About zefiart

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

russian honey cake

Posted on April 16, 2016 by zefiart

Yes. Its another food post.

I can’t explain it, but maybe its cause once you cook once, you get the urge to do it again. And unlike most of the time, this time I didn’t sit down and let the feeling pass.

When mom visited early in the year I took her to a cafe in Richmond and we had this russian honey cake. The taste was so familiar, so wonderful… I just had to have it again.

Even if I had to make it myself.

And that’s saying something!

So I looked it up online. Its called medovik apparently, and its a popular russian cake. Contrary to how it looks with all those layers, its not that hard to make. This is pretty much how it looked when I had it:

This is the photo from the page of the recipe I followed:

Now I would never, ever attempt a layer cake normally, but this one is made of large biscuit (or cookie) layers. Not sponge cake. ie, easier. I mean, I can make cookies, right?

This is my cake:

Again, not quite as nice as in the pictures. But it tasted GREAT.

And that’s not just my opinion. I had ~~guinea pigs~~ taste testers at dinner last night.

So, anyway, I’ll include the recipe I used below, but if you want the proper recipe, click on the images above. I will try the other recipe next time I make it, its similar and looks like it might be easier.

Russian Honey Cake – Medovik

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons honey (this time I stuck with the amount stated)

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour (we just call it plain flour here)

Cream Filling (see recipe below)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 190C or 375F depending on where you live. Cut five sheets of baking paper, I did not cut them into circles as the recipe said, I mean, why bother? You cut the dough into circles, the paper can be triangles if you want.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and eggs.

In a large saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Add honey, egg-sugar mixture, and baking powder; stir constantly until well blended and foamy the recipe says. It didn’t get really foamy, but there was a slight foaminess about the edges…

Remove from heat.

Stir in flour until dough is not sticky. I did have to add a bit more flour and I did work it by hand on the bench in order to make it unsticky enough to roll out. I had to cause the dough kept sticking to my rolling pin.

Divide the dough into five more or less equal blobs. Cover the blobs with plastic wrap to keep them warm. No idea why this is important, but it is.

Using a floured rolling pin, roll one blob into a more or less round shape about 1/4-inch thick. I found it was easier to roll the dough out straight onto the baking paper and not try to lift it up. I mean, its really quite thin even when its thicker than it should be… Once it was rolled out I used the base of a springform cake tin to cut it into circles.

I used the offcuts to patch any edges that didn’t quite reach the edge, and all leftover bits were baked as well for the crumb topping.

Bake 3 to 5 minutes or until just barely golden but not brown. Remove from oven and cool.

Repeat for the other four blobs of dough.

I had to keep a close eye on them as they baked cause our oven (despite being fan forced) doesn’t bake evenly. I also baked them one at a time to be safe.

The recipe says you should prepare the filling at this stage. I prepared it before I did the dough/baking. I mean, it said you needed to let it cool so why would you prepare it last?

But in case you want to make it at this point, here it is now. Otherwise, do it first like I did.

Caramel-Cream Filling

1 and a bit can sweetened condensed milk (the recipe said 14oz, our cans are 12oz so I put in a bit extra. Maybe a little more than a bit extra… of course I had to use a conversion thingy to figure that out cause we work in grams, not ounces

3 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup butter

In a saucepan big enough for the job, over medium heat, combine sweetened condensed milk, eggs, honey, and butter. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil; boil until the mixture thickens. Or that’s what you’d want ideally. My mixture seemed pretty thick to begin with and at some stage I decided it was thick enough stopped.

Remove from heat and let cool.

I used the springform tin to put my cake together cause I thought it would be easier. I cut a bit of baking paper for the bottom so it wouldn’t stick. Alternate the layers of biscuit circles and filling. I used the crushed offcuts sprinkled on top to finish it off.

Put it in the fridge and leave it for at least 8 hours. I left it for 24 since it was dessert for the next night.

We had it with a bit of cream and my opinion is that its better with coffee or tea during the day than after a full meal at dinner time. It was too rich for after dinner.

It worked great for breakfast though!

The delicate flavour of the honey and the caramel flavour of the filling is just yummy.

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quick pasta and cheese danish

Posted on April 12, 2016 by zefiart

Tonight I cooked dinner and made dessert.

Yeah, I surprised myself too.

We have a visitor. He’s the friend who built our deck. You can see why I’d want to spoil him.

His favourite meal is carbonara so I make it every time he comes over… thankfully its an easy meal. But the way I cook its not always the same. I get imaginative with my cooking at times.

Usually I make it with bacon and mushrooms but I’ve been known to make it with chicken, avocado, sun dried tomatoes or snow peas.

Mainly it depends on what I have in the fridge at the time.

Tonight I found I had cream and bacon. That’s it.

Time to improvise.

I had some tiny cherry tomatoes from our garden and I’ve got a pot of parsley on the porch. It turned out pretty good, even if I do say so myself. If you want the recipe for a quickie carbonara see the end of this post.

Dessert was one I found at a link party – Cheese Danish Squares.

Those were my danish squares. More like road kill danish oblongs really.

These are Ava’s danish squares:

Now take another look at mine:

Hm.

Ok.

Well… in my defense, they tasted great!

If you like a lot of lemon, which, luckily, I do. Cause I’m incapable of following a recipe without ‘improving’ or ‘adapting’ it.

Firstly we don’t have ready made crescent roll dough in Australia so I used puff pastry. That was a necessary swap, but I went a step further…

In this case the recipe calls for one teaspoon of lemon. Really? One teaspoon? How much lemon flavour can one teaspoon impart?

I had a lemon. I squeezed it. I put in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. I tasted it… it could take a bit more lemon… so I put in the rest.

Result… nice.

Very very lemony cream cheese puff pastry danish.

If you want to make them, follow Ava’s recipe. You can, however, follow my recipe for carbonara a la whatever’s in the frige.

What’s in the fridge carbonara

Ingredients

1 packet of farfalle (pasta bows, cause if you’re gonna step outside the square, why be boring?)

As many rashers of bacon as you want

1 small/medium container cream (whatever kind you prefer)

Some cherry tomatoes

Some fresh parsley

One egg

Parmesan. Lots of it.

Start the water boiling with a teaspoon of salt in it. Trust me. I never used to add salt to my water and its so much nicer with.

Chop up the bacon and brown it in a frying pan.

Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters, depending on the size. We had some pretty stunted tomatoes so I only had to cut them in half.

Roughly chop the parsley, leaving a couple of sprigs for decoration, cause, you know, we like to do things properly round here!

Once the bacon is browned, add the cream and let it warm up. Add the tomatoes and chopped parsley and bring it to a gentle simmer. Don’t boil. The world will end if it boils.

Meanwhile, the pasta should be ready. Providing you actually put it in once the water boiled.

Test pasta readiness by fishing a bit out and eating it. If its chewy in the middle, cook it a bit longer. Don’t let it overcook. Mushy pasta will cause the world the end.

In a bowl, beat the egg with a fork.

Drain the pasta, then put it back into the saucepan. Pour the beaten egg over it and mix it through. It will cook onto the pasta. I have no idea why this step is important, but it is.

Pour the creamy bacon and whatever sauce over the pasta and mix it through.

Serve with a heavy handed sprinkle of parmesan and a sprig of parsley.

Yum.

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where we’re at

Posted on April 10, 2016 by zefiart

Literally or philosophically? Maybe a bit of both!

Whatever.

Either way, I thought it was time to catch you up on stuff around here.

Everyone is well – dogs, horses, geese, ducks, chickens… us. Although one chicken is looking half plucked. Its autumn… I know they go through a molting phase, but she’s a step above being in a roasting pan by the looks of her.

Meanwhile, we’re down one rooster. We did have two – one was a home bred boy. He’s disappeared. Either he was run off by his dad or he met a sticky end. I haven’t found any evidence to suggest which.

Without rain there’s no grass so we’ve been hard feeding the horses a few months now. There’s no hay to be found anywhere and, if you can find it, it costs more than gold.

Here’s Waldo, sharing his breakfast with the chickens. I give Wally a wide berth… after the time he bit me I’m very wary of his teeth.

Dancer, on the other hand, is a real smoocher. We love that girl!

We have a new female goose. She arrived one day and paired up with one of the boys. That now makes us the proud owners of 3 couples. I really am afraid of what will happen when they decide to have more babies. We got lucky last year. One of the girls lay 20 or so eggs but didn’t sit on them long enough to hatch them.

Next year when they lay eggs I think I’ll skulk around stealing them!

Our dam has never been so low. Its spring fed and it’s always been full. This summer its more mud puddle than dam. I think we either stuffed up the spring when we had it dug out or the spring has dried up. The dam never seemed to bounce back from being dug out, the water has been like brown soup since… then again, with the lack of rain around here, maybe the spring has just packed it in.

If the situation doesn’t improve I think the geese might move out. Not sure if that’ll make me sad or glad. I love them, but they’re pretty deadly on any plants I try to get growing where they can reach.

I mean the horses are bad enough, but now I had to rethink all the fencing. Not just tall and strong for the horses, also shorter and closer for the geese!

Wayne built a cute bonfire pile in the middle paddock. Won’t be long now and he’ll be out there roasting marshmallows. If he liked them. And if people actually roasted marshmallows in Australia.

It looks like a forest fairy home, complete with a door. I suggested we could do a rain dance one night under a full moon. The neighbours would enjoy that.

Providing we keep our clothes on.

Meanwhile, Wayne and I are doing a regular radio show at our local community radio station. It was my idea, I have a ton of cds and some vinyl from my rockabilly/rock’n’roll days and I thought it’d be a great opportunity to listen to and share my music. So far we’re really enjoying it.

Turns out Wayne is a closet radio announcer! Who knew? He’s a natural.

You can stream it online if you’re out of range, so look us up – TYGA FM 98.9 – 12-2pm on Sundays.

Other than that, I think I may have mentioned I’ve lost my mojo in terms of creativity lately. I just don’t have the motivation. Or energy. Or desire.

My get up and go has got up and gone.

One of the only things I dragged myself out to do last weekend was put up three old mirrors in the mud room. We now have someplace to check ourselves before we walk out the door. Surely that’s a good thing.

When I feel flat like this I have to remember – we’ve done so much to this place since we moved in. All I have to do is look at the old photos to appreciate that.

And darn… I have to remove the Xmas bow from the front door.

I told you I’ve been ‘off’ lately.

Sometimes its ok to just watch TV, read books and rest. Its ok to do nothing for a while.

At least that’s what I tell myself. I’m almost convinced.

our junky garden

Posted on April 3, 2016 by zefiart

In the last week I’ve managed to get a bit of work done in the garden. Not on my own… I had some help otherwise I’d be lying on the couch moaning in pain right now.

One thing I did by myself was move these broken old chairs into the front garden bed. Partly to stop the dogs from digging, partly as garden art. I got these chairs at the tip shop ages ago. The guy there thought I was going to fix and restore them. I had no such notions. I only bought them as garden art.

There used to be a gorgeous burgundy penstemon growing where the chair (below) is but the dogs dug it up and killed it. I have another one in there now but till it grows up enough to grow through the chair like the one above, I have an old jam saucepan sitting on it.

The birdcage is protecting a newly planted daisy.

I love my junky garden art.

Close to the front door the old washing machine drum which used to hold lettuce now has sweet peas in it. I’m using the broken windmill as a climbing trellis for them when they grow.

I do have plans to restore the windmill.

If you’re wondering about the springs… dog barrier.

Need I say more?

I found this little chair at the tip shop a couple of weeks ago. I had planned to fix it up but for now its holding some of my succulents on the front porch.

AND…. (drumroll)

I bought a maple!

Its a japanese maple, no idea what type exactly. I had one of these in Melbourne many years ago and I sure hope this does well. Till now we’ve had no trees in the house yard and that’s just wrong. This is tree no. 1.

I dressed it up with a few junky planters so it wouldn’t feel so alone on the side of the woodshed. The soil there sucks, but we dug a deep hole and filled it with soil, fertilizer and manure. Fingers crossed.

I did plant some trees just outside the yard – one canadian maple which bit the dust, one orange tree which was eaten by the geese, three birches near the dam of which one survived. The others were eaten by the geese. Seven birches near the water tanks, and five pussy willows, all of which have survived and are growing despite having been pruned back by the horses on numerous occasions.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed the tyres around the maple… We’ve now added tyres down lower in front of the new drainage ditch, creating an extended garden area. For now I’ve got some spring bulbs in the tyres closest to the maple but need more plants to fill the other tyres.

I bought a new camellia which I put in a container on the side of the house. Advice of a friend: put it in a container in the spot you think you want it to live, that way you don’t have to dig a hole and plant it till you know if it likes it there.

Excellent advice.

Procrastination 101.

The white banksia rose I moved twice and almost killed has come back. Its now in a pot in the spot I intend to plant it eventually. I like this way of gardening. Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow?

Other than that, I got this old singer from the tip shop. The base is broken but I’d love to find a way to grow a plant around it. Same with the typewriter. I got them both with the plan of making them into garden art. I can put a small pot into the centre of the typewriter, something which will grow up and hang down over the keys a bit. The sewing machine… maybe I can remove the base and sit it in a container and grow a plant around it…

There’s still more to do, but isn’t there always? I’ve spread sugar cane mulch, got the vegetable garden cleaned out of weeds and attacked the weeds. Again. We’re coming in to winter here so I won’t be doing an awful lot to the garden till spring. I just wanted it to look tidy.

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an embarrassing desk makeover

Posted on March 30, 2016 by zefiart

This is an embarrassing post… But in the interest of reality, here goes…

I’ll start at the beginning:

Those of you who know me know that I like rearranging furniture. I also like re-assigning furniture and making it over. And over. Then moving it again.

It keeps me busy and Wayne confused.

When we first moved into our home I created an office for both myself and Wayne. He got an extra large desk and I got a cupboard door on filing cabinets. He never used his desk, preferring to work in the kitchen, so I created an office space in the living room for him using my original corner office desk.

There was nothing wrong with that desk… It was large. It was practical. But it didn’t have drawers and it was made of melamine.

I dislike melamine.

So, I replaced it with something more my style.* I had this old office desk with metal legs and a crappy top. I put weathered timber on top and all was well with my soul.

Wayne lost his corner desk and had to adjust to less desk acreage.

*Cause it might be his desk, but its my style!

This new improved desk had the same issue as the corner melamine desk. No drawers. Wayne ended up with about 54 odds and ends to hold all his stuff. When you don’t have drawers you have a small filing cabinet, an el cheapo metal and plastic drawer unit whose drawers fall out every time you pull them out, and a couple of bookcases…

No so pretty. Not the style I was going for.

Just before Christmas I decided it was time to move Wayne’s office space.

Again.

(No, he has no say in this.)

I put a divider in the middle of the living room for the TV and moved Wayne to the other side so the first thing you see when you walk into the living room isn’t his messy office desk.

Then, just to keep things interesting, I decided to change his desk.

Again.

We had this old desk in the garage since we’d moved here. I got Wayne to remove the top cause it was beyond repair – he’d been sitting his chainsaws on it. As you do. It was covered in oil.

The main issue with this desk was that the leg space was so narrow. Just imagine all the times you’d knock your knees on this!

I took the saw to it and cut it apart (in a really messy way), leaving me with two drawer units. The plan was to paint these units, put them on castors and plonk a large shed door on top.

It all started well enough. I gave them a light sand, then mixed up my own chalk paint – in white. Of course.

I added castors.

I painted some random numbers on it, cause I have stencils you know.

And yes, I know I put it on upside down.

This is the door I had earmarked for the top. Its half of a huge hinged garage door.

I love the chippy cream paint.

I didn’t put a top on the units, just plonked this baby down on top of them. I mean, why bother, right? No one would see it.

I got all the pieces up to the living room (that is one heavy door!) and put it all together. Wayne began moving his stuff in…

I hated it. Not just cause of the upside down stencil either. It just didn’t look right.

Then, while I was wondering what I should do to fix it, Wayne broke it. One of the bottom drawers got stuck on a castor lock and he heaved and broke it.

I thought about repainting it. I mean, I had to fix it anyway… but what colour?

I thought about black, but I didn’t have any black. I did have dark grey… Same colour as our feature wall… I thought ok… how about I paint it dark grey?

I painted the drawer fronts first. Not sure I liked that either so I didn’t paint the units.

I used offcuts of plywood, which I had planned to use to finish the TV unit, to put a top and bottom on the units. The plan this time was no castors, just a flat bottom. For the extra height needed, I put a little shelf on top. This provides a handy place for Wayne’s large sketchbooks.

Its still not right. Its messy looking, but given that its a door with Z braces on the back, not much I can do about that part.

The one thing I did do to the door is attach a small piece of pine along the back to stop things rolling off behind the desk. You can just see it below, behind the lamp base.

For now its more or less finished, and I can pull it apart easily any time.

The dressmakers model and the cream Ikea trolley are mine. In case you’re wondering. I’m working on a wearable art piece on the model and the trolley holds my pastels.

This is how the desk area looks now. Cosy.

But I’m still not happy with the desk. I’m thinking all black drawer units and natural timber on top would be the best way to go. I haven’t painting anything black since my student days…

I need to buy black paint.

Wayne won’t be happy if I pull his desk apart and start over…

easy fabric wall hangings

Posted on March 28, 2016 by zefiart

Does anyone remember the little bird project I did a long time ago? I made the little bird by hand stitching the fabrics onto a piece of felt and I really enjoyed doing it.

When I was trying to think of a project I could do with a group of participants at work, I thought it’d be a great idea to do something similar. I mean, we have tons of fabric… Some of it is even halfway decent!

The main problem was that doing it the way I did the little bird involves a lot of hand stitching and the people I work with are disabled. Their abilities are mixed… some have the dexterity to do fine work, others have no fine motorskills to speak of, and none of them can do fine stitching.

My first attempt involved ripping fabric into strips and asking one participant to select the colours she wanted, then lay them out on a piece of fabric to create a picture. She chose the colours and laid them out in colour blocks.

The plan was that I would then use the sewing machine to sew the pieces down.

Of course, the minute I picked up the backing fabric all her scraps moved or fell off so I had to stitch them back one by one. As a result, I couldn’t help myself… I added a few accent bits here and there… Kind of defeats the purpose of getting people to do their own art!

I couldn’t help it! It went against my grain to leave it in plain colour blocks… the fabric got mixed up. Yeah. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

Given that I’m trying to let the participants make their own art, this method wasn’t an ideal way to do it…

I found a video on YouTube of a lady who does crazy quilting. She recommended using thin iron-on fabric to keep the pieces together!

Now, why didn’t I think of that?

Well, for one thing I’m no expert in sewing and I’m pretty sure I’ve never used iron on stuff before… In fact, I’m not even sure I’d heard of it before!

So, I went out and bought some. I got the second thinnest (cause the lady on YouTube said ‘thin’) and got to work.

I had a bag of scrap fabric which was given to me by a friend. It wasn’t ripped up in long strips like the first experiment so the pieces were different shapes and sizes. This gave the participants more variety in shape as well as pattern and colour.

Once they had their pieces laid out, I ironed them in place, then stitched them down with the sewing machine.

It worked much better. I’m sharing three of the creations we’ve made so far. There are a few more which I’ll share when they’re done.

Aren’t they fabulous? I want to make some cushion covers for my new couch using this method!

For the work project I’ve made these into wall hangings by sewing the art to a backing piece of fabric with pockets for dowels top and bottom. It makes it easier and much quicker. They can now go home and be hung on the wall straight away.

Mission accomplished. We found a way to let the participants create their own work with minimal staff input in the creative part.

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Talk of the Town Link Party

easy easter bunnies

Posted on March 23, 2016 by zefiart

I don’t do much for Easter. Its just a break from work really, and an excuse to eat chocolate.

It was different when I lived in Greece… it was the only time we went to church in my family – other than weddings, christenings or funerals. Easter is the best time in the Greek Orthodox church in my opinion. There’s something really special about the build up and celebrations of Easter.

Though I must admit, I really didn’t enjoy fasting for lent…

In Greece, Easter is a big thing. It wasn’t just the lamb on a spit, or the red eggs… it was the fact that after fasting for weeks you were finally allowed to eat real food – milk, eggs… chocolate.

Now I live in Tasmania and I don’t do Greek Easter. Partly its cause I have no family here and barely know any greek people to share Easter with. I tried going to the Greek Orthodox church in Hobart once and it just wasn’t the same… so I just do the Aussie thing: hot cross buns and chocolate eggs.

Enough about my sad story. I was going to share these cute little bunnies. They’re so easy to make and are a great way to decorate an easter basket for kids or friends.

I don’t have a pattern for you, but its real easy.

All you need is some felt, some pipe cleaners and some buttons.

First cut out two simple round top shapes for the front and back and an oval for the bottom, making sure its the right size for the rounded tube rabbit body. Its not as easy as you’d think, I had to reduce the size of my bottom (the rabbit’s bottom, not mine unfortunately) once, then I had to reduce the width of the rabbits, but once I worked out the right size I could make a ton of rabbits quickly.

Next choose buttons for eyes, a larger button for a tail, and a pipe cleaner for the ears. Bend them in half, then in half again, doubling over each end to form ears. Make sure you sew the eye and tail buttons onto the appropriate piece of felt (front or back) in the appropriate place, cause its easier to do it that way. Trust me, trying to sew buttons on while working inside a tube ain’t fun. Using a plain blanket stitch, sew the two rabbit parts together, not forgetting to add in the ears when you get to the top. Before you sew on the bottom, fill the rabbit with whatever stuffing you have on hand, then sew on the bottom.

So there you go.

Easy.

I do give great instructions even if I do say so myself…

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another record table

Posted on March 22, 2016 by zefiart

Yes, I mentioned a new record table. It was in the photo I shared in my last post. I forgot I hadn’t actually posted about it…

Honest mistake.

So, here it is, in a rustic setting.

I don’t know if you remember, but I did make a record table before. I had a stool base with hairpin legs but no top and thought a record would make a great top for it.

It was great. I sold it at one of the markets.

I regretted it.

I made another one. Not as pretty. No hairpin legs. This one was a stool with a top when I found it. A ratty top which I promptly dispatched to the great broken stool home in the sky.

All I did to make this table was give the legs a wash, buy new rubber stoppers as it only had one left, dust off the old gramophone record and use a ~~crapload~~ lots of liquid nails to glue it together.

Simple.

Effective.

Cute.

I put it in the living room and for ages I used it to hold my coffee cup as I watched TV or worked on the laptop. Then one night I forgot myself and put my feet on it.

I don’t recommend you do that. Gramophone records are really brittle.

Out came the liquid nails again. This time I glued the new record to the old one, making it double thickness.

Its back holding the remotes right now. And I have a footstool for my feet.

It pays to remember what things are for. Footstools are for feet. Brittle 33.5 record side tables are for a cup of coffee. And perhaps a bowl of popcorn. A small one.

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Talk of the Town Link Party

easy industrial stencil art

Posted on March 21, 2016 by zefiart

Somewhere along the line, my rustic shabby country farmhouse has turned a bit industrial. I mean with the poles in the middle of the living room there weren’t many places to go…

So I embraced the poles (not literally, though there was that one night when I thought I’d try pole dancing… best forgotten. Forget I mentioned it…) and built a TV unit/room divider between them.

Now I have a proper separation between the ‘work’ and ‘entertaiment’ areas of the living room. Instead of trying to hide the poles (ever tried to blend in poles in the middle of a room? impossible) I painted them black and made them a feature.

This resulted in a slightly more industrial feel to the decor.

Plywood and poles will do that.

I also bought a new leather couch and ended up with a scandanavian style instead of the old gentleman’s club style that I thought I wanted. The colour and style really suits the new rustic industrial farmhouse decor.

Here’s a preview of the new couch in place, including the mess all around it…

Anyway, I decided it was time to up the industrial aspect of the living room with some original recycled artwork.

Plus, it was time to take the christmas tree down!

These stencils are all real, factory shipping label stencils, some have even been used. Many times. Others are just plain old. They were given to me by a great friend and soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to make this artwork.

I recycled an old frame I got from the tip shop. I had originally put fabric in it to match some cushion covers and hung it over the bed in my house in Fentonbury when I was selling it.

Since then its been in our bedroom, just sitting there.

Waiting.

Till yesterday.

Yesterday I took it down to the casita, took out the fabric, laid out the stencils in a way that pleased me, used a ton of glue to hold them in place (there’s no glass on this) and then decided the frame looked wrong in distressed white.

So I taped off the inner rustic timber ‘mount’ and sprayed it gloss black. Then, after it was dry but before it had cured completely, I used a paint scraper to scrape a bit off here and there to show some white through.

Much better.

I especially love the splashes of blue!

It kinda looks good there now. It goes with the black poles and the little record side table. Which I haven’t shared yet… oops.

We’re getting there.

All I need to do now is paint the living room white. Or a grey that isn’t blue. Get rid of the carpet and put down some kind of floor that’s easy to clean and doesn’t make me gag. Finish the TV unit. Get a bigger rug. Find a solution to the world garbage problem.

I’ll get right on to it.

Easy.

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Talk of the Town Link Party

saddle storage in the workshop

Posted on March 13, 2016 by zefiart

Sharing another project I did before the eye/cataract saga. Back when I could lift things and bend over without fear of detaching a retina…

Eh. Its only a temporary setback.

You may or may not remember that we’ve been storing the saddles and other tack in the workshop area of the casita.

My workshop.

Where I keep my tools and do messy things with paint and sawdust.

Anyway, we can’t store them in the feed room for obvious reasons so its basically that or move them to another shed which is out of the way and we have to carry things when we want to use them……. though, with the amount of riding we do lately, would that be such a bad thing….?

Hm…

Must think about that…

Meanwhile, it doesn’t matter cause I’ve finally sorted out saddle storage in a way that takes up less space, is safe for us (ie no saddles falling on heads) and is safe for the saddles (ie no saddles falling on heads).

It was easy. Basically. It just took a long time to do from inception to completion. And I used only things I had on hand.

I have a fence in the middle of the workshop area of the casita. It was there cause the shed was being used as a shearing shed when we bought here. When we cleaned the place up and put in a new floor, we didn’t worry about removing the entire fence. Its been handy for tossing horse rugs and even hanging saddles off.

The problem of putting saddles over the fence, however, was that they took up space on both sides of the fence, thus limiting what I could do on the other side. So what I did was basically make a kind of saddle ‘tree’ to hang them off, thus limiting the spread…

I began by attaching a long piece of hardwood to the fence in several places and up onto an exposed beam in the ceiling so it was secure. This became the ‘trunk’. I then made three triangles out of timber and attached them to the trunk, each one a ‘branch’ for one saddle. The bottom branch holds Wayne’s western saddle (very heavy) so that got an upright support as well.

To finish it off, I used an old piece of pipe I had, cut to length, to create a rounded rest for the protection of the saddle upholstery. Mind you, I also put saddle blankets over the pipe and over the saddles for added protection.

The other side – minus saddles hanging over, taking up space. I’m can now push cabinets and other things up against the fence and have more room to work.