Girls natter rugby

Whilst I've never been a sports nut, and I never thought I'd get absorbed in a sporting tournament, the Rugby World Cup has been such fun.  The spirit of the whole thing has gripped the country and the most unlikely of us have jumped on the band wagon.  This becomes apparent when you're sitting having coffee with a group of girls and we are jabbering about the rugby rather than the usual topics.  The flags in all the shops, on every car, the support at every level, and the visitors from around the world has been excellent.

I've been lucky enough to be given tickets to a few games through work and the spectacle has been awesome (as we flew up to Auckland for one of the semi-finals last weekend I realised the cost of our flights would have paid for the plastering in the hallway ... but you only live once right?).  I am struck as the teams run out onto the pitch to the deep roar of the Maori horn how gladiatorial the whole thing is.  We should all be wearing sheets and have laurels on our head as we roar for our teams and watch the spectacle.

It's fun to turn up to a game that NZ is not even in and pick a team to support.  I picked Wales for the Saturday semi-final and was devastated for them when they lost - it would seem that wearing red, cheering madly and waving leeks is not enough to ensure the win.  However, the All Blacks game was a triumph (no need to pick a team to support there).  I will be so very excited for NZ's team if they can win the final - they deserve the pressure of this very passionate and demanding rugby nation lifting, and to be able to relax and unwind without the proverbial monkey on their broad shoulder.  I shall be yelling my wee head off this weekend and hope that this time round cheering madly will generate the right result.  Go the ABs!

Teapots in town

I just love love love love my recent teapot purchases. How gorgeous are these enamel teapots?

I spied them at an online auction and fell in love - thank goodness there were only 3 for sale otherwise I'd have a whole room full.  I collected them from the vendor yesterday and am totally delighted.

They will look gorgeous with cut flowers but right now I just love them sitting there as a splash of colour and style. Hurray!

From naf-wolf to nifty-wellington: a framing revamp

I like to pick up nicely shaped picture frames from second hand shops because often with a lick of paint or a refurb, they will look good as new. It seems a terrible waste that they are just thrown out so it makes sense to use these no-longer-loved frames and make them loved once more.

One such frame I picked up at the recycle shop for $2. It was pretty hideous to be frank, grey frame and with terribly naf images of some American Indian wolf baying at the American Indian moon (apologies to the artist - its a subjective assessment). It had also received some water damage so the picture was going mouldy and icky inside. Even I had to wonder when I picked it up if this was my best investment.

I removed the picture and gave the frame the classic white paint treatment. I then got a sheet of cardboard to use as the mounting - using the mouldy version for a template so I knew it was spaced correctly - and cut out the squares for the pictures.

I faffed a bit on what to put in but I'm delighted with the choice. I had found a book called "Points of View" at a recent book fair. It was full of sketches of spots around New Zealand, cityscapes and country churches etc. The book was only $4 and I bought it with the intention of taking some of those pictures and putting them on the wall. (Sorry to all those purists - I did feel like a heathen destroying a book but there seemed little point having lovely pictures hidden away in a book on the shelf) .

There were 3 nice shots of Wellington (one of Oriental Bay, one of a Thorndon street, and one of the tug boat in the harbour). These were too ideal not to use. I have used an old bit of cardboard box to be the back of the frame and I still need to quickly restring the back so it hangs vertically rather than horizontally.

All in all I am totally delighted with the outcome. From a discarded frame and a discarded book, the result is just brilliant. I know exactly where this will go (once the wall plastered and painted of course).

Grow wee veges

As spring creeps closer and the days get longer it seemed appropriate to plant some veges and hope that they may sprout.  Now except for a few lettuces planted when we first moved in (thats them there) and years of owning low maintenance house plants, this is my first attempt at really growing anything substantial.

I have jumped in with both feet and only time will reveal the results. Currently I've planted one wee tomato (fearing it might be a bit cold I am going to keep one inside also), a capsicum, some broad beans, some peas, some silverbeet, spring onions, beetroot and a range of lettuces. Add to this a cape gooseberry and we are good to go. I love my wee garden boxes and I'm just hoping its not too cold at night for the little seedlings so they get to start growing.

I'm certainly no green thumb but keen-ness and positive vibes count for something, right?

Wallpaper Victories

We did it.

In true death-defying style we've finally completed the neck-breaking parts on the high walls above the stairwell.

Now I'm ok with heights, but there were a few moments that I can do without reliving. Balancing up a ladder that is itself balancing on a wooden beam, that is itself balancing on a window ledge was perhaps not the most pleasant experience. I was muttering through my teeth and making sure the stronger of the two of us held on to that ladder. But .... lets focus on the good bits! Its done and I feel we deserve a few victory laps of the hallway.

On to the plastering and then I'll be ready for another health and safety nightmare again for the painting portion.

My learnings on stripping that 70s wallpaper

In May I mentioned that we'd be redecorating our house. That was back in the glory days of wilful blindness when I thought painting over the wallpaper would be achievable and a quick and easy cosmetic change to revamp the internals of the home. Ah, I miss those days.

It since revealed itself that painting over wallpaper was not a viable solution and therefore it needed to be stripped and the gib skim plastered. 

Wow - just like when I was a kid .........

The first area to tackle has been the hallway. The wallpaper often generates cries of delight from people who say "ooohhh, we used to have this in the living room when I was a kid". Well that's all very nice people, and great for you, but its still the length and breadth of our winding hallway while your childhood living room has no doubt had a face lift since.

A few things have revealed themselves to me during this process.
- the glue used in the 70s was of exemplary quality
- this wallpaper was made to last
- it doesn't wanna come off.

Being DIY novices we read the blogs for wallpaper stripping which tell the same storey: (i) score the paper with a tiger claw do-dacky, (ii) put on stripper solution (iii) wait (iv) steam or just peel off. Safe to say, this is an optimistic version of events. Our version was a bit more like: (i) score that paper like its the last thing you'll ever do, until you think there's more holes than paper (ii) lash on super-strong stripper (iii) wait (iv) curse in frustration as you achieve millimetre by millimetre of peeling.

The lesson we have learn - and I share this in case there is some other poor soul out there trying to remove wallpaper of the same extraordinary quality as ours - is as follows:

1.) Use tweezers (crappy pair you don't want anymore) and find that little bit of peeling wallpaper. Catch hold and rip. Yes, this will only take the top patterned coat off - it is true - but it is this top coat that is making life a living hell. The paper will prefer either an up or a down ripping action but should come off in large strips. If you have previously been moving at snail's pace, this type of activity will be extremely satisfying. (It also means if you have a vague sense of silliness, you can save a piece of wallpaper for posterity. I shall be framing a piece in the hallway as a memorial to this work.)

2.) Now you are simply left with the under/backing paper. It is porous to allow the stripper to soak in and absorbs water well. We have attacked this by rolling on a stripper solution, leaving for a few minutes, and then going at it with a scrapper, armed with a spray bottle of stripper solution when it dries out. I won't pretend its not still a long process, but compared to the previous tear-inducing progress, we are rolling along. After 2 months of on/off efforts we are nearing the end.

An etsy pearler

Like many people, I receive those daily updates from etsy which are full of delightful thumbnails of people's craftiness. Being in NZ, I get my email about 3am in the morning and so it is sitting there when I come into the office. I always scroll through as I munch on my breakie.

Today's included a picture of this fantastic cushion by Yellow Bug Boutique. It made me laugh out loud and it certainly reflects how I have felt about my projects to date. Love it!