Covered in dust, stain and paint

Hello! Three weeks have gone without a word from me. We have literally been covered in dust, stain and paint. There have been days when I left our new house and was very careful NOT to touch my hair. I was having a full Marie-Antoinette do with powdered wig (minus the wig, of course). Now my nails are rimmed with floor stain, very attractive look, I say!

When I look at the pictures they totally belittle the amount of work we have done. I think though that we have managed to do a lot in three weeks in addition to a bit of holidaying. Our main achievement has been the floors. The carpets were ripped up and all the century old dirt removed from between the floor boards. That was an amazing amount of gunk; tools we used were the hoover and an old butter knife and then the same knife wrapped in a wet rag. Imagine doing this all over the house!

We continued by caulking the boards with wooden wedges downstairs. It was not difficult, but very time consuming. We had to fit, glue and chisel the wedges. The amount of nails and carpet tags was incredible. I believe that most of them are now removed.

As we decided to stain the downstairs floors, we needed to sand them pretty carefully. A hire machine was needed and used for two days. The upstairs rooms had sanding as well, but not to the same degree, because we decided to paint the floors there as well as the stairs. 

Not done yet, as you see. The downstairs needs two more coats of hard wax oil. We will use the clear, shinier one for the top coats. As our walls will be matt, we felt that the floor would benefit from a bit of lustre.

This is how the Elf Son's room looks sanded. I didn't get more pictures of the sanded floors, just forgot. I didn't want to bring my camera during the sanding as the fine dust might have ended inside the camera.

Our bedroom floor needs one more coat of paint and you can see how I have tried two different shades of white on the walls.

In a previous post I  talked about the smell of one's home. Another  observation that bot Husband and I made was that we felt immediately more at home when we could walk the floors without shoes on. Grounding at home is important for us. We never walk inside our house with shoes on, so doing so felt very alien.  Needs must though, before all the staples and nails were pulled out, it was too dangerous without.

We had also a plumber to remove the ugly gas heater from the living room, change the kitchen radiator and fit a gas connector for our cooker.

I am so excited to start to see some results and will show when there is a bit more to see! Have you done any renovations recently? Leave a link, would love to see.

Homemade Ice Cream without a Machine

This is a recipe I got from my Swedish Aunt M. I think she had seen it on the telly. It is really easy and you don't need t agitate the ice cream while it is freezing. The result is even better, if you bother doing some mixing once, just when it has solidified. (I have bothered, ehm...once). I have adjusted the recipe a bit, the original had 3dl cream to 1dl condensed milk, too sweet in my opinion.

The basic recipe is:

100gr condensed milk (1/4 of the tin)
3dl whipping cream
vanilla

Add the vanilla seeds to the cream and beat the cream really stiff, without turning it to butter. Fold the condensed milk in and freeze. DONE!

I have experimented with different flavours. I tried to make a fresh strawberry ice cream, but the water contents were too high and I ended up with ice particles in the ice cream.  I think it would have been better to use my jam in it.

I made a very good mint-chocolate chip one by dropping the vanilla, but adding a few drops of peppermint oil and a good amount of chopped milk chocolate. I am now in Elf Son's good books!

I also made absolutely gorgeous PISTACHIO ice cream. I was not aiming at the taste you get in most places, which is almond/marzipan taste. I wanted pistachio like we get in our local ice cream parlour Spurreli's. I dropped the vanilla, but chopped a good lot of nuts and put them in. I saw that some of the nuts were chopped to very fine powder to make an even distribution of the taste. I used roasted, but unsalted nuts. Oooh, so good!

Third flavour this time was vanilla-chocolate chip ice cream made by simply adding some chopped dark chocolate in the basic recipe. Very good as well.

I can recommend this recipe, especially if you find the commercial ice cream too sweet and cannot be bothered with whipping your homemade ice cream every hour and/or don't own a machine. The only sweetness comes from the condensed milk and the bits you might add.

HINT: As the condensed milk tin has nearly 400gr of milk, I tend to buy 1.2l of whipping cream and make a lot. Last time I made three different ones, about 3-3,5l of ice cream.

Progress Report

I have been absent this week. I don't know what I thought to report to you, as there aren't and won't be any before and after pictures for a good while. On the other hand I am all for seeing other people's work in progress, so I thought I might bore you with that.

I have been covered with wallpaper paste to my elbows. Although there was thankfully only one layer and the lining, it was painted, so had practically a plastic coating. I had forgot how much the old paste smells like cigarettes. It is not a strong smell, but there is definitely a resemblance. First I thought that someone had walked past the window smoking, but as the smell persisted, I figured out what it was.

The pictures show you how far we have come with ripping. We have started in the upstairs as well. We don't need to remove wallpaper there, just to do some painting and the floors. The floors will be the big job both down-and upstairs.

What you cannot see is all the work we have done pulling the carpet tacking strips off the floors. Elf Husband have been doing this, but there are billions of staples and nails left behind from earlier carpets as well. I have been on my fours on this floor today and pulling out these nasty things

They are SO tricky to see. The new shiny ones are easy to spot, but these rusty ones hiding in that Victorian floor staining and old wax are a challenge. In the end I was running my hands over the boards trying to detect them by feeling. I had a few punctures in my hands as a result and left some interesting patterns made with my blood on the boards.

I hope to show you more exciting things next time, but the progress is slow, as predicted and take s a lot of my time, so there is very little sewing and such. I hope you have a relaxing and maybe productive weekend!

Linen Shirt

 

Last summer I was shown a beautiful linen fabric by my sister. I did resist the temptation to buy, until I was given a sewing magazine with a perfect shirt/tunic pattern. I had to go back to the shop for the fabric. I managed to sew the shirt in July this year.

I changed the pattern only by replacing lace, which was on the front and around the middle by making strips of pintuck pleats. The idea was to cut the fabric off under the lace. I don't think that would have looked that good: My tummy is normally not tanned and also it is not slim like the model's.

These pictures are grazy, I don't like taking piccies of myself, but bear with me!

The shirt has been used a lot and I try to limit my usage a little bit, so it is not worn out this summer.

Garden News

I promised to show my grapes as they are now. They have started to change their colour.

The view from the "front" door of my polytunnel:

It has now reached the stage where everything has exploded and I have given up trying to keep the plants in check. I merely try to spot the harvest amongst all the greenery. I photographed some cukes from my jungle for you to see:

 

The tomatoes have gone wild as well, but are not ripening as yet. I think I better cut their tops soon, so we can start to enjoy  the harvest.

Usually I open both doors for the day, but I might have to start to use my screen doors.  All sorts of critters seem to think that it is free for all situation. I have been finding a black bird in the tunnel rather more often than I am comfortable with.  I removed 5 big snails from there too. Luckily they were  mainly in the passion vine, which can tolerate to be munched. I also noticed that some of my grapes looked as if they had exploded. It didn't take long for me to figure out that as I am not watering the vine, the culprits are the sweet thirsty wasps. I even found one red handed or should I say with red nose/mouth!

The weekend promises nice weather (again!) and I hope to be in the garden some of the time, although I expect that I will be ripping some wallpaper down as well. 

Have a nice weekend and I'll be back next week telling you about my exploits in our nest!

Constructive Destruction

Yesterday I took Elf Son with me and we went to our new house with some cleaning materials. The Son was happy to camp in his room with few books and such.

My priorities might need checking. There I was in my new home, all poised for a spot of cleaning and home making. Like by magic my legs carried me into the mini yard to see that all the weeds were pulled out as the first job:

Afterwards we went to buy a feather duster for the house, just round the corner. The Son chose a red one. On the way back he was asking if we could go via the Town Square. It is not far from the house, so I said yes, sure, but why? There was some muttering about exercise (?) and as soon as we got there he headed for the public toilets. I was trying to persuade him to wait as our house is literally a minute's walk from where we stood. "Oh no, I want to go here", said he. Afterwards I remembered him telling me that the bathroom and toilet needed "serious scrubbing". When I told the story to the Husband, he was about to choke in his tea for the mirth. "Someone has a Mum, who likes cleaning", was uttered under his breath. Enjoying cleaning? Moi? No way, I just don't like dirty house. The toilet and the bathroom got cleaned, so the Son does not need to run to the public toilets every time the nature calls.

So...let an Elf loose in a house needing doing. The living room looks a bit dreary, but not too bad:

After I had been at it it looked like this (slightly different angle):

Notice that the horrible gas fire has lost the cover. This is Elf Husband's doing. He came after work and checked that indeed we need a gas engineer doing the removal of this "beauty".

The carpet has a taker, hence I have tried to safeguard it a bit. As I folded it to see how the floorboards (YES, floorboards!) looked like I found this:

Original floor tinting from Victorian times. They had a carpet and dyed the floor where the carpet did not reach. Obviously the floor has been covered since those times. People have done decorating without cover as there are paint stains along the walls.

As Elf Husband was on the move he decided to rip some more carpets up. (No "before" pictures but same type and colour carpet all over the house).

The stairs have had a runner, as one might expect.
 

And there he is, swiftly moving the carpet in refuse sacks. The floor is really dusty, but not in bad condition. I was already dreaming last night about oiling the boards and I had not even started with the job yet. How bad is that?

I noticed immediately yesterday that something was wrong. Nothing drastic, but something kept niggling in the back of my mind. It took some time for me to realise that the house did not smell like our home. It is nothing I notice much coming home, but when it is missing I do. Sense of smell is very closely connected to emotions, so I did some remedial work today by burning incense and letting this chap watch over my work.

I don't burn incense regularly at home, but it has often been the first thing to do in a new abode. Maybe it serves as a purification? The house itself has a nice feeling,  so nothing wrong there.  Have you been constructively destructive lately?

A dream come true

Can you remember this picture from my March Journal?

I was listing pros and cons of house buying...

Here is a bit of it...

 

and here is another bit...

 

Ta Daaaah !!!

As you see  I get to choose a colour for the door as it is the wooden original, yihaa! At the moment it is uninspiring beige. You will be swamped with the pictures of the renovation for the next umpteen years. It is going to go slowly, partly because of the funds being tight, but also because we like to get a feel of the house first before we make big decisions. 

Also we are not going to let it due to the rules of mortgages, so it's going to be our family home.

We call the house our nest. 

PS. I am working on getting a crow to land on our chimney as soon as I can get one of those funny spheres on it!

Seaside Memories Workshop

In the beginning of June I attended a workshop with the title above. It was given by Mandy Pattullo, a gifted and generous textile artist. We made textile collages with seaside themes and the above was my main collage. It takes quite a while to get it right and then stitch it together. As usual Mandy had a pile of lovely fabrics with her, as well as shells and other things. I had taken stuff with me; the feathers, drift wood and the sea glass in the picture later. After I came home I attached my pictures on pieces of linen. They were not attached on a piece of matting in the moment of photographing as they should be and  the linen background could do with ironing again.

I think the picture tells better than words about the techniques, but if there are any details you want to know, just ask. If you are wondering about the driftwood and the big shell, they were glued with a hot glue gun. (Horror of horrors, cheating!)

Mandy was encouraging people using mostly glue gun in their smaller pieces, maybe just using a lot of shells and a few stitches. I had to stitch the second one as well, that's just me. Obviously the glass and wood are glued.

Organised

I cannot say that I am that organised at the moment, although I am an organised person by nature. I made some more of the jars I showed here to use in the kitchen. I am not sure how often I actually need the painted label on the jars, but decided to add them anyway. These jars have dried rose and Calendula petals for later use in my homemade soaps.

The great achievement was this: I finally got around to paint all the jar lids of my spice jars. They are ordinary glass jars from mustard, mint jelly etc. I always keep these little ones as they come handy often. Previously I had put a little white sticker on the lid with the name of the spice and cellotape over it to make it waterproof(ish). It was entirely functional, but not nice to look at and at times difficult to spot the spice I needed.

I am so pleased with the result, especially as I am nearing the age when reading glasses might become a must. The bigger and bolder the writing the longer I can pretend that I don't need them as yet.

A good while ago I found an old ugly folder and covered it in IKEA waterproof fabric. (I am a messy lady in the kitchen). I used PVA glue to attach all the fabrics, easy-peasy!

Inside I clothed this home organiser in polka-dots and pockets. I keep my home accounts, recipes for food and homemade cleaning stuff in it as well as the receipts of the current month. I also pop into the pockets all sorts of coupons, which I am unsure whether I need or not and weed them out regularly.
 

  In the picture you see a chart. It tells me how much children should sleep at different ages. That's just an example what ends up here. I also have extra labels for preserves, stickers(??) and shopping lists. Basically random stuff which is used , but does not merit a folder for itself. I don't really want a home-planner with cleaning routines, Christmas count-downs, party planning and so on like some uber organised ladies. This is enough for me and it can be changed as needs must. I do like that the folder looks and feels good in my hand as I use it almost daily.

Presents for sisters

I have taken a far longer break than intended. Actually I didn't intend to take a break at all. It just happened in the busyness of life. I better show something to make up for it. The picture above was taken in the latter part of May, before I pruned many hundreds of grape bunches and flowers from my grapevine. I will show you soon how the grapes are doing now.

My little sisters both have birthdays in summer. One of them had a round one, so she got gifted a "big" present, a quilt for her sofa. It is really weird how these things pan out: She had told me already before Christmas that she wished to have one, so I have been planning it since that. I have done it several times over in my head, drawn it carefully and calculated the needed fabrics, started on it and discarded a big centre panel and still finished it in the last moment. In the end I actually changed the design totally!

I made it in colours I know she likes and last year I gifted her a couple of cushion covers, which would go with the quilt. I decided to quilt with an irregular wavy line as I like it a lot. The back was solid red and I embroidered a dedication patch with our signatures on it. Although I admire the old fashioned embroiderers' skill doing very neat stitches, I find it far more charming where an actual handwriting or a child's drawing has been embroidered.

I styled my little sofa in our living room with the quilt and a couple of my own cushions to see what it would look like covering a sofa like ours.

The other sister had sent me some fabric and asked if I could please make her another skirt. I made her one last year using one of her old skirts to draw a pattern with. We made some adjustments to the pattern and now I have it in my pattern folder, so I can dig it out when she needs one. We were talking on Skype just before I started sewing and she mentioned that she actually quite fancied one in very light grey colour as well. As it happened I had suitable fabric in my stash and offered her to make the skirts as her birthday present. Handmade and useful! She was delighted with them. I must mention here that she is my "pocket sister", very minute in all directions and finds it extremely difficult to get fitting clothes. In addition she is rather clever having a small, but well working wardrobe, where the components need to be in colours working together in all sorts of combinations. So finding them in shops is a mission and a half!

It's funny how the skirts look big in the picture. But go and have a look at a hanger and see how small the waist actually is. These are tightly fitted skirts in the top with a mermaid or bell bottom. They are made of five panels and have a lining. The fabric is jersey, so small mistakes in measuring or cutting are not that detrimental.

I was laughing at myself, because sewing the grey one I made countless silly mistakes. The skirt is very simple to sew and yet...I managed even to sew one panel upside down! Luckily I noticed before putting the lining in. I wondered how the top half had such a funny shape...

That was a wordy posting.  Have you had any time to sew? Any delicious mistakes? Let me know, it always comforts me that even very accomplished seamstresses make mistakes. Hoping to be back very soon to show more of what I have been doing.