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.

small changes make the world of difference

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I really do love the way the porch is looking these days. The potato vine I planted a couple of years ago has taken off and is threatening to swallow up the whole house, but it provides a calm spot to sit and read in dappled shade during the times when the sun normally sends you scurrying inside.

My various pots and containers with succulents and one pink geranium (I may be greek but I’ve never been a really big geranium fan) are all doing well.

I bought a couple of outdoor setting cushions for the adirondack chairs a friend made for us and they’re way more comfy and inviting.

Of course, we have to bring them in when we finish our ‘front porch sitting’.

Not cause of the dogs. Its the birds that worry us most.

We don’t call it the poop deck for nothing!

My plan is that one day we’ll put a roof over the back porch as well, making it more usable in all weather and a good spot for hot summer afternoons.
When that happens we’ll still have this little corner where roofing will be a challenge. I’m not worried. I’m thinking more trellis, a pink climbing rose I’m growing from a tiny cutting, and we’ll have an ‘arbour’ area at the corner of the porch.
How pretty will that be?
Or… I could go all Greek and put in a grape vine…
I have time… The rose is too little to go in the ground till spring and it’ll be at least a year before its tall enough to need support above the rail. I have till then to find a way to convince Wayne we need a roof on that side of the porch.
z
PS I apologise to geraniums for my earlier comments. I had no idea they come in so many varieties and colours. Thanks to Google, I’m now re-evaluating my stance on geraniums and will most likely become a staunch supporter of them in the future.

a cute little airplane

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Do you like my little wooden toy plane? I have no idea where it came from, but when cleaning out and organising the casita I found it among my toy collection.

(Doesn’t everyone have a toy collection?)

I have lots of collections. I basically collect anything I like the shape of, the colour of, plus anything I think I can use when doing junk art or repurposing. Behind the little airplane you can see a collection of tea pots and creamers and a collection of clothes hangers among other things.

This is one corner of the workshop which holds timber bits and pieces on the shelf, painting bits in the cupboard and tools on the pegboard.

I like this little corner. I like lots of little corners around our place. The theory is, if I like enough corners they add up liking the whole house and yard.
I pretend not to notice the bits I dislike till I can actually do something about them. Till then I focus on the pretty/cute/interesting bits that I like.
z

what happened to the drawers?

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So what happened to the drawers when I decided to make over the tallboy into a linen cupboard?

They became hat and coat racks of course!

First some destruction was called for. I got out the hammer and clobbered the drawers till they came apart.
I then removed the timber knobs and filled the holes. I gave them all a light sand and went through my paint pots to find colours that were similar but not the same. I painted them all in shades of greeny blue.

Yeah, for those who’re observant, there are only four drawer fronts there. There is another one but I didn’t need it for the project I was working on. It’ll appear somewhere else later on no doubt.

I used different hooks – these hooks were sent to me by a good friend in the USA (we can’t get them here) and they’re perfect for hats.

I put the hat racks up high and the coat racks underneath. I had to stagger them in order to fit them on the mud room wall. You can see where I had to put the electrical cable over the top one. Ugh. Not pretty, but here in real life, as opposed to decorating blog-land, things like that happen.

The coat racks have mismatched hooks collected from tip shops over time.
I’d originally planned to paint the entire mudroom antique white. Now I’m not so sure. I’m starting to like the rustic timber look.
I’ll paint the pine lined ceiling white and I’ll probably repaint the two house walls to match the outside of the house. But I’d already started undercoating the left side wall (with the window and sink) back when I was sure I wanted it all white. I guess I’ll paint that wall to match the other two. That will leave one weathered timber wall. It’ll be a feature wall.
I love the way the coat and hat racks look on the old timber anyway.

I also found a home for my crystal dripping tap wall art. Its been in the casita since I made it cause it needs somewhere out of the wind. I added another hat hook to it and voila, another handy spot for a hat!

This one’s on the wall I have to paint (plus you can see the terrible paint job someone did on the toilet door!) so it’ll stand out more. But that also means it’ll have to come off one day. I hope I never have to take the other ones off. Ever.

…Am I the only one who manages to twist the top off screws?

z

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stubborn? never!

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Wayne likes to read.

Wayne likes to read all the time.

Wayne has tons of books.

We don’t have enough bookcases for all the books Wayne has.

I like to read.

I have some books.

I also have a Kindle which has tons of books on it.

I prefer to read on the Kindle as its light, easy to hold, easy to read and I will never run out of books while I have access to the internet.

I bought Wayne a Kindle for his birthday in January… He had told me repeatedly that he did not want a Kindle, that he would never use a Kindle and that I better not ever buy him a Kindle.

Did I listen?

No.

Obviously.

Cause I used to feel that way about Kindles. I liked the feel of a book, I liked the smell of ink on new pages, I liked turning pages. Then I bought a Kindle cause taking 15 books to Greece with me on holidays just didn’t appeal to me.

I love my Kindle.

When Wayne ran out of books to read before Christmas he was grumpy. He was reduced to reading cereal boxes. He even read some of my books and that’s saying something. He wanted to read Game of Thrones (I have the box set) but found the type too small to read comfortably.

So I bought him a Kindle Paperwhite (like mine, cause I love mine!) to surprise him. I got him a case for it, I even put Game of Thrones on it.

(Ulterior motive: The books are so long I figured he’d be hooked on both the Kindle and the series by the time he finished book one!)

He flat out refused to try it reminding me how often he’d warned me not to buy him one. It sat on his bedside table gathering dust for weeks. He kept finding books to read: the dregs he’d overlooked on his first pass over the bookcases, what he could scavenge from friends, whatever, as long as he didn’t have to give up his principles and try the Kindle.

Then the day came… He was desperate. He asked me to show him how to read the Kindle.

He’s been using it non-stop ever since. He takes it everywhere with him.

He hasn’t said a thing to me, but I heard through the grapevine that he loves it.

Men.

What can I say?

z

tallboy makeover

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Long time in coming, but its finally done! The second chest of drawers makeover.

Again, I’m sharing a before pic that isn’t the exact tallboy I made over, mine was 5 large drawers and two small top ones… but you get the idea. It was almost exactly the same as the before pic. Pine, boring, plain. After has some class to it with its fancy base and pretty colours.

It was a pretty major job for me as this was the first time I’d attempted something so big in terms of modifying an existing piece. I’ve done tons of modifying before but most of the time my modifications are the type you can knock up with a few nails in a few hours. This one took a few weeks to complete, and a couple of new toys to play with.

This old chest of drawers came to Wind Dancer Farm with Wayne when we moved in. It used to be part of his bedroom furniture which included two matching plain chests of drawers (see the first one made over here) and a wardrobe (started but not finished). Since I made Wayne his own walk-in robe (here and here) I’ve been using his items for my own clothes.

Yes. He needs a room. I make do with a wardrobe and 2 chests of drawers.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Anyway, I hated their pine plain-ness and the way this particular chest of drawers had the propensity to drop drawers off sliders everytime you wanted to get a T-shirt out. Hence the makeovers.

Firstly I had to put a bottom on the chest, thus the next few photos are of it upside down, so don’t get confused. There was no need for a bottom when it was just drawers. I used an old piece of bamboo flooring a friend gave me and attached that to the frame first.

I drew the fancy front design on a piece of paper, drawing only half, folded it in half and cut it out. I traced it onto the piece of pine and cut it using my jigsaw. I then got to play with my new router and do the edge.

I used glue and a couple of nails to fit the fancy front onto the base.

I had to create a frame for it to sit on, to lift it off the ground enough for the fancy front. A normal person might have made the frame first, then cut out the front to match the raised frame, but I’m no normal person.

Its very makeshift. I used a combination of pine pieces and particleboard pieces to get the right height on my frame.

Note: this blog is all about making do and making up. Do not try this at home. Google how to do things properly!

You can see where the old base board of the chest had two cutouts. I had planned to cover those with trim but ended up keeping them visible. They kind of add a design element to the base.

Turned it right way up… It was looking good!

Those little cut outs I mentioned earlier created little gaps for dust (and mice*) to get in, so I glued a couple of scraps of thin plywood to the back of them.

*Not that mice will have a hard time getting in as there are no doors!

You can never over-do clamps!

Next I added some trim to the back edge of the melamine bottom brace and some dado trim to the front to create finish the edges. I added some leftover bits of skirting board to the sides to cover the hodge podge of the frame. I also added a piece of pine under the drawer space at the front to serve as an added precaution to the drawers falling out!
I gap-filled my heart out.
Then came the easy part: painting.

I’d thought yellow would be a nice colour, cheerful, clean… I bought a small pot of a colour I picked in the paint store.

Too pale.

I played artist and darkened it up using warm yellow and some warm red. Hmmmm…

It actually looks nice in the photos but trust me, in person it was gag-worthy. Kinda like the colour of raw fat…

Out came the trusty, tried and true aqua/green I used on the kitchen doors. Maybe not original, but hey, if all else fails, go back to what worked before.

I added a couple of the leftover knobs from the kitchen makeover as well while Romeo oversaw progress.


The makeover wasn’t without its failures. You can see where I ripped off paint when I ripped off masking tape on the melamine bottom brace. But nice trim!

Eh. No one will ever see it… Once its full of stuff, which it will be forever more.

Here it is in the guest room. Ignore the blurred background of all the crap stuff I removed from the old cupboard (the one that now lives on the front porch). Some of this stuff will be finding a new home soon as part of the cleaning up and organising regime.

We don’t have pretty matching sheet sets and doona covers… and I can’t fold fitted sheets.

Now you know my shameful secret.

My grandmother would roll over in her grave.

I’m now thinking it needs doors as I’m not liking it all on display… so in-your-face. Fly wire or bird wire in the doors to soften the un-colour-co-ordinated linen…

One day.
For now I kinda like the way it looks and the old cupboard on the porch. I’m happy.
z
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silliness is key

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While looking at the DIY Showoff link party, I found a link to this post from Our Peaceful Planet.

Its all about how humour and laughter are the key to a good relationship.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

Ideas To Get You Laughing
 
These suggestions were chosen to encourage having fun and laughing together.  NOTE: If any of these things sound way too immature, your totally missing the point.
 
  1. Watch funny movies or shows together.
  2. Watch stand up comedians together.
  3. Set a goal to share one new joke with each other every week.
  4. Grab some things in the bookstore humor area and read to each other.
  5. Have a game night where you play a fun board game together. You can even do it with friends. (Crimes Against Humanity sticks out as a good choice.)
  6. Be playfully teasing with each other.
  7. Get over inhibitions and do something silly. Make faces, walk funny, do some slap stick.
  8. Always look for the humor in a situation.
  9. Whisper naughty things to your mate that makes them giggle.
  10. Have a tickle fight.
  11. Play twister together.
  12. Hang out with funny friends.
  13. Learn to laugh at yourself.
  14. Play a fun video game together. (Roy and I play World of Warcraft.)
  15. Ride go carts together.
  16. Do the hokey pokey.
  17. Go to a park and play on the swings and slide.
  18. Have a silly string fight.
  19. Play laser tag.
  20. Have a water, snowball or pillow fight.
  21. Act out a scene from a movie.
  22. Learn to juggle.
  23. Have a bubble gum blowing contest.
  24. Have a burping contest.
Well… that’s interesting. Lets see how we fare.
Watch funny movies/shows together – of course. Although sometimes I have to draw the line at some of the stuff Wayne finds funny. I mean I absolutely hate Absolutely Fabulous. And Kath and Kim. And Little Britain. Ugh. However we share the Big Bang Theory, Two Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men (with Charlie of course), Mom and a few others.
Watch stand up comedians together – I wish we could watch them live like I used to in Melbourne long long ago. As it is we just watch the comedy specials on TV.
Set a goal to share one new joke with each other every week – no goal, but we share jokes often. Especially the political jokes that get elected…
Grab some things in the bookstore humor area and read to each other – nah.
Have a game night where you play a fun board game together. You can even do it with friends. (Crimes Against Humanity sticks out as a good choice.) – Crimes Against Humanity? I can’t find that game… I found Cards Against Humanity… is that the same thing? I used to love board games but its been a long time since I played any. Time to bring back the fun. Anyone for Pictionary?
Be playfully teasing with each other – always.
Get over inhibitions and do something silly. Make faces, walk funny, do some slap stick – gosh. If we made more silly faces we’d be at risk of the wind changing and staying that way! Anyway, silly voices, silly accents, silly words… all the time.
Always look for the humor in a situation – ok… easier said than done in some situations. But good point and sometimes we can do it.
Whisper naughty things to your mate that makes them giggle – uhuh.
Have a tickle fight – no way. I’m too ticklish! Does slapping each other on the butt as we pass count?
Play twister together – are you kidding? We’d get stuck in some contorted position and have to be taken to hospital like human pretzels.
Hang out with funny friends – as much as possible.
Learn to laugh at yourself – always.
Play a fun video game together – we don’t play video games. Or computer games.
Ride go carts together – that would be fun. Do we even have go carts in Tasmania?
Do the hokey pokey – have you seen us get out of bed in the morning?
Go to a park and play on the swings and slide – LOL… but no. We’ve never done that.
Have a silly string fight – sadly, I’ve never had a silly string fight. Put that on the shopping list.
Play laser tag – I don’t think I could pay Wayne enough to play laser tag.
Have a water, snowball or pillow fight – water yes, pillow yes, snow… no. 
Act out a scene from a movie – does quoting lines from movies till he wants to strangle me count?
Learn to juggle – I’m game if you are.
Have a bubble gum blowing contest – could do, providing we don’t pull out our fillings… speak for myself. Wayne has great teeth. Mine are a whole lot of filling held together by some enamel.
Have a burping contest – HA. All the time! In fact we grade each other on depth, decibels and reverb. 
I guess me and Wayne (or Wayne and I for those of you who are more pedantic than I am) aren’t doing so bad after all.
Pass Go and collect $200.
Might be time to challenge Wayne to a game of Scrabble.
z

a kettle collection and an old cupboard

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I love my depression cupboard.

Wayne and I bought it on a spending spree when we bought the farm. Up till yesterday it lived in the guest room holding linen.

It wasn’t very good for holding linen and I didn’t like it in there so I decided to replace it and put it where I can see it and enjoy it.

Its actually not in great condition. The top bit needs to be re-attached properly (right now its got huge nails that’ve been hammered in randomly but have come loose) and the base has rotted away in parts… it probably spent a lot of time in someone’s damp shed. Thankfully its not musty.

And it still has the remnants of the sold sticker on it cause I never saw it often enough that it would bother me enough to get out the eucalyptus oil to remove it.

I love it cause its made of old crates. When you open it up inside you can see them. During the depression a lot of furniture was made from crates cause they were easily available. Back then stuff came in real wood boxes, not cardboard and polystyrene.

Today old crates cost almost as much as a new lounge suite.

So, the old cupboard is now on the front  porch, in the enclosed area protected from the weather, and it holds the broom, steam mop and vacuum cleaner, as well as all kinds of stuff which don’t need to be in the pantry: cleaning products, light globes, etc.

And the top now holds my collection of old kettles and some of my succulents.

Of course, where it is it covers the bottom half of the window, but I don’t mind that. I love the way the light comes in over the kettles.

And I love the way you can see the crates writing through the window.

I’m thinking of making a small doily curtain for the top part of the window to finish off the quaint look.
One day, when I get around to more sewing projects.
z

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life (and loss) on the farm

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A few weeks ago one of our new chickens went clucky. First she sat on the nest and got a bit insulted when we took eggs from under her. Then she got short tempered. Then she got cranky and pecked if you reached for the nest.

So we took the 3 eggs she was sitting on and put her and the eggs in Alcatraz. That’s the original dog run on the property that we’ve mainly used as a chicken/duck pen/hospital/nursery.

The chicken sat on those eggs for so long, never coming out of the nest even to eat, that every few days Wayne or I would go in and poke her to make sure she was still alive.

As you can imagine, she really enjoyed that. Small bruises on our arms will attest to that.

Eventually I walked past one day and saw something I never wanted to see… a baby chicken floating in the water bowl.

They’d hatched and one fell straight into the water. Sigh. Poor little thing.

I blame both of us for that. We (he) should have known better than to put a deep water bowl in there with the hen. Didn’t we (he) learn after all those times we (I) fished Herman Too out of that very same bowl when he was dead set determined to kill himself?

Ok. He may have put the bowl in there, but I saw it and didn’t remove it. So, we’re both to blame.

Three hatched. Two alive. At least we have two live ones.

They’re so cute, and she’s such a good mommy. If you go in there she’ll chase you away, wings out, tail up and pointy beak.

Meanwhile the other three chickens decided they wouldn’t be shown up so they went clucky as well. Only problem is we’d been taking the eggs so they’re sitting on empty nests, threatening us with the business end of their beak for nothing.

Well, except one, which is sitting on a ceramic egg. She plans to hatch a chicken figurine.

The horses are all well. Cass is still locked in the stable, poor girlie. She’s being spoiled and pampered, being fed the good stuff twice a day while we wait till its safe to let her out. Its looking like that might be this weekend. The wound is healing well, only four stitches pulled out so its held together. We’ve been cleaning it every day and spraying it with disinfectant twice a day.

She’s ready to get out. She’s bored.

The others are jealous. They don’t understand why she’s being fed while they have to fend for themselves. Life ain’t fair, is it?

Chipmunk shows off his manly physique.

All in all, Dancer and Chipmunk are taking it well but Wally is cranky.

I stay out of his way.

Oh, and we’ve had another animal adventure. Sheep this time.

I think our place has become known locally as the best animal resort in the area.

We keep getting visitors. First there were a couple of pigs, the native hen family, plovers, then the turkeys who visit on a regular basis for a few days at a time, and now we have sheep.

Dancer keeps a wary eye on the new guests.

The horses were a bit put out by the new visitors. How did they get in? The whole place is fenced obviously. The sheep are part gazelle and part greyhound. I saw them run and leap!

Wally doesn’t mind as long as he gets all the treats.

Other than that, I’ve been doing the odd bit here and there but nothing interesting. Hopefully I’ll finish a project or two this weekend to share. Stay tuned.

One thing that I’m pretty sure about now is that I DID fracture my rib. Its been weeks and its still sore.

Mind you, falling on my butt last weekend didn’t help.

No, it wasn’t my fault this time. It was Barney’s.

Let me explain…

Barney was getting in the way of a car which was trying to park in the driveway. I called him over and squatted down to pat and hold him till it was safe.

Its hard enough to balance on your toes in a squatting position at the best of times if the ground is slightly uneven… but there I was trying to balance my center of gravity between my boobs and my butt when Barney decided to lean in.

There was no saving me then. All my weight shifted to my derrier and I went splat.

Again.

Only from a much shorter height this time. And I didn’t land on my sore side.

However, the jolt was enough. Ugh.

Eh. Life goes on.

z

old flan tin clock

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Among the multitudes of things I’ve had to relocate and find homes for in the last couple of weeks as I cleaned out and organised the casita, were a few flan tins. I’d collected them with the aim of making them into clocks one day.

Well, I’m pleased to say that one day finally came.

On Friday afternoon, while working on a chest of drawers makeover in the workshop, I found myself shoving a few items over to make space on the workbench. Among which was this old flan tin.

I remembered a bit of Donna’s (Funky Junk) advice to only handle something once, so I thought it was time to take heed.

Up till now I’ve not followed that particular piece of advice even though I wanted to. I’d pick up an item, go put it down a little further over, then remember the ‘no double handling’ rule and wander around with it in my hand for 15 minutes or so looking for its forever home.

It just didn’t work.

It would be ok if I had taken everything out of the room first (which was another bit of Donna’s advice) and got all my storage spaces sorted and allocated before picking up items to rehome, but I didn’t work that way.

No, I decided to empty the storage room, the grooming room and the workshop all at the same time.

Nothing like making a challenge really challenging!

So, there I was, chest deep in boxes, buckets, tools and dust, holding a jar of screws, unable to move cause there were things in the way, ready to burst into tears.

That’s about when I gave up and took a week off, till I realised that the way to finish was to do one room at a time.

Once I decided to do that I cleaned out the laundry, the grooming room and the workshop. The store room is messier than it was before, but hey, you can’t have it all at once.

But back to that clock.

When I found myself shoving over the old clocks and the flan tin I realised there was no better time than the present to make that clock. Or try to make that clock.

Firstly I had to bend the squished tin back into shape. Then I found that it had a broken bit on the side so I made that the top, drilling two holes on either side of the broken bit to put wire through. The thought behind that being that the broken bit wouldn’t be visible if it was on top.

What I didn’t notice till I took the photos was that the Willow logo in the middle is crooked.

Moving right along…

I then pulled apart a cheapie clock with broken glass I’d had in the grooming room a while back. I took out the clock parts and drilled a hole in the middle of the flan tin to fit the mechanism dooby.

Of course, I stuffed that up. I made the hole too small and the hour hand wouldn’t move and I broke the mechanism pulling it out.

Lucky I had another cheap clock. I think I bought 3 at the time cause they were like $1 each.

I used superglue to fix the clock mechanism to the back of the tin, put the hands on and put in a new battery. Then waited to see if it would work. 
It works! Its still telling the correct time 2 days later in its new home on the grooming room wall. I call that a win despite the crooked logo in the middle.
Oh well, if you wanted perfection you’d be reading another blog. On this one you’ll only see slap dash seat of my pants quality work. ‘Cause that’s how I roll!
z
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 Knick of Time Vintage Inspiration Party #175

the cleanup goes on

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Ok, I’ve been busy, continuing the cleanup in the bomb site casita using the divide and conquer method that was necessitated by the amount of stuff I had to sort and organise.
Progress has been great. This is what the store room looked like before I started:

This is what it looks like now:

Amazing huh?

I’m so impressed with myself.

Well, the stuff that doesn’t yet have a home had to go SOMEWHERE… Most of the stuff in there is empty boxes and some larger items I need to makeover. I’ll eventually sort them into some semblance of order.

My theory is that I’ll work on, finish, and move things out thus creating space!

The workshop areas are workable now at least. I’ve mostly organised things by type and use and found a place for almost everything.

I’ve even been making an effort to put things back when I finish using them.

That won’t last.

At least I can now work on a few things. I’ve already started two projects, like this chest of drawers makeover…

One thing that wasn’t planned in the cleanup was a new workbench, but while cleaning I moved this badly made, rickety bench from the laundry area into the workshop. I added cross pieces and a shelf to stabilize it then fixed the drop saw onto it. Its still the ugliest, badliest made bench ever cause I just kept adding bits till it stopped wobbling, but I now have a permanent home for the saw and don’t have to move tools all the time. Always a good thing.

Another area I managed to clean up and out is the grooming room. This is what it looked like before:

And here is is now. Not perfect, but way better.

Here’s a closeup of the old sign I have on the grooming room door. This is a sign I made for my house in Fentonbury. I had it on my gate for the 8 years I lived there. Pantone being the prefix I bred and showed poodles under.

I’m happy with my progress. Even though there is still much to do. At least I’ve been able to actually do something creative cause I now have the space.
That makes me happy.
z