Repair Broken Pottery, vases and lamp bases with glue and gold paint - kin-tsugi

 

The Japanese name for this is kintsugi. Kin means gold. Tsugi means repair. 

For this you need

1 Your broken pottery item

2 A superglue

3 A gold felt tip pen and/or

4 A gold glitter pen

Why Not Use Gold Spray?

I considered using gold spray, which I already had.

I had a gold paint spray. I decided against using this because of the risks of

a) Breathing it in 

b) Getting it on my hands

c) Getting it on my clothes

d) Damaging nearby items

e) Extra time spent covering the table and floor

f) Needing to discard plastic or cardboard covered in paint, thus adding to landfill

g I would need to use more paint to cover the entire vase.

h) I wanted to cover only the cracks because the green base matched the lampshade

Verdict - Success

1 I was pleased to have my lamp restored

2 I had put together the pieces which were cluttering up the house waiting until I thought of a way of repairing the item.

3 I was proud of my skill

4 My husband was impressed by my resourcefulness and creativity

5 He said the restored lamp base looked like the gold pattern abstract was part of the design, better than the plain green original.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

Predicting And Preventing Problems After Divorce, Eviction, And Redundancy

Problem - Redundant

 Years ago I was made redundant at an advertising agency.

Cause

It was not my fault. The company had lost contracts. 

Help

When Personnel gave me the bad news, they went through a relevant newspaper, found me two jobs to apply for. They helpfully printed off a cv for me to send and stuck it in the envelope.

They also rang up another company, explained my situation. Then, they put me on the phone for an initial phone interview, arranging for me to go to the office for an interview. 

Success

When I left I had a new job to go to.

If you lose your job, or are out of work, you might be unable to pay rent and bills. This can lead to eviction.

Eviction

The person being evicted might have nowhere to go. The stress of leaving their home could overwhelm them.

Pictures in public domain under eviction from Wikipedia.

Divorce

Being homeless can lead to divorce. Divorce can lead to financial disputes. Also custody of children battles. Divorce can be the result of financial problems. Or the cause of them.

For one person, divorce can be news of a new start. For another it can be the end.

Marriage guidance is there to try to help prevent divorce. But where is the help for those divorcing?

Lawyers tend to go into battle to help their client financially. Some lawyers encourage mediation.

Another factor contributing to divorce, and depression, is bereavement.

If you think of the mind as like a see-saw, put too many items on the negative side and the see-saw goes down. You need to have something on the positive side.

Prediction

When somebody is divorced or made homeless it is pretty obvious that they will be angry. They might attack those who they blame or random bystanders. 

Preventing Problems

A system should be in place to register and help the homeless, unemployed, divorced, bereaved, neighbours in disputes, before matters get out of hand.

Relevant Websites

A search online will produce websites related to the country where your computer setting show you to be. If you are on holiday or working in another country, or trying to help somebody in another country, you need to change the wording of your search, or your computer or phone settings.

Divorce

https://www.familylives.org.uk/advice/divorce-and-separation/thinking-about-divorce/getting-counselling-to-help-you-during-divorce-or-separation

Redundancy

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/redundancy.html

Eviction

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice

Refugees

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/our-work/mental-health-support-for-refugees-and-asylum-seekers/

Mistakes and Apologies - Training Children & Adults

 It seems we need to train every child and driver and adult what to do in an emergency. From a baby crying, to a road accident to an elderly person's corpse. 

First, a baby is not evil. It cries because it is cold or hungry or tired or wants loving attention. You don't hit it to quieten it. You offer food, hugs, rocking, or a rocking cradle or a ride in a vehicle. 

Secondly, if you make a mistake, such as knocking over somebody's drink in a pub, or causing damage with a vehicle, you apologise. 

Thirdly, if somebody else makes a mistake, you address them politely, not angrily which escalates things.

 Fourthly, it is not safe for children and pets to run around in driveways and on roads where they might be hit by vehicles, wander off, or fall in ditches, or be abducted, or die of starvation or cold. 

Nor is it safe for children and adults to be locked in windowless basements or outbuildings. 

Fifthly, we already have mandatory (in the UK) signs for restaurant staff toilets saying Wash your hands. In restaurants, hospitals and places serving food there should be signs saying, do not touch the blades of knives or tines of forks, bowls of spoons or inside plates, bowls and glasses. 

I have a book which gives children multiple choice questions about what to do in school and visiting homes, telling them the likely result of each choice. Everything from avoiding eye contact with a teach to prolonged unsmiling staring at another pupil, or shoving somebody or prodding them or threatening a child or adult to scare them or 'for a joke'. 

Often running away causes an animal, especially an attack dog, to chase you. 

A friendly pet or animal can get aggressive when hurt, as any vet knows. The animal does not know the pain comes from inside or another source and will attack anybody who approaches or tries to touch it. Even friendly pets should be kept away from or muzzled in the presence of babies and small children who might scream, shout, fall or pull the animal's tail for a joke. 

The same applies to the police. Run or drive away in a hurry and they think that you are a criminal. They fear that if you escape you will make a circle and come up behind them and kill them from behind soon after or another day.

Useful Websites

Problems

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11518965/FedEx-driver-killed-Athena-Strand-7-hit-van-strangled-panicked.html#reader-comments

Solutions

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1187506343/good-choices-vs-bad-choices-behaviour?

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/942766788/no-biting-a-social-story-for-autism-

You can find lots more books on good and bad behaviour to share with one child or a group.

 If the person doing the questionnaire makes a choice which will likely result in a worse situation, they are told the best answer and are asked to re-do the quiz and try another choice. 

Useful search words are behaviour, choices, tracker, questionnaire, chart, flash card, book.

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Watering and talking to plants

Watering

To prevent waterlogging of the roots, you can have a flower pot with a hole or several in the bottom to allow drainage. And/or put pebbles at the bottom of the pot.

Remembering to water plants

Water in the evening so that the water does not evaporate in the mid-day sun, which would waste the water and cool the plants. Set a timer as a reminder.

To save carrying water backwards and forwards, fill one large capped urn with water and leave it near a balcony or set of patio plants and use this larger container to refill a smaller watering can.

Talking to Plants

 Talking to plants has several practical effects. Firstly, you are breathing out moisture. Secondly, you are obliged to look at them and notice if they need watering or attention. Thirdly, it takes your mind off other stresses and problems. Fourthly, seeing plants growing is positive. Fifthly, plants give out oxygen during photosynthesis which takes place during sunlight in daytime. Sixthly, you create the illusion that you are in control if you are praising them, or thanking them or even threatening them. Lastly, you talk and they listen, which is good for the soul.

5 Minutes! FAST and EASY Way to Make Face Mask

Password Problems Solved

 

Remembering Passwords

After you have changed your password, note the new password with the date in a brightly coloured notebook which is kept in a regular place. 

Pin the opened website on your desktop.

Sharing Passwords

If you are chronically ill or elderly you might want to leave a file of passwords for your descendants or executors. After my uncle died, I had trouble cancelling subscriptions to magazines because their system would not let me into his account to contact anybody without a password.

One solution would have been to create a new temporary account for myself to get into their system, then tell them about my problem with the other account. 

The other solution was to return the unwanted goods with a note that the recipient had died. However, the company's mailing system did not catch up.

Security

For more security, select a random password protector.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.sg/Forgot-Password-Problem-Organizer-Journal/

How To Remove Labels From Jars - and recycle jars with new labels

Why leave on a label? Why remove it and how.

1 Why leave on a label?

To remind yourself of what needs replacing when shopping locally. To recall the name when ordering online. To remember to search for it on your next holiday in the country where you bought it. 

2 Why leave on a label? 

As a historic item to display in a museum or to sell to a collector. 

 3 Why leave on a label? You don't know how to remove it. 

To remove a label from a glass jar, wet the label and rub it with your finger. If you don't want to use your finger, anything else can be used to rub. For example, a cloth, sponge, a washing up brush. 

Why remove a label?

If the jar is labelled containing food or drink, after it is emptied, somebody else might use it as a container for something poisonous such as cleaning materials. You do not want somebody to thin a bottle contains whisky, or water, when it has been refilled contains bleach, or paint thinner, or limescale remover.

Now that you have removed the label, what can you do with the empty jar?

1 Use it as a vase for cut flowers or artificial flowers. 

2 Covering a Jar

You could tie a ribbon around it.

2 Use if for storing buttons or ribbons or string.

3 Use it as a pen and pencil caddy. 

Photograph your items on your mobile phone. Upload to your laptop. Print the picture in colour or black and white and stick it on the jar.

If  you are saving ink or the picture comes out small, print it in a frame, by printing a border, or use the window from a window envelope.  is Over it with wrapping paper or magazine pictures or birthday and Xmas gift wrapping paper. 

A tall jar can be used for taller flowers, rulers, kitchen brushes, salad tongs. Use it to store spaghetti.

4 Make A Label

The simplest and quickest is to write on it with pencil, then go over the writing more neatly with a felt tip pen or Biro. 

Improve on this, now or later, by printing a label. Simply type into your laptop, enlarge, choose a fancy or bold typeface, copy half a dozen times to have labels for several jars or all four sides and the lif of the jar. Print. Stick on using glue on the back, Blu-tac, or double sided sticky tape on the back, or photo corners, or clear or coloured sticky tape around the edges or diagonally across the corners.   

Uses For Lids

A lid can be used to cover a cup of coffee to keep it warm or to keep out insects in summer and hot countries.

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