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.

busy bees

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When I say ‘busy bees’, I mean real bees, not me. I’m lying around the house trying not to move and work up a sweat in the heat. 
And not to put strain on my aching ribs which have put a limit on the amount of oxygen I can pull into my lungs at any given time…
Do you have bumble bees where you are? We do. I’d never seen these bees till I came to live in Tasmania. They’re big and round and drone kind of like the Boeing 747 of the bee world.

Have I mentioned I love my new camera? Its a cherry red Nikon Coolpix L830 that I got almost new on ebay.
Have I mentioned I love ebay?

It has an incredible 30x optical zoom (incredible when I had a 3x with my old camera). Its very handy when you want to take pics of animals in the distance. Like the geese.

Of course, full zoom needs a tripod or you just get blur, but I have one of those. A Velbon tripod, in great condition.

I got it on ebay.

Naturally.

Did I mention we’re one goose down? We had three geese originally, they had 3 babies. Two girls and one boy.

Unfortunately one of the girls got into the yard before Christmas and the dogs killed her.

I was really upset. But to be fair, they did leave her when I called them. It was just too late. They’d already broken her neck and she died in my arms.

Wayne and I buried her near the dam.

Everyone said “Why didn’t you eat her? She’d have made a great Christmas dinner”…

How could we? She was our goose. She wasn’t bred to eat.

One of our new chickens is going broody. She’s trying to nest in a sky box in the chicken coop. No forethought on her part. I mean, what’ll happen to any chicks she has soon as they step out of the box?
Splat.
Anyway, we’ve been taking her eggs and she’s been getting increasingly cranky about it. Wayne thought that maybe we should just catch her and let her go broody in Stalag 13*. That way any chicks won’t have to skydive before they can walk, and will be less likely to be crow food.
I’m not sure I want chicks.
We have 4 chickens and currently get 4 eggs a day. Its hard for us to keep up with that. Sure, with the new law saying that people with under 20 chickens can sell eggs without going through all kinds of regulations and stamping of eggs, which cancelled out the previous new law which made it illegal to sell home laid eggs without accreditation, we can sell our eggs to support our chicken habit…
But having chicks means getting roosters as well as hens.
And that means we have to make a decision: what do we do with the roosters? We can’t drive them up the highway and dump them on the side of the road like so many people do. We can’t bribe people to take them, or smuggle one into every visitor’s bag as they’re leaving. 
We can’t eat them cause by the time we know they’re roosters they’ll have names.
Sheesh. 
Mom was wrong. I’d never make a good farmer’s wife!
z
*Stalag 13: Original dog kennel on the property when we bought it. Its been used to incarcerate escape artist dogs, house roosters (given to us by a friend for the pot, and accepted by Wayne who thought ‘no worries’ then found he couldn’t kill and eat them cause “they were cute”), and raise various clutches of ducklings to save them from aforementioned crows. I was considering converting it to a green house for winter, but hey, winter is months away and who needs a green house in summer?

anatomy of a fall

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I’m feeling a bit better this afternoon. The pain killers no doubt helped some. I think I’ll live.

On one of my short breaks from the ugly purple recliner I thought I’d take some photos for you.

These are the culprit tyres.

And this is a diagramatic re-enactment.

I don’t care if that’s not a real word.

Ouch.

Imagine me lying on my side, elbow bent underneath me bottom left, my feet up between the two tyres. Not a pretty sight. Luckily no one around with a smartphone.

Please note the gravelly clay soil. Much like cement.

On the upside, I’m getting to catch up on computer and mobile phone stuff… On the downside I’m not crossing things off my never-ending-renovation-To-Do-List.

Speaking of smartphones, did I mention my new mobile phone? New to me anyway.

I had an el cheapo mobile phone which I bought when I lost my old mobile about 4 years ago. It cost me something like $75. It was simple. Took calls, made calls. Took photos which were impossible to see on the tiny screen, and refused to open multimedia messages.

I’d been wanting a new phone for a while. Not a long time, but I was getting there.

Then one day I ran over my old phone.

I swear, I did not do it on purpose! Many won’t believe that, but I swear its true.

In fact I have no idea how my mobile ended up on the other side of the driveway, near the gate.

Anyway, while lamenting my carelessness great loss on FB (as you do) cause I was going through an especially broke stage and couldn’t afford a new phone… and at a time when my grooming work should have been booming, but wasn’t, due to a lack of aforementioned roadkill phone…

… someone offered me an old phone.

Its a 2 year old Huawei Ascend and its my first ever smartphone.

A steep learning curve which I’m enjoying.

I am ever so grateful.

I am a big believer in doing good for people cause good will come to you from unexpected sources. I’m always giving things away to people who want or need them rather than sell them for personal gain. I’ve never been a “what’s in it for me” person.

Then, when I need something, someone kind will give me what I need.

Like a mobile phone. Or old carpet, or a doona cover.

So I’ve spent today working on a logo design, editing and cropping photos, cleaning up files on my computer, learning about apps and figuring out how to fix an “insufficient storage” error on the phone.

Anyway, I leave you with a couple of pretty pics of the tyre embankment which shows that one day, this will be a pretty wall of plants and not just a row of tyres.

z

no longer an ugly duckling

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You’ve come a long way baby!

(Does anyone remember the Virginia Slims ad? or am I just too old?)

I am loving my home. I get so much enjoyment out of stepping out the door onto our front porch and just looking at it and the garden. Sure, the back deck (or the poop deck as its affectionately known) is still a mess, it really needs a roof and bird evictions, and there’s still a healthy farm-like amount of crap around the place… but its home and its becoming beautiful – and I love it.

We went from this:

To this:

What’s not to love?
You can read more about the before and afters here.
Here is the back deck, unpainted, exposed… I have plans for that… one day… till then I pretend I can’t see it.

The deck is welcoming and cosy now. The potato vine has gone bezerk and provides dappled shade in one small area.

Soon the pale yellow banksia roses on the trellis should also hide the water tanks on the left. And once the potato vine spreads a little more to both sides there’ll be more shade in the afternoons.

The plan is that when we roof the back deck we’ll just put more trellis on the corner and make it sort of like an arbour area where you can sit in dappled sunlight with plants growing around you. Perhaps a pink banksia rose… I’d love a purple potato vine but they’re not so hardy, and I’d love a jasmine but I’ve killed two of them so far.

Maybe I’ll stay away from them.

Ah… home. In this pic you can almost not see the bare spots on the weeds lawn where I sprayed Roundup. As I keep saying, if it wasn’t for weeds we’d have no green. 

There is still much to do but at least I can say I’ve managed to do something over the Christmas break. I finished painting the front of the house where we had bare timber from moving the kitchen windows. I undercoated the enclosed porch area ready to paint. And I put up my corner brackets, something I’d been planning to do for the last couple of years.

Now, if I wasn’t such a clutz I’d be out there painting today. Top coating the enclosed area and all the window surrounds.

Instead I’m sitting in the ugly purple recliner trying to move as little as possible.

Why you ask?

I was climbing ladders, on uneven ground, for days painting and screwing in brackets and I was fine.

All I did was water the embankment yesterday and I think I’ve cracked a rib.

I need to rethink riding again… I don’t think I should get on anything with its own feet. I can’t be trusted on my own two feet.

Let me explain: the embankment is made up of old tyres. A bit redneck but in the spirit of recycling, which I’m into big time. Its a steep embankment, impossible to walk up at the best of times. The other day I’d walked along the top tossing down the tyres from the top line that I thought were unnecessary.

Obviously, I didn’t put them out of the way or stack them nicely. I left them where they fell.

My bad.

So, while watering last night I was walking along the bottom of the embankment, a small channel which catches rainwater and directs it away from the house, when I tripped on one tyre, stepped back to get my balance and stepped on another, bounced off it and landed like a sack of potatos.

Hm… not quite. A sack of potatos keeps its shape.

I landed like a sack of potting mix. With a big splat, on my left side, on my left arm and on my ribs. My whole weight just kind of formed around and over my arm so that I had to kind of pry myself up.

After I’d caught my breath… ie about 3 minutes of moaning and groaning in pain.

It probably took me 5 minutes to stand up and pick up the hose again. I’d been lying in the ditch of course so of course I was covered in mud.

Like a trooper, I kept watering. It had to be done, right?

Then I went into the house and sooked to Wayne while I changed and washed the gravel off my arm.

The elbow is bruised but doesn’t hurt. In fact, the right elbow (which was nowhere near the squash zone) still hurts more than the left, but the bruising is impressive.

Its my ribs that hurt. And the weight of my left breast. Youch. (Wayne kindly offered his support. Pun intended.)

I can breath but deep breaths hurt and moving hurts.

Wonderful.

I’ve had broken ribs before. Many times.

You don’t want to know.

There’s nothing to be done but rest and patience. So, whether its soft tissue damage or a broken rib, I just have to wait it out.

Wonderful.

I still have a week off work and I had so much to do.

NOT happy Jan.

z

PS. I watch too much TV and have a head full of quotes and movie trivia.

new year, new resolutions?

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Its been a quiet day in Lake Wobegon at Wind Dancer Farm. I know its the beginning of a new year and all that, but really, its just another day for us.
I got up this morning and brushcut the lawn since our mower is broken (great). And soon I’ll be going outside to attempt more house painting despite the wind. My resolution is to finish painting the house before I need to start re-painting it.
I spent the last couple of days painting my decorative brackets, figuring out how to attach them to the porch posts and pre-drilling them. They’re now ready to go up. If my right arm can manage it, I’ll put them up today. I own a very heavy drill and have a dodgey elbow and wrist…
It’ll be nice to have the porch finished. Wayne got annoyed with all my junk on the porch a few weeks ago and did a huge clean up. It looks great now (or will once I finish painting and can pick up drop sheets, ladders and paint buckets), but my workshop is full of the crap I had ‘resting’ on the porch. 
At least the front of the house is almost looking gorgeous. The porch facing the back of the house (though its technically the front of the house cause that’s where the front door is… go figure) doesn’t yet have a roof over it and thus no posts to fix brackets to. I haven’t even painted it. Seems silly to paint the rails on that side since I’m planning to redo that part of the porch in the future.
The distant future…
You know what they say? Time flies when you’re having fun. I’ve been resting, relaxing, reading, socializing and trying to get a few things done while I’m on holidays. Hopefully I can cross a few things off my To Do list before I get back to work. And do some creative stuff to share as well!
Hope everyone has a great 2015!
z

boring pine chest to pretty pine chest

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Here’s something I learned today:

Sanding dust can give your hair great texture. Forget expensive sculpting gels, mud or whatever. Just go sand something.

…It does nothing for your hands however.

Anyway, thought I’d share a successful makeover (unlike so many not so successful ones).

When Wayne and I moved in together, he had two tallboys and a wardrobe. They were plain pine and rather boring. One of the tallboys was a mess, the drawers kept dropping when you pulled them out, the base was falling out of them… its in the casita right now holding odds and ends till I decide whether I can fix it.

The other one and the wardrobe went into our bedroom… I use them for my own clothes cause I made Wayne his own walk in wardrobe

Yes. The man has more clothes than I do! And shoes. What can I say?

I make do with a measely pine wardrobe and two chests of drawers: a smaller one I bought when I lived in Fentonbury and the one Wayne owns.

I always planned to do something with them but I had to wait till I had time and energy. Not so much for the painting, but for the carting and carrying. I’d already painted my chest of drawers white many years ago, so I wanted to make the three of them match better.

At least be less offensive.

I don’t have any before photos cause I didn’t take any. And the external drive I put all my old photos on has decided to not work… I found this photo online which will give you an idea of what it looked like. The one I’ve done up is a 6 drawer tallboy, it doesn’t have the two smaller drawers at the top. The one in the casita has the two smaller drawers, but you get the idea. Nothing fancy, just a plain pine chest of drawers. No cute feet, no fancy bits, just plain jane.

So, first thing I did was empty everything onto the bed (and then the floor cause we need to sleep in the bed!) and take it down to the casita where the tools are. I gave it a very light sand and then painted it with some antique white I mixed up with a bit of unsanded grout. I like the look and feel of chalk paint and have always just made my own.

In the vein of using what I have and not spending extra money, I looked through my collection of handles and knobs. I needed 12, not so easy to have 12 matching ones. So I decided to mix and match and I love the result.

For the top two drawers I used simple black metal handles I got on clearance last year. I wish I’d bought more.

For the lower drawers I used the black cup pulls I’d originally bought for the kitchen but decided they were too small. They’re fine for the drawers. I have delicate fingers…
After the entire thing was painted (and some of the drawers glued and clamped) I gave the whole thing a light sand, revealing a bit of timber here and there… not overly distressed. Just enough.
Lastly I gave it a wax using some lemon scented furniture wax I got on ebay last year. The wax gives it some protection from being marked or getting grimy fingerprints and makes it easier to dust.
If you ever feel like dusting, that is.

All the bedrooms in this house are small. Annoyingly so. Its not easy to decorate and have storage without the room feeling cluttered. Unmatched items make it worse.

Maybe I really need to try and fix the matching chest of drawers…

I wonder if I can change the tracks on the drawers to make them work better…?

z

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the laziest christmas tree in the universe

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Ok, since I mentioned my poor attempt at Christmas decorating, I thought I’d share my pathetic ‘tree’ for this year.

I was going to build a tree out of old timber or a pallet, which would have required sawing, nailing, measuring, assembling… but while searching my scrap pile I saw this piece of door I’d been using to spray paint items on. You can see some gold, white and black…

I checked it. It was rough, it took chalk… So much easier than building a tree!

There. Are you satisfied?

The poodles are ok with it, so I’m good with it.

And no mess to clean up. When I’m over looking at it, I just take it down to the casita and use it to spray paint on again.

z

artist case

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In case you’re wondering what Wayne got for Christmas, well he got a couple of things. Two of them were Viking related: a feast knife and a Fenris cross (a norse wolf cross).

He likes Vikings… what’s not to like about them?
Anyway, the other thing I got him involved a bit of gathering separate (but related) items and a bit of DIY.
I’d seen a soluble graphite presentation box which I liked but when I went back to get it they were sold out. They only had a smaller version but it just wasn’t as good. The box I’d seen originally had a soluble graphite block, a soluble pit charcoal block and a brush. 
I decided I’d buy the bits and make my own presentation/carry case for Wayne. I bought a small tub of soluble pit charcoal, one each of graphite in regular colour and one sepia, an eraser, 2 soluble graphite pencils in different leads and three brushes of different sizes.
I located an old tin toolbox I had in the casita which was perfect. I had two of them, cause I collect things like that… I made one into a grooming room sign a few years ago (and sorry, I don’t have a photo, I put all my photos and a heap of other stuff on an external drive which decided to give up the ghost), and the other was the perfect size for Wayne’s gift.
So, first things first: I gave it a good clean and a bit of a scrub with some steel wool. Its got some rust and some staining, but hey, that’s part of the beauty of it, right? I then painted his nickname on it.
 
But the best thing is the inside!
I had to make compartments for each of the bits so they wouldn’t just jumble around. They needed to have their own little spots. 
I had an offcut of pine which was just the right size. I cut the bits I needed, sanded any rough spots off, then used liquid nails to glue it together.
Overkill? Perhaps. But I couldn’t find the PVA and the liquid nails was there, saying “go on, use me!”

I also used the glue to fix the pine frame to the tin.

I added a small bowl I had for water, put in the pencils, brushes and graphite blocks. Voila. Presentation case and carry case all in one!

I had planned to spray paint it, but I like the plain pine. I may have to give it a clear coat later to protect the timber from staining, but maybe not. It might add to the patina… what do you think?
I added a good quality drawing block and gave it to Wayne this morning. Now I await his masterpieces.
At least I hope he tries it out. He used to do pen and ink work years ago and I’d like to see him art again.
z

merry christmas and all that jazz

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Its Christmas! I’ve always quite liked Christmas though I don’t do the decorating thing. Without a family or a big celebration, it just doesn’t seem worth going to all that trouble. The poodles don’t really care one way or another. As long as they get plenty of pats and food, they’re happy.

All I did this year was pick up half a door I’d been using in the casita as a spray painting base, draw a tree on it with chalk and sit it on the wood heater. That was my Christmas tree.

Oh, I also climbed on a ladder and put fairy lights on the trellis in the garden. They’re not working properly. Great.

Oh well. I tried.

We just had a couple of good friends come over for Christmas lunch. I baked melomakarona on Christmas eve and Wayne roasted a turkey roll, a leg of lamb and a bit of beef.

‘Cause, apparently, you can’t have too much meat.

Our friend Chris brought over a ham (’cause…. see above), and Patrice brought cheese and nibbles and a great sweet potato salad. We also had prawns and I made a greek salad and individual pavlovas. I topped them with raspberries picked from our garden this morning.

We started on nibbles and drinks around 11.30am and had ‘lunch’ around 5pm. All I had was a plate of salads and 2 small slices of ham and one of lamb. Then my pav.

‘Cause there’s always room for dessert.

Now I can’t move.

I’ve lost my ability to over-eat.

Presents-wise its been good. I got a new portable cd player cause my old one broke ages ago. I use it while grooming or doing DIY projects. Its essential.

I also got another power tool to add to my collection! Wayne got me an electric staple gun. Yeah!

I think I may try reupholstering an old armchair I have in my office… stay tuned for that badly done makeover in the new year…

z

the armchair makeover is complete

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Remember the armchair I pressure cleaned a few weeks ago?
Well its finally finished and back in the house.
The washing went well and the drying took a long time cause the weather turned nasty. We had days of rain so I had to keep the armchair in the casita with the heater on it intermittently in order to dry it completely.
Then, once it was dry I got it wet again.
I had to. I wanted to dye it. The colour I wanted was brown but it was almost impossible to find the brown in any shade at all. I ended up with 2 packs of RIT powder dye, one was a reddish brown and the other was dark brown. I mixed them together and made up a bucket full of dye as per the instructions.
It took quite a few coats and I got bored of the process before the dye covered the pattern.
Here it is after the first coat. I applied the dye with a foam roller.

Around coat two the weather got better for a few minutes so I was able to put it outside to get some sun.

Coat three started to go a redder brown.

Coat four I figured I liked the flower patterns showing through. Kind of like an aged faded fabric instead of an incomplete dye job.

Of course before I could put it in the house I needed a new cushion. The dogs had chewed chunks out of the original one. It took me almost a month to buy the foam and fabric.

I only have one question about dyeing furniture though: what about the salt? After the chair dried I had to use a damp cloth to wipe off the salt which rose to the surface. Now I’m a bit concerned the dogs will notice the chair is rather tasty and start licking it.

I made the cushion cover today and was able to bring the armchair up to the living room. The fabric I chose for the cover is plain cause I couldn’t find anything else that would suit the chair. Obviously patterns wouldn’t work cause of the flowers showing through the dye, but that’s what I’d have in mind originally. I got some brown piping and put that around the cushion cover to tie it in a bit and give it some punch.

I’m quite happy with how it looks.

Even if the sewing leaves a lot to be desired.

Yep. No closeups. My sewing won’t stand up to such scrutiny. It works, that’s enough for me. My sewing is of the same school as Patrice’s DIY projects ‘where close enough is good enough’.
Seriously, I don’t think I did too bad considering I had no real plan, hadn’t even intended to tackle this job today, just put down the foam and cut out the shapes and sewed them together willy nilly.
You won’t notice in the photos but I rearranged some furniture. I’d share photos if the room was tidy, but there is washing to fold on the coffee table and Wayne’s new desk is buried under a pile of junk already. I cleaned ok? That was enough!
What I did basically was move the couch and put it against the (stupid, ugly) poles in the middle of our living room facing the back window, put the small bookcase behind it and swapped the old cabinet with the big bookcase cause I think it feels better.
There are more changes to come but I’m trying to sneak up on them so Wayne doesn’t become too upset.
z
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step by step, we’re getting there

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Our home may not be beautiful and neat, but one thing I can say for it… it has character. Like the side of the garage where some previous owner thought ‘what the hell, you can’t see this side from the gate’ and stopped painting it blue. And all the rusty bits of metal leaned up against the corner to stop the dogs from excavating all my plants in pursuit of some critter burrowed under the shed.

The foxgloves Ginny gave me are so tall I’ve had to stake them, and the lobelia and alyssum are looking great…

I hadn’t posted for a few days as I haven’t really had much to share. I’ve been busy with work and haven’t put any time into doing anything creative worth sharing. However, things are slowly moving along. I’ve had my trusty helper come out and do some of the heavy lifting for me so things are coming together in the yard.

For one thing, he’s put a brick border along the footpath to stop the blue metal (gravel) from falling onto the path and then into the ‘lawn’.

(I use the word loosely.)

I love the neat new look. Maybe it needs a brick border on the other side too?

You can see the tyre wall is coming along too.

Another view of the tyre wall from the garage to the front gate and our wonky wood shed. We figure about 3 more loads of tyres and we’re onto the next phase: soil and pinebark. I’ve already got some plants in the tyres down the front end, I need a whole lot more to fill the whole wall.

I’ve had my trusty helper put carpet down along the path between the house and driveway retaining wall. That area has always been a problem. Some of it has blue metal and the rest had weeds… almost impossible to mow with all the gravel mixed into the grass. This way no more weeds and I can buy more gravel to put on top of the carpet. You can’t really see it in the pic but there’s another brick border to hold in the gravel at the far end of the walkway.

We put carpet skirts around the trees we planted in the paddock as well. I told Wayne I was over weeds and planned to carpet the entire yard. He was not impressed.

We also put up a bit more wire for the potato vine and sweet peas to grow up. The garden is beginning to look really nice.

Well… except for the weeds where the lawn should be and the bare patches where I poisoned weeds…

I got a pleasant surprise the other day. This plant grew in one of the garden beds and I had no idea what it was. I wasn’t even sure if it was a weed or not. But since I didn’t recognise it as a weed I let it grow and voila! Its a delphinium!

I’d bought delphinium seeds a couple of years ago and not a single one grew. I think I tossed the soil from the empty pots in this area and look what grew!

I’m loving the way gardens can surprise you like that. This is a new thing for me. Mostly things I put in the garden surprise me by disappearing.

Meanwhile we had to do an emergency operation on the hardenbergia and azalea corner… another critter living behind them I guess, cause I came home to find dirty dogs and the plants almost ripped out. Its a pity cause both of them had just started to take off.

When I bought the azalea Patrice was all ‘oh, you’ll kill it’ and I was on track to prove her wrong. Hopefully no permanent damage was done.

A rickety cage made of a dog pen side, some old trellis, bits of wood and tied together with hay bale twine… add the tyre wall… a bit white trashy huh?

Oh well.

I’ll just call it the ‘Make Do’ culture. I’m recycling and using what I have on hand.

And I have a LOT of hay bale twine…

z