junking finds

I may have been flat out busy, but somewhere along the line I still managed to do some shopping. In tip shops. My favourite place to shop.

I found some great stuff, I even found a few things I was actually after.

What happened was I spent one day doing the rounds of the shops looking for particular things to finish projects or for displaying items in upcoming exhibitions.

One find which wasn't on the list but I had to have was this baker's basket. Galvanised iron, big... what's not to love?

And its from a greek bakery. How appropriate is that?

I already have an idea of what I'm going to do with this beauty. Stay tuned.

This hay bale hook was inside a coal bin I bought at an auction (will be sharing that separately). Isn't it gorgeous? Wayne has a collection of these so it won't be wasted, even if I don't make it into something else.

I got a collection of legs, and more hand sander thingies. I can't resist those things.

And these two cute stools. I actually bought them both for the legs - as a way to display some seat pads made at work, but they're cute. They will be remade into side tables most likely.

Lastly, here are a couple of things I got last time I went to the auction house and forgot to share. I adore the vent top, isn't it lovely? for now I have no idea what I'll do with it, but I'm going to display/use it somewhere.

All in all, a successful shopping trip.

z

a slightly dirty clock

I had a very busy weekend. A really busy one. I did more cleaning in the casita. I finished some niggly little jobs, I started some projects, I folded and put away washing, I vacuumed the living room.

Yeah, I know.

Wayne was shocked too.

This is one of the small things I finally finished.

I'd got a cheap clock from Kmart when I decided I wanted a clock in the living room. It broke soon as I got it home so I left it in the workshop thinking I'd use the face to make a new clock. I bought a new clock mechanism off ebay and it all just sat there, in the shed, waiting...

We didn't really need a clock in the living room back then, I had the time up on my TV ...but about 2 months ago my TV suddenly lost the ability to speak so it had to go.

Lucky for us, combining two households when we moved in together meant we had doubles of lots of things. Including TVs. We didn't sell any of the doubles cause we knew that the day we sold them we'd need them. We've already been glad we had two washing machines.

Now its the TV's turn.

Anyway, I can't figure out how to display the time on Wayne's TV, so a clock in the living room is a bit more of a need now.

I got the bits together: the new mechanism, the clock face, a battery and an old rusty flan tin. One of those ones with the removable bottom bit. Which I didn't have anyway as this is a tip shop find.

I've had this tin rim for a long time, I picked it up thinking that one day it'd make a great clock. And do it has!

Putting it together was really easy and quick. I didn't even clean the tin or try to remove any of the rust. I think it adds character.

Its now hanging in the living room above the stacked bookcases and where you can see it easily while watching TV.

I'm loving my new clock.

z

Shared at:

gardening with dogs, is it possible?

I'm not sure.

I thought it was. I mean, for a long time things were going great. I planted things, half of them died, but the rest grew up unmolested by poodles.

Then one day the poodles began to dig.

And dig.

Never in the same place.

They dug up some of the new foxgloves I put in along the back fence. They dug up the lupins. They dug up the catmint and new columbines. They dug and broke low branches off the crepe myrtle. They dug and broke the hardenbergia in half. They dug and knocked out the pigface I'd dared to survive in the cement-like, inhospitable slope. They dug small channels under fences.

...I tried to stop it.

I put up fences. I used dog pens and stakes and zip ties.

They knocked them down and moved them.

I put them up again.

They found another spot to dig.

And then yesterday I got home and found this:

Flattened osteospermums and a hole between the english lavender and the pink daisies.

Broken and flattened double osteospermums - looks like someone decided so take a nap there. Thankfully the young penstemon on the left avoided annihilation.

So far.

The alyssum wasn't so lucky. It looks like this was another nice spot to rest.

(Actually, it DOES look like a nice place to lie in the sun... but that's not the point!)

Ok. I'm not overly worried about the alyssum. That stuff is growing in cracks in the path.

The snow in summer is looking scraggly but that should be ok. And the osteospermums should bounce back. I'll just give them a trim, I have to do for winter anyway.

Its that I plan to replant the old garden beds in front of the casita with new plants. Last weekend I got my garden helper to remove all the too-large plants from the beds, dig up and mix in new soil in preparation of planting all sorts of smaller flowering plants: mixed bulbs, columbines, whatever strikes my fancy.

The dogs have been leaving footprints all over the narrow beds, which I could cope with. But they're also digging it up.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I'm really beginning to get annoyed here.

I get that they dig after critters in the yard. Rats probably, around the foundations of the casita. The odd native animal. Whatever.

But digging in a new bed? There are no critters in there! They're just loving digging!

I've never had diggers before and I'm stumped. I plan to put a fence over the new beds but that won't guarantee anything.

Sigh.

I think I may go back to toy poodles. At least they can't dig up a whole tree.

z

just because

Why am I sharing this pic?

Cause I like it.

I took it to show a friend the rickety chair I picked up off the side of the road last year, a chair which is beyond repairing to actually seat a human being of ample proportions, but which retains a lot of charm.

When organising the store room (still not organised) I hung it on a humungous nail and left it there.

When I saw the photo I realised there was something I just loved about having a chair hanging on the wall.

Meanwhile, I've been busy. Cleaning. Tidying. Organising.

In the casita, not the house. The house remains a total mess. In fact, its messier than it was last week when I put off tidying up.

On a happier note, the chickies are doing well and the hen and chick we moved out to the chicken coop ran off the minute we opened the door to let them out.

We shouldn't keep chickens. We're just not qualified.

Meanwhile Wayne bought new rugs for Chipmunk...

He looks like he was eaten by a horse rug.

For sale: two small, but obviously not tiny enough, horse rugs. One regular and one with attached neck rug.

Never a dull moment at Wind Dancer Farm!

z