De-beige-ing chairs

The cake worked well, and Maisy's party was lovely. I'll share some photos tomorrow.
We bought a few more Piper Tru-line blackwood chairs a while back. The style matched our two red chairs (the ones I saved from the tip). But they were covered in horrid beige vinyl.
So today was the day, it was grey and cool so we stayed inside and tackled the chairs. The other chairs had come apart easily once you unscrewed the screws. But the cushions on these ones didn't budge. We worked out that the vinyl had adhered to the timber frame, perhaps if they'd been in the sun. So we took to them with a razor blade and a knife. Cutting then free! We recovered them with the same red as the other chairs. We did two, but will need to buy some more fabric to finish off a 3rd chair. We're pretty happy with them!
Hope you had a lovely weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with the Hoot cake.

Our weekend was:

in two parts; it was a public holiday here in Tasmania (Show Day) on Thursday, but we had to go back to work on Friday. Oh well.

Thursday was an absolute cracker weather wise so we spent the day making the most of it by:
Walking Nigella at the dog beach,
Weeding in the garden,
Eating leftover asparagus, pea, leek, mint and goat cheese frittata on the swing chair,
Hanging out at the block, planting new trees (chinese quinces, a flowering chestnut and some Eucalyptus morrisbyi) and staking out older trees to protect them from wind damage.
The day came to end with a wonderful dinner (cooked by Rob) of roasted spatchcocked chickens (with garlic, red onions, lemon zest, rosemary and thyme), roast potatoes and salad, and I had made a yoghurt blancmange earlier in the day for dessert.

The weekend proper involved shopping at Salamanca (where I found the great ceramic jug above- I couldn't resist it!), toast and raspberry jam, walking around the perimeter of the block checking for wallaby damage to our trees and hiding under a big tree when we got caught in a rain shower. Watching old episodes of Nigella Bites (Rob hit Nigella overload and couldn't bear her anymore!), using up the left over chicken in a risotto, with leeks, broad beans and fennel from our garden. Inspired by Nigella I cooked her chocolate raspberry pudding cake, which was ok, but we won't do again, as Rob said, there are plenty of other cakes to try.
Yesterday involved weeding my lily pots and killing the hundreds of snails that were hiding in amongst them, and getting a little burnt in the process as this took far longer than I thought! A third trip to the block for digging (Rob) and dog grooming (Nigella & I). We headed home and I was spoilt by Rob who cooked dinner: steamed pink eyes, asparagus, peas & mint with bearnaise sauce and rib eye steak. Who needs to go out?

Hope your weekend was just as enjoyable.

Thrifting Goddess

I must have been in the zone on the weekend. Inspired by PMM and Michelle I have been in thrifting training over the last six months. We have two favourite shops to browse in, one of which is on the way to the block at the Margate Train. So every weekend we drop in and look around, trying to envisage items for furnishing our hut one day. New furniture is so soulless don’t you think? Rob also felt that as the hut will be brand spanking new (we still live in hope that it will get built soon!) it would be nice to have some pre-loved furniture to provide some character. We have been undecided on what style of dining chair we’d like. Do we go country? But the price of “trendy” bentwood chairs had put us off. A couple of months ago we visited the train shop, and I spotted four chairs. They’re not country, I guess they’re retro, a little daggy but beautifully crafted. The best bit was that they were Tasmanian made, by a (now extinct) company called Pipers Tru-line. Made of Tasmanian Blackwood. They had a nice padded seat, and a curved wooden back, we’re guessing 1970’s? Because of their supposed dagginess they were reasonably priced. We snaffled them. My first real dining chairs- the novelty of this was exciting, each time I walked past them I experienced a little thrill.

I then had my Pipers eye in so to speak. Barely a month later, I spied another Pipers Blackwood dining chair at the Train shop. This chair was a little wider, with a padded back, and arms; a Carver chair. It was extremely comfortable. I dragged Rob over to try it out, so we bought it and its twin (which was hiding out the back), these were even more of a bargain.

Then this last weekend, we drove by the Train shop on Saturday. But Rob was keen on Sunday, and was duly rewarded. This time I spied two IKEA armchairs. We tried these out a couple of years ago in the Richmond store, and I thought I was going home alone- Rob wasn’t leaving it! But the freight costs are a little prohibitive. Although not quite the ones we wanted they are still enormously comfortable and the price wasn’t too bad. I stood guard over the chairs (there were others customers circling like sharks) and despite a scary moment when the other shop owner wanted to check that the price tag was correct (he went away grumbling how lucky we were cause he meant the price to be for each chair not the pair) we scurried away with our new chairs. I have abandoned the couch in favour of mine. At the risk of you realising just how domestic our life is, neither of us could imagine being happier than sitting in our chairs with little rugs over our knees, drinking a glass of wine and watching TV. We even thought it a little pathetic! Nigella sulked at us until I relinquished my chair for her turn.

Now I didn’t think my weekend could get any better. But I was wrong. On Monday we headed to the block. Driving past the Train shop we instead visited the tip-shop for stakes for our new trees. I jumped out and from the car park spied the perfect lines (well I thinks so) of a Pipers Tru-line chair. Barely able to contain myself I rushed over and sure enough somebody had abandoned two dining chairs that match our Carvers chairs. They had obviously been unloved for a long time, worse, judging from the state of the wood they had been left outside! Like the big brown eyes of a puppy in a pet shop window the chairs pleaded with me, I couldn’t leave them there. The shop attendant said we could have them for $5 each! My god I nearly kissed her. Triumphant we took them home to provide some TLC, a little sanding, some new foam and fabric and we have two more perfect Blackwood chairs. Rob is a little worried though- will our hut turn into the home for lost Tru-line chairs? I’ll post some photos soon!