Shabbychic Dining Table After Painting

Here is the dining table in all its glory, hidden under js study materials. Im testing my iphone to see if i can blog from it! Looks good so far even if i cant quite see the preview pic… But ill be able to take pics and then blog them with this nifty gizmo. But the tapping of letters on this minute keyboard is a little tedious!! Ok here goes!

Mini Dining Table on arrival

Table before painting

I was kindly given this little table after stowing a friends furniture in my garage for about 9 months. I have now painted it and am using it as a mini dining table. Unfortunately I just discovered that all the photos I have taken in the last 6 months are missing from my camera. I have my Bali trip and nothing afterwards! *Sigh*. Oh well I will take some more piccies so show you what I have been up to around the place.

Finally finished birdhouse project

Hello, I am finally back!  Admittedly, one of the main reasons I have been slack here is because of the trauma involved in inserting photos into this blog! Honestly!!! Somehow the way it works is different and not user-friendly to me the non-techie. As you can see, I have managed to whack in some more pics, however they ended up displaying in the wrong order…*sigh*.

So anyway I thought I’d show a project that I actually finished! Mmm I’m a great starter…

Funny story about why the bird house has been positioned right outside the cat-run…Justin had great ideas about re-building it, we were going to extend it and make it the Taj-Mahal for felines, we bought all the materials, then realised that we both work in an office for a good reason! Uh – builders we ain’t.

What’s even funnier is that I work in a local councils (county) building department, and he’s in town planning there too. Hey, I never said I actually understood building and planning…I even purchased a DIY cat-run book off the net, apparently those who can’t build anything can build this. Except moi. Heck the whole thing is in imperial(US) and we work in metric over here (AUS).

So…getting to the point…yes there is one if you haven’t face-planted your keyboard yet lol…now what was that point again? Ahh yes, well we begged a post-hole digger off a mate, and after weeks of persuasion, J managed to dig a few holes. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure he used that or just used a spade before we borrowed it. But I digress…so here we were months  (years?) later down the track, with ruddy big holes in my lawn, and no construction in sight. Mowing was not fun as the grass hid the damn holes and I kept nearly twisting my ankles falling in them. (Don’t even go there about why I was doing the mowing, lets just say buying an eco-electric cordless mower on a 1/4 acre block was a baaaaad idea…my bad idea..).

So after killing the wine barrel planter (oops forgot those drainage holes), I used the soil to fill up the holes and bless those doggies of mine, they’ve dug ‘em up again. And I popped the birdhouse into one of the post-holes. Patted more soil into the ground, and voila – cat-torture I mean entertainment unit live in the backyard.

Just to remind you of how sad it used to look like…and to check if you’re still awake!

Back from Holidays

A Temple at Uluwatu

I have just spent time in Bali, a beautiful tropical island in Indonesia. Oh the nasi gorengs! Yum. You can see us above at a temple in Uluwatu, the southern tip of Bali. It is also a monkey forest, and we were advised to not wear our hats or sunglasses, in case the monkeys stole them. Our guide pointed out many hats on the edge of the cliff where they had stolen them off unsuspecting tourists. It was very very bright, and it was hard to keep both eyes open for a photo!

There has been a painting binge finally, and the coffee table is now sporting a nice new cream coat. If I could just figure out how to upload photos quicker on this thing. Any tips? I’d be very grateful!

I have been working on a new, related website, hopefully this blog and the site will complement each other. It is not quite complete, but I will blog about it here as soon as it is.  I’m not a puter nerd, but am fast wanting to be! I’ve also got to add some new blogs to the blogroll which you will enjoy.

Shabbychic Tassels

Ok I am finally giving in to my tassels fetish. And my crystal door knob issues. Mmmmm. Pretty. So I decided my poor old faithful pantry needed a boost. Off I went down to my fave local ShabbyChic/French Provincial store, and started rummaging in the drawers where the crystal knobs lived. Voila! Exactly what I was looking for. What’s more, I spied a divine white tassel with pink beads in it. Perfect.

Initially the new crystal knobs didn’t look quite right, until I re-instated the silver backing from the original knobs. It finishes the look somehow. Luckily for me I guessed correctly that they would fit, so it was just a matter of unscrewing the old ones and popping the new ones on.

My food pantry now looks very shabbylicious!

Before picture of pantry before new crystal door knobs

After pic of pantry with new crystal door knobs & tassel

Shabbylicious tassel

Retro Vintage Kitchen Scales

I’ve been working on a vintage chic website lately, which will be a more expanded version of how to get the shabby chic look on a shoestring budget…by doing it yourself. I’ve been on a rampage with the digital camera, and thought I might show off some of the cute vintage inspired bits and bobs in my home.

All I need to go with these darling scales is a big retro electric mixer. Hey – I might even bake more..or at least I would want to..lol.

Vintage Kitchen Scales

Transforming the Sofa with a Slipcover and Quilt

Although green is my favourite colour, I’m so over bottle green. My living room is small and the darkness of the couch doesn’t help. Besides, with 3 cats and 2 dogs, they (there are 2×3 sofas) need all the protection they can get.

The slipcover is getting rather worn, and one of the dogs has nibbled the buttons off the side. I had some gorgeous floral fabric that was just begging to be put to use and on display. My original intention was to make cushions for the top of an old chest, but I might turn it into a coffee table instead.

From the dog-bed making adventures I had some padding, and I can’t remember why I bought such a huge length of calico for, so long ago. I had a search on google for quick and easy quilts, and found a great many ideas. The end result is a lovely floral quilt to drape over the couch. Mind you, after a week of sitting on it, I realised why quilts have those..um..quilting lines in them. It’s all wrinkled now! Oh well the quilting lines can be put in another day. I thought it wasn’t a bad effort considering I can only sew in one stitch and straight lines!

At least it’s slowly all coming together!

Wine Barrel Planter Tub…Before, After, and After-After!

I decided to copy an idea and plant an olive tree and some rescued lavender into a half wine-barrel. Pooh-eee, did it smell like red wine for a while! Finally getting sick of looking at the bags of soil, and the plants struggling to survive in the summer sun, I filled ‘er up with soil, and planted away. I was remiss, and didn’t drill holes into the bottom to let the water out…I read that stones would do the trick instead. Pity I didn’t put enough in. As you will see..

Here we have the beginning of the project (having hauled the damn thing several places to make sure it was sited “just right”). And then we have the completed project…or so I thought!

Well….like I said…I didn’t prepare the tub properly..it rained one day, and my plants were drowning in a few inches of water! I attempted to scoop it out, but realised the futility of this, and promptly quit. The dogs, however, were verrrrry interested in the fishy smelly water that I had dumped on the ground. I was a bit worried about was was in the soil mix, legionnaires and all, and crossed my fingers that them licking a few drops wouldn’t hurt.

No…didn’t hurt a bit..seems they loved it! A wee bit later when I went out to check on the doggies, here is what we found…

Yes, Chase has decided it would do nicely as his new swimming pool! But I’m betting Elle egged him on!

But, I ask you…how could you get mad at this face?!

Easy Peasy Arbor

Thankyou to everyone who has left a comment, it really makes my day! Some of you are already on my blogroll, lol. It’s lovely to connect with others who share similar interests! In fact it’s time I made some nice comments on your blogs too!

I am finally back on DSL speed, all last month we were on dial-up speed for going over our download limit, and it was too hard to upload photos. I’m still trying to figure out how to position them better..

Well to cut a long story short, I had these pine poles in my backyard, from an ancient duck run. Cemented in. Finally had new fences built, so ripped down old lattice temporary fence. Didn’t want to chuck the lattice, and there is a wisteria there that we thought we killed with a heavy prune…nope. In fact, it loved it and is thriving once again after a long sleep. So….I recycled the lattice by screwing it to the poles. Instant arbor! Perfect for the wisteria. I just threaded it through, and voila!

Now won’t that look pretty once the wisteria grows along it! I’m not sure if I can “technically” call this an arbor, but for want of a better word…arbor will have to do. And watch out, I have a drill and a jigsaw…and I now know how to use them, lol!

Rachel Ashwell & White Paint

Oops I have been very slack on this blog lately!  I blame my new book, Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic Home. And I also bought Junk Decorating, or at least I think that’s the title.  After just a few chapters of Rachel’s book, I realized I have been delaying and denying the inevitable – my baltic pine has to go. Where? Under layers of white paint, of course! It’s just everywhere, walls, ceilings, kitchen splashback including the ceiling. I’m so over it, and to be honest, it keeps this little place far too dark.  I have ladders and a platform ladder, so there really is no excuse now. Just need the paint and some new brushes. And a long weekend. Perhaps I’ll just do one room at a time.

My study…well…there is only one wall and the carpet that escaped the baltic. With it on the ceiling here also, it feels like a little galley cabin on a ship. So stay tuned for the eventual before and after photos. If I could just work out the right pixel size for the photos…