Sindy saves the day......

It’s an old family joke that I have a bit of an odd obsession. Whenever I spot anything I think can be transformed into a miniature object that can be adapted to suit the scale of my daughter’s 1980’s Sindy House, I’ll snaffle it up for a rainy day. I recently changed a small hand torch into a rather fetching standard lamp by converting an empty Sally Hanson nail strengthener cream container into the lampshade. It had been after all manufactured in a rather fetching shade of orange. I tried attaching a frilly tassle but it failed to stick properly. I had a similar real life sized decadent purple one I bought from “Biba’s” in the ‘70’s.

I also have a habit of collecting miniature soap bars from hotel bathrooms which come in handy for all sorts of uses, guest soaps to impress the in-laws, drawer fresheners or just good old fashioned grime removal when washing powder or liquid just isn’t enough. Over the years I had acquired so many small bars I recently recycled them to the rubbish bin. I didn’t think I’d ever use them all even if I lived to be 150!

Our daughter recently got married on the beautiful island of St. Lucia. In between the vows and the photos it poured with rain as only it can in the Caribbean and while the photographer followed the happy couple around to get the best shots, the train of the chiffon dress was saturated with wet sandy sea water. As they were due to have a reception back in the UK a week later and I couldn’t find a dry cleaner who sounded confident enough to remove all the stains, I decided to have a go at gentle washing. At first ordinary washing liquid only seemed to have a limited effect and then I remembered that my mum used to scrub the collars of dad’s shirts with a bar of soap before hand washing. (We didn’t have the luxury of a washing machine in the 60’s).

Why hadn’t I hung onto at least one of the little soap bars? Then I suddenly remembered something. The last time I looked after my granddaughter, Scarlett aged 8, she had borrowed my nutmeg grater and disappeared into her bedroom which is also home to the Sindy House. After her mum had collected her I went to search for the grater only to discover its temporary “use”. Scarlett had eaten spaghetti Bolognese for her tea, (her favourite). So she decided to grate some “parmesan” for her Sindy and Barbie dolls. The pretend cheese was none other than a tiny soap bar I had placed by Sindy’s bath tub. Eureka! The solitary remaining bar solved the problem and removed the sandy marks just in time to hand wash the dress for the bride’s entrance on the night of the reception.