Things I learnt while painting my bedroom

1. Painting in the middle of a Brisbane summer isn't smart

I've nearly passed out couple of times and had to force myself to take some time out. I have drunk about 3 litres of water, but that seems to have made me feel more unwell.

I've also revived an old trick I learnt while working in a fish and chip shop in my youth - wet a hand towel and roll it up like a sausage; Pop it in the freezer for an hour; Take it out and drape around your neck until it thaws. It's a good idea to have at least two on the go so you can swap them over when the one you are wearing feels more like some kind of sweaty fur stole.

2. I hate sanding

As simple as it sounds. I freaking hate sanding. My apartment has lots of heavy gloss trim that I have to wear down so the paint will stick to it. Plus there is a sliding door that separates my bedroom and the bathroom that I'm afraid to take out because I know if I do I will never get it back in again. So this had to be sanded while in situ... not fun.

3. Don't stop to Instagram half way through the second coat

Yes, you may feel inspired to take a photo of your new fresh white walls (see photo above). But when you come back you will have forgotten where you were up to, the paint will be drying on your brush and roller and you will realise you just posted a picture of essentially a blank white wall with paint drying.

4. Sometimes it is smarter to just turn the fan off

Heavily related to point 1. It may be 32 degrees and your t-shirt rapidly becoming more sweat than fabric but if you intend to stand on a ladder to reach the fiddly bit at the top of the wall, turn the bloody fan off. I know it's a tight race between heat stroke and a concussion, but all in all I'd say it's smarter to turn the fan off, at least just for the duration of the fiddly high painting*.

5. I REALLY hated the colour of my bedroom 

You know you've made the right decision to repaint when you find yourself doing a little dance of joy as you cover up the last of the old paint job. I still have a bit to go before the bedroom make-over is complete, but if I only get as far as painting over the nausea inducing cream that my apartment is covered in I will be one happy girl. 

And I think I've earned a glass of wine.

*I am pleased to say that I intuitively figured this out before I gave myself a concussion.

DIY Terrarium

My bathroom was in desperate need of some greenery so it was time to knock me up some terrarium.

The only thing I had to buy was the sphagnum moss so this whole project only cost me $10, and I'll be able to use the moss for other potting projects.

You will need...

1. A glass jar, vase, bowl or any other vessel to plant your plants in

2. Some rocks, pebbles or sand for drainage

3. Sphagnum moss

4. Potting mix

5. Some little plants - cacti, succulents, ferns and moss are perfect

6. Little things for decoration - pretty rocks, shells or ornaments are perfect

and... 7. If you are putting a lid on your terrarium you will need some charcoal to help filter the air

I had a glass jar that was given to me years ago. The paint's been progressively chipping off and the lid got broken somewhere along the way so it seemed like the perfect option for my terrarium.

I scraped off the remaining paint with a blade and cleaned it up ready to go.

Add a layer of rocks, pebbles or sand.

(If you are putting a lid on your terrarium add your layer of charcoal next)

Add a layer of sphagnum moss.

Add a layer of potting mix.

I took some cuttings from a few rangy succulents that are on my list of garden to-do's on the holidays and planted these in the potting mix.

Tip - use a pencil or stick to poke a hole in the potting mix first so you don't damage the bottom of your cutting when pressing it into the soil

I added my two little ornaments: a rabbit my Aunt brought me back from Greece and a tiger I bought in Japan - very international.

Water your plants in with a little amount of water and you are done. Easy!

 Perfect for my bathroom

Happy DIY'ing

Pizza Oven - the first firing!

The building of mum and dad's pizza oven has been a major project for myself and my dad this year. It's been a while since we've worked on a project together and it has been great to do something and have it turn out so splendidly.

For its inaugural fire up we cooked pizzas for Christmas Eve, which I have to say were AMAZING!

Dad lit the fire early in the morning as we par-cooked the meat for Christmas Day lunch and the oven got very hot very fast.

At one point we checked the thermometer and the gauge was at the very limit (500'c) so it was probably hotter than that. Once the flames burnt down and the coals started to cool the oven got to a more normal temperature. By the time we were ready to cook our pizzas it was at 170'c so just right to pop the pizzas in.

We made one Hawaiian, one Meat Lovers and one Veggo and they were all pretty damn good. Next time we will make our own pizza bases when we have a bit more time.

The pizza and garlic bread cooking away in the oven. You can see that all the coals have burnt down and there isn't any flame. If you have a flame you will burn the back of the pizzas and need it to be a steady heat - just like an indoor oven.

The very first pizza out of our oven!

Dad got the first slice. Thanks Dad for heaps of fun building the oven :)

Christmas on Instagram wrap-up

It's been five days since the big day, but I feel like I've only just stopped today. Only, now I feel like I should be getting stuck into the pile of projects I want to get done before I go back to work in two weeks. I did have plans on trekking off to Bunnings today but instead I've spent the day eating chocolates and watching Youtube videos. Oh well.

I took many photos on the lead up to Christmas Day, but was too busy drinking on the day to take more (oops). We had a lovely lunch, I made a lovely rum punch and we laughed ourselves stupid - everything a Christmas should be.

I feel sad that I only get to wear this shirt for a couple of weeks every year.

Despite every intention of sleeping in on Christmas eve it wasn't to be. I was a awake at 4.30 to watch the sun rise which turned out to be worth the early rise.

Christmas Eve starting with a cup of tea and a book.

2 batches of Ginger cookies, a batch of rum balls, a batch of chocolate biscuits, 2 batches of mince pies, 2 cherries pies and 2 bottles of bubbly made for a great day of baking with mum

Mum's chocolate biscuits - she's been making these as long as I can remember

My Cherry Pie (deeeelicious)

Grandma's knitted Mrs and Santa Claus

The Pizza Oven gets fired up for the first time

Lamb Souvlaki ready to go in the oven

Our very Australian Christmas tree 

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas filled with family and laughter :) x Debbie

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Christmas on Instagram

With only 3 more sleeps until Christmas my list of things to do appears to have gotten bigger. While I've got all the presents wrapped and the cards written, there's a long list of baking and cleaning to go before I can settle down with a glass of wine and know that everything is done.

I had planned on doing a couple of diy tutorials before Christmas but that is looking like an overly ambitious project that will result in me being stressed out. So instead I'm going to be documenting my Christmas preparations on Instagram.

Preparations for some last minute Christmas gifts

I made this Nightmare Before Christmas tree and Jack years ago. I keep saying I'm going to make the sleigh each year but have never got around to it... maybe next year

My favourite bauble taking pride of place on my kitchen dresser

Follow my Christmas on Instagram and share your Instagram details in the comments if you are posting your Christmas as well!

Crochet Coathangers - a new Xmas Tradition

For as long as I can remember my grandmother has been crocheting coathangers for Christmas. Every lady in the family gets one of her special coathangers and a crochet hand towel.

I've been collecting these in my cupboard and in my 29 years on this planet have just about replaced all my tatty old coathangers with Grandma's.

But this year my grandmother's health has gone downhill. She's suffered a series of strokes and while she is still with us, the strokes have brought on the symptoms of dementia. This has made it really hard for Grandma to keep up her knitting and crocheting and sadly last years coathangers will be the last ones.

My mother and I were feeling upset by this. It's strange the things that throw mortality up in your face. Not the wrinkles or the greying hair, but the loss of something that was so fundamental to our family Christmases. We decided that these traditions were too strong to let go of so we have been taking over the making of Grandma's Christmas crochet's.

My mother has been busily creating hand towels and I have taken on the duty of the crochet coathanger. This was no light burden. My aunts adore my grandmothers coathangers, and it is the first thing they look for in the Christmas goody bag they receive.

It was a difficult decision as to whether I should replicate Grandma's coathanger or if I should adapt it to be my own. This year I went with a new adapted version as I didn't want Grandma to think I was replacing her (her illness has made her particularly sensitive to these things). But I think it's going to be an ongoing development of ideas until I find the perfect coathanger to carry on the tradition.

So I've spent my nights (and mornings, and lunch breaks) busily crocheting away and have a handful ready for Christmas. And while I've been doing this on my own in my own apartment away from my Grandma I've spent the time reflecting back on the memories I have with her - this strong capable woman who most definitely has been the Matriarch of our family. Funny how a coathanger can have so much meaning stitched into it.

Links
Mollie Makes - Crochet Coathanger pattern
Crochet with Raymond

The Next Stage of Pizza Ovening

I was going to hold out posting this until it was fired up, but I couldn't wait.

Last weekend my dad and I finished the dome on the long awaited Pizza Oven. And while it is not yet finished (the dome will be covered by an outer wall, then we have to render and tile), it has now reached the stage where it can be used as a functional oven.

Needless to say we are all pretty excited - Mum actually bought some bubbly for the occasion.

The last steps of the dome...

As I said last time, the top of the dome is very fiddly as you have to cut all the bricks to fit and they need to hold their own weight against each other so they don't fall in when you take the inside structure down. It's a whole lot of physics that I don't really understand, but I was very glad that my dad works in engineering and has a better grip on these things.

All the bricks fit, now we can  get the mortar in

Just because you're working doesn't mean you can't have nice nails.

The last bit of mortar!

We let the dome dry overnight before removing the inside structure as we wanted to make sure it was well and truly dry and wasn't about to crack

The next day...

We got the inside structure out and the dome didn't fall down! I was pretty tense at this point so was thrilled that it worked. 

You may notice a hole above the arch though. There was one brick that wasn't quite set when we put the inside structure in and it fell out. I had every intention of patching it back up once the dome was finished. This was an INSANE decision - I did it, but with a lot of swearing and mortar in my hair. 

How stoked are we that it worked!

Inside the dome, doesn't that brickwork look professional...

Dad doing one more layer of mortar to neaten it up. We ran out not long after this, but he assures me that he has finished this rendering since then so the oven will look nice for Christmas.

It looks almost professional (I'm very proud) :D

Next update on the Pizza Oven will be the first firing!

Leave your suggestions on what to cook in it below...

Happy December | Snowflake Curtain DIY

Happy December everyone!

We are now officially on the count-down to Christmas. I can tell because Pinterest is full of Christmas cookies and elf on the shelf ideas, the shops are starting to go mental and the temperature in Brisbane has gone through the roof.

With only four weeks until Christmas I'm on a mad rush to get all my presents in order and because I love handmade and am a poor uni student there is a lot of crafting going on in my house at the moment. So I'm going to share some of my projects over the coming weeks. I'm also introducing a new section called 'Pinterest Road Test' where I take some of the most popular Pinterest DIYs and put them under my DIY scrutiny... should be fun!

So to kick things off I'm starting with one of the decorating idea I found on the pinning site...

Snowflake Curtain

This project was inspired by Bugs and Fishes. This pin is going crazy at the moment, and was too beautiful not to use, even though snowflakes are about the furthest thing away from Christmas in Brisbane.

I'm sure you remember making snowflakes as a kid. I never seemed to got the hang of it so they always fell apart. Luckily I have a bit more manual dexterity these days, so cutting out snowflakes wasn't as traumatic as I remember it.

I started by following some design patterns I found online (here), but after a about a dozen I just went for it with my own designs. 

This project is a little time consuming but it was something that could be done easily while watching TV so didn't feel like a major time commitment. I think I might make this a regular Christmas task and add more every year, as I can imagine that the more you have the better the effect.

Road Test Results

Ease - This is a super easy project that can be easily replicated. 

Ability - You don't need any special skills or ability, this is a child friendly Pin!
Cost - Dirt cheap. I didn't spend any money, just used some paper I had lying around the house

Links

Original Inspiration - Bugs & Fishes
Snowflake Patterns - Marcel's Kids Crafts

Pinterest Inspiration Pin - Easy peasy snowflake curtain