But I was still minus a diary of the right kind, and the nearest match was £5.99 in WH Smiff.

Left it there thinking I'd wait and see if it's reduced closer to 2016 then suddenly had a LBM; I could modify the freebie diary I'd been given for work into my everyday diary and then pick up a small diary for 50p in January to be my workplace diary.

Have printed off the pages and will stick them in later on. And have them saved on the pooter so if I ever want to do this again, it'll be even faster.

I have also minimised my household by a big bag for the charity shop and had a light supper of cheese toastie and soup as didn't feel like eating a full meal (have eaten plenty earlier in the day).

All is well in my world. Hope everyone is happily MMM-ing.

meritaten

swampmonster - the way leather stretchers usually work is that you spray them on the leather, stuff the shoe tightly with newspaper to stretch it then leave it to dry completely overnight. the next day you can take the newspaper out and try the shoe/boot on. if it still hasn't stretched enough you can repeat the process. (never forgetting that leathers stretches slightly with wear anyway). please be very careful with the spray - if you can spray on the inside surface its best, as 'treated' leathers can sometimes be marked by these sprays!

Swampmonster

meritaten wrote: »

swampmonster - the way leather stretchers usually work is that you spray them on the leather, stuff the shoe tightly with newspaper to stretch it then leave it to dry completely overnight. the next day you can take the newspaper out and try the shoe/boot on. if it still hasn't stretched enough you can repeat the process. (never forgetting that leathers stretches slightly with wear anyway). please be very careful with the spray - if you can spray on the inside surface its best, as 'treated' leathers can sometimes be marked by these sprays!

Thank you for that.

That's really helpful :A

charlies-aunt

If the spray isn't effective - try the cheapskate method of stretching shoes - try putting a water filled bag in the section that you want to stretch and pop them in the freezer for a couple of days. As the water freezes, it expands - gently and uniformly stretching the leather....virtually free too!

misstara

Hello all

silvasava thanks for putting up the link for the petition - have signed it.

Been super busy working, not had time for much else. Stopped in at M&S on the way home from work and got some good YS bargains, obviously hit it at the right time. £7 spent and got 2 packs sausages, tatties, parsnips, gf pancakes, a gf cake and some normal bread for OH.

Having a rock and roll Friday evening - gf bread made, cleaning done, washing and ironing done, more wardrobe clearing out. Roll on next Friday, I've got a girls night out planned . Hope everyone has a great weekend.

meritaten

lol - there is totally free way of stretching leather boots to fit! every ex army man knew this.........you Pee in your boots then sleep in them! might work for squaddies, but I don't think 'ladies' would like this!

silvasava

Evening All

Bedrooms Hoovered & dusted and a small job Kondo'd - puss brought in a bird last year up to the bedroom and I managed to get it off her and put it out the window as it was still alive. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed there was blood on one of the vanesof my vertical blind and when I did see it I couldn't get all of it off. II had an lbm and switched the vane to the end nearest the wall so its out of sight now!
Kitchen cleaned & floor & skirtings Kondo'd of dust & grime so feeling a bit self satisfied!
Thanks to everyone who took the time to sign the petition - every little helps

meritaten

not sure if this is a make do or making the most of a disaster!
did onions carrots and potatoes for corned beef hash and drained the veg (and yes I keep the stock - makes great stock for cooking faggots) and mashed it .......and the potatoes went watery and the carrots were hard despite being cooked for an hour! Ye Gods! added the corned beef in the hopes it would thicken it up.........rofl, nope! so OH had a bowl of very sloppy Corned Beef Hash which had to be eaten with a spoon! still, silver lining is - it didn't take much 'blending' to be turned into 'Baby Meals'!

OH said it tasted OK...................but was strange texture!