revamped footstool

Yes, yes. I know its been a long time between posts. To be honest I've just been too wrapped up in my own little world to want to get online, much less blog.

But here I am... sharing a project from work.

Some of you already know I work as a disability support worker as my 'real job' to support my art habit. I'm lucky enough to be able to do some creative work in that role with some of the guys I work with.

For instance, this repurposed footstool is a project I've been working on with some young men in one of those programs.

The aim of the program is to find, fix up and revamp items found in tip shops in order to develop the guy's skills and produce something which can be sold to buy materials for the next project.

This footstool had been hanging around in the store room for a long time. It was just crying out to be reborn into something pretty...

We went looking for bits of dowel, finials and knobs. We drilled holes, attached knobs and stained dowel. We painted it a nice light blue colour, then sanded, repainted and re-sanded...

The lowly footstool was reborn into a cute, handy little kitchen shelf. 

Or bathroom shelf.

Or craftroom shelf.

I took it home to dress it up and photograph it cause the guys really do want to sell it. They're proud of it and rightly so. I think it looks terrific!

The rods come out so you can put rolls of paper on them instead of hanging tea towels or pots and pans. Its both useful and pretty.

We've entered it in the Kingborough Salvaged Art competition and I'm posting it on Facebook. It is definitely for sale. We'll be selling it through a silent auction.

If you're interested in buying this one-of-a-kind piece of recycled art, please contact me on zefiart@gmail.com and put in your bid. I'll be keeping track of all bids and at the end of the competition, on October 6th, I'll announce the winner on Facebook and by private email.

The money raised through the sale of this masterpiece will be used to create MORE masterpieces in the future!

Go on! Make a bid!

z

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art from trash - my new bag

I am never happy with bags.

Handbags are just too small.

Or they hold too much and become too heavy.

I used to use backpacks. They make sense... After all its better to carry the weight of your life on your back than on one shoulder. With the amount of crap I carry in my bag its amazing I don't lean to one side permanently.

But somewhere along the line I decided I needed to start using handbags. Or rather, shoulder bags.

Then I got my big diary...

It wouldn't fit into any of my handbags/shoulder bags so I started using canvas shopping bags as my work bags.

They're ok, but they have no pockets, no inner dividers, nothing to hold things in place... I was constantly losing pens, car keys and my mobile phone.

I was sick and tired of it.

So I made my own shoulder bag.

I got this bee in my bonnet about it one night last week. I looked through the cupboard in my office, found some upholstery fabric samples which might work then started thinking of ways I could use the fabric to make a bag.

I was limited by the size of the samples. I didn't want to make a patchwork carpetbag looking thing so I didn't want to mix and match too many fabrics.

In the end I only used one sample for the body of the bag, though I turned the fabric inside out on the sides just for contrast.

I'd never done this before but it wasn't that hard. I just had to work out the size and design, then cut.

Or cut and then make it work.

The living room was back to normal again.

Normal means a coffee table full of crafting stuff. That's more normal than clean and tidy round here.

One thing I wanted was a pocket to hold things securely. I wanted a divider inside the bag so that I could put the diary in that part and it wouldn't fall and lean..

I cut one piece of fabric which I stitched in when I put the bag together, it forms a divider 'pocket' at the back of the bag for the diary. I added a couple of fabric loops to hold pens inside that pocket too!

I re-used one of my canvas bags for the strap, flap and inner pocket. I just cut or picked off the bits I wanted from the old bag. I put the small zipped pocket inside on the divider, and put the straps on the sides of the bag.

I reinforced the sides where the straps join and I put in some stiff fabric under the bottom of the bag to help it hold its shape.

Lastly I needed to pretty up the flap/front of the bag...

I was inspired by this image on Pinterest:

I used scaps of burlap and another fabric (using both sides) and some blue cotton yarn for the stitches. I opted to leave out the beads. Knowing me they'd be flying off left, right and center.

Ok, it looks nothing like my inspiration, but I still think its pretty ok. And it'll hold my diary and TWO pens!

I've decided to enter it into the Salvaged Art Competition being held in Kingston next month. Why not? Its all recycled!

z

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my big diary

This year I decided I needed a bigger diary than I've had for the last 100 years.

Up till now I've had a Filofax and various variations on the good ol' A5 sized 6 ring binder diary. It fits into a handbag, its easy to flip through, its portable.

But there are only 2 choices: week at a glance where the amount of space you get for each day is tiny enough that if you could fit everything you needed to do in a day in there, then you really don't need a diary. Or you can go with day to a page which is better, but if you're like me and need to be able to picture the whole week ahead of you so you can stress, then flipping pages back and forth just ain't gonna cut it.

So this year I bought myself a plain, boring A4 diary. Nothing fancy. Just the diary. No pen holders, no business card holders, nothing.

I bought a compendium and put the diary inside - then I had a big bulky heavy briefcase of a diary to carry around, but I had a place to put a notepad, business cards, even a zippered section for money. No pen holder though....

The compendium wouldn't fit into any of my 'handbags' so I started using canvas shopping bags as my work bags. Not ideal.

After I got back from Greece I decided it was time for the compendium to go. I was tired of carrying such a huge thing around... I would manage with just the diary. The plain boring old blue cover diary...

No I wouldn't. I would fix the diary so it wouldn't be plain and boring! I did a decoupage kind of thing on it. I used dictionary pages with images printed on them, wrapping paper of different types, some scrapbooking embellishments I had for some reason, and some printed out definitions. These were all leftover bits from previous decoupage projects.

I added a ribbon to it as a 'closer' but I didn't make it long enough so its almost totally useless. I think I'll go and add a velcro closer as I did to one of my notebooks. That's working great.

It still lacks a pen loop, but I've made up an elastic circle I slip over the diary to keep it closed. It has a little loop in it which holds a pen so it works for now.

Maybe I'll think of something better for next year.

z

today was a nice day

Today was a nice day. 

It was sunny, not cold. No rain. No wind.

I had some dogs to groom in the morning but I was determined to get outside and spend some time with the horses.

Soon as I finished the last dog I took some brushes and a halter and went out and got Cass. We spent some time bonding over some intense back rubbing. I think she loved it more than I did... I was choking on horse hair.

I swear, I've never seen a horse shed as much as she does. The other day I was watching her in the paddock after we'd taken their rugs off so they could get some sun... Cass shook and a cloud of white hair rose around her, settling on the ground like snow.

Its still there now! After a whole week and many many inches of rain!

In fact when you walk around the paddock you'll see spots... "This is where Cass rolled, this is where she shook"...

The view from Cass' back.

I had to get Wayne's help to saddle her up. I can't do up a girth. I'm a weakling.

Then I had to use a milk crate to get on her.  My legs can't get up high enough to put my foot in the stirrup... And my arms aren't strong enough to lift my butt off the ground...

Let's not go there.

After the ride. Sleepy Cass.

Wayne said he wasn't going to ride. He was just going to hassle watch me ride Cass around the paddock. The aim of the exercise was to just get to know eachother. I haven't ridden in YEARS. I need to build my confidence. And Cass thought she'd come here to retire. We brought her here, fed her and let her do her own thing for months, what's a girl to think?

In the end, Wayne got jealous. He got out his gear and saddled up Wally, then we both ambled around the paddocks, letting the horses relax under saddle and with eachother and us on their backs. 

Basically it was a very relaxed hour.

I plan to make this a regular thing. Its a promise to myself. To start doing something we planned to do when we bought Wind Dancer Farm. We bought this particular property cause it has access to good riding areas both on our own property and beyond it. Yet we've been here for over 2 years and haven't ridden together yet.

Now I have Cass, its time.

Meanwhile, its good to be home. Though I when I opened the shed last week to get something, this is what I was greeted by:

I hadn't left it like that. Believe me.

The poodles were in there hunting a possum. Or two.

One of them didn't make it apparently. I found a LOT of grey possum fur when pooperscooping the yard that first day... Wayne said he had to bury an ex-possum while I'd been away. The poodles went feral, wreaking destruction to get at the possums... 

You should see the new car's fender...

I almost came back to ex-poodles.

I also found some red possum fur. That little guy did make it. Though he was stupid enough to come into the yard again. The other night he was frozen on top of the trellis while the dogs paced around below. The poodles were like "I know he's around here somewhere but I just can't see him..."

The possum was still as a statue thinking "If I don't move maybe they won't notice me."

Poor little thing... He had quite a few bald spots. Luckily no injuries, just bald spots.

I got the dogs inside and he escaped... I hope he's smart enough to find another hangout.

z