When we recently visited granddad's house I noticed this very tatty old stool sitting lonely in the corner.
Stripped bare and waiting for love
I asked granddad what his plans were for this old stool and he told me that he'd bought it at the car boot and taken off the cover and put on some foam with the aim to add new material, but that's as far as he'd gotten with it and now it sat slowly making it's way further into the corner of the room.
Always looking to enhance my upholstery skills I asked if I could finish off the seat for him and to my delight he said yes.
Now, as this was going back to granddad, who is a lover of cars and owns a vintage himself I thought what better fabric to cover the stool with then this lovely piece I purchased off eBay.
Vintage care material for granddad
I repainted the wood black to match the material and then took off some of the foam seating and added some wadding to give it an even top.
Armed with my beloved staple gun I worked my way round the seat and then had a rummage in my newly organised ribbon drawer for something to cover the staples with. Nice thick bit of black woollen ribbon worked wonders.
All done and I do love it! Not a Wizard or Time Lord in site but was very well received by granddad.
No longer a tatty old stool but a lovely recycled one
I'm rather pleased I painted the wood, I think it turned out rather nice don't you?
Whilst I was off on annual leave my boss had sent an email out asking if anyone would like to be the department's first aider. Now, bearing in mind there are 3 others in my department who have young children I figured at least one of those would have jumped at the chance - after all, accidents don't just happen at work!
Nope.
When I returned I asked my boss who had volunteered and he informed me that no one had (my boss being one of those who has young children). But why not? I don't fancy the idea of giving mouth-to-mouth to these people, but I would very much like the confidence to deal with a choking child or know how to calmly dress and bandage a wound before going into blind panic..........
For me, I volunteered with a bigger picture in mind, my family, and my friends. I want to be shown how to deal with a situation without freezing - I don't fight or flight apparently - I freeze - great stress response that is!
So I set off for my 3-day course and learnt about CPR, burns, wounds, choking, etc. I learnt that as a first aider, we do not panic, we do what we can, we do what is needed and no more, we will not be sued, we will use the AED with confidence as it is the defibrillator that will give your casualty a great chance of survival!
I spent three days performing CPR on Resusci Annie and it's bloody knackering. I used bandage after bandage on rather yucky fake wounds and I learnt about heart attacks, sprains and strains. I found it valuable information to take back to work with me but more importantly, to have as a life skill for my family, God forbid should I need it.
I would recommend this course to every parent, it's a daunting thought and quite possibly the reason why employees do not volunteer? It is daunting, but wouldn't you rather be scared and able to help than scared and freeze?
I found this piece on Medical News today - and up until my First Aid course - I got the answer wrong!
"When faced with a man thrown off his motorbike and not breathing, 42% of respondents said they'd know what to do and then described the wrong thing. Of these, 43% said they would not move him for fear of spinal injury, yet he will die if he's not breathing and does not receive CPR".
When we moved into our new home back in April, it became apparent very quickly that there was a severe lack of sufficient heating in the downstairs rooms! As the weather warmed the need to heat the rooms became less urgent but was a constant nag at the back of my head.... Well, I say this, but I'm sure my partner will tell you that it may well have surfaced to the front a few times....
Well, I'm here writing my 3rd post on Look in my letterbox! Granted I'm rather late with this one but life is getting in the way of blogging at the moment - I know, shocking!!
Anyway, for those who don't know the lovely Alice runs a weekly linky for all us nosey folk to see what has been falling on people's doormats over the past week and I have to admit it is by far one of my favourite link-ups.
First up I could not resist the smurf blind bags over on Amazon for 0.49p - yes I may have bought 2 of them, and yes I am aware if I don't really need it ... it's not really a bargain.... but they're still fab and Max loved them! Smurfs Blind Bag
My 50p Smurf blind bag bargain from Amazon
Embracing my middle-aged self, I do love a magazine and I get a couple each month for research, ideas and a directory for places to buy supplies from.
DoCrafts - my favourite magazine!
My next post is a review item with a difference. This is via the Home Tester Club. It's free to join, you complete various surveys and once your profile fits a campaign they are running you may get sent product to test and review for the site. So I have some Pharmaton active life to try out.
Review for the Home Tester club
My freebie this week is from Kelloggs. We collected the codes from the cereal packets and finally got our grow packets through - a lot smaller than I expected, Lord knows why.... they are seeds - what was I expecting??
Grow with Kelloggs
Grow with Kelloggs seed pack
But by far, the best bit of post I've had all year is my win from Kayly's blog My Open Sketchbook - these beautiful hand-drawn pieces of sexy - yes, I feel your jealousy oozing onto my blog post - I LOVE THESE!!!!
Pure Sex
Hmmm lovely.
Have you had anything anywhere near as lovely, sexy and yummy in the post?
The second of the books we reviewed this month was Molly Maybe's Monsters: The Dappity Doofer. The new adventurer Molly Maybe was born from author/illustrator Kristina Stephenson, who is famed for her Sir Charlie Stinky Socks series.
#Dinosaurthatpooped is back and he pooped the bed!
Last week we were fortunate enough to receive the latest in the pooping dinosaur series - The Dinosaur That Pooped The Bed. Now, whilst I was pretty confident that Max would love this book as he does the others, I was a little unsure due to the title. My initial thought was "hmmm, he's going to poop in the bed"! Well, obviously he doesn't!
I can't believe I'm on Look In My Letterbox post 2 already! This week has flown by and I didn't think I'd have much to write about... until I looked on my phone! So, what fell on my doormat this week.....
First up we've had Max's posters laying around for a few weeks now so I finally sourced some poster hangers to place on the wall as I didn't want to put them up with blu-tak or drawing pins. LOVE the box they came in - yes I chose a heavy metal merchandise shop!
Sticking with my boy, we've also received a few books to review this week... the pooping dinosaur is back....
Finally, for my boy, his Lego magazine came through. This is a great little magazine and the best bit - it's FREE!
Sticking with Lego, I decided to try out Qwerkibox's new Lego Box subscription - went down well.
For the dog..... She's not very well at the moment and is struggling quite badly with arthritis. After the visit to the vets at the beginning of the week, he suggested some Seraquin to help her joints and I must say with these and her increase in Tramadol, she's getting better.
Finally, one for me! I'm thinking of wearing this to Brighton's Comicon - but I bought it from eBay and the transfer is ... well, you get what you pay for, this is definitely a one wear only top! May have to stick with Truffle Shuffle in future!
So there's my crazy week all summed up in one post - have you had anything exciting turn up this week?
How to make teenage mutant ninja turtle party bags
This year I set out planning Max's superhero party as I did last year only for him to change his mind (as he did last year) and ask for a turtle cake! I do wonder if I'll ever get a spiderman party...
So on to Pinterest I go and find a whole array of crafts for teenage mutant ninja turtles and let's just say I can't wait for Christmas and green baubles with coloured masks on the tree!
ANYWAY, back to the party theme. It became apparent very quickly that the fold-over party bags were popular with little ones who want TMNT-themed parties and so my first quest was to source said bags.
Good old' eBay for the party bags
There are a variety of mask creations that can be done with these green bags but my favourite by far was the images created by Chica and Jo, now granted I could have created my own images, but this template cost me £0.60 to download - so why not!
Rather than print these masks out on white card and use up an awful lot of ink, I was fortunate enough to receive some brilliant bright coloured card from PaperCutz.co.uk that worked perfectly.
Using coloured card rather than using up a lot of ink
Because I had not used white card my eyes did not print out white but transparent and therefore the colour of the card, so I used white sticky back paper also supplied by Papercutz for the eyes and mouth.
Using Stick Back paper for the eyes and mouth
Once the masks were cut out, we very carefully added the eyes then I used my ever-faithful Mod Podge to glue the masks to the bags. I set up a little template from my cutting board to use as a guide to ensure the masks were all roughly in the same place.
I do have a table but the floor and my lap seemed more comfortable!
Starting to look like Turtle Party Bags
The mouths were carefully cut out and stuck on the bags using a rough template. These were far more fiddly as the edges of the mouth are quite thin, but patience got me through that bit!
Taking time to cut out the mouths
Using a template for lining up the mouths
Ta-da - all done!
TMNT Party bags ready to be filled
Creating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party bags
Chilling with Raph, Mikey, Donnie and Leo on a rainy day...
Nowhere near as difficult as I thought it may be and I'm super excited to give these out at Max's party now... so long as I have one left for us.
What do you think? (I can't wait to put little masks on the green baubles I'm yet to source for Christmas, yes I said the C-word, it's September, and I can now).
Disclaimer: I received the card and sticky paper from Papercutz.co.uk to review.
The above wording is all my own and not influenced by products received
