Perhaps a bit of blue too far

The outside furniture was looking a little tired, so I thought I would spruce it up a bit. My first thought was black. While I was mulling this over I noticed we still had quite a lot of the blue I had used for the windowsills on the outside of the house. Ah ha I thought that might work. Now that it is done I am not so sure. Keriann suggested maybe the basket chair needed to be a couple of shades darker. I think she is perhaps right. What do you thing? I don't know why but it makes me think of Aristocats, the disney movie, weird.

Drum roll please................

Out go the old patchwork bits of old work bench. Out goes the yucky tap.

Ready for the recycled stainless bench and sink.

More bits of recycled, stripped down, sanded and oiled bits of rimu.

Quite a lot of rethinking and maneuvering had to be done. A couple of takeout meals eaten, its not easy to cook when you have no water or sink or dishwasher in the kitchen.

Tada one finished kitchen, fifteen months in the construction, about two years in planning, recycling at its best.

Well worth the wait.

Its party time, or it was .....................

This year is mine and Peter's 50th birthday, which we had to celebrate - it is half way to a whole century. The planning has gone on for months. There has been manic gardening tidying by me, to no avail, because as soon as I finished one border I would notice another full of weeds.
A quick garage makeover to tidy it up. I hated the yukky cream colour it was painted originally, and love the new black garage.
Since this was a significant birthday we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the decades and asked everyone to dress in clothes from the decade they were born in. Peter decided to tie dye his own t-shirt.
Keriann lent me some of her beautiful red and white bunting for the marquee and I made some of my own, too tie to the mail box instead of balloons.
We had it all planned for a lovely evening - hoping that we could leave the sides of the marquee and have the lights rigged up outside. The weather did not cooperate - it was cold and wet. We had to abandon the light and put the sides back on the Marquee.
By 6:30pm we were all ready to go. Peter I think is Shaggy from scobbie doo, I was attempting to be Sandy Shaw with my bare feet. Peter did suggest instead of going as Twiggy I would have to go as Trunky - he is still being punished for that suggestion.
Despite the rain, I think everyone had a good time. I did. A lot of hippies turned up for the event, along with Lulu and Cher, and a generic 80's girl.

More peace loving hippies.

Another bunch of celebs John Travolta from Grease, Sonny and Anchor Man. At least thats what they told me.
No party would be complete without Austin Powers and a groovy chic.

There was also a young lady from the French Resistance who would say things only once and managed to avoid getting her photo taken. This has given me an idea for our next party in 10 years time, it will have to be a spy party.

There was even a very young Jedi running around drinking Sith beer, I think he needs to brush up on his spelling.

From the looks of the debris from the pary it was a great night. I hope all the guests enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

All the food disappeared - thank you to Justine for taking over and serving our guests.

Thank you again to Keriann for the use of the bunting.

Finaly the garden back to normal as if nothing at all had ever happened.

Bargain Kitchen

No this is not my house. This is the kitchen we just bought from Trade Me. I know this is taking my door collection to another level. But you got to admit we got a bargain. Some of it is a bit tired, but with a bit of care and attention and a few pots of paint it should look great. And before you ask, yes I did measure.
With the kitchen came - the sink unit, a glass wall unit, a microwave cabinet, 4 larder doors, cladding for the sides of the larder, cooker hood housing, dishwasher, bench (work) tops, oven, hob, drawer units, hob splash back etc. etc. and all in beautiful rimu.

There was really only one part of the kitchen I wanted. The oven and the hob which have had a full life and will just need to go to the dump, along with most of the bench top. The remaining bench top is going to be used in the laundry. Now on a slight sidetrack - we were looking at bench tops in the local DIY mega store yesterday. Do you have any wooden bench tops I asked. Oh yes here is one right behind you they said. Oh no I said I wanted real wooden bench top. But that is a real wooden bench top they said. Really said I sceptically. Yes they said, feel underneath you can feel the real wood. How much is that I said. $5000 for that piece they said. As we wandered off bemused we wondered how on earth they had managed to turn a lovely big lump of wood into a horrible plastic like very expensive lump of wood. If anyone out there knows where we can buy wooden bench tops that have not been messed about with please leave me a comment. Sorry for the sidetrack, now back to the bargain kitchen. The microwave unit, the cooker hood housing and the splash back are going straight back on to Trade Me to be sold on as we don't need them.

The double drawer dishwasher has already been sold on Trade Me. The buyer is going to pick it up tomorrow morning. We have a newer model one already in our existing kitchen.

But what about the part of the kitchen that you really wanted I here you say. Here it is a wonderful 2010mm long glass doored wall cabinet. I have been looking for one for my kitchen for soooooo long. Its cool to find one at last. Don't you just love to stand around watching a man work.

I could not wait to get him out of the way so I could move all my china over.

Last time Peter installed a kitchen for me, he started before Callum was born and finished it when Callum was 4. Just in time for us to sell the house and move out. I really hope that this time things move a little faster.

The Perfect Spot and the Perfect Hubby

Because of the changes in the kitchen my lovely pine shelves had to find a new home. Poor Peter had to cart them all over the place while I made up my mind. After trying every wall in the house Peter suggested the end of the hall. The perfect spot. I think they look great there, but they needed something below them. Again Peter had the perfect idea to put our old pine chest of drawers, which was hidden out of the way, underneath it. What a perfect hubby. I am so pleased with the result.

Peeling away the layers

The foot stool in our lounge was looking a little tired, grubby and drooping. Now usually I just remove the old outer cover and staple a new one in its place. This time when stripping off the old cover I found that the foam on the inside had started to disintegrate. It was time to just go for it and strip the whole lot back to the bare wood. A very messy job. While I was peeling back the layers it was like peeling back layers of my memory. The stool originally belonged to my parents, I can't remember how I ended up with it. I think I remember playing on it when I was little. Turning it upside down and pretending it was a boat. I know all my children did that.
I replaced the foam with a cut up babies cot mattress, that has been hanging around for a long time. Then covered the foam with a plain white cover. It looks like a new stool already.
Then put the new top cover on and stapled it down well. The cats like to pull themselves around the floor under it so the cover needs to be very firmly attached. I was really pleased with the result.

Ranna the cat seems to be pleased with the result too.

Guard Cat - Ranna

Our cat Ranna has taken upon herself the role of guard cat. Whenever something is going on she is there to check it all out. If the fire alarm goes off, when we are cooking, she runs in checks each room and then stands meowing under the fire alarm. If we ignore it she comes to tell us and runs back and forward until we pay attention.

Evil Fennel

This is the view out of my bedroom window of the fennel that grows in front of it. The reason for the picture is a reply to a comment from Pixie of Pixie Post. I wanted to show her that not all fennel is evil, some of it is very beautiful. The reason I planted the fennel there was that I thought the smell near the window might deter the mossies from visiting our bedroom.

My Shiney New Friend

After being dishwasherless for two years, we have got a new one at last. Meet my shiney new friend in the kitchen. Two drawers work well for my family, they are always after snacks, and making more and more dishes. Now when one drawer is working they can fill up the other one. And I don't have to wash dishes anymore. Hooray.

Spring Clean

Above is what my youngests bedroom used to look like until this weekend. As it was the long weekend we decided to take the bull by the horns and clear out his bedroom. After a trip to warehouse stationary for boxes and a lot of junk removed, we turned the big pile of rubbish into the neat and tidy room below. Doesn't it look so much bigger.


Once we had finished my youngests room I got carried away and tackled the rest of the house. We removed in total 3 car loads of unwanted stuff and rubbish. Two and half car loads of stuff were recycled and only a half a car full was actual rubbish that could not be recyled. Now our cupboards are all organised, a really good feeling. My youngest is enjoying playing with toys that were lost in among all the rubbish, and he even tidied them up when he was finished.

Some more bargains and daisies.

My youngest and I went to a garage sale - a cross between a car boot sale and a jumble sale - at his school this morning. We had a great time. he bought a ton of toys for a few cents and I bought some books for 50cents each. A cushion with daisies on it for $2. And best of all a set of pine shelves. Peter must have liked the shelves, because by tea time they were up on the wall. I love bargain hunting.

A bunch of bargains

A cream and green enamel with a few scrapes and bumps. Ready for bunches of spring flowers. A blue enamal jug with some more bumps and scrapes. Some beautiful vintage fabric. Not sure what to use it for. Perhaps some cushions with a ticking back.
Some old Sanderson's fabric, which is a lovely sage green colour.
The best bargain of the bunch is the little desk above, which I bought for $20. It needs a bit of TLC, perhaps a paint job and new handles. Can't wait to get started, but need a new mouse sander first. I managed to blow mine up on my last project. I have a birthday coming up soon and have been dropping hints to Peter that I need a new Mouse sander. Fingers crossed.
And finally I have got round to making a cover from my bargain fabric for my bargain wooden ironing board. I have not got my design quite right, but it seems to work and the ironing was easier. As you can see below it did not take long to fill it up. I really need to paint the sewing room walls that green is awful.