It has been rainy here today so was a good excuse to do some inside jobs.
The curtains in the family room are now properly hung. It took a bit of tweaking of both the rod and the curtains as well as pressing with a steam iron.
It is an improvement on when I first put them up.
Every small step makes it feel more like home.
I have not forgotten you even though it has been nearly 4 weeks since my last post.
After a very wet autumn our weather suddenly turned dry and cold as winter officially began here at the beginning of June. It somehow made our planned holiday very appealing. We had 9 days in north Queensland where the daytime temperatures ranged from about 26C up to 32C. It was a great opportunity to thaw out. I am still adding to the posts on my holiday blog but you can pop over here to read all about it.
We came back with renewed enthusiasm to tackle some jobs around the house. It is really a bit like spring-cleaning in winter. GMan has scrubbed all of the skirting boards, architraves and doors in the lounge/dining area and the office/library.
A bit of decluttering and rearranging of furniture ensued. One thing certainly leads to another.
Bookshelf from the lounge to the office.
Sideboard from the front lobby to the lounge.
A ‘new’ glass fronted cabinet for the lobby. I picked this bargain up on Marketplace.
Scrubbing was not enough for the front lobby so it received a fresh coat of paint.
There is more painting and rearranging in progress. More photos to come.
Fresh produce from the garden is wonderful but there are times when you definitely can’t eat it all at harvest time.
This basket of cucumbers was a case in point.
The recipe from a friend has clearly been passed down from an earlier generation.
I tweaked it slightly and will modify it a little more in the future.
Cucumber Pickles
3.2kg cucumbers, thinly sliced
2 large onions, thinly sliced
3/4 cup salt
Iceblocks
5 cups sugar
5 cups vinegar
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried celery leaves
Layer the cucumbers and onions. Sprinkle with salt and cover with iceblocks. Allow to stand for 3 hours then drain and rinse thoroughly twice.
Place cucumber, onion, sugar, vinegar and spices in a large pot and bring to the boil. Do not boil the mixture. Turn the heat off and fill sterilised jars. Make sure that they seal before storing.
NOTE: I increased the turmeric and altered the celery salt from the original recipe to match what I had available. Additionally, in future I would reduce the sugar and vinegar to 4 cups of each as there was more liquid than I needed.
In deference to our industrious ancestors, it only seemed right and proper to use these two mixing bowls that belonged to my grandmother and would be around 100 years old. I use them on a regular basis in my kitchen.
The end result is ready to be stored in the pantry for eating throughout the year.
We are not planning a ‘no spend’ year but instead, a year of mindful spending. Spending on things that we need or that will add value in some way to our lives.
The New Year was barely 12 hours old when I made my first purchase. It was a follow-up to some research I had done a few months ago and I ordered some silicone chair protectors from Chair Tips Australia.
The parcel arrived 4 days later.
The packaging was plastic but not too much. The outer bag became a rubbish bag for our small amount of kitchen waste and the 2 ziplock bags will be washed and reused once the contents are all used.
The dining room chairs and stools in the kitchen have timber legs and we really needed something to prevent the chair legs scratching the finish on the floors. I had tried using felt pads on these chairs, however, the constant movement ends up dragging the pads off. Both self-adhesive pads as well as glueing them on with specialised glue were not terribly successful.
This is what they had ended up looking like.
So, the first step was to remove the old pads, clean and lightly sand the bottom of the chair legs.
It was then time to position the new protective covers.
The chairs do not slide easily but that is more than offset by the fact that these will not fall off, will be easy to wipe clean and are barely visible.
I am happy with having spent money on this project.
We used to have a rain gauge but we removed the last one when the verandah railings were replaced. Like most rigid plastic items which are exposed to the weather, it had become brittle with time and a couple of pieces were cracked/broken so we decided that we needed to replace it.
This did not happen immediately and time went by. Fast forward about 4 years and a couple of things have changed. The local Council have done some remedial work to the verge adjacent to our driveway where the water used to pool. This had been our unofficial rain gauge for some time but now that the water seems to run off properly the ‘rain gauge’ is no longer much use.
GMan received some money for his recent birthday along with a suggestion that he put it towards buying a new rain gauge. This was just the impetus we needed.
After considerable research he made a decision about which one to buy. One of the considerations that needed to take into account is that we can receive in excess of 250mm rainfall in 24 hours so the rain gauge needs to have substantial capacity. However, he discovered a digital rain gauge which does not need to be manually emptied but the amount of water passing through it is measured using the sensor.
The gauge with sensor is mounted on the pergola (top right-hand corner).
The information is recorded on the screen which sits conveniently on the kitchen bench.
As an added bonus, it also records indoor and outdoor temperature as well as the indoor humidity.
He is very pleased with the new rain gauge and all we need to do now is to wait for it to rain. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a high chance of La Nina (significant rain event) occurring in 2020 so we will wait in anticipation. At least we are ready.
The joy and satisfaction of a restored piece of furniture cannot be underestimated – especially when you have undertaken the job yourselves.
This post from November last year tells the story of our most recent furniture acquisition. It was in very good condition but GMan sanded and recoated the entire piece, however, the real difference was the replacement of the drawer handles.
I have been using the dressing table for about 3 weeks while we were waiting to collect the new mirror. I chose to have bevelled edges to replicate the original.
Today we fitted the mirror in the frame and attached it to the dressing table.
Before and after photos.
I am really pleased with the final result.
We are on a mission to try to finish several projects around the place. Hot on the heels of the completed cold frame, we finished replacing the handles on our latest restoration project.
It is now over 6 years since I wrote about the silky oak dressing table/drawers that we restored. You can read about it here. This piece has now been relocated to the guest room.
The latest restored piece is slightly larger and now has pride of place in my bedroom. It is also silky oak and a very similar style to the other one. The mirror for this one is larger and rectangular rather than oval.
The final step is the new mirror which we hope to pick up this week.
I do not think we are likely to be restoring any other large pieces of furniture in the foreseeable future but there are plenty of other jobs. We are now working on finishing the top of the pergola/walkway. This has become rather necessary as the mandevilla creeper has now almost reached the top of the wire on the sides of the pergola.
This was just after we had planted them in September 2018.
I bought this top a few years ago and have only worn it a handful of times. In fact, I did not even wear it last winter. When I rearranged my wardrobe recently I decided to make sure that every piece earned its place.
I put the top on briefly the other day and realised why I don’t choose to wear it. I do not like the feel of high, fitted necklines and this was simply not comfortable.
I had nothing to lose so I set about modifying the neckline. I cut just below the ribbed band. The pins mark the quarter points of the new neckline.
New ribbing pinned in place.
The finished article with a new, more comfortable neckline. It will look better once the seam is pressed. I am looking forward to getting plenty of wear out of the top in the coming months.
Approximately 15minutes of my time was all that was needed to turn this into a garment that I will be happy to wear.
I have a squeezy mop with a foam head which I have owned for a number of years. I use it relatively infrequently as sometimes I find that getting down on my hands and knees and washing the floor is the best option. Nevertheless, the foam head really needed replacing but of course the matching size did not appear to be available. This would have entailed buying an entire new mop which I find objectionable – both for the unnecessary cost and waste.
So, I bought a jumbo sponge for the princely sum of $1.90 and set about replacing the sponge. The first step was to remove the plastic backing pieces from the existing head. These are used to attach it to the mop. I scraped most of the glue off it.
The new sponge was quite thick so I sliced it in half to have enough for 2 replacement sponge heads. Then I used the old sponge as template to trim the sponge to the correct size.
This is the glue which I chose to use to attach the plastic backing plates to the new sponge. I have not used it before but it was easy to handle and worked well.
I marked the position of the the backing plate, applied the glue and gently clamped it for a couple of hours.
After 24 hours I checked the position for the second backing plate and repeated the procedure.
Once the glue was thoroughly set I replaced it on the mop and put it to use.
The new mop head is working successfully.
Regular sausage rolls are quite obviously not vegetarian. Nor are they gluten free. So, here is an alternative.
GLUTEN FREE SHORTCRUST PASTRY
Ingredients
1 & 1/2 cups gluten free self-raising flour
90g butter
1/3 cup cold water
Method
Place flour in a bowl. Finely shred the butter and rub into the flour until crumbly. Add cold water and stir in with a knife blade to make a firm dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface and roll out as thinly as possible. Use as desired for quiche, savoury pie, sausage rolls etc.
VEG FILLING
1 cup red lentils (soaked for 3-4 hours)
1 onion diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
300g sweet potato
2 tablespoons hummus
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons dried powdered tomato
2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoky paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper
GLAZE
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Cook the sweet potato and mash roughly. Saute the onion and garlic. Drain the lentils and combine all of the ingredients thoroughly.
Whisk the egg and milk together for the glaze.
Roll out the pastry on a flexible surface which will assist in rolling the pastry. A baking sheet works well. Spread mixture on pastry. Create a roll and use a little of the glaze to seal the join of the pastry. Cut into suitable sizes. Glaze with egg mixture and bake for approximately 20 minutes at 190C.
NOTES
I use this mix of gluten free flour and add 2 teaspoons baking powder for each cup of flour used.
The filling ingredients can be varied depending on personal tastes and what you have on hand. For example the hummus was in the fridge and needed to be used up. The main thing is that you are looking for a mixture which will stick together and is adequately seasoned to your liking.
These can be part of a main meal as well as a substantial snack.
I served them with quinoa tabouli and some homemade tomato sauce for dinner.
The remainder have been packed up for the freezer.
organised castle 