Decorating in the kitchen

Like many of my readers I love to trawl the seconhand shops and garage sales in search of little things that make my heart sing.

The problem with that is that you end up with a lot of things that you really have no room for.

I know because I have three boxes still in the shed which hold all my pretties, most of which fortunately have had homes in my previous rentals.

This time however there really is nowhere to display anything and the owners or agents seem rather tough on the adding anything ideas.

It's taken me quit a while to finally work out how to store things up and over the kitchen sink.

And I think it works.

Only problem is that those three boxes are still unopened in the shed because I have continued my habit of finding little bits. 

What you see has all been collected in the last  seven or eight months.

Eeek. 

I might have to make another shelf.

The shelf is made by hanging a found piece of skirting board using $9 worth of chain from Bunnings and two key rings from the Plaza onto strong nails hammered in right above the picture rail. The nails are firmly anchored so the strength of this relies more on the chain than anything.

For the chair

It seems that I have passed on some of my love for old things to at least one child.

Kara, my eldest, keeps appropriating my precious finds. This chair cost me a mere two dollars at a garage sale years ago. 

It was quickly recovered and then served as a dog chair downstairs at our last house. It's been sprayed for fleas many times and lately washed with a gentle bleach solution. The rain hit it often and possibly even the rottweiler and some native birds have sat in it. 

But now it serves as a cushion holder in Kara's bedroom. She claims she is taking it when she moves out shortly along with some of my other vintage bits and bobs. 

OK. I've agreed but only because I have too many. 

The latest batch of cushions were made from recycled skirts - one from a swap and the other bought at the thrift store - and filled with brand new inserts gifted by a friend who bought the covers cushions but didn't like the fact that they were so plump. 

The map at the rear is a piece of printed fabric found on the net and turned into a throw with a backing of fabric from Ikea.

Colours in my washing machine.

Inspired by the  AWESOME library chick from Ballarat (she's after postcards from anywhere and everywhere so click on the link if you can help her) I have finally started saving fabrics for a rag rug. 

I am intending to use the toothbrush method although my toothbrush may or may not actually be that. I love to invent so I'll investigate what suits me.

As you can see the colours favour pinks and blues. The blacks in there are a maxi picked out by a friend I bumped into at the oppy and an overseas destination inspired skirt from Lavender Blue that will either be worn by DD1 or cut up for a poster or cushion.

Have you found some happyfying bits and bobs lately?

Would you like to  join in with RicRac's slow rag rug-a-long?

Corners of my home

Today Kate spoke about her home being a Copper Art home. Now I don't for a moment believe that to be really true but I guess many of us can identify with starting our homes with stock, standard decorating ideas.

There is no real reason though why we should continue to be crowd followers if we don't want to. 

I've used my very dodgy camera to point and shoot a few corners of my home to prove that it doen't need to take a lot of money to make a home feel individual.

 

Shoe cupboard $5  garage sale 

Picture $1 op shop 

Small table free curbside 

Basket from my childhood 

Table free curbside find
Doily $1 op shop
Jug $3 op shop

Table from ebay $200 including 6 chairs some of which are no longer with us

Various chairs from op shop or garage sale - most expensive $15

China cabinet free from friend
Pretties from ebay, op shops or garage sales.
Only the cats were bought new.

One jug bought new.

The other one thrifted.

Lavender left over from days gone by when I had more money than sense.

Thankyou Beccasaurus

I love this fabric because it reminds me of my Mum who I am sure had curtains very similar to this in the blue colourway.

Fortunately the lovely Beccasaurus (for the full story click on her title) thought it was horrible and threw it in the bin.

But then when she knew I loved it she rescued, cleaned it and sent it on.

Now it is living it's third life: first - curtain, second - stool cover, third - cushion.

I love it. Totally.

Only trouble is, the colour does not suit my decor, so after I savour it's flavour for a bit more it will move home yet again to the house of a dear friend who will totally love it.

Thankyou Bec.

You totally made my day.

Front.

Back has zipper inserted under deep overhang.

 

A project for this weekend

It started as a tablecloth and was quickly cut into odd shaped strips

then sewn back together to look like this.

It's going to be my new skirt .

What are you making this quiet weekend?

Cheating with hexies

I couldn't very well leave them all alone at the shop now could I?
Actually I did but then I felt guilty and went back.
I think they have been machine stitched but 6 double sided hexie flowers for $1 when I know I would never have the patience to sew them myself - well I just couldn't pass them up.
I wonder which industrious lady made them and why.
Or are they just cheap imports worked on by underpaid ladies elsewhere in the world.
And then I wonder what shall I make with them.
All I know is that some day, in some way, the will get used and someone will love them again.
Welcome home, my cheater hexies!

Real life - or sewing in my nightie

Saturday.
Not a lot happening
Or is there?
DD1 decides it's the day to start on all of her sewing.
I'm not even up yet but here we go.

(Love that hair - his and mine.
He had a haircut yesterday - I need one too)

One doily on one old but much loved skirt.
Worn today at the beach.
Wish I could have shown you the finished outfit - it looked real cute.

Stay tuned - more to come.

Add a touch of lace

I'd love to show you the dreadful state this basket was in before I tackled it but I don't seem to be able to upload all my photos. Needless to say, it was bad. And dropping old paint flakes everytime I looked at it. But it still had my heart so I kept it and continued to vacuum up little pieces of pale pink paint flakes.

Then I decided that it would be useful for DD1's wash basket so I gave it a good soak and scrub. And soak and scrub. And soak and scrub.

You get the picture.

I managed to clean out all the soil in the base (it must have been a plant holder in it's previous life - I wouldn't know, though, because I picked it up off the side of the road a couple of years ago) and scrapped heaps of paint flakes off but it still seemed to keep coming.

Now I am not a long term painter because I haven't the patience for all the preparation. I sort of trust that a good thick coat should keep all the old stuff together for as long as I need it to stay there. But this baby was a bit ridiculous.

Not knowing what to do, I set her out in the sunshine to dry, then came up with the brilliant idea of banging her on the verandah railings.

Brilliant!!

What a great way to get rid of flacky paint. I tell you, you should try it one day! Really makes the paint fly.

Only I would advise you to stop before the basket begins to fall apart. Yes that would be a good idea.

Well I finally stopped and had a breather, thought about tying the base back on with fishing wire but that would mean trudging down a million stairs to the garage and I didn't want to. So the base will have to stay partly unattached.
It should be fine so long as no kids try to use it to carry their siblings around.

Fortunately my darlings are all too big for that now. So on to the painting. White paint of course and possibly two coats. So far all the old bits are holding together nicely thankyou.

The lining is made from scraps I already owned, possibly oppy finds. I made beautiful lined openings for the handles. Pity one was on the inside but I am not starting again. No way. I'll just add a touch of lace to the edge and everyone will think it is fantastic.
And after all, it really doesn't matter because it is only a dirty wash basket after all.

PS For more colour in your life you might consider heading over to Ange's Ramblings to join her vintage sheet swap which will probably take place around July. Plenty of time to scour the op shops for that extra sheet or pillowslip!

She's here!!!

And her room WAS ready.

The following photos were taken tonight and include many of the projects I have been working on for the last three weeks.

This is real decorating on a budget.

A lot of the furniture was either already in the room or in the garage but it has all, except for the bookshelf and the bedhead, been lathered in white paint. I didn't bother with the bookshelf because it is virtually the same colour as the walls and the paint tin is nearly empty. The bedhead, which was a tip shop purchase a few years ago, has been downstairs acting as a support for the basketball hoop and was given a refresher of black paint and two new nobs from Bunnings.

4litres Paint $16.95 from Bunnings

Black craft paint $6 from Kmart

2 wooden nobs for bed $13 from Bunnings

Packet wing nuts for replica cast iron chair $3.95 from Bunnings

2 Pillows $13 from Target

2 Pillow covers $10 from Kmart

Expensive Craft fabric for front pillow covers $26 from patchwork shop

Fabric for front of doona cover $22 from spotlight

Black dye for sheet and doona backing $6 from Kmart

Packet tissue paper for decoupage on bedside table $2 from Reject shop

Grand total for this room and including all the other painting of furniture and baskets, etc throughout the house is $118.90

The valance, which is slightly long was made from fabric in my stash that was actually earmarked for the op shop. It is leftover curtain fabric I picked up a couple of years ago from the remnant bin at our local curtain shop. I had an older sheet set that I dyed with black dye from Kmart for the fitted sheet and backing for the doona. DD1 loves that the colour turned out a lovely dove grey.

The little bedside table had seen better days but did not at all look good with a new coat of white on the top so I quickly washed it off. It looks so much better now with it's decoupaged top and the bonus is that it matches the doona cover.
This dirty clothes basket and all of it's contents are side of the road or skip bin pickups. The frames originally had pictures of greyhounds, etc but will look fabulous once my daughter has filled them with coordinating home made art works probably using her scrapbooking abilities.
I have tried to make a clock with the old cast iron look seat base but none of the clock hands seem to work. DD1 says that is alright because she likes the look but not the tick.

The little cupboard in the corner will be used as a TV stand. I found it at the recycling depot in Wodonga about four years ago and immediately fell in love with it because of the detailing on the bottom. It was originally black jappaned but it must have spent some time in the weather because the coating all came off as I washed it. Much easier than sanding. It then spent a number of years without any coating but has now been painted white as well. I didn't undercoat it but I actually like the look that comes with not doing so. The top is made from an old, old bed head which had it's legs removed. The brief was for black and white in this room but I rather like the way this looks so have left it as it was.

This poor chair had been pulled apart and dumped on the nature strip. It is just aluminium but still looks good. I just had to buy some wing nuts to reassemble it and of course it also received the white paint treatment as it was originally cream. The cushion was also made from stash materials.

The verdict:

"It's much better than I thought it would be!"

Roadside shopping.

If you are wondering what roadside shopping is - well it is what you do when your council decides that it is hard rubbish throw out week.

It is an incredibly cheap way to shop. Only costs you a tankful of fuel or so.

And if you have friends of like mind then you can share the cost, so long as your vehicle is not so loaded with humans so that you cannot fit the mechandise in. Because, the fact is, that if you leave a desirable product where you found it, to go home and unload, you will probably not be lucky enough to find it when you come back. So, lots of fuel and plenty of space for storage are a must in this game.

One friend commented that you could furnish your entire house from the goods found on the side of the road this year. Rather sad to think that people need to consider such a course. Having made the trip to Newcastle and back to pick DD2 up from the airport, I was able to see that someone had taken a complete bed set from a stack thrown out by a motel.

Every year I name the year according to the products that there are the most of. Not including computer gear, TVs or baskets! Or even bicycles!

This year was definitely the year of the BBQ and the wheelbarrow. In fact, I do believe that anyone holding shares in a wheelbarrow company should be getting huge dividends this year.

To think that the first two years that I was looking for wheelbarrows to act as pot plant holders I couldn't find more than two is amazing!

To a lesser extent it was also the year of the ironing board and the cane chair.

I might not have noticed the cane chairs so much except that my trawling friend was after a few for her downstairs, outside area. It started off with us picking up rather broken down chairs that needed a spot or two of fixing and ended up with me leaving wonderful ones on the side of the road and Jazzy throwing out the broken ones, which in turn were picked up by other shoppers.

At one stage, later in the dark, I overdid myself trying to fit the cane suite she finally decided on into my stationwagon. The two seater and one single chair when with a pinch into the boot but the other single seater totally did not want to co-operate with fitting into the front. Really, it was too big, but by the time I figured that out it was firmly entrenched in the front and not intending to go anywhere. I still don't know if the line in my front windscreen is a crack or just a scratch. Not game to look!

O! The fun of curbside shopping.

What I did yesterday.

I finally got up enough energy to pick up some free pavers from friends. These are really solid ones that had originally been used in the footpath in front of shops. When these shops were incorporated into the new shopping centre the old pavement was ripped up and sold off to locals. My friends used them in their back yard for a while but have now replaced a section of their yard with an extra vege patch so have a few hundred going to waste. I've wanted to get these for a while but the energy was too low. Yesterday though, they were popped into my car by said friend and taken out by DD2. All I had to do was set them in a straight line (was that straight?) in our super soft sandy soil and hey presto! You might even think a man had been working here. They make a huge difference in the front garden and it should be easier to mow these areas now too. I know it looks a little crazy having a pot plant dug into the garden but frangipanis are notorious for not liking their roots disturbed so I will plant this one out next winter during it's dormant time. All the plants you see here have been given to me either as full plants or as cuttings. Even the pots have not cost me a penny, most being picked up on the side of the road.

If you are willing to wait a while and don't need the instant satisfaction of a grown garden it amazing how cheaply you can manage to put one together.

Gems from the op shop

A Dutch wall hanging
Small tablecloths
and two wonderful round tablecloths destined to be turned into skirts for moi!

Giveaway !

For absolutely no reason (well almost none!) I have decided to have a giveaway. I was going to wait either for my hundredth post or 5000th visitor but I don't think I can. And the following pictures tell you why. The quiet old couple who lived next door have recntly gone into a home. Their family decided to either sell the house or rent it out but naturally that meant clearing out years of life. I thought no-one would be interested in linens so I waited until nearly 9 o'clock before I nipped across. This was just a small selection of what was left - the best bits had already gone. But whose complaining?

Actually it seems rather sad that so many of these items were brand new. The lady must have been a collector of souveneir linens and also of teaspoons (4 huge displays of them) but her children had no appreciation for any of it. I spent $15 and that included a plant for $3. I haven't even shown all that I got. They were willing to sell the teaspoon display cases for $10 and almost throw the spoons in. I am going to use the pillow slips at the back on my own bed but the others are up for grabs if your interested.There are tableclothesand teatowels.
So many items had never even been removed from their original cases or plastic bags. Some even had the prices.

Anyway so that I don't have to find space in my cupboards for all of these I have to decided to give a couple of them away. All you need to do to be in the running is to blog about this as well as leave a comment here (well, you don't have to blog but I would love you to! just a comment will do). If you absolutely love anything specific it wouldn't harm to mention that either. O, and people who don't have blogs can also comment. The more the merrier!

Psst! Forgot to say that the giveaway ends at midnight AEST (Australian time) this Saturday, 25th April.