Roadside Retro Revamp

The first piece of mid century furniture that I collected was a hall table spotted on the roadside. It had been thrown out by a neighbour and was headed to landfill.  

Mid century furniture can fetch a fair price on eBay and in vintage stores, but many people see it as junk (in particular my mum). Not me though!

The table had good bones masked with 70's style. A black glass top, teak veneer shelves and drawer and atomic wooden legs. The most dated feature would have to be the faux gold handle and feet.  

I have held onto the table for two years waiting for the right time to resurrect it, now the time has finally come!

A good sand back and re-varnishing brought the timber back to life and removed the 70's orange. Strangely the timber smelt musty as I sanded it back. Four decades of dust perhaps?

Three coats of stain and varnish modernised the colour and added a glossy sheen to timber surfaces. The drawer front was a little too damaged so I covered it up with some white aquanamel paint left over from my last project.  The gold feet and drawer handle were updated with some black enamel paint. 

The outcome - the little table headed for landfill is now a funky piece of furniture in our hallway.

Diggers Order Arrives

The diggers club seed order has arrived! I am very excited at the prospect of our expanding vegie patch.  We are relatively new to the growing veggies game so decided to start with seeds that can be sown directly into the ground.  Raising seedlings myself will be something to tackle in Spring.

On Saturday a trip to the hardware for compost also meant that we came out with a soil pH testing kit, some Rhubarb seedlings, a native violet and some heirloom romanesco broccoli.  Store bought compost was unfortunately a necessity as our compost is currently in need of some serious attention.  It represents more of a fruit fly breeding ground that compost, but I am sure that it can be saved.

Sunny weather again on Sunday drew us outside and up to the veggie patch.  In winter, it is pretty much the only place that gets sun for more than two hours as our land faces south on a steep slope. It is a hefty walk to get to the sunny paradise at the top of our block especially when trying to carry a 14 kg toddler, baby bag and camera.  Yes, I have to pack a bag to go up there.  It just isn't worth the effort to have to come down for a drink or food!

We planted our Rhubarb, broccoli and native violet and then set about to plant the seeds.  Unfortunately the Monkey was extremely overtired and spent the majority of the morning whinging or crying over just about anything.  It is a delicate time in the garden to have a toddler stomping on everything so there was a lot of  'watch where you're treading' coming her way.  After finally giving up on trying to ride in her trolley, the watering can provided much needed entertainment. Finally, to get the seeds in the ground! In went some carrots, shallots, sugar snap peas and snow peas.  I think if the Monkey had her way, the whole garden would have been full of snow peas.

All in all, something was certainly achieved:

• four hours outside in the sunshine!