pom poms and poodles

Posted on February 9, 2013 by zefiart

Yay! I did it!

I finally made myself a little pom pom posie!

I had made this bedspring vase a little while ago and really wasn’t happy with it.I think it was the pink flower that got me.

And when I saw the little pom pom flowers at Ecclectically Vintage, I knew they were exactly what I needed!

Since I have a passion for blue, purple and white flowers, I chose some purple and cream wool for my flowers and used florists wire for the stems.

The pom poms really are quite easy to make, using a fork to wrap the wool around, but when they come off the fork they really were the ugliest pom poms I’d ever seen. They really did need a haircut.

Lucky for me I’m a whizz at trimming pom poms as my poodle showing days will prove!

Ahhh… I do miss poodle hair!

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cheap and nasty pantry organising

Posted on February 8, 2013 by zefiart

I did threaten to share my pantry organising with you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Thing is, I didn’t go with the whole mod podge up to my elbows recycling cardboard boxes to store tinned goods in. I have a collection of boxes I was going to make over into the rolling out type of can storage, but when push came to shove I just couldn’t start a project which would take forever the way things are going with projects around here.

Of course walking through Kmart and finding these baskets for $3 and $4 respectively helped lubricate the shift from recycling boxes to just forking out some cash.

Of course I had to make labels for them, cause what pantry organisation is complete without labels? I had some leftover chalkboard from an earlier project… so risking my fingers I cut it down to small pieces using the circular saw (the jigsaw is broken – and I was careful, but I still don’t recommend it!). I then drilled holes into each piece, wrote on them and tied them to the baskets with jute string.

I bought a few baskets in each size to see how they’d go, and I’m liking them. They’re not imaginative or pretty or perfect, but you know what? They work. I can look into the pantry now and know exactly what I have or how low I’m getting on something.

And Wayne wont break his back searching for, and not finding, the baked beans, forcing me to get off the computer and go find them for him.

Win win.

I do need to make more labels. I may make them using cardboard though (as I did in the workshop), unless I buy another jigsaw…

the best laid plans

Posted on February 4, 2013 by zefiart

You know what they say about the best laid plans?

Well, I can tell you its true. I had such big plans for the weekend. Then they were all changed on me. I got home from training on Saturday to find we had visitors and that Wayne had made all kinds of plans for my weekend.

None of which included time to work on the house!

But, somewhere between the 504 loads of washing I had to do, the 412 dishes I had to wash and the zillions of other ‘everyday’ chores, I managed to get some painting done on the house!

First step was to remove everything from the deck. Second step was washing down the walls.

Its not easy to see in the photo but, after a trip to the supermarket I hadn’t planned, I finished painting the south side of the house where it needed a 2nd coat, and started on the front.

I didn’t do it all. Basically I had only planned to undercoat the beams under the roof and all the new timber of the railing today, but I had a bucket full of the pale grey paint and I had to use it up, right? So I only painted the lower part of the walls till I ran out of paint.

My next job will be to undercoat all the bits that need that. Naturally I expect I’ll run out of the 3 in 1 sealer/undercoat/prepcoat before I run out of things to undercoat, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The job wasn’t without casualties… There used to be a shelf on the side of the house which became a bench when the deck was added on. I removed the timber from the ‘bench’ and asked Wayne to remove the brackets for me today. I wanted to use them to move the shelf to above the electrical box under the kitchen window.

He removed them alright. In multiple pieces… sigh…

So, I’m feeling a bit better about myself tonight, having done at least one small thing towards finishing the job I had meant to do over the Christmas break.

Feeling better about myself, not actually feeling better, cause my back is killing me. I was using the sealer/undercoat paint tin to sit on while painting those low bits (cause man, getting old sucks… I’m finding it harder to paint cross legged on the floor like I used to!) and when I went to get up I realised I could hardly walk.

I repeat: getting old sucks!

On a separate and really embarassing note…. a friend gave us this copper artwork last year. I don’t really like copper artwork… but I figured if I can get a patina on it – you know, those gorgeous greens – then I’d love it. So I left it outside in the weather …

Where she found it and put it on display on the bench.

Ooppps. I noticed it there when I went to hang clothes up this morning.

How embarassing. I hadn’t thrown it out there, I had placed it there to encourage it to get crusty and green. Unfortunately it refuses to. I think it may have been coated with some kind of protective varnish I should have removed first.

I think I’ll have to actively work on it to patina it. Any ideas? Pinterest, where are you?

Oh, and while I’m at it… any idea what the problem is when a top loader washing machine keeps mucking up dark clothes? I’d never had this problem before with this machine, but lately my blacks are coming out covered in what looks like lint. Lots of it. In streaks and patches.

I washed the washing machine, gave it a good scrub inside and then turned it on, adding some bleach, to clean it. I’d done vinegar before but that hadn’t fixed the problem. The problem is a BIT better, but not gone.

I can’t find a filters and no one ever mentioned a filter to clean when I bought it. Its an old Whirlpool, a basic model. Simple, no push buttons and flashing lights.

Any ideas on how fix the link problem?

no rest for the wicked

Posted on February 1, 2013 by zefiart

I was so looking forward to a couple of days at home, back to normal, no more guests, just me, Wayne, the dogs and the endless chores.

He’s back, so tonight I only have to do half the chores. Phew. Soon I’ll get up off my butt and go feed the dogs, go down to feed and rug Ben, then return to let Wally out of the corral where he eats his dinner.

I thought I had a couple of days of catching up ahead of me. Time to clean the house (again). Do some washing (again). Attempt to organise the office (again). Finish the painting of the two dogs (finally). And start a new crafting project or three.

For my sanity – you know. Me without some crafting project in my hands is a recipe for disaster. Bad things happen when I get crafting/decorating/DIY withdrawals.

I have some yarn lined up to attempt fork pom pom flowers as inspired by Ecclectically Vintage…

I mean, how cute are they?

I want to tidy my pantry using the 99.99% method of recycling and upcycling and doing it the ‘el cheapo’ way… using jars, plastic containers and cardboard boxes and lots and lots of labels.

But no.

I’ll be going training tomorrow.

sigh.

At least its a fun day of Safety Circle (are YOU inside the circle of safety? Hell no. I use chairs to reach high places and paint the house balanced on the top rung of a ladder…) and Sign Language. Both great topics.

I don’t mind training when its something interesting… I get to spend time with people I actually like, cause really, I like almost everyone I work with… and even the ones I might not want to invite over for dinner, I like enough to spend a day with.

Meanwhile, I found a great blog while following links today.

Mandi. I love her! She’s me in a parallel universe, with kids and a much better sense of humour.

Or maybe she’s who I wanted to be.

Minus the kids.

Or maybe we were twins, separated at birth and born years and a continent or two apart.

Who knows.

All I know is she’s my hero! I do believe her blog will help me sort out my own life in some strange way.

coat rack FAIL

Posted on January 24, 2013 by zefiart

Thought I’d share this beautiful coat rack fail with you, just to show you I’m not perfect and I can’t do EVERYTHING (in case you did actually believe that).

I had this brilliant idea that I could make a cute coat rack using these antique style brass coat hooks I’d gotten on sale a long time ago.

I had this small piece of old skirting board which was perfect. How hard can it be?

Harder than I thought, turns out.

Firstly, I didn’t measure correctly. Sure the hooks were evenly spaced, but I forgot to take into consideration the space on the ends… that should have been smaller and the space between should have been bigger.

First fail.

Then I couldn’t get the darn screws in properly so that the plates sat flat! I tried all kinds of things… every effort digging me deeper into the quagmire of failure.

The skirting board was hardwood… the drill too strong… the screw heads just popped off left right and centre.

I gave up.

I gave it to Wayne and asked if he could fix it.

He fixed it.

He broke the timber and gave me the hooks to use on another project.

I dont know if I can… I’m scared of them now!

a box for ursa

Posted on January 21, 2013 by zefiart

When I first met Merrill she had a heart dog. Her name was Ursa. Unfortunately, I never really go to know Ursa as she developed a brain tumour and the first time I met her was also the last.

Its so sad when you lose any beloved pet… they are members of the family. Its even harder when its one you’ve hand raised from a baby and which is much a part of you as your own heart.

When I lost Billybear, my toy poodle – my special boy – I made a small box to keep his ashes. It wasn’t the first time I’d made a ‘memory box’. I made one for Scooter the year before. But with Billy I used the words of a song as part of the box. The song was The Dance by Garth Brooks. Its a song about love and life and how pain is part of loving.

I promised Merrill I’d make her a special box for Ursa’s ashes to take with her to her new home. I used a photo of Ursa’s paws… there’s something so beautiful and vulnerable about her paws.

I also incorporated both the words of The Dance, and the words Ursa said to Merrill through an animal communicator. They are beautiful words.

The Dance

Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared ‘neath the stars above
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known that you’d ever say goodbye

And now, I’m glad I didn’t know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance, I could have missed the pain
But I’d have had to miss the dance

Holding you I held everything
For a moment, wasn’t I a king
But if I’d only known how the king would fall
Hey who’s to say, you know I might have changed it all

And now, I’m glad I didn’t know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance, I could have missed the pain
But I’d have had to miss the dance

Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain,
but I’d have had to miss the dance

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house painting progress – slow

Posted on January 10, 2013 by zefiart

Why is it that things always take so much longer than you anticipate?

I’ve been painting pretty much all day. Six hours at least. And I haven’t even finished the first coat of the short side of the house!

I started off by finishing the top right hand corner of the mud room under the porch where I had to stop when it started raining the other day, then moved along painting the whole south side of the house.

I filled my paint bucket 3 times, telling myself that when I finished the 3rd refill I’d quit for the day. I really thought I’d have it all done by the time I finished the 3rd bucket. I only took one quick break to have some chocolate when I realised how hungry I was and found there was nothing I could have a quick snack of in the fridge. I forgot about the twiggy salami sticks. I just had those now.

I was sure I’d finish the whole side within my 3 bucklet limit, but as it turns out I didn’t. I was THIS close!

But by the time I got to the end of the paint in my little bucket I was absolutely buggered. My arm is killing me, I have callouses on my middle finger where I rest the brush and my legs are sore me from balancing precariously on the ladder.

I need a higher ladder…

Sigh.

I’m exhausted.

I don’t mind the actual work. I quite like painting. Plus I had Jeffrey Deaver and Lincoln Rhyme to keep me company as I painted (audio books have saved me on many occasions!) But man, the time!

I guess using a 2in brush doesn’t help.

(I tried using a bigger brush, 3in, but the weight of it was harder to handle with my sore arm.)

So, what do you think? The colour is strangely lighter than the sample I’d painted on the walls inside and outside the mudroom to live with for the last year to be sure its what I wanted for the house. Perhaps it will darken with the 2nd coat. Still, I think its ok.

Later on I might consider painting the small timber shed you can see behind the house and the garage a darker shade of this grey.

I wish the roof was dark grey, not that blue. But what can you do? I ain’t getting up there to paint that!

heart tray

Posted on December 28, 2012 by zefiart

How pretty is this tray with its heart handles? When I found it in an op shop it was all pine and looked heavy and chunky. Not that there’s anything wrong with chunky. I like chunky. I love chunky sport shoes, I love chunky bracelets. But this tray just looked like something you’d hit a burglar over the head with, not serve tea on. And so un-pretty…

But the hearts. And the solid wood. I couldn’t go past that.

So I did what any self-respecting DIY-er would do – I painted it. Sanded it. Painted it using a chalk paint of my own mixing, lightly sanded it again to create a smooth satin feel you can’t get enough of touching.

Heavy no more. Chunky it might be, but its also light and pretty now.

It may still come in handy as a weapon of self protection, but you’d think twice about using this pretty tray to pound someone on the head.

I like it when things work out, don’t you?

Featured at Rustic Restorations Weekend.

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DIY cake stands

Posted on December 28, 2012 by zefiart

I’ve always loved looking at the gorgeous cake stands people make out of recycled items. I had a few wooden ‘plates’. And I had a few lamp bases and large chunky candle holders.

I figured “I can do that!”. So I did.

I made two gorgeous cake stands. Here is the before on one of them: