{"id":2818,"date":"2023-07-16T10:24:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-16T09:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/?p=2818"},"modified":"2023-07-16T10:38:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T09:38:44","slug":"little-fixes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/?p=2818","title":{"rendered":"Little fixes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am of an age where I would watch Blue Peter on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and wonder at the &#8220;projects&#8221; &#8211; the making of a Sindy hair salon (yes, really, I&#8217;m British, so it was Sindy not Barbie) to a Thunderbirds island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, as a kid, these were really impressive but involved having equipment like &#8220;double sided sticky tape&#8221; and &#8220;sticky backed plastic&#8221;.  Which as I didn&#8217;t get any pocket money until I was 12, was a tall order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joy of joys though, I&#8217;m now a grown-up and can easily afford such things, but likewise, I can afford to buy pre-made things too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, why am I writing this down today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Just because you can, doesn&#8217;t mean you should&#8230;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Actually, I&#8217;m agreeing with you.  I have done odd things round the house: made cushion covers out of trimmed down curtain fabric, bought spare fabric so we can have coordinated rooms.  Little things, quick and  easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few years ago, I saw Kirstie Allsop making Christmas Crackers and thought I&#8217;d give it a go.  Kirstie suggested a hot glue gun, and I thought, if I have one, there are a few odd jobs round the house I can do with it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">And?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Got the glue gun yesterday (I did try this with just &#8220;the gun&#8221; but that looked a bit odd, so please forgive the extra word).  Oh joy.  You can see my proto-cracker (though a little naked) here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2024\" height=\"1518\" src=\"https:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/nude-cracker-2024x1518.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/nude-cracker-2024x1518.jpg 2024w, https:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/nude-cracker-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/nude-cracker-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2024px) 100vw, 2024px\" \/><figcaption>A naked cracker with blank moto inside and the snap in place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a little bit of a reuse story &#8211; the tubes are indeed empty toilet roll holders.  The moto paper are the trimmings from train ticket printouts (as they don&#8217;t require power).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Could I just take a moment to say I am VERY tempted to insert the motos before adding the last toilet roll tube as putting it in afterwards is VERy fiddly but then that is the point of a prototype, to work out the best way to do things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, ever since I was a child, I have listened to peoples&#8217; reactions to the contents of crackers, which is why I am doing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My son hates the jokes, and has volunteered to make some material for the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hate the prizes, so I am working on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My mum hates the hats, so I&#8217;ve asked about alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s July, which should mean I get the time to fine tune all the pieces.  We can have a perfect Cracker set for Christmas Day &#8211; and hopefully, no waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not quite the end of the story&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Oh yeah?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah!  A long while a go I learnt some upholstery skills to re-cover some dinning chair pads but learnt the principles of doing a settee or a comfy chair on the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, after 28 or so years, our favourite two seater we use in the kitchen (anything bigger just won&#8217;t fit in the space) is looking in need of such tender loving care.  But one thing I can&#8217;t do is fix broken foam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had a bright idea to trying washing the arm pads which were in a very sorry state.  Being wadding, you have the option to wash them.  So I did, and then tumble dried them (energy intensive but hopefully better for the planet than throwing them out and buying new).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They came up beautifully and are just as comfy as they now look.  Result \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Really should get on and make the new loose covers and main body&#8230;<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am of an age where I would watch Blue Peter on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and wonder at the &#8220;projects&#8221; &#8211; the making of a Sindy hair salon (yes, really, I&#8217;m British, so it was Sindy not Barbie) to a Thunderbirds island. Now, as a kid, these were really impressive but involved having [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forty-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Little fixes - Finding the chase and cutting to it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/samjwatkins.com\/blog\/?p=2818\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little fixes - Finding the chase and cutting to it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am of an age where I would watch Blue Peter on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and wonder at the &#8220;projects&#8221; &#8211; the making of a Sindy hair salon (yes, really, I&#8217;m British, so it was Sindy not Barbie) to a Thunderbirds island. 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