Idioms and sayings

when pulling a face we where told " if the wind changes you,ll stay like that"

As black as the hobs of hell!
Side the table. (Clear it of pots)

without turning round , mam would say ." i know what you are doing, i,ve got eyes in the back of my head" !

My auntie used to refer to applying make-up as "putting a bit of tutty on".

My grandmother would say when flustered 'I don't know if I'm on this earth or Fuller's' and when the house was a mess 'This place looks like Howder Fair'

Howden Fair I meant

When my mother had some kind of pain or cramp in her leg, she would say, 'I've got a bone in my leg'. I was puzzled about how she would get about without one.

I remember copletely confusing my son a few years ago by telling him I was down to the last knockings. Having been born in Cornwall it took him years to believe than rhyming slang existed - he thought it was something we made up. I don't think he knows about backslang at all. My mother's favourite expression was In and Out Like A Dog in A Fair, and she frequently had bones in her legs - though not as often as her mother did!

I often use a saying my beloved Nan used to use - 'Doing a job and making a job' - referring to someone who for example has cleared out a cupboard and left it lovely and tidy but having dumped unwanted stuff into another cupboard, thereby making the clearing out of the second cupboard necessary! It is so appropriate in many situations these days.
Sadly we lost my dear Mum three years ago but I have been writing down her sayings to keep in our family history archives!
Classic ones from dear Mum were things like
"I turned around and said..."
"I poked my nose out to see if it was raining..."
and a real classic was when she was in hospital - she was checking with us that we were keeping her bird-feeders topped up and announced to all around that she "had her tits out in the back garden last week"
God bless her she left us so many memories to make us smile!

In response to "What's for dinner?" always came "Whamlin'". Ancient Lanarkshire for not a lot I think.

Enough blue sky for a sailor's pocket handkerchief from my Granny.

Holidays? Ham'ldaeme.

When espying a young lady not particularly blessed with beauty, my Granny said loudly, "My, whit a pie-faced lassie!" .....,

Enough blue to patch a sailor's pants.
Sbagran, my dad used to lovingly recall a caption to a picture in a newspaper:
'Blue tits in Hyde Park'. He never lost his student sense of humour.

In response to "What's for dinner" in my childhood home, it was "Airy pud and windy pie."

'Tha favvers tha's ettn thi beddin' Greatnan might be able to translate.

I remember my grandfather's favourite colours were sky-blue-pink and dandy-grey-russet. Always thought I should be able to work out what they looked like.

My lovely Aunt used to say when putting her children to bed 'Happy Dreams, sweet repose, all the bed and all the clothes'. Never did understand what it meant!

NannaB I have never heard that saying but I imagine it stems from when beds were shared and was a wish to the sleeper that they would have 'all the bed and (bed)clothes' to themselves. My mum (from Yorkshire always referred to the bedding of any description as the 'bedclothes'.

Oh yes, it was always 'bedclothes' in our house, too!

I remember 'sky-blue-pink'!

Sky blue pink with a yellow border.

bluebell Wasn't Fullers Earth a medication? The name rings a bell but I can't remember what it was used for.

Face packs, Sook.

Sky blue pink with yellow dots on

Fullers Earth was powdered dry clay stuff which you could use to "dry clean" your fur stole (or your hair if you could not wash it), or mix it with water for a face pack for greasy skin. You rubbed it into the fur to absorb the grease and dirt, then brushed it out again.

Raw wool was "fulled" to clean it and take out the oil and grease and dirt by kneading it with a mixture of fine earth and water.

Numberplease yes from my Gran too except the dots were spots!
Pudding was always W and S (took us ages to work out wait and see).
My Dad served in the RAF during the war and he must have learnt most of his odd expressions there as they were certainly not Welsh in origin, many were slightly altered which made them sound even more odd.
Will try to recall some!

You are possibly right Nightowl and that was an expression we used Numberplease.