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Sun 17 Feb, 2008 08:47 pm
Today our puppy got the tip of his tail caught in a door and it was bleeding pretty bad. We would get him calmed down, get the bleeding stopped, then he would jump up, wag his tail and it would start all over again.
We needed a bandage but we didn't have anything but band-aides but hey - wait a minute! - I have some panty liners! That'yd work! Yeah! We can wrap some tape around it and....
It worked!
The puppy is doing great -- his ususal fine and frisky self.
Have you ever come up with a off lable use for a product that worked like a charm?
Share!
Panty liner bandaids, got it. I might have included a popsicle stick splint...
Listen, I'm the original Home Depot (etc.) Explorer. Hmmm, I could use that for that.... Or, what could I find to use as a hook thing for that...
If I had my life to live over, I might go into commercial product design...
There was a great article that I saved about this designer guy... wait, I'll find the link.
Meantime, I'll try to remember some of 'inventions' that worked, or, eh, sort of worked.
Back in a bit.
My wife was at the vegetable stand........
Thanks for the article, osso!
I do that kind of thing too -- the hardware store thing. One of my favorite haunts for that kind of thing was a store here that sold retail store fixtures so they had all kind of crazy stuff. One of the old-timers who worked there was amazingly inventive. I'd go in and say "I need a thing, no bigger that "this" that will do this and that". He'd assure me it couldn't be done then set to work piecing it together from parts from other things. Without fail I would leave with something very close to what I was looking for.
A few years ago I revamped one of our projects to make trellises for my garden.
Maybe someday we can hit the hardware store together. That would be a blast!
Chumly, I'm not even going there....
There was the trellis clothes line thing I built...
I cobbled together a two-pronged widget for drying oven mitts with long handled magnet and an ice chopper with a broken handle.
Very satisfactory.
When I recently broke a baby toe, I needed to create a little splint for it.
I poked around in the bathroom cabinet and found a bag of cosmetic sponges from the Anything for a Buck store that I'd bought to apply Hallowe'en make-up. Turns out they feel a lot like the foam used in finger splints. I've been cutting them into little segments to fit between the baby toe and the next toe - then taping the toes together. The sponges provide just enough give and support.
Female ingenuity lives!
Creative problem solving beats store-bought anyday.
Very satisfactory indeed.
and not quite in the same category but ...
one of my most popular (as in classmates going ooooooooh ahhhhhhhhh) tops for bellydance class is a little girl's skirt I found at Value Village. Jersey fabric - lots of bold patterns and ruffles - for less than a buck I got a strapless top that if "real" would have cost about $40. Best of all, it's really comfortable.
Take that, trendy-dance-outfit-shop people!
:-D
I know I do this -- I call it "life hacks," as per a website I came across at some point. I can't think of any examples right now though!! But I wanted to grin at y'all because I like your stories so far.
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