Monday, May 11, 2009

A Stitch in Time & Don't Forget to Have Your Oats




Hello my sweet bloggeroos - didya miss me? I had a lovely holiday with my youngest son, his missus, and my granddaughter. More of that later in the week.




I promised you all some more Hints and Tips on keeping your home running smoothly. So here goes...........................


A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE

We all know that if a garment needs mending, it is always wise to do this before laundering. I found this tip was especially useful to know in 1975.





Picture, if you will, the days of Bay City Rollers' tartan turn ups on our jeans,









Men in White Suits a la John Travolta,







and "Vesta Curry" was the height of sophistication.


The first Mr Dollytub and I bought a delightful little terraced house, right next door to our very best friends. We were very poor in those days and as we couldn't afford a washing machine, we had a weekly trek to the Launderette. (Oh, deep joy!) The Manageress at the Laundrette was our old school mate "Winalot Wanda" , (she wasn't called this 'cos she was lucky, it's 'cos she was a bit of a dog.) We really hated going in there, well Wanda put up some really awful posters. For instance, in the window...........
DROP YOUR PANTS HERE!
On the Dryers..............
WANT A FREE TUMBLE?

Honestly, I'd not been so embarrassed since I'd had my membership to the Tufty Club cancelled.

Someone we knew was throwing out an old twin tub. It leaked water and oil, but as it was Summer we decided to give it a home outside and we could do our laundry outside in the shared yard.





We christened this wonderful piece of 1950's engineering "The Animal". This was due to the fact that it leaked all over the yard like a puppy, and shredded our unmentionables as though savaged by a lion.



Soooooo.......


As you can imagine, being a New Wifey and hoping to astound my Young Hubby, I was always Superkeen to show off my domestic skills. (This was before I realised that just because you're female doesn't mean you know how to prepare Shepherds' Pie just because you once saw a picture of one in "Superwife" Magazine.)


I learned THIS MOST VALUABLE LESSON.............


Never try to save time by trying to mend an item of clothing whilst someone is still wearing it!


Believe me, you will only end up stitching something together that shouldn't be. I once had to cut Mr D out of his clothes so he could put his pyjamas on. I had stitched on a missing button not only to his shirt, but right through to his vest as well!



LABOUR SAVING BREAKFAST TIP


I don't know about you, but I can't be doing with all that "plates and cereal bowls" nonsense - far too much washing up.


(I would just like to say here that I always wash up once a week, whether I need to or not.)


"Porridge Fondue"



  • Make a large saucepan full of porridge.


  • Place saucepan in the middle of the table.


  • Give each member of the family a large spoon.


  • Everyone just dives in, fondue style.

The person who eats the last mouthful washes the pan and the spoons - There we go - sorted!

I HOPE YOU'LL POP BACK FOR MY NEXT POSTING WHEN I WILL ANNOUNCE A CATH KIDSTON GIVEAWAY !

I have read all of the blogs that I follow. Could anyone give me some techie help? I would like to put in links to some of the blogs I read.

Thanks a lot!



5 comments:

menopausalmusing said...

That made me roar with laughter.... Can't help on the links thing, haven't worked it out myself. Hopefully someone will put answer in your comments and I can follow it myself!!! Glad you had great holiday and thanks for comment on my blog. One of my first boyfriends used to make me Vesta Risotto and we used to thing we were being so cosmopolitan! x

Anonymous said...

porridge fondue, fab idea!

there should be a "customise" link in the top right hand corner of your blog, on here you need to select "layout" (i think) then it should bring up the layout of your page. There's a thing called "gadgets", if you click on that it SHOULD give you a list of "gadgets" you can put in, one of these should be a blog list, where it SHOULD let you add in blogs you follow automatically, and add others by link if you want... If this fails (or my directions are useless!) there is def a "links" bit here, where you can copy and paste your fave links into a list....

I hope this makes sense!

Rose XXX

Lalabibaby @ Dreaming of The Simple Life said...

Missed you .... hope you had a great holiday and can't wait to hear your tales. Vesta ... I can still smell them now and used to love those crispy noodles that you got with the Chinese. Those were the days. When we first married we had to do the launderette run ... what an education that was watching the world and his wife coming in and out. Then like you had a donated twin tub ... stinky old thing ... praise be for automatics X

Ragged Roses said...

Thanks for such a funny post!

Country Cottage Chic said...

Glad you had a good holiday!

What useful tips - I don't know how I managed before I read them!

;-)