lim's Profile

British people, er, use teabags. Even in a teapot. And call them teapots. And never reheat tea. What madness is this? Tea does not go in the microwave!

But I do obviously also have loose tea in, and when I use it, I use a tea strainer, which is the normal thing -just a little tiny metal sieve that sits over your cup. They cost about 50p in the supermarket (or up to five whole pounds in John Lewis). Save your money.

I have three enamelled pots. I limit my kitchen to ten pans, so I use them a lot and I was (luckily) given them all when we set up home so they are all in their teens now. One is a Le Creuset (my mum happened to be passing the factory and they are pretty cheap there), one a Chasseur, and one is unbranded from a French market. And they're all the same! They are all sturdy and cook very well - evenly enough to use for cakes and bread. There are no chips or rust, even though I bash them about like anything. And I put them all in the dishwasher because I can't be bothered to wash them up by hand. And it's fine. They're all fine. Maybe by 2020 I'll see a difference, but for now they're much of a muchness.

I put everything in the dishwasher. Wooden chopping boards, big posh knife, everything. The only thing I don't put in is my Welsh griddle and that's because I've never cleaned it at all. This is normal in my RL but apparently amazingly careless here.

(I don't dry clean things either! I just wash it on cold and hang it up! Painted silk, cashmere, everything! A rebel without a jumper, that's me.)

Oh dear god do not call your child Laird. See also: Earl, Duke, Princess, King, Chief... Those names are for dogs.

Glad to see the bewildering American fashion for naming children after economically depressed post industrial towns of the North West is dying down. Or, if I may make a suggestion: Preston, Clayton, Carrington, Leighton and Blakely have been done to death; how about Bacup, Eccles, Swinton, or Chorley? No? Mytholmroyd?

Upper Ramsbottom?

Slack?

If you can get old estate or stage curtains off ebay and put them up floor to ceiling along the full length of any exterior wall, it keeps the heat in pretty well. Only worth it if you can get them cheap, though. It's what a lot of people living in terrible 50s/60s blocks do round here.

Our house is 1900s and midterrace so we're well insulated, apart from the kitchen leanto which is just a slightly larger fridge (cracked ice on the washing up in there this winter). We wear hats, slippers, and tremendously unsexy wool thermal underwear (but have recently been impressed with the slightly less tragic Uniqlo stuff along those lines). Anyway, thank goodness I am English and allowed to wear tweed and appalling hats, or I would have frozen this winter.

<cite>ideas that haven't really been done before.</cite>

No offense, but, I know approximately a bazillion gypsies and travellers who have done this exact thing before. I have stayed on a double decker on a site past Watford (they're not that great on an exposed hillside).

See also: black cabs with roof beds, coaches, omg, are you guys for REAL? Sometimes I am just stunned at this website. Don't you know ANYONE who isn't EXACTLY like YOU?

omg, see also: the 1960s

OMG the hilarity of this website, sometimes, I can't tell you.

This is so pleasing. Forget the kit! Look how the diagonals on the posters describe the angle of the lampshade and the central stripe on the curtain delineates the vanishing point on the screensaver.

Linen is not a delicate fabric. It's pretty durable - more durable than cotton. The only problem with cleaning it is higher temperatures because heat slightly melts the outer layer of the flax - which is why one dyes linen in hot water. Even that is not really a problem, but over time might help to break down the fibre. Machine wash at 30 degrees or cold wash. Shake it vigorously, give it a yank on the ends. Line dry it (if you have a sheila maid then drape it, smooth it, and hoist). Stretch-dry or cool iron if you need to.

Most dry cleaning labels are nonsense these days, I observe.

o.O at the prices on those Chesterfields. I know they're quite posh ones but really, I'm astonished. You can pick them up on eBay for fifty squids any day of the week.

If you can paint, paint the whole thing a white/light grey and wax it. Suggest Annie Sloan type chalk paint because you can paint that on any surface. If you can't paint, use peel off wallpaper and paint that. You can get beadboard wallpaper to match with the doors for about £8.

You can also easily cover the terrible scallops with some straight cut strips of plywood or hardboard. Just stick them on top and paint to match.

Get an old bleached tabletop or offcut of good wood kitchen worktop and stick it on the counter - you can just use blutack if you can't be buggered with power tools.

Change those door handles. Nothing cutesy. Something utilitarian and 40s.

This room needs a bigger table, imo. Suggest: a long rectangular table with a drawer in one end. You can use that as a desk - keep the one yellow chair to demark the work area/table head and hang two pendants along the spine of the table. Turn the awesome white shelves and hang them on the wall lengthways - you don't have so many books that stacking them is impractical and you can use it as a sideboard type thing if you hang it low.