How does my garden grow?

Do you know I uploaded that photo above on January 1? Today is January 13. I had so many plans for the few days I had off after New Years Day. Then I came down with what could only be described as a killer head cold. 5 days lost in a snuffly haze of dirty tissues and unbearable grumpiness. The very first day I felt better was the day I actually had to go back to work. Typical :)

This last week hasn't been much better with a bout of what I am assuming is arthritis in my left ankle. Nothing nicer than a week of hobbling around the office explaining to everyone that no it isn't a sprained ankle and yes I do have a doctor's appointment. Enough of my whinging though. What has been happening in the new old house? Nothing much. The veggie garden has progressed even more and we have eaten our first button squash and zucchinis. I have even given away bags of freshly picked lettuce leaves and silverbeet. I think we should be able to pick our first eggplants in a week. Yum!

The floor in the breezeway has ground to a halt. I have been too unwell and the bloody paint has proved very stubborn to remove. I have a sneaking suspicion that a high pressure hose would help but think of the mess and water inside the house! This one is a slow DIY job or perhaps we'll give in and get someone in to strip it. A 50 year old woman with arthritis shouldn't be crawling round on her hands and knees stripping floors. That's my excuse anyway.

The exciting thing was that when I was avoiding the hard dirty work of stripping the stubborn layers of paint off the floor I decided to start peeling back the paint on the old bricks ... as you do. Don't finish one job and start another. Here's a tiny peek at the first bits I peeled away. I have done more since and it looks cool. All distressed and olde worlde industrial crap like (that's a trademarked phrase in case you were thinking of using it). It is coming off very easily with a paint scraper and with the help of a wire brush I am getting old brick here and there. I'm hoping when I'm finished it will look like Anouk Cafe in Paddington. I stole these pics from here.

It has been hellishly hot all over Australia this week with heatwave conditions (days above 40 common and nights that don't drop below 25) and fires burning in many states. This is the smoke one day this week when I got home. The nearest fire was well over 75km away but the smoke was blowing in on the seabreeze. I can normally see Brisbane and mountains from my front verandah.

Apologies for not much more progress around the house. Hopefully I will have exciting news to tell you soon. About work and a new business and a change of career path. Oooops I've jinxed it now!

New art

Picked these up at the SIZE MATTERS III: the end is nigh exhibition at the SWICH Contemporary Art Space. A great source for small affordable art by local artists. Here's a closer look using images from SWICH's facebook page... the flare off the acrylic is killin' me.

Elk - mixed media on board by Anita Kroeger

Ain't she pretty, pretty, pretty? - acrylic & collage on ply by Craig Amos

More rug and a peeved pooch

Mickey's on a diet. He needs to loose a couple of kilos. He's not happy because it is Christmas and there are tasty smells coming from the kitchen. He does like the new rug though. So do I. Still scraping the floor. I've had to stop for today and tidy up. We're eating lunch in here. What was I thinking starting a "small" job just days before Christmas?

Merry Christmas me :)

Quick snap via iPhone of my new kilim. On sale online. I had a discount code too so I had to buy it. I promise. It's 4.6 m long and 1.6 wide and it's perfect for the breezeway. But ... we had to take up the black and white check vinyl because of damage and black mould. (Everyone assumes they are tiles but it was just old scuffed vinyl.) Now we have to scrape the old paint off the concrete floor. Not all of it. I like old painted concrete floors but this stuff is super flaky. Guess what I'm doing on my Christmas break? Shots of it in the room soon.

DQF dining table and 6 chairs for sale ... SOLD

Photo by Brismod of Fun and VJs when she came to take away some of my thrift scores

It's time to let it go. I'm sad but my Danish Quality Furniture (DQF) table and chairs just don't work in my dining room. The scale is wrong and the dark blue walls swamp the delicate lines. Time for someone else to own them. DQF was a Brisbane furniture company started in 1958 by Danish immigrant Eric Peterson. The table is a six seater extension with a teak top and blackbean legs. The 6 chairs are blackbean with vinyl covers. The table and chairs have been professionally reglued and refinished. The colour is closer to the indoor photo as it was a very sunny day when I took the outdoor shots. I had originally covered the chairs in that mad floral fabric but it was removed when the chairs were refinished. The current covers have overspray from the restoration but are intact so you might be able to remove the overspray.  I haven't tried. I had intentions to recover them in leather.

The price is $900. 6 original vintage chairs and a table that extends from round to oval in beautiful condition. Replica Danish chairs are over $300 each on those repro furniture sites and that's before you add in the table and don't even get me started on the price in a vinatge dealer's shop. Why am I selling so reasonably? The chairs need recovering (but that is not an expensive job ... you can even do it yourself). I am not interested in delivering or arranging a courier or wrapping or waiting for said courier. This is a pick up from my house in Ipswich, Queensland only. There is a very, very faint circular mark in the centre of the extension leaves. You can just see it in the second photo. You can't of course when the table is closed or when you have your Murano vase or West German pot on the table. So that's why the price is only $900. Interested? Email me and we'll talk.