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Showing posts from March, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Faded Roses

Fading homegrown roses from our high tea in the weekend run through an antique filter to enhance the mood... Joining in again with Project Alicia and Wordless Wednesday. Pop over to see some awesome images! - K xx

How to fix a cheap plastic washing basket!

I'm sure we all have these cheap plastic washing baskets lying around the place... And I wonder how many of them are broken.... I find the handles break first and if you can still manage a load of washing with it even with broken handles, the sides go next. I hate throwing them away, and after I managed to fix the dirty clothes basket that lives in the bathroom, I figured I would give fixing this basket a go, too! Here's what I did... Both handles are broken. One had an attempt to fix it with string (string rots fairly quickly) and also with a bit of packing tape - also a no go-er! See how the sides are starting to break already? So for this side, I used a thicker piece of plastic coated wire and attached the handle back on by going over the top of the handle. When you use it, all the pressure is on the strong pieces of the basket. Its not the best looking handle in the world, but so far none of my friends or relatives have disowne

Very easy to make, shabby chic afternoon tea invitations!

Last year two friends and I hosted an afternoon tea party which was a lot of fun. This year, despite the constant rain, we decided to host another one. Which meant that I got to play and make some wonderful invitations. I saw some on the net that inspired these, but mine turned out totally different - great but nothing like the ones I had seen! Anyway, these ones are very easy, very cheap and very nice into the bargain! Here's what I did... First I bought a pack of 24 rectangle paper doilies (aprox A5 size) for $2 at my local cheap shop. Then I made up some fairly strong tea and let it go cold - next time I think I would be more subtle and use less tea. As it drys and ages it gets darker. So what you see when it first drys, is not as dark as it will end up. You can always darken it up later but you cant lighten it easily... Using the tea bag as a stamp pad  I just blotted the doilies two at a time. And then dried them with a hair d

Wordless Wednesday - Wash day!

All the linen napkins on the line, after Sunday's afternoon tea with the girls!  Joining up with Project Alicia's Wordless Wednesday once more - pop over, there are lots of wonderful photos to browse!

Supporting local farmers with CSA/food connect fruit and vegetable boxes!

If you are a regular blog visitor you may have noticed that despite having a rather large block in the subtropics, growing food seems to impossible. Too much sun, too much rain, not enough rain, a week away and poof - all that hard work turns to dust again. All the reading I have been doing lately has been about globalisition (for my uni assignments) and its got me thinking again about local farmers and how to connect to them. Many of the "food sustainability" books that I read are wonderful but most of them are based in America. They talk a lot about CSA - which is community supported agriculture - and if I understand it correctly, you pay a fee to a farmer (or a group of farmers or a group that buys from farmers direct) and at harvest time, you come and collect your bounty. I hadn't heard of any such thing here in Australia and even though we have a lot of Farmers Markets, I have noticed that quite a few of them are middle men and have been to the big commercial  Frui

Cute, easy pin cushion that took 1/2 an hour to make!

Since I have started to make a few quilts I have been using more and more pins. I got these wonderful long ones that also have a flat head and can be ironed (and sewed as it turns out!) I found it a bit fiddly to get them in and out of the container and when I got to class for the third time and found the container had popped and splits half a million pins into the bottom of my bag again, I decided I needed to do something about it. So I googled easy to make pins cushion and using this one for inspiration,  Here's what I did... First I cut a 4x4 inch of cloth from an old shirt. Its not going to be seen so it doesn't matter what colour it is. Then I selected a few scraps from my latest quilt (including scraps that were sewn together already) Then with the first patch the right way up, I roughly sewed it to the base. Then I sewed the next patch to the already sewn patch, right sides together. And cut it to size when I hd finished sewing

Dropping off stuff to your second hand shop!

I'm a big fan of the Second Hand or Op shop! A huge amount of what I wear, have in my kitchen, use in my house is from a second hand shop. I think they are great on so many levels.I like the fact that I am saving money. I like that my money is going to a charity and not adding to the profits of some already very rich people. I thinks its great that I can save a few things from landfill and meet some wonderful people all at the same time. As well as being a regular shopper at our five local second hand shops, I drop off all the de-cluttering that I do. Having a clean out of the cupboards in the kitchen - off to the op shop. Wardrobe a bit full? Off to the op shop. A book cull? Off to the Op shop! I had a chat to the drop off guy the other day and he gave a me few tip to make everyone's life easier... Here's what he said to do... First, he said - ask your self... Is this sellable or is it rubbish? If its clothing with a stain, tear or mark on it then rip it up and
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