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Showing posts from October, 2012

Fixing tears in a curtain!

Long before I met my husband, he had a band of woman who ran around helping him to various domestic chores that he was (and probably still is) incapable of doing! One of his harem - the lovely Agnes- made him a set of curtains for the lounge (as an aside, she was the girlfriend of one of his friends and is now married with a swarm of kids to that same guy!). She did an amazing job. I thought they were professionally made! But after eleven or twelve years of hanging in the same spot, there were some tears appearing in the high stress area where they are pulled shut in the evenings. I looked at them every morning thinking something needed to be done about it as a shaft of sunlight streamed through the gap and onto the ceiling. It was that whole "a stitch in time saves nine" probverb coming to life right before my very eyes... Finally - with the sewing machine already set up and the (almost) right coloured threads in it, I got the husband to take the curtains down for me...

Another easy rag quilt in the making...

Since we have had two new babies in the family, I am making another rag quilt. This one is made out of a flat child's sheet that no longer has its mate and an old towel. Rag quilts seem to be very forgiving for the beginner quilter (um - that would be me!) and fairly quick to make into the bargain. If you have always wanted to make a quilt - I reckon one of these is the way to go! Here's what I did... Find a pleasant place to sew... Preferably with a view that includes chickens!  Cut out all the cool pictures on the sheet and then put them back to back with a layer of towel in between so that you end up with a sandwich of picture, towel and then picture. Play around with the arrangment until you have them all in lines that are roughly the same length This time I chose to quilt each one with a different pattern... Just to see if it could be done. (and it can) Traditionally, rag quilts have been quilted with an X accross the square. Have a look at the li

Hiding scuff marks on work or school shoes!

When I started one of my jobs I decided (after two ten hour shifts!) that I needed new shoes... I found a big block of time one week and I went to all the shoe shops in my area with a budget of $100 to spend on a pair of shoes that I was going to be in for a great percentage of the week. They needed to be black and the needed to be comfortable. I finally settled on a pair of shoes from a cheaper shoe shop that were black leather with a non slip sole and were only $40 which was kinda cool too! And they were soooooo comfy! After a month I started getting a really sore ankle at work. It took me a while to realise that the heel on my left shoe had collapsed and I was walking on an angle on one foot each night. No drama's, I found the receipt and went back to the shop for a replacement and would you believe, they were out of stock of my $40 shoe. I was happy to pay more for another shoe but they didn't have any thing else that fitted or was suitable for work. Because I had wo

How to make a two litre milk bottle scoop!

Here is yet another use for a two lite milk bottle! I needed another scoop for the chook feed - the last one simply disappeared - and while I was looking around for a suitable receptacle my eye fell on the two litre milk bottle that was ready to go into the recycle bin... I wonder, I thought, if I can fashion a scoop out of it. My husband is usually the one to do things like this but as he was safely ensconced at work earning money I decided that if it didn't work - I could afford to sacrifice an empty milk bottle and then I'd simply sic him onto making one when the next bottle became available... Here's what I did... Take your average two litre milk bottle... and give it a though wash. And with a marker pen, mark a cutting line that starts just under the handle and then goes in a "S" shape down to the opposite corner. Mirror that line back up the other side. Then cut! And Voila! One free, two second, recycled (or is that upcycled) plastic

Chemical free harliquin beetle control

One year for Christmas we bought a couple of citrus trees to first use as a Christmas  tree and then to plant in the garden. A wonderful plan that would give us a living Christmas tree one year and lemons and lime leaves for ever more! Well, for the first few years the lemon and lime tree were just doing the growing thing. For the kaffir lime tree - that was fine cause we were after the leave off that tree, but for the lemon, I was getting a bit worried as I was keen on being able to pick fresh lemons and use them when ever I wanted - and it simply wasn't happening. A few years ago I spotted a beetle on the lemon tree. A year or so later, there were quite a number more. By the time I realised that these bugs may have something to do with my lack of lemons, I had an infestation. I consulted Dr Google and discovered that these kinda pretty bugs were in fact Harlequin beetles - or Stink Bugs to the kids - and they were sapping all the life out of my new lemon tree growth.

Slowing Down, the Slow Living Essentials Way - Septemer 2012

I have been following Christine at Slow Living Essentials for a while and in January she set a challenge to record on our blog, monthly, how we have "slowed down" under nine categories - I have been doing this for the last eight months and really got a lot out of it. This is my September reflection on Slowing Down - the Slow Living Essentials way! This update is sooooo over due - but I would still like to participate. I'm going with the "better late than never" theory for this check in. My plan was to use the long weekend to make a leisurely post, then register on Christine's site and spend part of the day in the hammock with a cuppa and the laptop visiting all my bloggy mates and generally spending the Queens Jubilee holiday on my backside. As it turns out - I did spend all of the Queens Jubilee holiday on my backside, but at the hospital! Our latest student got a huge festering abscess in a sensitive place and I simply couldn't abandon her to the bure
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