Male Pattern Boldness is proud to be the world's most popular men's sewing blog!



Sep 16, 2011

Introducing...The Daily Ditch!



Readers, I am so excited to introduce a new feature here on MPB -- The Daily Ditch.  As you know, there are a great many things I need to dispose of and I often lose focus at the very moment I need to decide what stays and what goes.

What better way to keep myself on track than to feature one special item to be discarded each day -- a moving tribute to yesterday's treasure/today's crap.  For many of you, this will be a pleasant stroll down memory lane, for others, a nightmare of repressed memories.  Regardless, I hope it proves healing and cathartic.  Of course, this will not replace my regular daily blog entries, but rather be an additional treat.  Doesn't that sound like fun?

Ideally, after just a few months of The Daily Ditch, my closets will be so empty I can turn them into meditation rooms.

Here's today's Daily Ditch, friends, and it's a wonder:

It can be so difficult to maintain an intricate hairdo, especially if you're traveling or simply don't have the time or money to go to the beauty parlor.  That's why this beautifully designed Oster Portable Professional Hair Dryer is such a prize.









Michael fished this collectible-of-tomorrow right out of our apartment building's trash, no doubt believing it would save me many hours of visits to my local salon.  Yet for reasons you can probably guess, I find I have very little need for it.  It has become, however, a quiet space for reading and silent contemplation, much like I hope my empty closets may some day be.

It's also in my favorite color, Seafoam.



Readers, if you're interested in owning your own Oster Portable Professional Hairdryer, do not despair.  I have no doubt one will be turning up at your local thrift store, charity shop, or curb some day soon.  Millions were sold.  Its sleek, futuristic styling beat out all competitors' models.



This hairdryer/isolation booth goes back to the trash this morning, as soon as I finish this touching epitaph.  Isn't that thrilling?

In other news, friends, I am sad to report that Leah had to reschedule her fitting yesterday, but I was able to successfully add the bodice trim to the front of the BurdaStyle sew-along dress.  The quintessential PITA, it has to look perfect (I refer to the trim of course).





Also, many thanks to commenter Andrea Cornell, who suggested yesterday I simply substitute my Featherweight pedal for my sticky Singer 201 pedal.  It never occurred to me that they were identical, so now I can clean the problem pedal at my leisure.   What wise readers I have!


Friends, that's all for today -- I must bring my hairdryer down to the trash, say goodbye, and get on with my day -- which from now on includes selecting tomorrow's Daily Ditch.   I hope you will tune in regularly to see what I throw out next. You might want to fish it out of my building's trash just so you can then throw it out yourself.  It feels so good.

In closing, did you ever own/use an Oster Portable Professional Hairdryer or similar appliance?  Did you love it?

When will it be part of your Daily Ditch?

35 comments:

  1. I have a Sears version, in orange- but I'm not ready to let it go yet!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would like to ditch a lot from my stash and somehow mend my habit of hoarding things thinking they will of use someday, which never arrives!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had one just like the one you have...from my MIL's downsizing a number of years ago. I got rid of ours pretty quickly....because MIL's stuff was overtaking our house. It still worked and we all had fun sticking our heads under it a few times before I donated it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Haven't seen one of those in mumble mumble mumble years. I am purging excess stuff though. Twenty years of **** that has built up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'd like to make a nice lamp out of that, I should take a train down to NYC...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have an impressive collection of hair tools. I am constantly buying new hair tools withthe idea that they will be the revelation that will rid me of my ponytail habit, only to use said tools a handful of times and then throw them in a drawer and put my hair back in a ponytail. One day I will sell them all and use the money for a cruise.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ha! You HAD that?

    My daily ditch is going to be that little 8" high pile of crap on the mantel. I can't go to bed until I've gone through it and either tossed things or put them back in their proper location.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well...I just bought a professional hairdryer, on a stand- last year! I love it! It solves the problem of drying my long hair in the winter, and gives me an excuse to just sit for a while, and read all the fashion books I compulsively buy. What else are you going to do in the midwest, in winter anyway? Oh yes, sew.......

    ReplyDelete
  9. We did have one and I spent my formative years with rollers in my hair under the hair dryer. I bless the day that I got my orange Max hand held hair dryer!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Spent many an hour under one that was gold...and I left it with Mom when I moved out. Yours kinda makes me want one. Wonder if LittleGirl would like to dry her hair that way? ;o)

    Happy Friday! ☺

    PS...I think I have the same mantel clock in your photo. Is that a Daily Ditch too?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I found a portable dryer just like that one at a stoop sale a while back and picked it up as a gift for a more ambitious-hairstyling friend...it was yellow, though, a really unfortunate mustard shade. That one would have been nicer (and matched her decor more)...

    ReplyDelete
  12. We used ours until the shower-cap-thingie split at the seams from age and heat. What a scary appliance it was. My own hair was so thick and coarse that it air-dried about as fast, with less noise, aggravation and heat-damaged-hair. Then I chopped off my curly locks, and they were dry by the time I located the drier and set it up for session.

    ReplyDelete
  13. You need a second one, then you could have your own "Cone of Silence" ;)

    ReplyDelete
  14. My mom has one of these, which she still uses every day. She even takes it with her on vacation. I remember being detained at an airport on the way to Disney Land as a child because security thought it was a bomb!

    ReplyDelete
  15. My mom was a hairdresser. So we went through two of these things. It didn't dry my thick coarse hair, and I ended up with oily scalp again before my hair could dry. Heated curlers were what changed my life. I never used the hood dryer again.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Peter, I LOVE the "Daily Ditch" idea. I plan to follow along with you and do a daily purge at my house. Today's ditch is a Pentium III desktop computer which I successfully got rid of through freecycle. It's been lying around my house for 2 years! Please keep up your purging posts.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm afraid to ditch anything today....thanks to Middlest and his sporting habits, I need to buy black athletic socks and a mouthguard this afternoon. I'll get around to clearing this place out someday!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I ditched my portable hair dryer when we moved. I could STILL kick myself. It was only $2.00! I so miss it! Here is what mine looked like http://sassylassiesvintagelife.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-feeble-attempt-at-pincurls.html

    ReplyDelete
  19. What an excellent idea! I am conducting a purging project myself, but hadn't thought about blogging it, until now.

    I am packing up barely-worn-but-not-my-style/size clothing to send to the Upstate NY town I grew up in, hard hit by flooding. One of my friends is going to distribute them to families in need.

    Can't wait to see what you ditch tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Bought a soft cap style a few months ago when I started to henna my hair again. Sit at the kitchen counter, watch tv and read for about an hour to let it cook in. No one bothers you when there is airplane noise going on.
    As for the daily ditch-I've been doing that about once a week so far. We might be able to have folks over by the holidays! Wish me luck and I'll wish you luck.

    ReplyDelete
  21. My mother had that dryer. I was pretty sure it would eat my teeny, tiny brain if I dared stick my head under it.

    I like Jeremy's idea of turning it into a lamp with a thousand points of light.

    I like that you are ditching it even better.

    Can't wait to see what you fling next!

    ReplyDelete
  22. You might want to fish it out of my building's trash just so you can then throw it out yourself. It feels so good.
    Hee Hee.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I love the first photo; perfect destination for wadders!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Ah yes--used one myself, back in the day. (Before you were born.)
    It was the only way to dry hair through the orange juice containers we used to use. . .

    I have been working on my Mound of Stuff for 4 years now, and am beginning to see patches of floor underneath. I'm afraid these objects d'crap may be the only things keeping me from floating away.

    ReplyDelete
  25. For me, a weekly trip to Good will. I even have Hubby on board these days, hallelujah!! Peter, that lovely clock needs a shelf.

    ReplyDelete
  26. We had a similar dryer when I was a teenager, but not quite so upscale. Ours was pink and had a shower cap thingy attached to a vacuum cleaner type hose. We thought that we were the coolest and laughed at my grandmother's 1930's blowdryer, exactly the same as the blowdryers of today.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Mine was a light gold and had a radio in it.
    Gave up the long hair in grad school and sent it to St Vincent St. Paul.
    MaryEllen

    ReplyDelete
  28. Mom had that very model of hair dryer when I was a little girl. It may have even been the same color. I bet it's still in one of her closets - she needs a daily ditch more than anyone I know, and I need one pretty badly myself.

    Have fun ditching, Peter. I like the idea of the meditation closet.

    Paula
    http://www.learnhowtosewnow.com

    ReplyDelete
  29. I just love the photo of you reading a magazine while using your hair dryer. It's too bad you weren't able to rehome it to someone who would enjoy it. The daily ditch is a fantastic idea.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I used to have one, my ex got it in the divorce. Dunno why he wanted it, he was going bald. Maybe his girlfriend???

    ReplyDelete
  31. I think the main reason you like Organ needles is because of the name.
    LOL'd a little harder than usual today. And I always LOL at your posts.
    :-D

    ReplyDelete
  32. I've decided to ditch my car. After almost 12 years in the same car, I think it's time.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I had that hair dryer during myearkt 20's. Then came my long-haired hippy days and I did not need it any more.

    ReplyDelete

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

Related Posts with Thumbnails