New Zealand

Succulents in teacups, little pots, concrete pots….

Succulents in teacups, little pots….

When asked to have a table at a Christmas craft fundraiser for an Alzheimer’s Day Care I immediately said yes. I had a few months to get prepared so I started collecting succulents of all species. Asking friends and families for cuttings, raiding gardens whenever I saw a succulent. Then I hit the Thrift stores collecting teacups, little pots and any pot that looked pretty and was a reasonable price.

I even experimented making some concrete pots painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Duck Egg. My son Elisha helped me making them, we certainly had fun, but that is for another post!

Then I collected tin cans of various sizes and brought some burlap and twine to decorate them. Using a hot glue gun I stuck the burlap on the tins. I even made my own little tags.

This was a really fun project as I love succulents. They have become so popular, probably because they live inside and outside and are very hard to kill.

It took some time, doing all the preparation. But I finally got all the succulents into the right teacup or pot and left them outside to grow for a few weeks. I had to kept them watered regularly as it was hot outside, fortunately they all survived and made it to the Fair.

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Don’t they look beautiful?

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This is my favourite succulent, called Jelly Bean or Pork and Beans.

Jelly Bean Succulent in a teacup

Check out some of these cute teacups

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Some pretty pots

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The tin cans with tags

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And of course my concrete pots painted with chalk paint.

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The day was an incredible success and a lot of fun. Fortunately I only had to bring one home!

Thanks for reading my post. Please come back to find out more about life in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

   Andi

 

 

HOW TO CREATE A BEAUTIFUL GARLAND CURTAIN OF LACE AND RIBBONS

Remembering the past using beautiful lace and ribbons to make a garland curtain for my 13 year old daughter.

In my last post I mentioned we moved house and I am in the process of decorating my teenager daughter’s bedroom.  I wanted to show how a easy it is to make a beautiful garland curtain.

Vintage Lace and Ribbons

It was so exciting recently to find boxes and tins at my mother’s house of beautiful old lace and ribbons. She had been collecting them for many years and it was special to see how old some of it was. We decided a wonderful way to use the it was to make a curtain for Serah’s room. Some of the lace was leftover from my mum’s wedding dress, how special is that.

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Serah has two pale brown roman blinds in her room, we used the smaller of the two to hang the lace curtain over. First we put nails in the wall on either side at the top of the blind then hooked up a long piece of twine. We then attached the lace and ribbons one by one, tying or looping over the twine. Some of the them shorter so we just tied and knotted others together with them to make them longer length.

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It was amazing to see how beautiful they looked hanging together. It feels so special that it was no longer in boxes and tins, hidden away, where it had been for many years. It really brought much joy to my mum to see them being used and loved after all this time. Look at this one chocolate box with had lace  stored in with a picture of Queen Elizabeth at her coronation in 1953.

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My daughter can now enjoy her grandmother’s old lace and ribbons every day and celebrate the past.

Thanks for reading! Come back and see more about life in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

  Andi

 

 

Inexpensive And Easy Daughter’s Bedroom Makeover With Chalk Paint

A very inexpensive and easy way to do my daughter’s bedroom makeover was using chalk paint.

Pre-teens Makeover Bedroom update with One Room Challenge @house beautiful

My daughter Serah has turned 13 and as a teenager wants something different. She is very keen to pick out and help paint some furniture for her new room. We brought new colourful bedding, curtains and a rug for the floor.  Next came some furniture…

Little Pine Wooden Shelving Unit

I brought a little pine wooden shelving unit, to use as a bedside table, for only $5.00 at a Thrift Store which I decided to paint in a combination of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints, Old Ochre and Coco. These are very neutral colours which look great in any room.

The shelving was in good condition and just needed a wipe down before painting. No sanding was needed, as the chalk paint sticks really well to any surface. One of the reasons why I love painting with it!

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After Serah and I gave it a couple of coats, I let it dry for a day before putting on the Annie Sloan Clear Wax and Dark Wax. I rubbed the dark wax lightly on top of the clear wax. Then gave it a good buffing with a soft cloth. I buy old flannelette sheets for about a $1.00 from Thrift stores and cut them up for this purpose.

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Cane Headboard

My other great find at a local Thrift Store up this lovely cane headboard for only $15.00img_1249-2

I painted the cane headboard  Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Emperor’s Silk, which is a really beautiful red. I used a smaller paint brush  on this as it was important to get in all the little areas. Only one good coat was needed and no wax is required on cane surfaces.

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We brought some handy baskets for storage on the shelves and a new bright red lamp.

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It was great to see how well the room came together and Serah was very happy.

Thanks for reading my post!

  Andi

EASY UPCYCLE FOR AN OLD TV CONSOLE

This old TV Console I brought for $10.00 on Trademe.

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Simple repairs needed

One cabinet door was broken and a shelf was missing, it was just not looking so good. But sometimes you can see the potential in a piece. Especially if it is made of mahogany wood and you have two cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Old Ochre and Coco.

I started by removing the glass doors, which was easy to do. Then unscrewed the plastic door tracks and filled in the screw holes with wood filler.  I took off the broken door and cut it down to replace the shelf that was missing.

Finally, I removed all the hardware and place it aside to paint.

As this was such a large piece I used a paint roller to do the first coat. I mixed together both paint colours in the paint tray. They went on easily and if any drips I lightly sanded down when it had dried.

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It was such a beautiful day to be painting outside!

For the second coat I used a brush and still using the paint tray I poured the two different colours in side by side. I painted one colour then the next, combining the colours, painting it smoothly over the surfaces. After paint had dried I again light sanded any drips and made sure it was really smooth.

I decided to use Annie Sloan Clear Wax on all the surfaces and Dark Wax only on the front trim.

Using the same hardware, but I painted and sanded it down.  In New Zealand hardware is really expensive compare to America, so I try to use the same hardware when possible.

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What a transformation, it came out far better than I expected.

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Thanks for reading my post! Hope you have enjoyed it!

   Andi

 

 

Feeling blessed this Sunday to be living in Havelock North, New Zealand

Feeling blessed this Sunday to be living in Havelock North, New Zealand. Celebrating Spring!

Today is just beautiful and I look out our front door and see Spring.

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Flowers in the garden.

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Even our palm tree looks colourful.

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A Beautiful Moon

And then to end the day a beautiful full moon comes up as we look out from our deck over the hills of Havelock North.

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Feeling blessed in New Zealand!

Wishing you all a blessed Sunday!

Andi xx

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint – Art Deco Cabinet

As soon as I saw it I knew Annie Sloan Chalk Paint would look wonderful on an old Art Deco Cabinet that I found in a local Napier Second Hand Furniture Store.

One of the wonderful things about living in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand is the Art Deco town of Napier.

Napier Earthquake

It had a devastatingly large earthquake in 1931, but after the earthquake the town was rebuilt. The buildings were all beautiful Art Deco Buildings, which remain to this day.

In February each year the whole town of Napier becomes an Art Deco Festival. People come from all over the world to dress up in deco style clothes. The city is totally transformed for a few days. It is such a fun time, our family love dressing up and being part of it. It is like going back in time.

I was really excited to find an old Art Deco Cabinet and Drawers for a good price.

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As you can see it needed a really good clean with water and dish detergent. Then some little holes and deeper scratches I filled with wood filler, to tidy the surfaces up.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint has so many great colours to choice from but I think my favourite are Old Ochre and Duck Egg Blue.  They look beautiful together and the design on this piece of furniture lends itself to having two different colours on it. I ended up having to paint two coats of each colour and then gave it a gentle sanding after each coat had dried. Just to smooth any rough areas of paint. It is easy to get little drips here and there and sanding gets rid of them.

Then I finished it off with Annie Sloan Clear Wax. (No Dark Wax this time.)

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I kept the original hardware on as they were in such good condition.

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The end result looks amazing with these colours.img_1641-3

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If you enjoyed this post please leave a comment, would love to hear from you about your favourite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint…

 Andi

 

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