chair love

loved

abandoned

loved

discarded

loved 

dumped

loved

neglected

loved

battered

loved

kitchen stool
retro/vintage shop purchase
rubber feet stoppers replaced

small stool
op shop purchase for $2

child's metal + vinyl chair
op shop purchase for $5

found abandoned on a footpath
stained and painted 

child's chair
op shop purchase for $5

op shop purchase for $2
painted

op shop purchase for $2

kitchen stool
vintage/retro shop purchase
rubber feet stoppers replaced

gifted by a neighbour
stripped to reveal previously
hidden embossed australiana
sanded + painted

child's chair
made in melbourne by
 a j parker + co
op shop purchase for $10

metal chair
found in a hard rubbish collection
stripped, rust protection given +
the seat painted

kitchen stool
vintage/retro shop purchase
rubber feet stoppers replaced 

four more 

painted 

new seating needed

loved


happy spring equinox

afternoon tea..

tuesday is work on my house day for alex and me but i left her to it today and i pottered in the kitchen instead..for afternoon tea i made vanilla custard cupcakes and because it was balmy we were able to sit outside and christen my new old table and chairs..we even lit candles..

alex finished the 'raspberry' table (see here for a before photo)
 she also sanded, stained, waxed, polished (three sides) and painted (one side) two doors that i found in the shed
 i will put them back on the doorless kitchen and sitting room to make the rooms cosier

cupcakes with hazel's (my paternal grandmother) vanilla custard

ingredients cupcakes

155 gms self raising flour sifted

155 gms castor sugar

155 gms unsalted butter (i used myrtleford butter*)

2 eggs

75 mls milk

1 teaspoon (tsp) vanilla extract

method

~cream butter and castor sugar until pale and fluffy

~beat in eggs one at a time 

~add flour, milk and vanilla and beat until mixture is smooth

~place in 9 cupcake cases and bake at 180 deg c for approximately 15 minutes or until golden and cooked in the centre 

ingredients hazel's vanilla custard

1 cup full cream milk (i use non homogenised organic)

1 tablespoon (tbs) sugar or to taste

1 egg yolk

1 heaped tbs corn flour

1 tsp vanilla (homemade)

extra 25 mls  milk

method

~put milk with the sugar in a heavy based saucepan and heat 

~mix the cornflour with the extra milk and then mix in egg yolk 

~add a little of the warmed milk to the cornflour/egg mix stirring constantly

~remove the milk from the heat and strain the cornflour/egg mix into the milk stirring

~return to the heat and cook over a moderate heat until the custard is thick and just coming to the boil

~remove from the heat and add vanilla

~cool before use

extra ingredients

1-2 tbs strawberry jam

1-2 tbs icing made with icing sugar, hot water and a little cochineal

1/4 sheet of edible silver

small sandwich bag

assembly

~cut a cone from the cupcakes and set the top aside

~put 1/2 to 1 tsp jam in the cupcake cavity 

~spoon in a heaped tsp custard on top of the jam

~replace the cupcake top

~put the icing into a corner of the sandwich bag and snip the corner off 

~pipe a small dot on the top of each cake

~using tweezers place a piece of silver on top of the icing

note

* i used this quality butter to find out whether there was a discernible and positive difference in the taste of the cupcakes..alex and i both thought the flavour was better than when i use a lesser quality butter but at $9 for 250 gms i will only be using it for special occasions..

serve with a big pot of tea, coffee or other beverage of choice..x

a metaphor for life

i know this will probably seem a bit odd to most of you but i've never owned an outdoor table setting..i did have a wonky old trestle table in my last garden but there was no under cover protection for it and so it eventually rotted..i loved that garden because it had a trilogy of beautiful trees..an enormous pin oak, a very large liquid amber and a smaller but well established copper beech..the trestle table sat under the canopy of the pin oak and many meals and afternoon and morning teas were eaten from it..but because the garden was so large it was quite a business to haul the supplies (including the chairs we sat on) to and from the house..i remember joking that i wanted to have a special boiling water line tapped to the site to save me from having to make so many trips back and forth..

i loved that garden for so many other reasons but mainly because it felt like a bit of country in the city..when we moved there no house could be seen from our back yard..the land had a gentle slope to the back where our expanse of lawn gave way to the neighbours veritable jungle of trees, blackberries and wandering jew..i spent many many hours developing curving perennial garden beds along the eastern border and i planted a copse of 12 birch trees underplanted with several hundred daffodil bulbs at the bottom of the north facing garden..i also planted climbing roses with the likes of albertine with a view to them rambling and festooning over the fences..on the western boundary was the chook run and where i put in a vegetable patch.. and i planted cherry, almond, fig, damson, apricot, mandarin and medlar trees..out the front i planted perennials and roses too but it was much easier because the infrastructure for the garden beds was in place and the paths were already brick paved..

unfortunately my dreams for that garden were short lived..bit by painful bit i had to let go of aspects of it so that by the time i sold the house there was almost no sign of all the work i did..some of the trees and all of the roses died and the invasive lawn took over my hard won (i never used chemicals to kill the grass) garden beds..the only beacon was the pin oak that stood mighty in the middle of the garden defying drought, neglect and rampaging possums..

my new old house has an undercover area out the back that needs to be pulled down and redone but in the meantime it's been a fantastic area for all my furniture restos and for entertaining..but each time i've wanted to have an outdoor do i've had to rally the troops to help me move a table outside..now you're probably wondering at this point why i haven't gone to one of those outdoor furniture places and bought a setting..well i didn't because i had a vision of what i wanted and they don't sell the sort of setting i was after..in fact my vision wasn't purchasable..

since i moved here i'd found four suitable chairs at two different op shops..two of them were a very very bright sunnies needed yellow and the other two were a maudlin maroon..they languished outside in the reno dust while they waited for the table..as i mentioned a couple of posts ago i recently found the table i'd been waiting for and yesterday my daughter and i sanded and oiled the top..i was going to repaint the remainder of it but i decided that a light sand might be all it needed..i love this table with all it's imperfections..it's a metaphor for life..

i don't think this photo does the setting justice but i was trying to avoid photographing all the dodgy bits of my not very salubrious outdoor area..expect to see more photos down the track of my table with tea things on it and enamel and flowers and food..oh..and by the way the setting, including the terracotta tea light holder but not including what i paid my daughter, cost me $154..

fixing stuff

my north facing vegetable garden has suffered in summer from scorching heat so yesterday i had some cement removed from my back south facing garden to make way for a more protected vegetable garden..three men used a cement grinder, jack hammer and brute force to remove the cement..they then dug the soil and added a trailer load of compost and manure..i need to wait a few weeks before i can plant anything because the manure is still a bit potent and it's likely to burn delicate seedlings..it's rained since it was done which is great for the soil..

cement that was removed to make way for my new vegetable garden

i've been wanting a table for outdoor entertaining for ages and by chance i found the style of table i like at my local op shop last week..i had it delivered yesterday and my daughter and i spent the afternoon stripping paint from its top and it's now ready for sanding and then oiling..next week we'll work on the legs which i think i will repaint..

layers of paint being removed from my 'new' outdoor table

i've had no bathroom door for the last 4 years because i removed the ugly vinyl concertina door that was in situ when i moved in and i hadn't got around to buying a new door..fortunately friends who've stayed at my doorless bathroom establishment haven't been fazed..while cleaning out the shed a while back i found the original bathroom door and i've been restoring it..

multiple layers of paint being removed from one side
  and varnish from the other side of this door

i found this little table in a skip a few months ago and i made the mistake of removing the paint with a view to just waxing and oiling the timber..but when stripped i found that it was made of a variety of timbers and it just didn't look right so it's going to be being repainted..

more paint being removed from this table

i am going to new zealand tomorrow for a little holiday and i will be back in a week..x

cupboard love

mentally i've rearranged my workspace dozens of times..and i have physically moved things around a lot too while trying to make the space functional and aesthetically pleasing..but no matter what configuration i tried it just didn't work so a while back i swapped the spare room and workroom around..that of course was after much deliberation and i even wondered at one or several angst ridden moments whether my spacious bedroom might make a better workroom..and in reality it would..but in the end i decided not to relinquish my large airy bedroom which has a garden view and where outside i have strategically planted deciduous and non deciduous plants to cool my room in summer and warm it in winter..

over the last year or so i'd been looking in op shops for a glass fronted cupboard for my workroom to store my vintage sheets and pillow cases..several months ago i found the very style of cupboard i'd had in mind..even though it was an op shop purchase it wasn't cheap and i had to pay extra for delivery..when i bought it i wasn't sure whether i would strip the dark brown lacquer off or paint it..my decision was made when i did a test strip patch and found that the timber had been stained black prior to being lacquered and it was resistant to removal no matter what i tried..

the cupboard sat outside under cover waiting to be painted for ages when one very windy day it was blown over onto it's front..it lay in its prostrate state for a few weeks because it was too heavy for me to lift into the upright position..there was an unhinged door looking like a cumbersome broken limb lying awkwardly under the heavy cupboard and shards of glass everywhere..i gave up hope that my cupboard was salvageable and so i decided that the easiest and cheapest method of disposal was to break it up and take it to the tip..i felt sad because not only had i lost several hundred dollars but i'd also lost a lovely cupboard that had taken me ages to find..

on one of my son's visits i asked him to lift the cupboard into the upright position so that i could assess the damage before breaking it up..to my great surprise the broken limb door had sustained no damage at all apart from having come off its hinges and while the glass was broken in the other door it was still in situ..remarkably that was the only damage the cupboard had incurred..

i've mentioned previously that recently my daughter has been helping me finish some renovation work and furniture painting..i can't take any credit for the cupboard painting because she did the two undercoats and two top coats that it needed..all i did was take the door with the broken glass off, remove the remnants of old glass and beading and get some new glass cut to size and together we replaced the glass and beading before we reinstated the doors..after such a long saga it felt pretty amazing yesterday to be able to finally put my fabric in the cupboard and to stand back and admire the pretty colour coordination..ah..it's cupboard love..

unfortunately i don't have a before photo but it was lacquered a very dark brown

now i'm planning my next vintage sheet quilt..