small things big impact - crystal bud vase

Day 11 - nothing to report



You heard me correctly. I have nothing new to share.

I blame Chris who came over on the weekend causing me to put all my efforts into cleaning prior to his visit (cause the only time I clean the whole house is when I have visitors), and turning the weekend into a social rather than creative time.

Not that I can complain. He did help me put up the kitchen shelves! So, it was way worth it.

All the rain we've been having lately isn't helping.

I'll tell you what I did do (besides cleaning). I worked in the garden. But there's nothing exciting to show for that, unless photos of dirt does it for you.

Last weekend I got my garden helper to dig out all the plants in the narrow casita garden bed. They were all too big for there and I plan to fill it with flowers and bulbs. Then the dogs began to use it as their private sand pit, so I had to put wire over it. Its not much to look at right now.

This weekend, between bouts of rain, I planted some stuff in that little garden bed. Then I risked life and limb to crawl all over the tyre wall and weed and put in new plants. The mom of one of the dogs I groom regularly brought me a heap of plants from her garden and I put them all in. Next spring I'll have a ton more flowers on that wall to show off.

But today, I have nothing new to share, and I have to pedal like crazy to catch up with my challenge...

Meanwhile I thought I'd share this pretty little vase... I'm not sure what this thing is. I originally thought it was a bottle stopper but its hollow. Wayne suggested its probably a perfume dispenser. Any ideas?

Whatever it was originally, its now a cute little bud vase.

I better go think of something to do!

z

small things big impact - the kitchen shelves. finally.

Day 10 - kitchen shelves at last

Do you remember when we finished the kitchen makeover?

In fact, do you remember what it looked like originally?

You've come a long way baby!

Anyway, despite how great the kitchen looked after the makeover, it wasn't really finished cause I wanted open shelves. The plan had always been for open shelves. I have an entire pinterest board dedicated to open kitchen shelves.

We finally have shelves!



Whoo-hoo!

Why the delay you may ask?

Well... I had to figure out what brackets I wanted. I knew what I wanted... the IKEA plain timber triangular brackets. But of course IKEA never has them in stock. Not that we even have IKEA in Tasmania...

Then I started to think I could make my own brackets. After all, I own two jigsaws and am not afraid to use them! But I couldn't get past the technicality of how to fix them to the wall and my general fear of stuffing up*.

In the end I got the fancier country style IKEA brackets. They work. Though I'm not sure how strong they'll be. They're made of MDF (the website said 'timber'... I guess MDF is a type of timber, but its not very strong). I managed to break one while putting the shelves up - once you pull a screw out of MDF its pretty stuffed. I'm not overly happy with that.

That's why there are three brackets on the lower shelves - to be sure they'll hold the weight of dishes. The top shelf doesn't need three brackets as it won't be holding any real weight.

Wayne jumps every time there's a loud noise in the kitchen... he's sure they'll come down cause I'll put too much weight on them!



The timber I used is laminated pine - a big slab of joined pine pieces, 30mm thick for things like table tops or counters. I bought the whole slab and had a nice buy at the hardware store cut 3 shelves at the right size for me.

Problem was pine is nowhere near the same colour as the benchtops, which is tasmanian oak, so I had to stain it. I experimented a bit and ended up using maple stain and three coats of polyurethane. I think the colour is pretty close.



I had a friend help me put them up. No way could I have done these without help, the lifting alone would have undone me. But its the maths I'm not good at. I measure, check, measure again and still stuff up.

*eg. The top shelf... It was meant to be at the same height as the top of the window frame. I calculated that the shelves were 35cm apart. I thought I was so clever when I subtracted 3cm from that for the thickness of the shelf and marked where the shelf should sit before I marked where to pre-drill for the brackets. I measured, marked, checked.. Then I got up lined the shelf up below the marks, not above, so I ended up putting the top shelf in 3cm lower than planned.

Well, I still love my shelves.

As you can imagine, I was eager to start using the shelves. I couldn't wait to get out my kitchen scales collection! That end one on the right is one I bought a year ago and have had under the bed, just waiting for the shelves to display it.



The darker green baking dish is one I got at an op shop yesterday for the princely sum of $3.



And my crazed and chipped bird plate is on display again!

There'll be changes to the shelf contents over the next few days for sure, but I'm loving it. And Romeo is loving it!

The idea is to keep everything we use on a daily basis (dinner plates, bowls) on the shelves within easy reach. Also, the my pretty bowls which are both useful and decorative.

Time to begin getting rid of all the not so pretty things we own...

This is the before and after of that corner of the kitchen. Pretty big difference, wouldn't you say? We moved the window, sink and stove, got new appliances, timber lined the walls, removed the lino, refinished the timber floor and put in all new cabinets with a solid timber benchtop.

A big job but totally worth it!

z

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small things big impact - home sweet home

Day 9 - Home sweet home

Of course, while doing making small changes which make a big difference, I couldn't resist the new outdoor elves.

Firstly, I repainted the small shelf outside the house the same colour as the house and distressed it a bit to show the dark grey beneath.

Then I relocated the concrete HOME sign which I'd bought at Kmart a while ago from.

It looks really nice against the rusty tin cans, and its nice to see as you walk up to the steps.

Next I couldn't resist adding some 'junk' to large shelf under the kitchen window.

You know the definition of junk, right?

Anyway.... I added some junk to the shelf. Cause I love having interesting things to look at. And there were a ton of holes in the shelf back anyway... it was asking for it!

I love it when I visit someone's home and they have things to look at - little surprises in the garden, clever things on walls, interesting things in the house. Its like an adventure exploring homes like that.

I want that here, not just for visiting explorers, but for myself. It gives me joy to look at stuff I love, and having it out on walls or under shelves means its visible to enjoy, and not stored in boxes taking up space in the shed.

z

small things big impact - the bathroom gets cleaned out

 

Day 8 - breathing space in the bathroom

Nothing much to show for today... but I did clean the bathroom. Its been months. Seriously. I'd clean the sink and shower but things just piled up on all the surfaces... today I went in there and gave it a good clean and tidy. I even went through the medicine cabinet and my makeup and tossed out anything that was old and not used.

Except for my perfume. I don't use it often but I do love it when I do.

Since our bathroom is a disgrace, I'm only sharing tiny bits of it at once cause its like the funniest joke in the world (according to Monty Pythons Flying circus). You can only be shown one bit at a time for your own safety.

Above are my wire ducks. Love those things. They hold soap bars on the middle shelf I put up a couple of years ago.

The bottom shelf holds two wire baskets I got from... you guessed it! A tip shop! They hold hand towels and bathmats.

Or they do when I do the washing...



The top shelf holds my collection of bottles. Most of them are old bottles I dug up from a corner of my yard in Fentonbury.

Below the shelves, in the corner the bathtub used to be in, is a big square basket I'm using as our laundry basket. I lined it (badly) with some grain sacks. One day I'll get some ticking and do a better job.

A little air plant lives in a tiny galvanised planter given to my by a friend. The fat pig is a Chinese good luck symbol.

At least that's what I was told.

I have quite a few old tins in the bathroom, and a few enamel mugs. The tins are purely decorative but I use the mugs. I also use the old wooden caddy to keep stuff looking tidy. (It only works till we use the bathroom next).

Wayne keeps his stuff in the old timber medicine cabinet I refinished years ago.

The rest of the little tin collection sits on top of the medicine cabinet. This cabinet was in the office (which was a bedroom back then) when we bought the house. How odd.

All in all, I feel better about our ugly bathroom. I threw out a bag of stuff and its much less cluttered.

z