New Zealand

LATEST PALLET COFFEE TABLES FROM NEW ZEALAND

I wanted to show you my latest pallet coffee tables I have made here in New Zealand…

Are any of you like me, love pallets and have them stacked around the place waiting for the next project?

Wood pile

Wood pallet stack

Wood pallet stack

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The pallets have been there so long the nasturtiums are growing through them.

Rodeo has to get in the shots as well!

Rodeo has to get in the shots as well!

The tables were two completely different designs, mainly due to the size and designs of the pallets and what inspired me at the time.

Farmhouse Style Pallet Coffee Table

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Pallet Coffee Table

Unfortunately,  I only took this photo of the finished unpainted coffee table. What was I thinking?

I painted the sides and legs Annie Sloan Chalk paint Old Ochre. I love this colour! It is a very neutral and goes well in any room.

Farmhouse Style Pallet Coffee Table

Finally, I used Annie Sloan Clear Wax and Dark Wax on the table. First I rubbed on clear wax, then dark wax. It is always a good idea to put clear wax on first, because if you put on too much dark wax on it comes off easier. Dark wax is really hard to get off if you put it on first, it is like a stain! I put on alot of wax, rubbed it in well and buffed it with a soft cloth. I tend to rip up old flannelette sheets, as they are lovely and soft.

Pallet Coffee Table

Pallet Coffee Table leg was cut off two headboards

Pallet Coffee Table

I love how well the table top came up so well with the wax!

Pallet Coffee Table with shelf

Pallet Coffee Table

The next table was totally different with a shelf. You can see the pallet was smaller than the first and a different design.

Once I nailed all the boards on the table I covered the nails with wood filler before painting it.

Stripped Pallet Coffee Table

Pallet Coffee Table with shelf

Stripped Pallet Coffee Table with shelf

This pallet coffee table I painted with Resene Paints (acrylic paint), white grey and black. Then sanded down to give a rougher look and showing some of the natural wood underneath.

I managed to get the pile down by making these two pallet coffee tables and quickly sold them. That is another thing having the space to store the projects made!

Check out my previous post; Pallet coffee table easy to make post here 

Thanks so much for reading my post!

  Andi

Rhubarb Custard Pie – Thanksgiving in New Zealand

We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving in New Zealand with Rhubarb Custard Pie…

We moved to Havelock North, New Zealand just over 4 years ago, but we still love celebrating Thanksgiving as a family here. In America we always travelling down to spend Thanksgiving with family in St Augustine, Florida. It was a great time of gathering together and of course an abundance of food. I  associate Thanksgiving with pies, pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato, never rhubarb custard pie. What’s pies do you always have for Thanksgiving?

When I got to thinking about our Thanksgiving here in Havelock North in a few weeks, I started looking at my pie recipes and came across my Grandma’s Rhubarb Custard Pie.

My Grandma's old recipe book

My Grandma’s old recipe book

I have some rhubarb growing in the garden so I thought I would try the recipe out.

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Rhubarb Custard Pie Recipe

Choose your favourite pastry for the crust. I use Chelsea Winter (New Zealand Chef) sweet shortcrust pastry recipe available here.

Grease an 8 in/20 cm pie dish and line with your pastry, flaky or short.

Filling:

2 level cups of finely sliced rhubarb (do not peel)

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. melted butter

2 level tsp. flour

1 scant cup of sugar

Chopped rhubarb

Chopped rhubarb

Beat the eggs, add melted butter. Mix flour and sugar well, add to the eggs, beat until light and fluffy. Then stir in the rhubarb.

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Pour the mixture into the pastry-lined dish.

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Bake in a hot oven 425degrees F, 220degrees C for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350degrees F, 180degrees C for 40 minutes or until firm to touch.

The recipe says to eat it hot with whipped cream, we loved this, but it was just as nice the next day cold. The rhubarb is quite tart in the pie, but it balances out well with the custard.

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Earthquakes in New Zealand

We had some severe earthquakes in New Zealand last night, only felt one but it was scary enough.

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Rodeo, our fox terrier is usually crazy in the morning, but after a night of earthquakes in New Zealand he is tired and anxious

Thanks for reading my post. Hope you get a chance to try my Grandma’s pie!

  Andi

 

 

 

 

 

TIME’S A TICKING TO CHRISTMAS – SHOPPING AT KMART…

Time’s a ticking to Christmas – shopping at Kmart.

It was such a windy day here in Havelock North yesterday it looked like snow was falling. But really it was beautiful flower petals.

It looks like snow, but it is petals

I did a quick trip to our local Kmart in Hastings, only 10 minutes away and was excited to see such an amazing remodelling of their store.

The store was buzzing and usually I don’t want to think about Christmas this early, but I found 3 things I had to buy. And of course when I got home I had to try them out as you do.

The first thing was 3 Metal planters for only $17. One of these I was definitely using for my Rosemary topiary I am growing. See my post – growing rosemary topiaries in time for Christmas…

3 Metal Planters

3 Metal Planters

Rosemary topiary in metal planter

My rosemary topiary I am growing in the metal planter

Next I purchased this adorable Ombre Rocking Reindeer for $7. I love this and it fits in perfectly with the colour scheme in my living room.

Rocky Reindeer

Rocky Reindeer

The last thing I got was a cute Reindeer bath mat for $12. I can see a Reindeer and duck egg blue theme in my home this Christmas.

Reindeer bath mat

Reindeer bath mat

Ok, so I didn’t buy much, but I was selective and I have got to say I was so impressed with wonderful array of items and very reasonable prices at Kmart.

Vintage silver trophy

One of the things I love using is the lovely silver trophy we got when I was a child. Our Siamese cat won this cup! I filled it with my lovely white bramble roses.

White bramble roses in vintage silver trophy cup

White bramble roses in vintage silver trophy cup

Old Mason jars

Another thing I love to use is old Mason Jars of my mums, here I painted the old ring with some Duck Egg Blue to add my theme colour.

Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint

Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint

Then I filled it with bay leaves from my garden and Bay blueberries grown locally in Hawke’s Bay. Filled it with water and a little tea-lite candle.

It makes the decorations special to use things from the house and garden. It also saves on the budget at Christmas!

Thanks for reading my post. More Christmas posts to come…

Andi

Reclaimed french oak wine barrel furniture and homeware New Zealand…

Reclaimed wine barrel furniture and homeware in Havelock North, New Zealand….

For a month my son, Thaddeus and his friend has been busy working on reclaimed french oak wine barrel furniture and homeware products. This was a part of their business course at the High School to create a business, make and sell a product.

Fortunately, his friend’s dad had a massive wood workshop. My son was in seventh heaven, spending hours in there.

They brought beautiful old French oak wine barrels and created amazing crafted tables, platters, candle holders, fruit bowls, and lazy susans.

In the workshop

In the workshop

Trade Fair

Last week the boys had a Trade Fair at school to display and sell what they had made. It was amazing to see the end product of all their hard work. Beautifully crafted, we were so impressed at the standard of their work.

Beautifully red wine stained fruit bowl and candle holders

Wine barrel platters

Wine barrel platters

I loved how some of the wood had writing on them and also the red wine stain still remaining.

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Metal from the wine barrel placed around the side of table

The beautiful reclaimed wood products were stained carefully with natural oils as preservative. The items to be used for food were stained with pure olive oil the others in linseed oil.

Single candle holders

Single candle holders

The boys are now hoping to continue their business, selling their products through markets and online.

Candle holder

Candle holder

Thanks for reading my post!

   Andi

 

 

 

 

NATIVE TUI IN THE GARDEN THIS SPRING SUNDAY – HAVELOCK NORTH, NEW ZEALAND…

We have a so many native Tui in the garden this spring Sunday in Havelock North, New Zealand.

They love the nectar on our flax at this time of the year. Tui are very noisy birds, with loud flapping wings, but we hear them singing really lovely melodies in the trees around our place all day and unto the night on days like this.

Tui in Hawke's Bay

Tui in Havelock North

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Tui feeding on nectar

Native bird feeding on nectar

Flowers in the garden

I love spring Sundays in Havelock North they are so beautiful. Our garden is an old established garden with a combination of native trees and bushes. But it also has many old rose bushes and plants that just flower beautifully in spring. Really enjoy our rather overgrown garden.

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Thanks for reading my post. Have a blessed Sunday!

Andi

Simple steps to repaint wrought iron furniture…

Spring is here and it is time to repaint the deck furniture. I was excited to purchase this old table and chairs set for only $25 on Trademe earlier this year. Now that the weather is sunny outside it was time to work on getting rid of the rust and repaint it. These simple steps to repaint the wrought iron furniture is something that can be done in a couple of hours.

Repaint wrought iron furniture

My son Elisha and Rodeo enjoying the sunshine

My son Elisha and Rodeo enjoying the sunshine

First it is necessary to wash it all down with water and dish detergent to get rid of dust and dirt.  Then I used steel wool and a wire brush scraping and rubbing off the rust. This is quite a messy job, but it does come off easily. Next I washed it clean again. Time to paint!

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I just brought green gloss enamel spray paint from Mitre 10, (under $20 a can), but I did need 4 cans. It was already painted green, so to make it easier, I kept to the same colour. I made sure it contained zinc for rust protection. This paint dries quickly within 15-20 minutes, but needs 24 hours to cure. It is important to always follow the instructions on the can to get the best results and safety.

Spray Paint

Spray Paint

Our wrought iron table and chairs looks great now – ready for sunny spring days!

New World Little Garden Seedling Kit Collectables

I just want to tell you about the New World Supermarket Little Garden promotion recently – we so loved them. They were little seedling kits given out with every $40 spent in their stores. They were just so cute and such a great idea!

New World Little Garden

New World Little Garden

My daughter Serah just loved collecting these vegetables and herbs. They were exciting to open, plant the seeds, then watch them germinate and grow.

Seedling Kits

Seedling Kits

The kits contained a little pot made of wood pulp and peat, bio-degradable, made in Denmark. The seeds came from a Dutch company and the soil tablets are made of coconut husks from Sri Lanka, but produced in the Netherlands. All organic!

Seedling Kit

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It was wonderful to see Serah so excited about growing vegetables.

Little Garden plants in the vegetable garden

Little Garden plants in the vegetable garden

Thanks for reading my post!

  Andi

 

 

3 simple tips to make perfect chocolate chip cookies

The ultimate chocolate chip cookies

The ultimate chocolate chip cookies

3 simple tips to make perfect chocolate chip cookies….

My son told me tonight he had three shared lunches at school next week.  I thought about all I could bake, but I decided to make a large batch of chocolate chip cookies. 

Cookies are very easy to bake and everyone has their favourite recipe. Our family’s favourite recipe comes from:  Betty Crocker – Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Ingredients

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I never add nuts just due to so many people having allergies)

12 ounces/340 grams (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Start by pre-heating  the oven to 375 Degree F./190 Degree C.
  2. Mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
  3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches/ 5 cm apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
  4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centres will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

My simple tips to make your perfect cookies are:

Refrigerate your cookie dough for a short time before scooping (if you have the time)

Use a cookie scoop to make the cookies perfectly round

Only bake for 8 to 10 minutes this keeps the cookies from going flat

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Using a cookie scoop makes perfectly round cookies

Beautifully scooped cookie dough

Beautifully scooped cookie dough

I use a potato masher to flatten my dough

I use a potato masher to flatten my dough, its a lot quicker

Perfectly round cookies

Finally perfectly round cookies

Cookies on a vintage embroidery tray cloth

The cookies on a vintage embroidery tray cloth

Vintage Embroidery Tray Cloth

I love vintage things in my home. This beautiful vintage tray cloth was made by my grandmother’s friend in 1937.

Vintage Embroidery Tray Cloth

Vintage Embroidery Tray Cloth

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Vintage cloth made in 1937

Vintage cloth made in 1937

Thanks for reading my post!

  Andi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GROWING A ROSEMARY TOPIARY IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS…..

Growing a Rosemary topiary in time for Christmas in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand …

October is not too late start growing a rosemary topiary in time for Christmas! But if you read this post and it is after Christmas start a topiary anyway, because you will love it.

Rosemary

I love rosemary, I use it a lot in cooking, so I like to keep it inside in a jug of water. Something about the smell of it is really wonderful and fills the whole room.

Rosemary in a ironstone jug

Rosemary in an ironstone jug

 

In my garden I have lots of rosemary bushes growing, one of them is incredibly old with really gnarly roots.

Gnarly roots on rosemary

Gnarly roots on rosemary

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Since I have never grown a topiary before, I decided I would start one with the idea it should be looking good enough to bring into the house to decorate in time for Christmas. They look great with even a simple bow around as a decoration. Or they can make a great gift!

So I decided to try growing and pruning a couple of rosemary. One had been growing in a pot for some time and I just had to cut it back to the main vertical shoot. Then trimming off all the shoots and cutting the top off.

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The second one I brought from a nursery and transplanted it to a terracotta pot.

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Then I proceeded to trim the shoots of the main shoot and cut back the top.

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Keep them watered, but not sitting in water. Turn them around to make sure they get plenty of sunlight.

White lavender

Today I  found in a friends garden white lavender with flecks of purple. I managed to get a cutting, so that went in a terracotta pot as well. I trimmed off the flowers and the stem and now we will see if it grows. I will let you know how I get on!

White Lavender

White Lavender

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White Lavender

White Lavender

Growing a rosemary topary

Growing toparies

Growing toparies

Thanks for reading about Rosemary. Please come back and find out how my toparies are getting on!

Andi

 

 

 

 

Little sad old cabinet – needed chalk paint makeover

Little Sad Old Cabinet – Needed Chalk Paint Makeover

I loved this little old cabinet as soon as I saw it at a Thrift Store, but it needed a chalk paint makeover. The great thing about it was it was only $20.00, but unfortunately the top half of the back was broken and there was borer in the back. It was probably why it was so cheap!

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The first thing I did was remove the broken top part of the back.

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I washed it all down with water and dish detergent. Some of the old hardware was broken, so I removed it and brought some cooper knobs at a local building recycling shop. My husband Tom replaced the back with a piece of wood he cut down to size and nailed on.

Borer

I treated the whole cabinet with a borer spray to be on the safe side. I don’t get put off by furniture with borer, because some old pieces do have borer. It is easy to treat with a spray and or a borer bomb, just follow the instructions carefully.

When I removed the hardware there were two holes and I filled in one of the holes with wood filler, as I only needed one hole for the replacement hardware.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Old Ochre on the outside of the cabinet. I ended up giving it two coats of paint, then gently sanded it in some areas to show the wood underneath. It had a lovely texture and dark colour I wanted to show through.

I painted the inside of the cabinet with Duck Egg Blue.

Then I put Clear Wax on all the surfaces, inside the cabinet and outside and rubbed it in as I went along. Finally, I rubbed Dark Wax on some areas of the outside, highlighting rougher areas of the paint and wood.

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Cooper Hardware

Copper Hardware

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Winter Roses from my gardent

Winter Roses from my garden

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This is my favourite chair, picked up from a Thrift store for only $35

This is my favourite chair, picked up from a Thrift store for only $35

This Maiden Hair Fern is really old, it was my grandmothers. I have only just been given it, but quickly managed to nearly kill it!

This Maiden Hair Fern is really old, it was my grandmothers. I have only just been given it, but quickly managed to nearly kill it!

I love the colour and the crackle aged lines on the pot.

I love the colour and the crackle aged lines on the pot.

Thanks so much for reading my blog!

  Andi

 

 

FAVOURITE THINGS IN MY KITCHEN- KITCHEN DECOR…

FAVOURITE THINGS IN MY KITCHEN – KITCHEN DECOR …

I want to show you some of my favourite things in my kitchen…

Some of them have come from my Grandmother and Mother, so they are quite old. I love the colours and how they work so well together – my kitchen decor.

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Herbs are something I use a lot of,  but I especially enjoy having living plants which are functional in the kitchen.

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The old vintage jar of my Grandmothers is filled with cupcake wrappers, which are so pretty in colour. This is actually really functional as well, because we use them a lot for baking.

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The vintage grocers cast iron scales and weight

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This bowl was my mothers, it was made in Germany and has really beautiful colours, which I love.

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The last thing is my picture of quirky bottles. This picture I painted back in 2013 with acrylic paints. We live in wine country here in Hawke’s Bay, with over 70 wineries. I especially love springtime and summer here when the wineries open their cellar doors and we can enjoy many a beautiful afternoon sipping a glass of wine.

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FAWC – Food And Wine Classic Black Barn Vineyard

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Church Road Winery – Winemaker

Thanks for reading about my kitchen decor. If you enjoyed it please come back and learn more about life in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

  Andi

 

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