The Fishes have returned!

I'm back! After having a bit of a break from blogging and just doing stuff without thinking about keeping a record of what I'm doing I have returned.

It was good to have a break and just focus on little things and to be honest I had lost my bloggy mojo for a while. Now I've had a break from it, I'm keen to continue on and get back into it.

So does anyone remember the cupboard I was going paint an eternity ago? Well it is done and is in the dining room being used. It now contains all the fishes playdough, paper, pencils, craft stuff, painting gear and other bits and pieces. It had a couple of coats of Antique White U.S.A in a semi gloss and I changed the two door knobs in the middle (they are the same ones the buffet/hutch thingy got when it was painted).

I finished quilting my three hawaiian quilts finally and they now hang above the cupboard in a row. I enjoyed doing them but was glad to have them finished as they had a lot of stitching in them. I hot glued some balsa wood to the back and hung them with those sticky velcro picture hanging things.

The darker turtle one below has been very lightly padded in the turtle bodies. It is very hard to photograph it but it has a slightly raised effect that gives it a little depth. I cut a slit in the back and poked some stuffing in then stitched them up again.

They are all raw edge appliqued and I went around the edge twice to make sure it was nice and secure.

So there you go, one painted cupboard from the tip shop all finished and put to good use. I made the runner from squares of blue and green batiks and its longer than I normally make to cover nearly the whole length.

Hope you like it! I promise to be back very soon!

Around the Block

Before I get to carried away here's a squizz at a recent make for a special little girls first birthday pressie. The horse is from a pattern in the Scandinavian Stitches Book and I had to use the beautiful border fabric from the hideaway range (Lauren and Jessie Jung I think) because it is sooo lovely. She's a little small to actually have an opinion on whether she liked it or not but her mother seemed to think it was great so I'll chalk it up as a success!

I been watching the latest series of The Block on channel nine (well taping, then watching it really) and I have to say that I am liking the extra challenges and segments where they learn some new skills to use.

I would much rather see the contestants tackle some real renovation work and not just be involved in the decorating side of things, if they are getting builders in to do nearly everything then the builders might as well be the contestants. And I'm especially loving the second hand challenge though buying an ex floor stock piece of furniture is not exactly my idea of second hand. I'm liking Josh and Jenna's style the most (at the moment) as it's the closest to mine, and I was a little amused to see Polly's heart rate go up upon entering a second hand shop from being stressed. Mine does the same thing but for the opposite reason! Second hand shops are awesome! The lack of enthusiasm the contestants had for the trash to treasure challenge was a bit surprising. I know that they have $100,000 to spend transforming their little terrace houses but they would not have had that in their real life renovating to spend on whatever they fancied, so I thought they would have been a bit more familiar with using things that are not brand new. If I wanted my home to look like a furniture showroom then I would just go and live in one! It is very easy to go and buy everything brand new from a shop, but much more creativity and thought is needed to transform pre-loved pieces into something new to treasure. And really, who spends $250 dollars on one cushion! Maybe it's the sewer in me but the thought of spending that much money on a bit of material and stuffing, now that makes my heart rate go up! So producers of The Block please keep giving the contestants challenges that make them think about recycling furniture into new pieces and thinking outside the square (or block!). It's much more inspiring to viewers (me) and much more realistic in terms of budgets. And just in case one of them actually reads this and is thinking "well what did you have in mind?" (cause that is really likely to happen!)

Here's some examples-

Little fishes bed is a good one. Remember it cost all of ten dollars from an op shop and after a sand and a paint with some glossy white, it looks brand new. It's solid wood and is so much lovelier than a cheap crappy bed made from chipboard or laminate. It can always be painted or sanded if someone draws on it and made to look new again so it's perfect for a kid. Here's another example- I recently bought a TV cabinet from the tip shop ( it's like a giant op shop) that has been turned into a low line cupboard. I wanted a low cupboard or buffet side board thingy to go in the dining room and wanted something wooden and solid to go with the other hutch thing and our table and chairs that are in there.

It was difficult to find what I was after (remembering that I'm not going to spend a fortune on a cupboard) so some clever thinking was needed. The TV cabinet was perfect, it was basically two sections that were easily separated and the bottom section became the new cupboard. (Apologies for not remembering to take a pic of the TV cabinet, you should all know I'm crap at remembering to take before shots by now)

It's solid wood (yay!) and sturdy so if a little fish climbs on it, nothing will break or collapse.

Mr fish kindly removed the top of the cabinet and made it the top of the cupboard for me (with eyes rolling of course) as it was in better condition than the piece on there and fixed a broken door insert with some panelling from the back of the unwanted section. None of this was difficult to do and we only needed some nails and a jigsaw to transform it. We broke down the remaining pieces of the cabinet and put some bits aside for disposal and kept some bigger pieces for use later on. The spare top piece that got replaced will make an excellent mobile work bench when put on a pair of saw horses.

So there you have it, a new piece of furniture made out of an unwanted one. It's being painted at the moment and then I'll show you how lovely it looks! So come on Block people, inspire me! Apologies also for the terrible photos, I forgot to take one when the light was better.

Super Sweet Slipcover

So I found this chair at the tip. (In the recycling shop, not on an actual pile of rubbish!). It was looking a bit sad and worn out so I scrubbed all the flaky bits of varnish off and cleaned it up, then gave it a spray with a can of white gloss spray paint. It was in good condition structure wise so that was all it needed to look a bit happier. Since then it has been sitting in the lounge room with a cushion on it waiting to have some kind of transformation happen. Well, I finally got around to it and here is the result.

First I took a few measurements and made a pattern out of some light interfacing to get an idea of what to cut out. I got some foam from SL and cut the shape out using the interfacing as a pattern. I cut the foam in half across the spot where the seat bit meets the back rest so that once it was in the slipcover it would be easy to bend to fit the shape of the chair.

Then I wrapped some wadding around each piece a few times (just a thinnish wadding, nothing too thick) and secured it with some tacking stitches. I snipped bits of wadding here and there to fit it around the shape of the foam.

Once both pieces were wrapped I laid them down in between the fabric I selected (Amy Butler, Temple somethingorother, off Etsy) with right sides together and pinned around the foam shapes as close as I could get. Then I very carefully pulled the foam pieces out of the pinned fabric and stitched around the shape following the pins, leaving an end open for turning.

I ended up overlocking the edges after I trimmed the seam allowance back a bit to keep it neat.

Then it was just a matter of turning it right sides out and slipping the foam bits back in before slip stitching the opening closed.

The chair seems a bit happier and brighter now and I love looking at the colours on it!

This little kitchen is done!

Remember this? The original kitchen when we moved in.

This was when the hutch still lived in there (yes this is that nice looking white hutch I blogged about recently)

The second half of the makeover is now finished. After changing the bench top on the sink side and getting rid of a cupboard at the end and replacing it with a set of drawers the first half was completed. (forgot to mention the new sink with 1 1/2 basins, loooove the extra 1/2 basin)

And now the cupboards for the other side are in and the bench top is on! It was fairly easy to put together once we'd done the first set of drawers. We didn't get the flatpax ones from Bunnings for these drawers (the new drawers under the other bench were from Bunnings and were very easy to put together). These new ones were chosen mainly for the under bench microwave configuration as the flatpax ones didn't have that.

If that wasn't a factor I would have preferred to go with the Bunnings ones, they had far better instructions and were very easy compared with the others. But we figured it out in the end and it's all done! Now there is heaps of space to fit everything and it's great to have the microwave not taking up bench space yet being so handy (as opposed to being in the laundry)

Here's a nifty idea for all you beachy people out there, I've found a way to bring the beach into the kitchen! Get yourselves some glass coffee jars with the lids that have a bit of space in them (I think they might be moccona ones, mine were pinched from mum's house)

After cleaning the jar and soaking the label off, remove the plastic seal from the lid. They should pop right off, and fill the lid up with some little shells, putting the plastic seal thing back on of course to hold them in there.

And then fill the jars up with your choice of product! I imagine you could do this with all different size jars and have other things besides tea and coffee products in them. I've seen them at the op shops so non coffee drinkers could get one from there instead.

And this is a little idea for keeping things easily accessible yet looking okay as well.

I found this woven tray at spotlight (I think) and thought it would be good to keep all the bits and pieces contained in one area.

We have the phone there as the wall plug is just below the bench and other stuff just ended up next to it as well. So the tray now is home to the phone, some notebooks, my sunnies, a bowl of pens and pencils and a key bowl. I have managed to get everyone (mostly) to put the keys in their home so we never have to look for them.

And it's handy to never have to scramble around for a pen when you need one.

So there you go, a nice bit of extra bench space that has heaps of storage underneath and it somehow manages to make the room look bigger!

TaDa!

Remember this dark coloured hutch thingy that was going to get a makeover? Well it has!

After taking the glass doors off to paint and then deciding they could stay off and they could take their vertical supports with them (after checking with Mr Fish who said they were allowed to go too), it looks a lot more open and different.

The vertical pieces were surprisingly easy to remove with a bit of tapping using a rubber mallet (thanks Mr Fish) and the shelves had hardly any damage to them where they were nailed in.

After coating the top half in a generous slather of zinser and filling in a few nail holes we were ready for painting. ( I did the painting in top half and bottom half to break it up a bit)

A couple of coats of Antique White USA in a semi gloss and the transformation was almost complete. Add in a few new door knobs and a nice bit of duck eggy looking blue to the back of the shelves and we have ourselves a new looking display piece which is now conveniently located under a down light to give it a bit of a fancy look (pure chance that the down light thing happened, it was already there). I only put the pretty things on display as there was too much stuff and it was getting pretty crowded in there before, only the best op shopping finds made the cut!

(Don't tell Mr Fish that all his beery type stuff will not be going back on this lovely new looking hutch, he probably won't notice unless it's pointed out to him)

Littlest fishes bedroom is done!

Littlest fishes room is finally done! It took a while as after the painting I had to get some other jobs finished before I could do any more. We got rid of the bright aqua turtle curtains (which lasted thru 2 fishes so they did alright) and gave the room a change from the 'white that looks a bit grey' paint. She recently graduated to a toddler bed from a cot so that was a bit change in itself, the room looked a lot bigger without it. (if you look really carefully you can see my cutting in work! As usual I forgot to take a proper before pic)

The bookcase was handy but a little messy as she liked pulling large volumes of books out to look at. The change table is a bit full as we have some bags of clothes under there waiting to be given to a friend. (hopefully it won't be around for too much longer!)

The blockout blind on the window has been letting light in the gaps at the sides so we had to fix that problem quick smart.

Here's the solution! I got a longer blind that would cover the gap where the light was coming in and hung it from above the window to make sure no light came in above. I also put the brackets for the curtain rod up near the ceiling and as you can see they are in funny spots.... That is because I have hung the curtains to balance the wall and make the window look a bit more centered instead of nearly in the built in! (you'll see a bit further down)

Here's her new little art gallery! I've been collecting lots of cute prints and cards for a while and thought they'd look good as a group. Most of the frames were cheap wooden ones that got painted white so they all matched and the larger frames were hung with a picture hook. The smaller ones were attached with stick on picture hanging strips that can be pulled off. If we find some more lovely pictures we can add them to the collection!

We swapped the bookcase for these cubes that were in the other fishes room. So the older one got the books (which is fine with her) and we just put the age appropriate ones back in here along with her favourite toys.

Here's what happened with the curtains. They cover nearly the whole wall and by hanging them evenly along the wall with just half the window showing in the centre, it looks like the window is in the centre of the wall, which made centering the bed a bit easier so it looks balanced. And you can't tell the blind overhangs the window on one side as the curtains cover it. (curtains are made with white cotton) And the paint is a very pale aqua/blue/green colour called Nippon 'seabird'. It's pretty without being too obvious.

lastly the little nook where a chest of drawers used to be now houses a little chair and a treehouse with a one woolly wombat wall hanging above them. (made by nanny fish of course) So there you have it, one little fish makeover. We bought the paint and the cotton for the curtains and a new blind. Swapping bits and pieces around meant we didn't have to buy any new furniture and her room looks bigger and brighter. The next thing we'll have to work on is where to put a single bed when she needs one!

That's a shell of a lamp!

This is one of a pair of lamps that came to live here after I spotted them at the tender center. They had rather ugly shades on them and looked a bit sad but I could picture them with a fresh new shade perched atop them and hey presto, they are now lovely again! They are pretty old judging by the wiring on them but in good condition and now they have lovely new hats on, they are just perfect. And they look just grand sitting on the bedside tables. Don't you just love it when you find a great bargain???!!!!

(and yes they are real shells in there!)

(Lovely new shades are from Tarjay people, they have some seriously nice shades at that shop)

Kids beachy chair revamp

I found this lovely cane chair at a recent trip to the tender center (it's a kids size one) and thought it would look great with a quick makeover. It was in great condition and just needed a bit of a dust then on went the paint. One coat of zinser and two of antique white U.S.A. and it was all done! (I forgot to take a pic before I started painting hence the white bits on the legs)

After all that lovely paint it of course needed a nice cushion to go on it so we (me and the fishes who were strangely on their best behaviour) braved going to Spotlight and found a square of foam to cut up. Some careful cutting and a bit of nice beachy shell fabric later and we had ourselves a cushion!

Both fishes have claimed it so I'll let them battle it out though it does look lovely with littlest fishes (aka 'bug') nice new paint colour in her room. (more on that later....)

Littlest fishes new bed

Littlest fish recently graduated from a cot to a toddler bed and after spending a few nights with a bed rail in the open bit in case she fell out, I thought we could try and pretty it up a bit. So down came the rail and in its place is a nice bit of fabric (I guess it's a bumper of sorts) that ties to the bed to make a little barrier.

So far so good, which means she hasn't rolled out (yet!) She can climb over to get in and out but it seems to do the trick and keeps her in while she is alseep which was the main goal anyway. Plus looking a whole lot nicer is always a bonus.

Yay little fish! Next job will be painting her room and new curtains so stay tuned for some makeover fun!

Before and After

I found some photos on the computer recently that were taken before we bought our house (I think we got them off the property listing online when we were looking) and was amazed at how different it looked. I sort of forgot how apricot the walls were and how much varnished timber there was in the kitchen. So I was very happy to find some pics that showed the changes we have made (and are still making). The apricot is gone and part one of the kitchen reno is done, we can't do much of part two until the extra room out the back is built then it will be all systems go! So the point of this post dear bloggy friends, is make sure you take some photos every now and again of your house (and garden) to document the changes that have occured because they may seem like small differences when they're happening, but the end result can be huge! Happy photo taking!

This could get addictive

I found a new place to put a table runner the other day. They are very handy for moving around and making little displays on. The little white thing in the front is an oil burner that you put those wax melt things in, I bought a lemongrass and a honeydew one and they smell divine. I'm a bit slow with these things, I know they've been around for a while but til now I've been a 'put a few drops of scented oil in some water' oil burner kind of gal. So I'm starting to catch up now. The cupboard everythings displayed on is from a garage sale a while back and I don't think it will get painted as it's in really good condition and I'm a bit scared to change it. (this was a bit of a posh garage sale) But after painting the cabinet in the last post I thought the side table in the lounge room could do with a makeover. It's another tender center job (in case you don't know, a tender center is sort of like a second hand shop where people bring things in and you go and bid on what you might like and the highest bidder wins! It's mostly junk but sometimes there are little gems up for grabs). Anyway this little table is made from cane and a bit of chipboard and was looking a little worse for wear so a paint job was just the thing it needed.

I have learnt through trial and error that two decent coats of primer make a huge difference to the finished look of the paint and would highly recommend priming first when painting furniture. I used zinnser 3 in 1 primer (after a few people suggested it) and it is amazing! As long as the surface is clean and free of flaky bits you can paint it on just about anything. Can you imagine how much sanding this table would have required? Why bother when you can paint the primer straight on and get to work. So it got two nice coats of zinnser and then two coats of semi gloss and that was it.

So now we have a nice little side table that looks pretty and can stay around for a while. The inside of the drawer was looking a bit sad as it is made of some cheap chipboard/mdf stuff so I painted it as well and then glued some paper to the inside to spruce it up a bit. It's just scrapbooking paper and I used some spray adhesive to hold it down.

So there you go, another cheap and cheerful makeover. I wonder what will be next? Maybe I should go and do some sewing before the whole house gets painted!