Thursday 6 October 2016

Put your thinking caps on.

Hello. I'm a bit annoyed that this blog post did not publish automatically when I set it to. It should have been live at 3pm this afternoon.In theory you should be able to write your posts in advance and set them to publish at a date and time of your choosing. Well it didn't work and now you are wondering what has happened to me. Truth is I have been away, rambling in Yorkshire. Now back and suitably refreshed, or should that be suitably knackered, ha ha. 
I might as well publish this now as it's done. I will be back tomorrow with all the gen on my three days walking in the beautiful Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall, and Todmorden area. I've had a fab time, and it was a superduper cheap holiday.   

Hello. I wandered around the car boot sale on Sunday, browsing what was on offer, not because I needed anything, but what could I make with ordinary everyday items. I was looking for something that might jump out at me saying take me home and make me into something else. I have already shown you what I did buy, but I also took a few snaps of what I saw, while searching my brain for ideas. 
These colanders are shiny round shapes with holes in them, any ideas for alternative uses for them? Put your thinking caps on and help me out, there must be something they can be used for other than straining food.  
I saw lots of boxes of cutlery and kitchen utensils, I reckon these could be bent into different shapes. I've seen bent forks screwed onto a piece of wood to make coat hooks, now that's a good idea. Anybody got any more ideas? I don't have any means of cutting through metal so I might be a bit limited as to what I could do with them. It would be easy to squash them flat with a big hammer though, I think, or would it?


Lots of plastic action men, some of them in their undies. Hmmm, that's interesting. I'm sure there must be a use for these. I'll have to think some more about these, maybe you have some ideas.


I didn't ask how much all these items were, maybe they are collectors pieces and are worth a bit more than cheap car boot prices. It's funny what you come across, other people's rubbish is fascinating.

Another fascinating thing I saw was a woman pushing a bicycle with lots of bags hanging from the handlebars, and bulging panniers. She had a trailer hitched up to the back of it, stacked high with boxes and bags full of stuff, and on her back she had a massive rucksack which looked pretty heavy. I thought oh dear, poor woman must be homeless. I pointed her out to the stall holder I was chatting to, and the woman said, oh she comes every week and sets her stall up. I thought, flippin heck, a car booter without a car, that's ingenious that is. I suppose she doesn't live too far away, there's no way she could have ridden that bike.

Right I'm off. Let's have some ideas from you for the colanders, cutlery, and action men. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

24 comments:

  1. Colanders make good hanging baskets, not a clue regarding the cutlery and the Action Men, well - there's a challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I put 'upcycle cutlery' into Pintrest as I thought I'd seen a kitchen chandelier made with kitchen/cutlery implements before. There was some stunning jewellery made from forks. One simple use was to use old spoons to make them into plant markers for the veg garden. I am not inventive enough to have original ideas myself and I'm not brave to Google 'what to do with plastic toy men! I used to live near Todmorden. @little Switzerland'. It's a lovely area isn't it? Have you ever been to Wycoller and seen the vaccary walls? Lovely walking around there. I live in Kent now and it's really, really flat and I miss the hills. I look forward to hearing about your trip. Best wishes, Rose

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just a few quick thoughts - the action figures can be affixed to wooden plaques, and the whole thing spray painted black to use as bookends; the spoons and forks can be bent and shaped to use as handles on kitchen cabinetry; if inverted, the colanders can be used to hold lollipoor fair.ps/suckers for sale at a show

    ReplyDelete
  4. A woman I know sells little bottles with bloody body parts from barbie dolls (halloween gore as her hubby does comic conventions). She paints the blood (fingernail polish) and puts tiny nails in the hand. Really sick but they sell like hotcakes around this time of year (USA). I have seen colanders painted hanging on barns as art, they come with two handles for holding them up. I think a colander would make a dandy shallow planter as it comes with drainage. Maybe for herbs?

    ReplyDelete
  5. colanders - hanging baskets - plants, storage, places for the cats to hide.

    silverware (cutlery) - saw a recipe for making food gifts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSY4Suvrmp0), musical instruments (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5e0TVUC_ko), sculptures, jewelry

    dolls - all I can think of is Halloween/macabre themes

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was starting to worry about you! Hebden Bridge is just down the road from me. Our favourite day out, they have a fab second hand market too. I hope the lady with the bike did a good trade for all her hard work. That is dedication. I have seen colanders made into lampshades. Another clever blogger (sorry forget her name) made coat hooks using old cutlery, looked so quirky in her cottage.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Colanders for plants. I never see them but they look stunning.

    ReplyDelete
  8. looks like Blogger has stopped allowing Wordpress users from commenting. It will not allow anonymous either. You could use the colanders for growing herbs in.
    Brenda in the Boro

    ReplyDelete
  9. In ref to the strainers, put one of those hessian liners in, or make one from hessian cloth or just put a plastic bag in with holes, put dirt in and hang them up as hanging flower holders.

    Christy

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've seen wind chimes made from cutlery. Pleased to hear you had a few days away.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've seen colander used upside down with other kitchen items attached to it as a sort of kitchen wind chimes.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Colanders and be used as lampshades for hanging lamps in the kitchen; they can be painted if you're not happy with the stainless steel look.

    Love all the ideas for using the stainless - I've seen the windchimes and they are attractive. I don't know about where you are, but schools here in the U.S. sometimes solicit for donations of stainless utensils to be used in the lunchrooms versus using disposable utensils. Maybe there are other places that could use a nice donation of the utensils (hostels, for example)?

    The plastic figures would make for some interesting sculptures!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Colander as a sort of lampshade. The cutlery could be windchimes or bent into fanciful animal/people shapes...forks could be feet or hands, spoon could be a head, and knife could be the torso.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Punch a hole in bottom of colander and use to make hanging light shade with bulb inside the colander/shade. It would diffuse light through the holes and focus light below.
    Turn colanders into garden art by mounting them on their flat bottom to something sturdy to stick into the ground, colander bowl could form a big petal and inside part of the colander flat base use strong weather resistant glue/epoxy and attach different colors and widths of colored glass plates or votives and create garden art. Get colored plates, bowls, votives at boot sales, skip or charity shops. Just a couple of ideas.
    Turn superheroes or plastic figures into one of a kind lamp shades for child's bedroom. Use colander as shade to glue plastic figures on or glue the figures onto the base of a lamp for a child's bedroom.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I have an old colander that I put fresh fruit in ...the holes give aeration and keeps the fruit from sweating and spoiling. As for the cutlery...make wind chimes! The action figures? I haven't a clue :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I use our colander for fruit too, when not using it as a colander of course.

      Delete
  16. I've seen colanders made into hanging lamps and they looked great.

    Cutlery - wind chimes/door handles (bend them into shape)/

    ReplyDelete
  17. The blog, thrifty rebel vintage, has lots of good ideas for reusing cutlery, colanders and a host of other things
    Hazel

    ReplyDelete
  18. I had wondered what had happened to you. I didn't realise you could put a blog post on a timer. I sometimes write mine in advance, when I have too many posts at once, and put it out when I am ready. I did wonder why there were no comments but then realised they were waiting for you to authorise them.Glad to have you back safe and sound. Can't add to the ideas I am afraid, not to imaginative on that score!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have a few colanders scattered around my back yard that I have succulents growing in. I also have some beautiful earnings, bracelets and necklaces made out of cutlery that I pick up at a festival a few years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Sometimes it's better to just speculate about what could be done with a certain item, and then just pass it by. Let someone else figure it out. It's all too easy to be overwhelmed with too many possible projects.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I think the ideas already posted are excellent. My Mum had a ring made from the handle end of a sugar spoon and a bracelet from a fork. They came from the same set and had a lovely decorative edge/end on them and I think they were silver. Rae x

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thank you all for your great ideas, thanks for joining in.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I collect old colanders when ever I see them cheap enough, and mostly use them as planters for herbs out on the patio. They get rained on nicely, so no extra watering but have lots of drainage so never get waterlogged :-)

    ReplyDelete

Some comments will be accepted. I decide which are published.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.