The Bluestocking Boxing Day sale: 1 gerbil for the price of 2

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5457910-the-bluestocking-next-stop-christmas

As the patrons, and gerbils, of The Bluestocking Pub sleep off their Christmas Day food and alcohol intake the capybaras will be getting paid double time to move the pub and contents to the new thread overnight.

All welcome, as long as you are a woman. The men have their own pub The Staunch Ally. It's just down the road, then turn left at the bridge.

You don't have to be mad to drink here but it most definitely helps.

Leave the real world behind and join us in the mayhem and surreal life of a pub staffed by gerbils. Where the food is always exactly what you ordered and the drinks don't give you a hangover the next day!

Well, a nice older man trying to get me drunk. In his sixties. I’m sipping on a little shot I poured. It’s warming…

Does all damson gin actually belong to Damson?😄
I'm sure she'll let you have a sample😃

Cold houses: may I warmly recommend bubblewrap on single-glazed windows?
Obvs not the ones you want to look out of, but if appearances don't matter, or for instance if the glass is already obscured, like in a bathroom, a layer of bubblewrap is an excellent insulator, and still lets the light in.
You can even get bubblewrap that is slightly tacky on one side, which makes the job really easy.

I have a curtain at my front door, made from off-white curtain lining material, so the daylight still comes through. Even though it's not thick, it stops the draughts very well.

I've had the dream when your teeth fall out, not for a long time though, and the one where you're trying to escape something but it's like you're running through treacle.

My house is much cosier now. When we bought it we used to get ice inside the windows and the olive oil in the kitchen cupboard would go cloudy.

Seen our first little bit of snow today.

I’ve been wondering about a door curtain. It would have to hang on the door itself for ease of opening. Did you make yours, Marie, or buy it (I can’t sew).

I can vouch for the excellence of damson gin @Swashbuckled There is very little of mine left since Christmas but you're all welcome to whatever stocks appear at your door.

Light fitting cleaned @MarieDeGournay and thank you for concern about safety on ladders. I decided when I moved here a couple of years ago that I wanted to do most of my own decorating, although a young relative very kindly offered to paint all my ceilings for me. I bought myself a very sturdy set of steps, slightly wider than usual, so very stable and with safety rails at each side. They have been really useful, as I don't like standing on steps in the middle of a room, where I can't reach out to a wall to steady myself. Good tip about having a mobile nearby too.

I have travelled around most of the French and Italian Rivieras by train over the years, from Marseilles to Viareggio, but never ended up in Southend-on- Sea. Did you by any chance start from Platform nine and three quarters?

I have curtains on all the doors in my house at the moment. This year I might actually sort out some proper curtain poles and proper curtains rather than the current bodge job of nails or curtain wire depending on whether I'm using an old long curtain or a blanket!

Even my bodge jobs do make a huge difference.

I have bought a new notebook - with squared paper - and a pritt stick, so I can cut things out and stick them into my notebook, @Boiledbeetle. I nearly bought some metallic ink pens but decided not to.

Ugh. Trying to get ready for something and you are late getting up and nothing goes to plan are my running through treacle ones.

I know it's cold at mine as the shower gel has changed consistency!

Wise choice, metallic pens either never work properly at all or do but run out after about 100 words. I commend your restraint in only buying some of what was in your basket.

I made a curtain for the patio doors some years ago - blocks the sunlight in the height of summer and adds a layer of insulation in winter. Ours is on a tension rod just in the door recess because I didn't fancy trying to attach a proper rod to what should be a concrete lintel.

Just catching up on the thread. What a wonderful photo of your ice formation, Errol. It reminds me of the fan vaulting you see in some cathedrals.

It's no wonder many of the stationery and office supply stores have gone out of business. You lot are hoarding all the stock! 😁

I have a front door which is mainly glass and I found last year that I could feel the cold all the way down the hall. The space isn't suitable for a door curtain, so I fitted a thermal "perfect fit" blind i.e one that fits directly into the glass frame. It has made a real difference this winter. Only works if your door frame doesn't let in draughts though 😁

That ice formation is gorgeous, @ErrolTheDragon. Nature is amazing.

We have had about 10 minutes of snow, but sadly it was very light and has stopped.

I didn't actually buy it, it was 'kicking around the house', but yes it was a ready-made lining curtain with the um....channel thingy.. already there. Full length, not windowsill length, fortunately.

A bamboo cane and two big cup-hooks keep it up. The hook are on the door, not above it, so the curtain is attached to the door and opens with it. Obvs this means the top of the door isn't covered by it, but meh.
The curtain, being pleated, can be pulled out to cover the sides of the door, so that's OK.

The advantage of using this fabric is, as I said before, that it lets the light in, I couldn't stand a dark hallway,
I suppose a heavier curtain would be even more insulating, but the I find this one does the biz surprisingly well without inflicting a dark hallway on me😱

I've just remembered that the curtain wasn't quite long enough to reach the floor - only about 2cm, but 2cm of cold air coming in, so I did actually have to do a bit of sewing, I found a bit of fabric and sewed it on to the end of the curtain with very irregular stitches - I'm no needlewoman either!

But you could be cleverer than me, and measure from the ground up before screwing in the hooks, so the curtain will reach the floor.
Now why didn't I think of that at the time?😠

edited to add that the curtain covers up the insulating bubblewrap on the glass in the door, so nobody knows it's there except me.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius
I have seen a journal idea on FB, where someone cut inch squares a
of any paper that she saw and liked during the year, and glued them all into a notebook.

This intrigues me: did she buy the papers or just snip bits off them in shops, the way some people surreptitiously take cuttings when they go round open gardens?

🙄Forgot to clear the quote again.

I think you've pulled!

Thank you for the welcome MarieDeGournay - much appreciated! I have been around before honest (clearly not enough to be memorable!!). I even was in one of the pictures once (a tree!). However, it is always nice to be mentioned!

Oh no! you see this is the downside of being so committed to welcoming newcomers - they may not be newcomers at all and may peer at me witheringly through their lorgnettes and say
'I beg your pardon, I've been here since the inception of this august institution - you must be recent: do I know you?'

or I may have missed them first time round giving the impression they are forgettable😬

Sorry Bowed!🙁and thank you for not peering at me witheringly through your lorgnette😄

Thank you Marie - no withering from here! It’s only fair that those Bluestockingers who invest time and energy are remembered!! I must try harder… 🥰

I was thinking it would be better to hang it on the door, as you have Marie, because the door could be opened easily. But now I think that wouldn’t help with covering the gap between the door and the frame. So I am at a stalemate again.

No, you do you, and if that's just popping in when you feel like it, that's grand
Don't mind me misremembering...

When my (adult) daughter went swanning off to Japan in 2024 she bought some of those Japanese concertina books to keep stamps and tickets and stickers etc in. She now takes one on holiday in a kit with scissors and a glue stick.

Not to be outdone, I bought some off the internet. I've filled one with tickets, pictures cut out of leaflets and menus and similar from last year's two holidays to forrin parts (the enjoyable ones).

I know you are a regular in here Bowed.

<Flicks to poem 49>

It would depend on how wide and what material your door frame is @Swashbuckled and whether you could fix a curtain rail above the door. Would it be possible to fix one so that the curtain could be pulled aside when the door needs opening? I'm pretty sure Dunelm sell single curtains intended as door curtains.g

Thank you Marie!
Oh Boiledbeetle how very kind!! ☺️