General Chat

Mandy yes all different gins not necessarily different flavours as in plum, orange, raspberry but there may be some fruit flavoured gins among them. There are other flavours though, like botanical and spice type flavours. I think you either like gin or you don’t no middle path

Kirstie did some gin with silver flakes in. I hadn't seen that before and wasn't sure I'd fancy flakes in a drink, although they did look pretty as you say Mandy. I never liked gin much either. I had to smile at what Katie said about telling everybody what to do! lol. :-)

Lots of memories in your button jar then AnnG. It was nice of son to get an Advent calendar sent to you, and you will need to catch up as Mandy says. :-)

You poor thing Vera. I hope you feel much better tomorrow. It could be a bug or migraine as has been said. Not nice either way.

I hope it is light enough to take a photo of my painting tomorrow. It's been gloomy all day here.

Evening all,

Oh Vera that sounds a nasty bug you've got ,I hope you feel better tomorrow .

Anng party time round yours then :-D have you caught up yet ,are they different flavours of Gin ,I noticed in Aldi last week they had some Gin with gold flakes in it did look pretty in the bottle .
They do so many Gins now with all sorts of flavours added some sound so nice but I don't like Gin .

How's the knee now Mel getting better I hope .

I have a button box the girls love looking in that and picking the buttons out into the same colours I have one pretty button bit like a small toggle and it has a chip on the end and the pattern on it goes right through the button ,it was one from my grandmother's button box so a bit precious.

Sent all my cards off today so you should all have them in a day or two .

Katie came yesterday to help with decorating the big Christmas tree in the lounge and the little one in the conservatory we got them done and then sat and had a nice chat with her ,she's now vice captain in her class and was really pleased with her badge .
I said what does that mean and she said I can tell the class what to do and try and keep them in order :-D

Hope you feel recovered tomorrow Vera. Sound a nasty bug or a migraine?

I have just had an Amazon parcel delivered. Not expecting anything. I was puzzled. It is an advent cake der. Gin! Son and co were talking about their advent calendars on Saturday and I just remarked I had not had one. Trouble is I have to catch up now as it is already the sixth.

A cardboard box Island? You was rich. We didn't even 'ave a sheet of newspaper to cover ourselves :-D

Evening everyone.
I have read the posts but won't be responding as I've already been on screen for too long, writing a few letters to go in with Christmas cards. I felt really sick and bad all night and, although I am a fair bit better now, my head is still quite painful so I'm not stopping.

It's been pouring with rain almost all day and tomorrow we're promised strong winds as well - oh, goody :-|

I hope you all sleep well. Back tomorrow.

Yes I believe I also slept in a drawer when we evacuated to Lowestoft when Dad was sent there in the Navy circa 1940, no cot for me so a drawer sufficed.

I was looking for a button last week so sorting through the button jar and found some RN buttons both black and gold so dating from before 1968. What stories the buttons in those jars/boxes could tell.

Island and I used to be given bread and milk to eat, don't suppose we could afford a decent cardboard box like you :-D :-D

I still have mums button box and have added to it over the years. I loved the button box as a child and used to get all the glass buttons out. Mum would always cut the button off old shirts that were [past their sell by date and with dad being a builder and decorater they were really past their sell by date. My dad always rolled his shirt sleeves up but I never saw him in a short sleeved shirt.

Nan lived with us when I ws young and she saved brown paper. string and wrapping paper and so did mum the wrapping paper always came out the next year for smaller presents to be wrapping in. Mum also made crepe paper garland in different colours and sewed pleats in them on her machine to make long coloured twists to be pinned up and crossed over all the way down the hall and there was big coloursed paper balls and a bell. When they were packed away after Christmas they would be wound upn thejm. All the garlands and things would be put up while I was in bed asleep so when I got up in the morning everywhere was decorated and was told the Fairies did it in the night.

I hated it when I woke up after Christmas and the Fairies had taken all the decorations away.

I had a set of fairy lights given to me by an uncle when I was about two and they always went on the tree with other lights and they had nursary rhyme caracters on them. I remember the cow jumping over the moon and humpty dumty.

Put in this on google and you will see a picture of them as I have just found them and wish I had my set now as these are £85 restored.

Osram Vintage Christmas Tree Decoration Party Lamps Nursery Rhyme Working Bulbs

I must get on as I have lots to do today.

Morning All,

Ha ha Island! My first 'cot' was a drawer according to mum, a step up from a cardboard box! Good to see you are ok.....well hopefully so!

For some reason my PC isn't telling me the weather this morning, but I can hear rain on the window and it is still quite dark and gloomy. I was late posting before AnnG, couldn't sleep. Is your knee starting to heal now? I must start on my cards too. Just my last watercolour cours this afternoon, then no more courses booked yet.

Gwn and Mel, I still have a button box too and added some from MIL's when we cleared their house. I still save the pretty ones off things and was eyeing up a nice charm thing attached to the zip of an old fleece that's ready for chuck out the other day......I will be saving that. I love your quilt made from squares of old clothing Gwyn. Lovely to have the memories. Also the lovely idea to use the gift wrap to line drawers for baby clothes. I have cut down some plastic chocolate drink jars to different heights and peeled off the plastic covering and they have made nice pots for my different sizes of paint brushes. I keep my old butter spread type containers to freeze things in. Old habits die hard! OH was saying the other day that we older folk already do most of the recycling ideas we keep being told about.

we lived in a hand me down cardboard box but we was happy.......

wet morning :-(

Good morning all.

A beautiful pink and pale turquoise sky here early.
The whole sky to the east was glowing.

I used to love Mum's button box and would spend ages as a child sorting out the various sets and sometimes chatting with Mum about which garment they had come from.
A patchwork cover on my bed was another item that held lots of memories, as some of the sections were cut from the best part of clothes that were beyond being revamped,repaired or passed on to my younger sister. I loved spotting squares of identical material and remembering which blouse or nightdress or whatever it had come from.

Yes string was always kept and carefully neatly wound up for storing. There was a time when all parcels in the post had to be fastened with string, so any incoming parcels were opened carefully, so that string and hopefully the brown wrapping paper could also be retrieved for using again.
Mum also kept nice wrapping paper. We never just ripped open a present. It was opened carefully, so that the paper could be passed to my mother for storing for reuse.
When we sorted out Mum's bungalow after she died ( my birthplace and where she had lived since 1937 ) we found so many items carefully kept for using again.
There was even wrapping paper from my 21st birthday gifts, even though by that time, I was a grandmother !

Like Ann says, I think the passed on habits do stay with us to a certain extent.

When my youngest was born in 1980s, she had some beautifully wrapped gifts, so some of the larger pretty sheets of paper were used to line the chest of drawers, where we kept her baby clothes.

Morning Anng Ann and all,

Dark and dank here this morning and pc says 6 degrees and clouds and rain. I think its just about right this morning.

Must write some more cards today and gert those out of the way. Then I can wrap soem presents.

Good morning, still very dark outside and 3 degrees, Woke around 6 so after an hour dozing I decided to get up. Not dressed though.

Ann I still have a jar full of buttons, mostly from My Mum's button box but I have added to it in the past. Have got loads of small white, some pearly buttons which were sorted through in the past for baby clothes. I do still find it hard to throw out things like buttons and pieces of string. (in case they are needed later).

You were up late. (or early).

My first MIL bought us a small fridge as a wedding present, but like you it was many years, at least 8, and after I moved to my last house before we got a freezer, another huge chest freezer. Our first two TVs were secondhand. Our first lawnmower was secondhand and first OH bought his woodwork machines secondhand. My first drinking glasses and Mrs Beeton's cookbook were from green shield stamps and I got a pack of playing cards by saving stamps from a Jet garage. So much was re-used too. Buttons were saved as was string and old wrapping paper. Wartime habits and thrift still lingered and were passed on by our parents and grandparents.

We didn’t have a car before we married as T had not passed his test until six months after then we had a second hand Wolely like the old police cars. Not sure what year late 49s/50s. We did have table and chairs but second hand also Second hand sideboard to match (G Plan). We didn’t have a washing machine until we had been married about twelve years even though by then we had two children. Had a burco boiler and spin drier and did have a fridge which came with the bungalow. Had my mum’s gas cooker when she had a new one. It was not expected that we would have new. Had our first freezer a large chest freezer, after we had been married ten years.

I have to say the three grandsons with their own houses all started with second hand furniture, curtains etc mostly from the family.

Yes, my first OH sold his car and got a small van before we got married too AnnG. Vans were cheaper insurance then, having just 2 seats and it was more economical to run. OH built in our wardrobes and kitchen units with timber he bought from where he worked, so it was handy for carrying materials. The first thing he made was a roofrack for it. Money was tight then and we had no washing machine for 6 months or any table and chairs. I made all the curtains and the hearth rug and first OH made a camel saddle stool that I upholstered, my dressing table and stool, a set of steps and a long john coffee table. If we couldn't pay for something we saved up till we could. We paid for our own (very, very small) wedding as my mother said parents paying for these things was old fashioned. We had a small buffet at our new bungalow after for our parents, first OH's sister and family and the only aunt and uncle my mother kept in touch with. My mother did bake some pastries for the buffet but I had to pay for the ingredients. I bought a very simple white wedding dress in a sale at a bargain price of £10 and when my mother saw how cheap it was, she said she would buy it for me. I didn't need a veil with marrying in a registry office. Our honeymoon was 4 days at my then MIL's caravan at Ingoldmels, only 4 days as dad insisted I was back at work by the Thursday, so he didn't have to go to the bank for the wages instead of me. My parents weren't poor as they lived in a detached house with a third of an acre garden and always had big cars that were new.

Oh Vera, that's horrid having a bad headache. I hope it soon goes and isn't a migraine. Good idea to keep away from screens for a while till it's better.

There were about 6 subs on our food order, which we can at least use. I just bought apples from the farm shop the other day, so guess what they sent me instead of orange juice.......yes, apple juice!

I managed to sort both freezers and the fridge before the delivery and still have some space which is good as I forgot to order 2l of milk less, so had to freeze a bottle.

I must start getting cards written tomorrow. The days seem to be flying by now!

Hope the headache is better tomorrow Vera take it easy and I hope you get a good sleep tonight.

I got on well this morning hoovering and tidying up and putting my shopping items on another tabel so I have the telly stand for the Chirstmas tree and sorting out some craft stuff. selected a box for the boys presents so I can cover it and I am going to put ALL their presents in the box as they always have them on Christmas Eve. Em still has their stockings from last year.

Leased they have arrived anyway hope it is all there.

I was just 20 when we married and T was 22. We were together four years then despite my mother saying I was too young to just have one boyfriend all that time,
Plenty more fish etc. And saying they couldn’t afford a wedding. We paid for it ourselves and got their permission to marry under 21. For 20 months we lived in rented and then Naval hiring accommodation. I was young when we met but was an early starter and already had had several boyfriends three previous RN.

My then OH was age 24 when we married and bought our bungalow AnnG. It was detached and one of 5 being built. It had a large bay window on the lounge and those small square panes of glass with the odd bulls eye pane here and there, also in the front door. It cost £3500 in 1969. We had been seeing each other for 4 years by then, the first 2 in secret from my dad, who had told me I was far too young to have a boyfriend when I was aged 18. He spoiled a budding romance with my first love with his strictness. He was a motor engineer who worked on Roger Clarke's cars and and is now a first class racing car and ferrari restorer with state of the art equipment and his own business.

Well, Asda are later than usual today. It did say the slot was full and the delivery would be from another shop today, which I don't understand as we have a pass which gives us a fortnightly delivery automatically and the order gets started within a day or two of the previous delivery, so how do others fill the slot ahead of us?
I'd better check whether there are any subs. Oh I think they are here!

Hope you feel better soon Vera.

I’ve just come on to say hallo but won’t be staying as I’ve got one heck of a headache. I managed to do a couple of jobs this morning and I’ve cooked our usual big Sunday roast dinner but I’m not doing anything else today.

I hope you are all OK and that you all have a good night. I’ll be back tomorrow.