The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

chris_m

LydiaJ wrote: »

Avatar Dog could and did kill any toy with a squeaker in under a minute.

Dad used to do woodturning as a hobby that expanded to selling stuff so he had lots of varieties of timber. When my sister got her first Boxer, Dad decided to make a wooden toy for him. Knowing that Charlie had somewhat powerful jaws he decided he'd better make it out of the hardest wood he had, so selected a piece of lignum vitae that he'd acquired from the bearings of a ship that had been scrapped and made a "bone" from it.

IIRC, it took all of 30 seconds for Charlie to reduce it to splinters :rotfl:

Jackmydad

chris_m wrote: »

Dad used to do woodturning as a hobby that expanded to selling stuff so he had lots of varieties of timber. When my sister got her first Boxer, Dad decided to make a wooden toy for him. Knowing that Charlie had somewhat powerful jaws he decided he'd better make it out of the hardest wood he had, so selected a piece of lignum vitae that he'd acquired from the bearings of a ship that had been scrapped and made a "bone" from it.

IIRC, it took all of 30 seconds for Charlie to reduce it to splinters :rotfl:

I saw one of our cats with a dead mouse one day. He was "batting" it sideways and seemed to like the way it made the tail wiggle.
Poor mouse!
Anyway I turned a "mouse" out of wood, and glued a "tail" made of thin rope into the rear end.
I'd put a sort of "nose" on it.
The cats loved it, and all played with it. Our GSD got it, and delicately chewed the nose off it.
Weird.
It still got played with for years after by all the pets.
He still had all his squeaky toys too, yet those weirdly shaped hunks of nylon they like to chew used to disappear with depressing regularlity.

Pyxis

I used to get stuffed toys from jumble sales (remember those?) for my dogs to play with aka rip to pieces.

(I made sure they didn't have sharp things in them).


Anyway, what was extremely interesting was that almost without fail, they'd go for the eyes first and get rid of those, and then they would disembowel it.

It really reminded me that they still had wild wolf-type creatures in them!

Actually, I still have an eyeless, partially disembowelled teddy that was my last dog's. All manky, but I still can't part with it. I did try once, and put it in the bin, then the next day, fished it out again!


The other time my otherwise terribly laid back first dog reminded me of her lupine origins was when I was roasting a chicken.
It was the only time, when I was getting it out of the oven, that I saw real bloodlust in her eyes!

I made sure she got the skin and gristly bits!

Jackmydad

No pets at present.
We've still got some of the toys though. . .

zagubov

Pyxis wrote: »

:eek: :eek: My paperclips are precious! I use loads, so am always salvaging them and putting them into my dedicated paperclip dish (which is the plastic lid from a tub of Johnson's cotton buds! Gosh, those lids are so incredibly useful....for all sorts of bits and pieces!)

I'd never put them into the recycling! :cool:

Apart from their use as, well, paperclips, they are brilliant as short poky things for, well, poking into things that need to be poked, for some reason.
Or when the fob comes off a zipper on your bag.
Or just as an emergency piece of wire, for those moments when you are in desperate need of a short piece of wire!

I saved a fortune when my ipod stopped recharging; I was getting quotes for all sorts of prices to fix it until the web suggested I just probe the connecting socket with a sharp wire/paper clip. As predicted, big tufts of lint were inexpensively removed and job's a good'un.:beer:


As for things that make noises I've always wondered what future archaeologists will make of our novelty mugs that play tunes when you lift them.
Obviously an early unsuccessful precursor to proper modern silent crockery

PasturesNew

Been car booting, got some stuff... spent £11 on stuff I wanted/needed ... and a couple of things I didn't really need.

Had a lucky find, 5 GU bulbs for £1 .... so that'll be the kitchen lights sorted, I needed three.

Got some plain/cream "faux silk" curtains that were worth trying.... still in the pack, with tie backs, £3. Having them gives me choices/options .... rather than not having a choice and/or having to spend £40-50 on new ones that'd do. Only thing I "dislike" about them is they are plain and I was looking for something of a pattern to "lift" the starkness...

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

Been car booting, got some stuff... spent £11 on stuff I wanted/needed ... and a couple of things I didn't really need.

Had a lucky find, 5 GU bulbs for £1 .... so that'll be the kitchen lights sorted, I needed three.

Got some plain/cream "faux silk" curtains that were worth trying.... still in the pack, with tie backs, £3. Having them gives me choices/options .... rather than not having a choice and/or having to spend £40-50 on new ones that'd do. Only thing I "dislike" about them is they are plain and I was looking for something of a pattern to "lift" the starkness...

Don't worry if they're too long, as the 'puddled' look is quite fashionable!

Plain might be good, as patterns are so subjective. You could lift the starkness with some colourful cheap cushions (car boot/charity shops), or a throw etc., or cheap rug.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Don't worry if they're too long, as the 'puddled' look is quite fashionable!

Plain might be good, as patterns are so subjective. You could lift the starkness with some colourful cheap cushions (car boot/charity shops), or a throw etc., or cheap rug.

They won't be too long! 90x90/228x228 ... but I've just realised.... they're not eyelet... which means to put them up I'd need to source/buy rings and hooks and stuff .... so I think I'll just resell them *rolls eyes at own stupidity*

I was so focussed on the size being right, all other considerations went out the window!

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

They won't be too long! 90x90/228x228 ... but I've just realised.... they're not eyelet... which means to put them up I'd need to source/buy rings and hooks and stuff .... so I think I'll just resell them *rolls eyes at own stupidity*

I was so focussed on the size being right, all other considerations went out the window!

You can get dead cheap rings and hooks in places like Wilkinson or pound shops.

I think B&Q sell them, too!



Edit..Or post a request on .Freegle. Most people have got a jumble of old curtain rings and hooks!
Get them for free!

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

You can get dead cheap rings and hooks in places like Wilkinson or pound shops.

I think B&Q sell them, too!



Or post a request on .Freegle. Most people have got a jumble of old curtain rings and hooks!

You'd think so ... but I did go through the process of trying to find/buy some about 4 years ago and they weren't readily available at a reasonable cost.

I can't remember how many I thought I needed, probably 20 rings and 20 hooks... I'll see how much they are now/where. Still a faff though

There was a woman there selling some other curtains of this size, but I didn't want those due to colour/not being eyelet and she said she's some eyelets at home, so will phone me later when she's double checked if they're 90x90 ... and, if so, I can pop over and look at those (1 mile away). No prices were mentioned, but the curtains we were standing over were £5, so I'd expect hers would be about the same.

That's the trouble with big windows ... few chances to find cheap curtains.