Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

cheerfulness4

Fairy this link below might help with your machine. I had a memory of my foot getting stuck before and it was the screw loosened. Also if you've used the bobbin winder last did you need to flick the lever back. (mine no longer has that but yours might).




http://www.fixya.com/support/t1505303-presser_foot_lever_not_lift_presser_foot

GreyQueen

Well, the parents' CH system went bang! this afternoon and changing of the fuse in the switch downstairs caused another bang! in the controller box in the airing cupboard upnstairs.

Quick call to the regular gas engineer on his mobile, he doesn't think its too horrendous and will come out tomorrow morning; he's a top bloke and they know him well and knew his old Dad before him, same with the sparkie they use (there are benefits to small town life).

So have jumpered-up as the temp is dropping indoors, the cats won't be able to lie over the radiator this evening, poor darlings.

Dunno what it is about appliances and public holidays, my washer back home took down my electrics 2 days before Xmas and remains a problem to be resolved in the New Year.

Probably tomorrow, I think I will retrieve Mum's electric sewing machine from the piles and attempt to unravel whatever's gone wrong with it. Sounds like a tensioning problem from what she said so some tweaking may resolve it. Has been like it for months and I've been doing some of her projects at mine, which I don't mind but we only see each other about every second month so it isn't massively convenient.

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

Dunno what it is about appliances and public holidays, my washer back home took down my electrics 2 days before Xmas and remains a problem to be resolved in the New Year.

Don't you know GQ that inanimate objects are well aware of bank holidays?

(Hence my story about the car battery the other day.)

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

Don't you know GQ that inanimate objects are well aware of bank holidays?

(Hence my story about the car battery the other day.)

Too right they do, the very beggars. They also act like flying pickets, everybody out. I have heard of several poor souls who have had three major appliances die in under a week. When your washer, cooker and fridge-freezer keel over all at once, you can feel just a bit frazzled around the edges.

Some poor soul down the supermarket carpark was having his car jump-started this afternoon.

greenbee

As I bought all my white goods at the same time when I moved into my last house I fully expect them all to go bang at the same time. Given their age I need to plan to replace them soon...

Hard_Up_Hester

Today one of my daughters came over to see me, I used some past it's broccoli & some Stilton left from the Christmas cheese board & made a pot of soup, decluttered some large kitchen pots for her to take home & gave the kitchen a bottoming, all in all a good day.
Hester

elaine241

GreyQueen strange place to keep your sewing machine!! even more painful than piles! (Bedsit Bob moment!) Sorry to those who dont know BB, you are so lucky!

My New Years resolution for this thread is to try and start and finish! a sewing project. Sounds simple to many but to me it is nigh on impossible, trust me I have tried to finish things but others get in the way, or the weathers nice outside. I must be one of the few people to pray for rain so I am forced to tackle indoors jobs, if I lived in a desert they would never get done!

Happy New Year all! x

GreyQueen

My sewing machine is 30 miles away, sitting sedately on a table, in my flat. Gawd knows where in the mountains of Stuff Mum's machine is lurking. There's a Singer treadle in there, somewhere, too, and you'd think that was too big to lose, but you'd be wrong.:p

Getting a bit shivery here, despite extra layers and my burglar hat; the siamese-y cat is herding people so she can sit on them, having just lost Mum to an assist for Her Next Door who's in a flapdoodle about a problem with a light (diffuser's fallen off a fluroescent strip light), dunno what she thinks SuperMum can do about it other than to confirm that a) it's broken and b) she'll have to buy a new one after New Year's Day.

The Curse of the Bank Holiday seems to be striking at inaminate objects as we speak. I have instructed and demonstrated the dark arts of dishwashing with minimal supplies of hot water to my Dad and we'll probably manage to wash dishes at suppertime before the tank cools into unusability but that will be that - there's an electric shower downstairs which I shall avail myself of tomorrow.

Slight inconveniences; cats not liking absence of their radiator, tho.

cheerfulness4

Any ideas what the sewing project might be, Elaine? Something nice to wear or to use in the home?


I've a bodice to a dress made up that I found in a ball down the side of the wardrobe. I remember it sending me
on a guilt trip each time I saw it hanging there and suddenly forgotten. Obviously when it fell off its hanger.
I know why I waivered with it. The Zip.:eek: I've done zips before but mum was around to take over when things got rough. I shall just have to tough it out and practice till I get it right. Mum's getting her eye done and then I'll set her to work again.

I've just been investigating Vertical Gardening on Pinterest. I have to utilise every bit of space I can in my little plot.
There's some very useful ideas there and I've just started reading properly the Vertical Veg blog. Inspiring.

ginnyknit

Heres my vertical gardening, utilising my new fence panels, used an old canvas turned round, or big empty picture frames. My friend and I were sharing ideas and decided if you mke drainage holes 1 inch up from the bottom of the milk cartons it gives you a small resevoir to prevent plants drying out. I grew tomatoes, spring onions, baby leeks, herbs, lettuce and much more. Simple and effective.