Author Archives: zefiart

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About zefiart

Blogger, DIY-er, poodle lover, graphic designer, dog groomer, recycler, artist, wonder woman in my spare time.

DIY pendant light

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What do a deep fry basket, an old xray and some crystals have in common?

They’re hanging in my guest room!

When I found a deep fry basket at the tip shop I just had to have it. It was clean and shiny and, being part magpie, I collected it for my nest. I knew it’d be perfect for something.

 
I don’t have a ‘before’ photo. And no step by step photos either. Sorry.

I removed the handle and thought about it. I’d been to an art from junk show last year and someone had used xrays to make a lightbox.

I have xrays. Tons of them at the bottom of a suitcase… I have no idea why I hold onto them. Maybe future generations will be interested in my fractures.

I cut the xrays into strips narrow enough to thread through the wire and put weaved them through the basket.
I had to order chandelier cyrstals online (thanks ebay) and waited for them to arrive.
I also orderd the three-cord twisted black cloth wrapped electrical cord. Ok. I know that sentence doesn’t sound right, but live with it.

I searched for black fittings, a black plug, a black switch and a black light globe holder thingy. (You don’t have to know what its called to use it!). I found the plug and the switch but the light thingy was hard to find.

Hello black spray paint.

I then climbed on a ladder, put a hook in the ceiling of the guest room, and hung it. No hanging off this chandelier as the ceiling will cave in.

I brought the ladder from the spare room in Fentonbury to use in here as a bedside on one side, the suitcases on the other.

The room still needs painting and the bedding needs to be sorted. However, I like how its coming along so I feel progress is being made, even in baby steps.

z

PS. This project was linked to Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100. Visit the link below for ideas you can recreate which will cost under $100.

Beyond The Picket Fence

four legged love

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Anyone who knows me, knows I love my poodles.

Even DJ has a strong suspicion that in case of fire, I’d get the dogs out of the house before I him.

There’s something just so beautiful about them. I’ve always been a poodle lover. From the first time I ever saw a photo of a toy poodle. Then, after reading Jacqueline Suzanne’s Every Night Josephine, I was hooked forever.

Unless you’ve had a poodle you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but let me just say – every man I’ve had in my life who ‘poo-poohed’ at the thought of poodles, fell in love with them. At the end of any relationship I’ve had since having poodles in my life, it was the poodles the guy was sorry to leave behind. (sniff).

For myself, I love their beauty. Their elegance and grace, their humour and energy and the way they make me laugh. Feeling their curls under my hands is enough to calm me if I’m stressed and lift my spirits if I’m down.

The fact that they have no doggy smell and they don’t shed is a definite bonus! More grooming, but less vacuuming. Gotta love that.

I’m never lonely with poodles in my life.

The day I held a toy poodle named Scooter in my hands when I lived in Melbourne, far far from any family, I knew I was no longer alone. With him I had my own family.

Since then I’ve never been without a poodle in my life. More than one usually. I currently have only Montana and Romeo, both of whom were born in my bedroom.

All dogs are beautiful I just love dogs. I see the heart in all of them, not just poodles. But my babies are my family and I love them a LOT… so please forgive my ‘doting mother’ ramble.


On Monday we went for a walk around the paddocks to check things out. We took the dogs with us. Montana and Romeo were thrilled. They ran down the driveway first, checking out the new smells (like the horse poop…)

Then in the bottom paddock, leaping over the snowdrops. This paddock fills up with snowdrops and daffodils every year.

So pretty!

Barney can mostly keep up with the poodles.

Mischa stuck near us. She’s too slow to run with the dogs with longer legs.

A day ‘on the land’ with the dogs and horses… my idea of heaven!


I’ll leave you with a fun little pipecleaner poodle I made a while ago.


It looks like its wearing a turban. 🙂

z

pretty garden (well, not quite)

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I absolutely fell in love with the garden decorations I’ve seen on Pinterest.

I wanted them.

I wanted a pretty garden like that…

See, our garden is NOT pretty. It’ll never be pretty while we allow horses in it. At the moment we have to feed Dancer in the yard cause the boys eat her food. She also enjoys a nibble of the grass. And stomping on my pathetic excuse for a flower garden.

I guess I have to decide what’s more important… spending quality time with the equines, or a pretty garden.

I’m working on it.
 
Anyway, I admired the baubles on Pinterest.

I looked at them.

I decided I could make something similar.

I had a few odds and ends around the house. I found more at op shops. I got to work.

The first ones I made were made using two of my cheap poodle ornaments and some candlesticks.
I liked them. I put them in my pathetic little flower garden (before the frost took its toll on my plants) and they looked great for about 2 weeks. Then something (or someone) knocked one down and broke the poodle.


I glued the poodle together, but I discovered the glue I was using (supposedly will glue anything to anything. hmph) was useless. So I tried superglue.

Lesson: do not buy $2 dollar store superglue. You may as well use flour and water.

But I know that now. Not when I was making these things. Here is what my coffee table looked like for a week.

I don’t do things by halves.

After they dried, I put them on a bookcase to wait till the weather improved enough to put them outside.

Naturally DJ knocked them over. Broke 2 of them and proved that the glues I used were not up to the challenge.

I fixed what I could, then took the survivors and put them in the garden. Or whats left of it.

Its really not easy photographing them all at the same time and not getting the muddy cement and the water tanks in the shot.

Maybe, come spring, the bushes will come back to life and flower. And the pretty decorative jewels will add to the beauty of my garden.

Till then, they ARE the beauty in my garden.



If they last till spring I’ll take more photos.

z

SQUIRREL!!

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It was brought to my attention today, by a good friend, that I may lack focus.
Those weren’t the exact words she used… scattered was one of them. Easily distracted was another. Take on too much put in an appearance. Not superwoman got a mention. Crazy was in there somewhere too…
In fact, I was compared to the dogs in UP (watch video if you haven’t seen the movie). Love the dogs in that movie but I think I see what she means… I’ll be doing one job, then I’ll see a rusty object and … SQUIRREL!
ANYway… I don’t think I’m scattered. I think I just have too many ideas, too many lists, too little time and too little space in my head.
In fact, that’s my usual excuse when I forget things. I only have so much space in my brain. If I let more things in, some things have to go to make room for more.
At least I’ve had a productive weekend. I did tons of stuff which was on my list. Plus things which weren’t. I love weekends like that!
(Means I can put new things on the To Do List!)
So, here’s what I’ll do. Rather than go on and on in a long scattered blog, I’ll confine myself to one project per blog. How’s that for focus? Huh?
One thing I did was work on the corner of the deck. This is where we step up off the driveway onto the deck. Last weekend I put a large chalkboard on the wall. This weekend I moved the cabinet I’d mosaic-ed to the porch and added legs to it.
Not real legs. Temporary legs. I just cut chunks of a leftover post from when we made the deck. They’re the right size more or less so I may just paint them and call it good.
Last night I did my own version of chalkboard art. Badly. My handwriting really sucks. Which proves this is authentic.
If I was photoshopping it, you’d bet the typography would be spot on.
I put my old watering cans on the cabinet, added the only pot plant I have which is flowering (the only plant flowering in my yard, full stop!) in a galvanised planter, and voila! Very pretty.
Please ignore the horrible handwriting. It helps if you look at it and squint.
 I think I’ll stick to computer typography from now on.
z

very pinteresting

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This weekend, and last, I had a go at trying out some of the things I’ve pinned on Pinterest.

I mean, they SOUND good, right? Some of them probably work too!

Like this one: using undiluted white vinegar to kill weeds. Sounds great right? No chemicals. No locking up dogs and only killing weeds where horses won’t eat them, ensuring that fence lines become small jungles.

So I thought I’d have a go. I have white vinegar. Tons of it. Some of it is even in the kitchen! DJ uses it when he makes poached eggs.

Yep.

I didn’t know that either. Apparently a dash of vinegar in the water makes the best poached eggs, and DJ does make the best poachies.

Other than as an egg poaching aid, I use vinegar in the grooming room, diluted in the rinse when I wash dogs, and when I hose down the countless ‘ooops’ and the ‘I meant to pee there’ incidents when dogs visit.

I went to the casita, grabbed my industrial sized bottle of vinegar, poured it into a gardening spray bottle and headed out to fight the battle of the weeds.

Well… all I can say is this: either my weeds are much stronger that the ones on the link above, or I did it wrong.

My weeds poked their tongues out at me. They didn’t die. They just got angry!

Some looked a bit sickly, but they were sickly and angry.

Next time I think I’ll add some dishwashing liquid to the mix… after all, its what you do to make weed killer work better – make it stick to the plants… I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve used white vinegar to clean the house as well. Like this pin:

I mean, what a great idea! Vinegar to clean without the pickle jar smell.

I got orange peels, steeped them in the vinegar, then put it in a spray bottle to use as a cleaner.

Again. Either my grime is tougher than other grime, or I’m not doing it right.

It cleans… more or less. If I scrub hard enough.

And it sure does smell nice.

When we went shopping last night I grabbed one of these thingies below cause I saw a pin which recommended using one in the shower. Fill it with … you guessed it! white vinegar and dishwashing liquid, then use it to scrub the shower while you’re in there.

As a bonus, it’ll kill any weeds growing in there too.

I’ve already always cleaned the shower while I was in there.

Unfortunately, it meant standing in chemicals while I did it. This way I don’t have to worry about my bits touching the walls as I clean. Its just dishwashing liquid and vinegar.

Last, for today, I tried this out. Sort of. I read this article, then went and looked at the rangehood filter.

Not a good idea. I don’t advise you do it. What you don’t know won’t hurt you, right?

All good and well I thought, IF you have a pot large enough to fit in half the filter.

I didn’t.

So I took a friend’s advice.

I bought some cloudy ammonia from the supermarket. Found a container big enough to hold the filter and liquid (the plastic tray at the bottom of a dog crate – see? they come in handy!), filled it with HOT water, added the ammonia and put in the filter.

Then ran out of the shed cause the fumes were disgusting.

Next morning the fumes had dissipated enough for me to brave the shed.

It was awful.

There was thick fat/scum everywhere.

Yeech.

I had to pick most of the solids out cause we all know putting that stuff down your pipes is courting disaster. Then I rinsed off the filter in hot water.

And rinsed.

And rinsed.

Then blotted with an old towel. And put it back. And its clean and shiny!

For about 2 days.

A woman’s work is never done!

z

the downside of blogging

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Starting the day with a wine whine.

First thing this morning, more or less, I check my email and look at blog posts from blogs I follow. This is what’s prompted this list entry.

A few of the blogs I follow have videos embedded in them.

I have nothing against videos, in fact I’ve been known to watch a video or two on occasion.

However, they’re set to play when the page opens. No ‘click here’ required.

Why do you do this to us? It might be ok for those who live in technologically non-3rd world countries, but for someone on satellite broadband, on the computer Noah used as a child, do not need to be slowed down any more than we already are!

Videos that play automatically when a page opens are annoying at worst and make me want to throw my mouse out the window at best. Or vice versa. Whatever.

My computer grinds to a pace which a snail would have no trouble beating on a dry day, as it tries to load the bloody video, all my other windows hang and outlook express goes out in sympathy. So I have to sit here for what feels like hours, waiting till the computer wakes up so I can find the offending video and turn it OFF.

I’m not even interested in the videos! I want to read the blogs and look at the heavenly photos and get on with my life. I don’t want to be sitting here while my computer goes into deep meditation as it churns out megabytes of video.

And that’s another thing. Satellite internet is not only slower than ADSL broadband, its also more expensive. Much. More. Expensive. And if I go over my limit… Lets just say I had to upgrade to a higher plan cause my last bill was TWICE the monthly cost. And I wasn’t even over that much.

Yeah, yeah. No. I don’t have other choices here. We live in the black hole of communications. If its not hard wired, it doesn’t work well. TV, mobile phones, internet… I think smoke signals would be more efficient here.

So people, PLEASE consider that some of your readers do not have superwhiz connections… a small percentage maybe, but we are here. Think about us!

On that positive note I’m off to do some real work. I have tons of progress and some projects to share. Stay tuned.

z

Monday, 20 August 2012

OMG! I can’t believe it! I am just reading an article from A2D which is exactly what I was saying (only in more words detail and much more tact).

… now to follow some of her other tips… I wonder if people have to verify text before posting a comment on my blog? And I have no idea how to add categories…

shades of colour (or my obsession with aqua)

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I’ve been going through my Pinterest boards today, tidying up… You know. The tidying up you do when you don’t want to actually get up out of your chair.
And I realised that not only have I had a white fetish lately, but I’ve also become infected with an aqua/turquoise/sea foam obsession. 
The white obsession started with my kitchen in Fentonbury where I painted all the walls and cabinets white.
 
I managed to add in a touch of vintage green with the meat safe and grey with the polka dot vase.
I’d love an all white with timber benchtops and touches of grey and vintage blues kitchen on the farm. I’d love white on white, cream and soft natural colours all throughout the house in fact.
My love affair with a certain type of blue started with my bathroom in Fentonbury. I painted the walls a pale blue called Snow Glow by Wattyl. Love that colour.
Only now, I’m leaning towards a bit more of a sea foam/minty green blue… Maybe not quite as green as these paint samples… but not far off either.
Maybe its got something to do with missing Greece and the crystal clear waters I love swimming in.
Maybe its got to do with the vintagey-ness of those pale blue greens.
Whatever it is, I see photos like these and my heart goes ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhh’.
Love this grey/greeny blue in the bathroom, coupled with white. Its so good I want to eat it (almost).
And I want timber panelling on my bathroom again (as opposed to stupid laminate tile sheets)! I mean, how fresh and clean is this? You’d feel clean even just walking into a bathroom like this!
Oh yeah. Forget the white towels…
Love the combination of beige, taupe, brown and the turquoise blues. With creamy whites of course!

And look at this… swoon….

I have the bottles. I have (different) old wire containers. I just need that cabinet.
Ok. I can’t have that one, but I have an old bookcase I found at an op shop, painted white and put flywire on the doors where glass used to be. I could repaint it, remove the flywire (which a dog destroyed), replace it with birdwire, find legs for it… and it will go in my new/improved bathroom (if I ever get that far!)

Look at these colours. The mustard colour is similar to the colour I painted my hallway and office in Fentonbury. I would love to use this combination in my kitchen.

Love these kitchens. Same colours…
How is this for decadent and beautiful. I want one! I have a small brass chandelier. Surely I can do something like this with it!
Note to self: search for turquoise crystals on ebay.
Only problem is I’d have to get an electrician in to get rid of the stupid fluoro lights in the living room.
Who puts fluoros in the living room? The people who we bought from, that’s who!
Anyway, I think my chandelier will go in our bedroom. Imagine it in a room painted in these colours:
Oh man I want timber panelled walls… sigh…

If I painted our bedroom thjis colour maybe I wouldn’t have to paint our dark timber bed…

Or what about this? White chandelier and white furniture…. oooooh….
 See? Those colours are everywhere on my boards!
I mean, I knew I had a problem, but didn’t know I had it so bad. When you go through your pins and see the same colours appear time and time again in all different images, different spaces, different items, you know its time to do something.
What?
Why get a paintbrush and start painting!
Wait.
I have to pick the actual colours first. And decide what colour will go where.
I have some plans ideas.  I want to paint the guest room white. A soft white. The mudroom white with aqua bits. Our bedroom a softer bluey green. The living room either a creamy white or a pale grey to compliment the dark grey wall at the far end – very similar to the last colour in this palette.
When we first moved here I picked a pale grey for the main walls in the living room and that dark grey for a feature wall. Problem is now I look at the pale grey and all I see is a blue I don’t like.

Maybe I need to go lighter/whiter/greyer…. a warm instead of cool grey.

These colours for the living spaces – greys, whites and bits of blue…. Yum.

 
I am so itching to get my paintbrush out, listen to loud music and get to work!
Well, I better go wipe the drool off my keyboard.
z 



the poodles redecorate

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Seems the poodles have gotten into the spirit of things around here and decided to help mom with her work at making the farm a dream home. 

They’ve been spending their days in the casita, in the grooming room and laundry, most days lately when we go to work.

Why?

You try coming home tired and finding poodles covered in mud to their eyebrows two nights in a row.

Sigh.

Since we moved to the farm they’ve generally had it really easy. They get the run of the yard while we’re at work most of the year. Its only this time of year (the wettest time), and on the odd very wet day during other times, that they get locked up during the day.

I give them some ‘special left alone time’ toys, close the door and go to work, secure in the knowledge that they’re safe and comfy, dry and not muddy while I slave away at work.

Today I got home to find they’d done some redecorating while I was at work.

I guess its only to be expected. They were raised around rennovations, building, power tools and revolving furniture. It comes naturally to them.

Today, they decided to put a new door (window?) in the toilet in the casita. We need a toilet with a view.

Or maybe they were trying to dig their way to freedom.

I don’t know. All I know is that a section of wall which used to have plaster on it is now just exposed studs. And Romeo was sporting a suspicious ring of white plaster dust around his nose…

Well, I’m not upset. That toilet is disgusting. Those walls are so damp Marie Curie would feel at home in there.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this weekend. I really want to do some work in the casita – mainly in the laundry area and grooming room. Some re-arranging. Some tidying up. Making the spaces more practical and user friendly.

And to confuse DJ next time he goes in there.

He really hates it when I move furniture.

Maybe I can get the poodles do more demolition work for me? hmmm?

z

baby steps

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We have too many shoes. And boots.

Scratch that.

DJ has too many boots.

This is what the mud room looks like currently:

Yep. A total mess. See the black and white tiled floor which is no longer black and white but black and grime?

See the piles of boots and layers of coats on the walls?

And the old boxes containing more shoes? What about the stuff I just ‘put there for a minute’ 3 days ago?

And if you look closely you’ll see Montana peeking out of Mischa and Barney’s crate…

This weekend I had a list of things to do. As always. But this time I’m proud to announce that I managed to do almost every single thing on my list, plus a few things that weren’t.

Like putting the shopping list chalkboard up in the tiny entry way where the fridge lives. So handy. Go to fridge, can’t find something cause its out – write it on the chalkboard!

 

I was going to do my usual thing with jute string and tied up chalk but decided to do something different. I did a white wash over weathered pegs and hot glued them to the frame. Quick and easy.

Since I was on a chalkboard roll, and since I had the hammer and nails out and was going strong on things not on my To Do List, I figured I’d put the huge chalkboard I’d found at an op shop a while ago up on the wall outside the mud room. Its a handy spot to leave messages…

This got two pieces of chalk and two pegs to hold them.

Have you ever noticed that if you hang something from just one hook, it will hang crooked and move when you bump it, then hang lopsided?

Well, I had a low tech solution.

Nails. On each bottom corner to hold it in place.

Ok. Maybe not the best solution, but this wall is going to be painted soon and I’ll do the job properly. Till then its fine as it is.

I just need to get out there and write something interesting on it!

Stay tuned.

So… after I did all the other things on my To Do List for the weekend, I decided on the spur of the moment to remove cupboard doors from my upper kitchen cabinets.

Cause, why not? Its my kitchen and I can do what I like, right?

At least thats what I told DJ when he came in and started whining about how what on earth was I doing now and why couldn’t I just leave well enough alone…

Here’s what I’ve learned.

That those hinges which close doors on the outside of cabinets suck. That the people who make those hinges supply them with the worst possible screws cause just putting the hinges on had ruined the screw thread. Getting them out was a huge adventure involving much swearing and the use of many different tools… including a claw hammer. (Do not try this at home!)

That partners don’t always have the same enthusiasm you have in the whole ‘lets try to change the kitchen for the better without changing anything really cause we haven’t got the money for new cabinets, benchtops, new stove or moving windows’…

And that quick jobs like ‘hey, I’ll just take the doors off those cabinets’ turn into marathons with hurdles.

On the positive side I learned that I like having somewhere in the kitchen where I can display things I like. And see things I no longer like.

Like the 50s cannisters. I love them, but I’m over them. I want different stuff in there now.

I also learned that I really, seriously want to declutter the benchtops.

Ok. I knew that before I started, but this seems like a good time to bring it up.

This is phase 1 of changing the kitchen to something I’m more likely to love looking at. Live with this for a while… find moulding/trim/whatever I can find to prettify the cabinets and make them look more like shelves…

Then rip out the entire kitchen and put in new one.

Ah… I can dream.

At least I got a few things done and taken a baby step towards a different kitchen!

z


adding to my junk collection

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Seems every time I go into an op shop or junk shop (I avoid antique shops like the plague), I find something small, or something huge.
Over the last few weeks I’ve done a bit of browsing with no serious intent to buy anything, yet somehow I still managed to spend an undetermined amount of money I will not admit to in public.
This is just a sample of the stuff I’ve found and collected. 
Who doesn’t love rusty funnels? That shop had another bigger one, but I refused to pay the price they had on it. 
Hooks of all kinds – good. They’re getting harder and harder to find.
The funniest little tin opener I’ve ever seen. Cute.
As I said, the pic above is just a sample. There are more cookie cutters, a few more coat hooks, many smaller cup hooks, rusty hinges, tons of old tarnished cutlery.
And latches, locks and door hardware. And some really pretty blue and white plates. Speaking of which, I saw 3 sets of old crockery I love… I’m so tempted to go back and get them. 

Do I need more plates? Frankly, yes. Then I won’t have to wash dishes so often.

I’ve also started collecting cookie cutters and other such stuff for my rusty/shiny dangly things. I am in love with those things. If I actually sold some I’d be thrilled.
And the hole thingies for drills. 
I know what I’m talking about, you don’t have to know what something is called to know what it is, or be able to use it! 
And doilies. Lots of doilies.
Why doilies you ask? 
This is why:
I want to make curtains for my home using cheesecloth and/or burlap and doilies. I’ve been inspired.
So, what am I up to this weekend?
Well, as you well know, there’s no rest for the wicked. I have a ton to do as usual. Unfortunately most of it comes under ‘need to do’ rather than ‘want to do’.
A friend is visiting and since he’s the guy who put up the deck and mudroom for me, I’m getting him to put the window frame in the mud room so I can start painting it. I’m dying to start painting.
So I must unearth the timber he’ll need for that job.
Then my day will include fixing the hearth to take up to the tenants in my house in Fentonbury. I had to buy a new bolt for it yesterday. Plus I have some curtains to take up as well.
I took some cuttings of my favourite bush in Fentonbury last weekend and I need to put them in the ground. So, since I’m getting dirt on my hands (did I say dirt? Mud, I meant mud.) I may as well plant some poor things I’ve finally decided on a home for after only 12 months in pots.
Then I have to sort through things to take to the market on my way there, pick up horse pellets (also on the way there), drop off the stuff for Fentonbury, and finally my reward is dinner with friends!
The clock’s ticking. Why am I still here?
z