my newest junky planter

Posted on April 12, 2017 by zefiart

I’ve had this gorgeous funnel shaped THING for a long time. Its some kind of filter, I presume it came from a water tank. I have no idea what it is… like so many of the things I collect, I just liked the shape.

I’ve had it for years. I’ve had various plans for it over the years. I was going to make a light fixture out of it at one stage. But its never happened. Its hung around in the yard most of the time, doing nothing useful.

Yesterday I decided it was time to do something with it.

I’ve had many hanging planters over the years, mostly ones I made myself out of chains bought from the hardware store and steamers or colanders. I took one of the chains from a steamer with succulents in it and put them onto this rusty piece of gorgeousness of mysterious origins.

Who cares what it was in a previous life? What purpose it served. Now its a proud planter, holding a mix of succulents on the corner of our porch. In summer there’ll be tiny hot pink flowers forming a halo around it.

Below it sit my old mop bucket – one of my favourite planters of all time, the steamer which lost its chain – sacrificed for the greater good, and my camelia, in a new spot.

See, I’ve had this camelia for a year and it wasn’t doing great. Not where I had it… so, I’ve moved it. Its a heavy pot… moving it was pretty much impossible on my own… till I made a rolling base for it!

I used some pallet wood, made a frame and added castors. Now I can move it anytime I get the urge – to where it’ll get more sun, where the frost won’t get it or just a couple of inches to the left.

Meanwhile some months ago I posted about my change of heart regarding geraniums after seeing a photo of pelargonium apple blossom. Well… I was lucky enough to get a cutting of it from a really nice lady. And look at it now!

My formerly black thumb might be getting a tinge of green!

Before I go I’d like to show off my newest toy:

Isn’t that little tricycle the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? Imagine plants in the little wagon…

Watch this space.

one chair-back, three ways

Posted on April 6, 2017 by zefiart

What do you do with a broken chair? Fix it or throw it away, right? Or… you can re-use it as something else. For instance, you can make it into a shelf, a photo display or a coat rack. I know. Just look at Pinterest. There’s tons of ideas there.

I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted mine to be, but I found the bits to make it into an adaptable chair-back – it’ll adapt to any situation you put it in! Just pick a room and it’ll fit in with what you need it to do. Or be.

The best bit, I think, is the antique curtain rod holders I found. I’ve had these rusted and bent things for a few years, just waiting for the perfect project to use them on. They’re just so cute with their little flower topped screws for holding in the curtain rod.

I got a couple of bulldog clips – with the requisite amount of rust on them – and added those to the back to hold things…

So, here are some options:

1. Kitchen utensil hanger. It can hold handy kitchen tools and recipes.

2. Garden tool hanger. The bulldog clips are a handy place for seed packets and gardening gloves.

3. Hand towel holder. The clips can hold shopping lists or notes.

I also tried the variation of a tea towel on the rod… it works, but the I think it works best as a hand towel roll holder. Hand rolls really struggle to look good in a kitchen and this kind of dresses it up in my opinion.

So where will it live? I’m not sure. I have to think about it. All three ideas work.

Till then it waits to find its home…

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electric heater mantle clock?

Posted on April 3, 2017 by zefiart

Some time ago I picked up this old electric heater. I can’t remember where, but I do remember why. It was the shape. I loved the shape of it. I saw it and thought “hey, I can make something out of this”.

I brought it home and snuck it past Wayne so I didn’t have to listen to a lecture about bringing home more junk.

Then I proceeded to bury it under a ton of crap in my shed. Not in order to hide it.

So, when I started my whole ‘clean out the shed, get organised, streamline my life, find the circular saw’ kick, I found this little beauty and briefly considered tossing it out.

Briefly. Very briefly.

I just couldn’t do it. Sometimes a vision is worth pursuing.

I was seeing it as a lamp. Or a clock.

A clock doesn’t need wiring so that won out. I bought a clock mechanism on ebay and proceeded to rip the guts out of the heater. Actually, I didn’t rip it all out. I loved the coiled springs so I kept those, just took out all the wiring.

I had to drill a hole in the front mesh to fit in the clock, then put it all back together.

Then promptly pulled it all apart again… The clock mechanism I got came with simple black hands which just didn’t work. Too dark.

I took it apart and sprayed the hands with Antique White USA gloss. Much better.

I put it all back together. Admired it a while. Then daylight savings ended. Now I avoid looking at it cause I have to take it apart again to change the time.

I really like it. Its a mantle clock with a difference. I mean, how many people have a retro heater which is now a clock?

And its not that hard to open up… I just have to get out the screwdriver and take out 4 small screws. How hard is that? Not hard at all.

…When I find the screwdriver. I know its on the bench. Somewhere…

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fun junky planters

Posted on March 23, 2017 by zefiart

I’ve been a bad blogger. I’ve let other things (like working and earning money to eat) get in the way of sharing all the exciting things going on around here. I know you’ve missed me and are dying to hear how things are going at Wind Dancer Farm.

Well… not much really. Except that I’m about $1200 poorer thanks to Romeo. First a couple of weeks ago while grooming him, I found he’d got a grass seed in the sheath of his penis. Yikes. And while investigating that I saw he had a lump on his flank. It didn’t look like a grass seed but I took him straight to the vet. There was nothing in the privates, whatever had got in had got out thankfully. He got a course of antibiotics and it cleared up.

The other thing, the lump, the vet was concerned about. The ‘c’ word was mentioned. So Romeo went in for surgery to have the lump removed and a biopsy done. We then waited a week to hear. Romeo limping uncomfortably cause he also seemed to have a grass seed in his left front paw. I searched but couldn’t see anything so I waited to see if it would improve.

The biopsy said the lump was cutaneous reactive histiocytosis. Not something usually found in poodles or even, for that matter, on that part of the body. Wierd. We are waiting and seeing if it was a one off… I’ve got my fingers crossed.

When the stitches came out I asked the vet to check his foot which was not improving. He couldn’t find any indication of a grass seed either and thought Romeo might have broken his toe. He gave him anti-inflammatories.

Well, it got worse and worse till I saw that there was now a hole in the webbing between his toes. I searched and pulled out a grass seed spike and took him back to the vet. They kept him for the day and searched but didn’t find any more foreign bodies. They cleaned it out and sent him home with a red bandage, antibiotics and he’s also on anti-inflammatories again. It should clear up now but till then we call him Limpy.

Poor Romeo.

Other than that all is well. The garden is looking shocking but given that a reader commented on my old toolbox planter I thought I’d share some of my whimsical plant containers.

I have quite a few old and rusty galvanised buckets. This one, one of my favourites, sits on the porch cause the begonia doesn’t like it too hot or frosty.

Last year I bought this gorgeous 60s planter from a garage sale and have put small pots with succulents in it, as well as a cutting of a beautiful pinky white geranium I’m growing.

At the end of the porch I have my lovely old mop bucket. We had one of those things when I was growing up. I much prefer it as a planter.

Since its now autumn the garden is looking pretty awful. Most plants have finished flowering and look ratty. But some are coming up again. Like the sweetpeas in the rusty old washing machine tub and the columbines in and around the old ammo box.

The steps up the porch have some new seedlings in them, alysum and lobelia which will fill and overflow the old pots and loaf tins they’re in.

I’ve replaced the succulents in the bike basket with plants which will overflow and cascade as well. Cat mint, which has purple flowers, in one pot and a pink groundcover I’ve forgotten the name of in the other.

In three pots in a basket on the back of the bike I’ve got a white daisy like plant, some alysum and lobelia. The white will grow upwards and the others should cascade. One day it’ll look great… one day.

The succulents I put in my stacked containers are coming along nicely. I have three of these but the third isn’t looking too good yet. I made these a couple of years ago for indoor storage but decided they’d work better with plants in them. They’re made of spindles and baking tins.

I made hanging baskets out of old strainers and steamers, put succulents in them and hung them on the wall near the door. Only succulents do well in planters with so many holes as they dry out very quickly.

I’ve had this old cane chair for many years, I bought it in an op shop when I was living in Fentonbury. When I got it it was dark brown, I used a wire brush to brush off the flaking paint and sprayed it white. The paint is flaking off again now so I decided to relegate it to a garden ornament.

A bright petunia will full the jam pot. Next spring I’ll put in another one – this time in spring so I have flowers through summer.

I used to have a lot of old toolboxes with succulents in them but this is one of the last ones. I sold a few of them at the market stall I did in January. I love old toolboxes and this one in blue and rust is just gorgeous.

The last one is the one on the back of this little tricycle.

You’ll notice the flour sifter near the old (cheap) half barrel planter that I can’t move without it falling apart. I have 3 sifters but this is one in best condition – ie the plant is still thriving.

One of the other sifters lies next to an overturned pot full of succulents. Hopefully the succulent in it will grow and spread. If not I’ll just put another in there!

This little area is in a wasted corner of the driveway where the retaining wall meets the steps to the path. I envisage that the succulents will grow and fill the area.

The other side of the retaining wall is decorated with some more buckets and drums.

And more ammo boxes… with more seedlings in them!

Do you get the feeling I love rusty old things? Well, you wouldn’t be wrong!

I do need to get out into the garden and begin trimming things back for winter and, if things go to plan, there’ll be a ton of flowers next spring.

I’ve been holding myself back waiting for the right time to cut things back. I get the urge to do it as soon as things begin to look ratty. Well, time is fast approaching. Time to tidy the garden, plug up all the holes the birds use to nest in, continue making the yard safer for the dogs next summer (ie keep them safe from snakes).

Lots to do.

Always.

grooming room leash storage

Posted on February 10, 2017 by zefiart

The grooming room is slowly taking shape. I’m moulding it into ‘my’ space.

And by ‘my’ space I mean I’m slowly filling it with things which I love, I made or which suit my needs.

Don’t know if you remember the tap coat rack I made a couple of months ago…

Well, I really liked it. And I needed somewhere to hang dog leads in the grooming room. Ideally somewhere near the door so I wouldn’t forget to hand people their leads as they leave with their dogs.

I’m notorious for forgetting. I still have some leads left over from last year…

Another thing I needed was a chalkboard on which to write dog names so I would know which lead belongs to which dog.

So I made this quick chalkboard, lead hanging thingy.

Ok, the spacing between the taps is off. No idea how I managed that as I actually did measure it all out before drilling holes… But I’m talented that way.

The chalkboard part is part of a box I’d pulled apart. I made a key storage out of one part, and I still had one door and a couple of box sides left.

I used the door for the chalkboard and one of the sides for the tap rack. I had a bit of the green paint I used on my meat safe towel cabinet left over…. it was almost dry but I managed to dry bush it onto the timber piece.

Do you get a sneaky feeling I like green? That antiquey greyish, bluish green?

Why on earth would you think that?

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my new towel cupboard (in my new grooming room)

Posted on February 7, 2017 by zefiart

Yes! I’m in the new grooming room!

Its not finished. Well, not entirely. But then again, is anything ever really finished?

Ok. So the grooming room is usable-finished. I began using it as soon as I got the vinyl down on the floor. Even before I had most of my stuff moved in there. Or the door finished. But I have a new cupboard for my towels!

I’m sorry I don’t have any before photos – cause when the urge to paint hits, well, its all I can do to put on painting clothes!

***** I found the before photos. Well, more like the ‘almost before’ photos. Here it is with legs and masking tape…

And here it is with the painting just finished.

I got this little meatsafe/cupboard from a tip shop a few years ago. It had no top or legs, and was a stained and varnished wood colour. But the metal screen was fine.

I used a piece of pine I had to make a top for it and searched my leg collection for some legs that would work with it. I wanted it tall enough to be out of ‘pee’ reach.

It IS a grooming room after all!

I had some old green paint from a room I painted long ago (it was a hideous colour, no idea what I was thinking!). I poured some of it into a plastic container, added a bit of light blue I’d made up for another project and voila: the perfect antique green!

Being the lazy sod I am, the only prep work I did was mask off the handle, hinges and metal screen.

Since I chose not to sand, I mixed some fine grout into the paint, making it a chalk-like paint and just slapped it on. It took 2 coats. Once dry I gave it a light sand to encourage a chippy look.

The new towel cupboard sits behind the inner door of the grooming room. Its not big enough really, but its pretty. I might one day make a base for it, another cupboard… Who knows? For now it holds clean towels and my cd player.

So here’s a pic of the other side of the new grooming room, in use! Erik lies on the table with the dryer on him. Such a good boy. He didn’t move while I changed cds and took the pic!

There’s a lot to do but I’m taking my time. The old grooming room wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but I got used to it – I worked in there for 7 years! It kind of grew around me. It’ll take a while for this room to grow around me too. I’ll need shelves and hooks for my tools. I’ll need pictures on the wall and hooks for leads…

I’ll need to put the window on the door! And a door handle!

Its a work in progress.

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recycling christmas

Posted on December 28, 2016 by zefiart

This year I really didn’t feel like doing much for Christmas. I wasn’t going to decorate at all.

But then, while cleaning the office, I found the Christmas tree I made last year from the sides of an old cot. I’d wrapped it in plastic and left it as it was – with the wire and stars, ready to go. So… well, it was ready to go… I figured I way as well use it.

With one small difference. This year I put fairy lights on it! (’cause I found them while cleaning the pantry!)

I also put it in a different spot this year. Last year it was on the wall over the air conditioning unit where I now have my industrial stencil artwork.

Since I needed it close to a power outlet for the lights, it made sense to put it on top of my pretty antique cabinet.

This spot means you can see it from the kitchen as well which is an added bonus. I love fairy lights and this just makes me smile. I think I might leave it up for a long time… at least till the end of January.

taps and coat rack

Posted on December 11, 2016 by zefiart

What’s on tap for today you ask?

Well, I tapped into my creative mind and came up with this recycled tap coat rack. You could say I tapped this old pine board into a coat rack.

Luckily I had all these things on tap in the workshop.

groan.

Ok, I’ll stop now.

I love these old garden taps with their patina showing and all. Some are our own old garden taps and some I picked up from here or there, as I do.

I painted the board with chalkboard black paint so you can label the taps for each member of the family if you should so desire.

Other than showing off my tap coat rack, I don’t have much else to say. You could say I’m all tapped out.

Turns out I had one more left.

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kids party cake stands and other things

Posted on October 1, 2016 by zefiart

Since I’m on a roll blog-wise (and I don’t want to let down my fans – heheh) I thought I’d share another work project which was HUGELY successful.

These kids party cake stands were made in my Thursday group. We spent time collecting, begging, ~~stealing~~ and borrowing old/broken toys from anywhere we could find them. I spent ages asking for things on FB and at work via our newsletter and noticeboards.

We also took a few trips to the tip shop to find some wooden or plastic platters and lamp bases to build them with.

The tall one that looks black in the photos is actually a very dark blue. It began life as a tall metal lamp base which was covered in toy animals using liquid nails, then sprayed what we thought was bright orange. Unfortunately the orange sucked big time, so we tried a couple of other colours, ending up with dark blue for the best coverage.

Warning: if you plan to do this at home, beware. Not all spray paint is created equal. And not all of it matches the lid colour…

For the top we used different flat items as bases – anything from old cds to small wooden dishes. These were glued to the light globe holder on the lamp base and provided a nice big surface to glue the platters to.

The top to this cake stand is a plastic lazy susan which spins.

The light blue one was made using a large ceramic lamp base, covered in random toys and topped with a large wooden platter.

Here it is in progress. In this instance we removed the globe holder bit entirely and glued a flat surface to the ceramic base directly.

This one is my all time favourite. Its made out of a pirate ship, tea pots and all kinds of ‘human’ and animal figures plus anything ‘fishy’ we could find.. Oh and the wheels off a toy truck.

Sorry about the bad photo but its the only one I have of the pirate ship in progress.

The red cake stand was made out of a small metal lamp base. The top was a flower shaped bit of wood we found which we sprayed gloss white (all the tops were sprayed gloss white to make them easy to clean). This one also went through a colour change.

You can see below how it started yellow but the yellow didn’t cover well enough. We found a brilliant red (I know it looks a bit pinky in the photos) which looked way better.

Here are the four drying in their first coats of paint. The smallest one with the bowl on top is more like a bowl for M&Ms or other lollies than a cake platter. Its made of a basically flat square base that a light globe fits onto without a shade. We used a snoopy body as the ‘stand’ and surrounded it with Peanuts characters in cars. The top is a wooden bowl I had lying around.

All five were entered as a group entitled Kids Party Collection at the Art From Trash exhibition this year. They sold instantly.

We also had a mirror decorated with toys all around it, that sold too, and we’re now working on another, larger, toy project.

Stay tuned.

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love the coffee and decor

Posted on September 26, 2016 by zefiart

Some mornings we actually have time to grab a latte before work. This place is one of our favourites. Its a coffee shop attached to a laundromat in North Hobart called Gioconda. The coffee is great, the food is great, and the decor is fantastic!

Get a load of this planter!