M is for Make Do & Mend

 

Continuing with my A-Z challenge to blog about something starting with every letter of the alphabet, M is for Make Do & Mend.

We love to stretch our money as far as possible and one of the best ways to do that is to Make Do & Mend. We try not to buy anything we already own unless it's irreparable. 

My everyday trainers developed tiny holes on the front where my big toe poked against the material. It was a shame to get rid of them when they were perfectly fine everywhere else and really comfy, so I decided to mend them. I bought some small butterfly patches for a few pounds and sewed them over the holes. Now I have some unique trainers that have been brightened up and I've saved myself the cost of new trainers (at least for a while longer)!

My computer desk started life as a toy cupboard when the kids were little. When we no longer needed it, we turned it into a desk by taking off the doors and fitting a pullout keyboard tray. I say we, JD did it. He cut a piece of wood the right width and fit it onto some runners. It works perfectly and it saved us the cost of buying a desk. It also stopped a piece of furniture we didn't need going to waste.

My favourite little plant pot has led a troubled life. First, he lost part of his arm and we decided it gave him character (we had to, we couldn't find the lost part). Next, he lost his leg. But, we didn't give up on him, JD glued it back on and he continues to do his plant holding duty to this day.

I'm in charge of mending clothes. I mend hole in socks, replace buttons, patch trousers and whatever else needs fixing. It feels good to be able to keep clothes wearable instead of just throwing them away. Clothes are so cheap nowadays that we think nothing of buying new clothes often. I've even made the kids favourite t-shirts into cushions for them before so they can keep them longer once they've grown out of them.

JD helps us save money by doing small repairs on the car when needed. Replacing windscreen wipers by finding what he needs on eBay and attaching them himself. Changing lightbulbs when they blow out too, among other things. 

Our dining room table is one of those that folds down and has 4 chairs that fold up inside it. It was bought when I first got married in 1995 and is still going 'strong'. We no longer use the fold-out chairs and the supports that hold up the table wings have been glued several times but it's really convenient to fold it up and make room. It's folded up nearly every day for someone to play on the Quest in the dining room and on date night we fold it up halfway for a more intimate meal setting. As you can see there are a lot of marks on it from over the years as well as a blob of blue paint from crafts when the kids were little that never came off. One of my future projects is to sand it down and either paint or varnish the top. It would be nice to have a new table but for now this one suits us fine!

All these things are small things on their own but together they save us a lot of money. With a Make Do & Mend attitude you can be satisfied with what you have instead of always wanting the next new thing. Which is the way we try to live.

Family Game Reviews - Taskmaster Board Game

 

I love everything about Taskmaster! The show, the book and now the board game. It's just the kind of silly nonsense I like to spend my time doing.

I got the board game from my sister Cas (also a Taskmaster fan) for my birthday and I was interested to see how they'd adapt it for playing at home.

The first task is to draw yourself for your leader board picture. Me, JD and Erin from left to right.

The game set up is quick and easy, just place the cards on the places named on them.

We each had to pick a Secret Task card and this was a task we had to do throughout the game without being called out. I had to obsessively tidy things during the game. No-one noticed because I usually do that anyway. Erin's was to eat and drink noisily which we also didn't notice. I forget what JD's was as he didn't manage to do it.

You take it in turns to be the Taskmaster placing the golden statue wherever you want to pick a card from and then read aloud the task. I went first and the task was to draw around your hand on paper and then turn the handprint into a self portrait.

This is Erin's hand self portrait.

JD's hand self portrait

I chose JD as the winner because his finger face was quite accurate, haha!

There were all kinds of tasks during the game. It's quite casual as you can play as many rounds as you like so if you want a quicker game, no problem.

JD and I had to compete in getting into bed in the fewest steps possible. Our bedroom is up two flights of stairs! After a brave effort by me of getting there in 23 steps, JD smashed it by getting there in 14.

JD and I were tasked with changing the colour of milk to as bright a colour as possible. Harder than you'd think. I used red food colouring on the left to make a feeble light pink. JD poured tomato ketchup in his milk and won even though he made us all feel a bit sick.

Other tasks included making the smallest sandwich possible, collecting as many blue things to fit into the box lid as you could and putting your finger in something in the fridge least likely to be recognised.

The tasks were all well thought out to include things you'd likely have in your house. It's the most fun board game I've ever played, instead of sitting at the table playing you're running around the house trying to solve tasks.

I can't wait to play it more.

Taskmaster excitement has also leaked into the weekly video chat with my sisters. We've started doing a task when we chat. This week we had to eat the best picture out of a slice of bread.

Caroline made this picture titled 'Bread Boy' who seemed to have a bit of a club foot amongst other problems.

This ambitious scene by Sally includes a house, tree and sun with several rays.

This poor effort by me is of a tree flanked by two bushes. Impossible to choose a winner with such talent. Next week we're going to try reveal the most surprising thing from an upturned mug. Wish us luck!

So yeah, it's a lot of fun. Buy it, play it, enjoy it!

Subscription Box Review - Mindful Chef

 

This is another recipe subscription box popular at the moment. It focuses more on healthy foods and the recipes don't include any refined carbs. The recipes are all nutritionist approved and each recipe has details of calories, fat, sugar etc if you're into monitoring that kind of thing.

I ordered a box containing 2 meals for 2 people just to try it out. There was a January £10 off offer for your first 2 boxes so it cost £19. There were plenty of recipes to choose from including vegan, gluten free and meat/fish options.

My box arrived in a 1 hour delivery slot which I'd been texted earlier that day. It was well packed with each recipes ingredients in separate brown paper bags.

You also get a magazine which has all the recipes inside. Each bag has a number on it that matches the recipes in the magazine. 

The first recipe we made was Pork with Colcannon & Mustard Sauce. I started the preparation as laid out in the instructions, chopping and mixing things ready to start cooking. It is easier that all the ingredients are pre-weighed/measured for the amount you need but there was still a lot of prep. It wasn't the easiest of recipes which surprised me as one of the ads I'd seen for Mindful Chef said it was ideal for the novice cook. I don't agree as at one point there were 3 pans on the go and there must be much simpler ways to make a similar dish.

I feel like I'm a person who's followed a lot of recipes and I found the instructions difficult to make sense of sometimes. I had to constantly read and re-read sections to make sure I was doing it correctly.

The finished meal was delicious and we both enjoyed it although it did take longer to make than our usual evening meals. It was filling and seemed a good portion of food with plenty of veg.

Next, we made Asian Pork Meatballs, Kale & Brown Rice.

This recipe was equally complicated but it did seem worth the effort as the finished meal was delicious. The meatballs were tasty and moist inside. The vegetables were also flavoursome and the brown rice added some texture to the whole meal. This was our favourite of the two meals and I thought it was well put together.

Overall, I'd recommend this subscription service to anyone wanting to eat healthier without having to organise it themselves. The food provided was all of good quality and well portioned out. The pork steaks were particularly nice. I feel that is one of the plus-sides of this service. 

An advert on Facebook for Mindful Chef suggest that the meals are cheaper than buying food in the supermarket which is just nonsense (unless you shop at M&S perhaps). They should market it for what it is, a service for people without the time to meal-plan or shop but who have plenty of money to spend on meals. 

I enjoyed trying it out but will stick to planning my own meals with food from the supermarket.

Family Fun - Bob Ross Paint-along

 

With lockdown still in full swing I dug out an activity I'd had planned for ages but we hadn't done yet. A Bob Ross paint-along. I'd bought some canvasses, paints, palette knives and brushes almost a year earlier at The Works. It'd all cost roughly £12.

I googled which would be the easiest episode of The Joy of Painting to follow along with and the internet suggested Distant Mountains from the 14th season. If you're not familiar with Bob Ross, he was a lovely guy that had success with his painting show in America. He was known for his soothing voice as he painted and his positive outlook on life. 

We watched the episode via YouTube on our TV and brought the dining table into the living room to make things easier. Val decided not to paint along but to do his own thing. Erin, JD and I got ready to follow along with Bob Ross feeling cautiously optimistic.

After the first 5 minutes we'd built up the sky and some water in the foreground. We were all new to painting with oil paints and we didn't have the exact colours Bob did or even the same brushes but we did our best to improvise as we went.

My favourite part was using a palette knife to create the mountain shapes. I'd never tried this technique and I thought it worked really well. I was pleased with how my mountains turned out. 

It became apparent halfway through that we didn't have enough white paint for doing as much highlighting as Bob did, due to an initial white-washing of the canvass at the start. But we were to far in to turn back so we kept going!

Our pictures all turned out differently from Bob's but we were all fine with that and our three pictures looked very similar due to sharing the same colours.

My masterpiece.

Erin's masterpiece.

JD's masterpiece

It was an overall nice experience but Bob Ross is so great at painting it can be a bit disheartening when he does something you can't quite replicate. Also, oil paints are messy and everything smelled of white spirit for the rest of the day after cleaning the brushes. But it was fun to have a go and I'm glad we did it. We now have a set of oil paintings to sell on eBay treasure forever :)