2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

dolly84

My jacket arrived yesterday, it is in the short coat/jacket category so 11 coupons, I do plan to buy a liner and hood for it but may wait until the end of the year.  I remembered yesterday that I have another jacket on its way, it should arrive today, I was rather spendy last week and at the weekend, I am a comfort shopper.

PipneyJane

Liverpool_Anne said:

@ Thriftwizard, the rolled cork would work, lay it over the chipboard back, a few mini tacks to keep it in place and then I can put the frame on top. Should work a treat if it is reasonably thick.
@ Wraithlady, yes we could use the blanket and then cover with the velvet but it seems a bit of a shame to use it. So many other things you could do with them. Have you seen the beautiful rug made by Triftwizard, if I remember right, from old blankets and I am sure Laura could give you loads of ideas what to do with velvet.
Comment about avocado and salsa...so funny, just what I need after a long day on the laptop and phone and such miserable grey weather. Talking of weather, my friend's son who is at sea in the Baltic sent a message to say they were caught in a storm, had 45 degree rolls, he hadn't had any sleep or tea but it was a great experience. The joy of being young and fearless. Take care everyone

What a brave lad! Mad. But brave.  (In the parallel world that is our 1942, your friend's son is doing the Arctic Corridor run.)

I am still in awe of your carpentry skills, @L@Liverpool_Anne

- Pip

PipneyJane

dolly84 said:

My jacket arrived yesterday, it is in the short coat/jacket category so 11 coupons, I do plan to buy a liner and hood for it but may wait until the end of the year.  I remembered yesterday that I have another jacket on its way, it should arrive today, I was rather spendy last week and at the weekend, I am a comfort shopper.

@dolly84, does it fit?  If you get the liner and hood now, we'll pretend they were part of the same purchase and not a separate coupon cost.

Big hugs.  What is on your mind that the comfort shopping is attempting to calm? 

- Pip

dolly84

Pip - things have been getting progressively worse with our 17 yo daughter, kids are having such a tough time at the moment, she is totally stressed out about doing her A levels next year and getting into medical school, she can't work at her Saturday job as they are shut, she is getting paid but she needs the interaction, her driving lessons have been cancelled and she had barely even got going with them, can't see her boyfriend or any of her friends, spends all day and night in her bedroom and refuses to speak to us.  It came to a bit of a head which ended up with the police here and a social worker.  Not a good time for us and I expect so many families are going through similar things but as far as the government is concerned future generations of workers and innovators are completely dispensable, the worst of it is they don't even care about this 'vulnerable' group they just care about not coming top of the leader board when deaths are totted up.

thriftwizard

Here's my latest floor-covering effort, made this time mainly from "waste" shirt-seams & hems, the rest of the fabric having gone into little quilts or been stashed:

Laura_Elsewhere

@dolly84 - huge sympathies.... it may not help, BUT... two things that could help ease her future-worrying a bit. 

1. for various reasons my school was one of the worst-affected by the teachers' strikes of the 1980s, so we had extensive strikes for 3 years (inc the year I was doing university-entrance exams when we had school on Mon and Fri but not other days with no extra work set or marked, just literally 40% of the schooling). As you can imagine they followed my cohort for years and they found that by our mid-20s there was no real difference between us and those older thus unaffected or younger thus unaffected. We all evened out...

2. A-levels are not the only way into medical school, even "really good ones" like Edinburgh. There are a group of courses called Access to Medicine designed for people who don't have A-levels or not the right grades or specific subjects, etc. I worked for 20 years in the Medical School and we never knew who had come what route, so she wouldn't even be 'labelled' in any way. Medical students in particular tend not to be all 18 and straight from school,  but are far more likely to have spent a year or three in the world, so if she does one of these Access to Medicine Courses, and maybe has a year before getting herself settled again, it will make almost no difference in the long run. https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Access_to_Medicine#:~:text=Access to Medicine courses are,recognised by different medical schools.

If there's a time when you can tactfully pass those on, please do! Good luck...

PipneyJane

Big hugs @dolly84.  

It's tough being a teenager at the moment.    If/when she's in a more receptive mood, perhaps you could ask her for help learning mindfullness exercises or meditation exercises, to help you stress-bust.  (Yes, I am devious.  She is more likely to do them if you ask her to help you, than if you suggest that she should do them for herself.)

@Laura_Elsewhere is right.  There are multiple routes into Medicine.  I've known ambulance officers and nurses who became doctors.  I've also known people who started at university doing engineering or science degrees, who transferred after their first or second year.

- Pip

dolly84

Thanks Laura.  I will pass that information on to her.  She is very, very bright but is just worried that in years to come everyone will just think you didn't get all top grades and they will have forgotten that you were in the middle of all this.  I know it seems like people will never forget and 2020 will be forged into everyones mind which it will but unless they were affected they might not make the connection between that and exam results in subsequent years.

Thanks Pip.  I am literally the last person on earth who would ever practice mindfullness so if I suggested that she would try to get me sectioned I think.

PipneyJane

thriftwizard said:

Here's my latest floor-covering effort, made this time mainly from "waste" shirt-seams & hems, the rest of the fabric having gone into little quilts or been stashed:

That is beautiful, @thriftwizard.  How did you do it?  Also, it's a bit hard to get an idea of the dimensions; what are they, please?

Where did you get the selvage material?  I have seen knitted and crocheted rugs made with it - think huge, 25mm needles, aka broom handles - but the people who sell it at shows want a fortune for it.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

dolly84 said:

Thanks Pip.  I am literally the last person on earth who would ever practice mindfullness so if I suggested that she would try to get me sectioned I think.

You've been advised to try breathing exercises to help your asthma/ high blood pressure but you can't manage the breathing and counting at the same time so can she help you?

 

Re your daughter... the other thing that they don't really explain to A-level students is that once you are into university nobody cares what A-levels you did or what grades you got. They're the tokens you need to collect enough of in order to level up into the next stage of the game, but once you're through that gateway and into the next level, they're no longer relevant. First year marks become overwhelmingly important at that stage, but again, once you collect a good enough average across your first year at university, in exams or written work or multiple small tests or practicals, then you level up into 2nd year and look down affectionately at all those little first years worrying about their first year marks and think patronisingly, "ah bless...". Then you go on into further years, and by the time you reach your Finals you don't actually realise there are any other students because your entire world has shrunk to trying frantically to memorise certain things and practising other things and so on...  
If she plays any computer games, then she will already be familiar with that "levelling up" notion, and it really is exactly how qualifications work post-school... each time you level up, the previous batch of grades become irrelevant, just as the tokens or crowns or magic potions you gained in order to get from Lvl 12 to Lvl 13 are irrelevant once you need to gain gold coins and treasure chests...