I check my look in the mirror I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.

First off, sweet bloggers, blogesses, blogettes and bloglads - an amendment to my previous post: I ended up needing a bit of help from the Badger with the side tables. I didn't have side cutters or a good chisel to put the knobs and hinges on - and he also helped me out with 4 new legs. I put this here as a thanks to my awesome Dad - not because he has asked me to, or because someone else told me to, or that he does things to be thanked - but because I really appreciate everything he does for Puffin, Meerkat and I. We love you Badger!

And now - onto the next project! The chair! A little teaser...

Did I mention I'd started smoking crack?

You may remember I picked the chair up a few months ago off eBay for $19.00 - a bargain! I started off with the stupid idea to remove the arms and then vanish them - but as I mentioned in my last post, using the floor varnish to do this meant it was too thick and I had runs. Not to be confused with having 'the runs'. And this was just one of the many stupid things I have done lately in a deluded and tired state of mind. The other was getting a 'healthy' juice from Boost the other day, at the bargain cost of $8.00 (that's nearly half the cost of a whole effing chair!) that contained celery. Now, I'm a pretty fussy eater and there are many foods which I don't really like, and a few I hate. One of the hated foods is celery. And the whole bloody juice tasted like celery. So I threw it out. And that, girls and boys, is why you should just stick with what you know and never vary from your routine. 

With the chair however, I was less wasteful and decided to again sand back the arms and legs, and screw the arms back on so that I can varnish them again without getting runs! 

The varnish I used. You can find this at any good hardware store as long as you also have a Delorean because it is seriously old, and came to us via Badger via Pa. 

Now bloggers, if, like me, you are incredibly white (like look at that I nearly blend into the page background) you will know the struggle of a good fake tanner. Because everyone looks better with a tan BUT not a real one! Like, hello, skin cancer. It only needs to go down 1 millimeter (1 millimeter!!!) to get into the blood stream and wreck havoc in your body! It's like people are totally desensitised to these messages. Anyway, a good fake tanner. It's hard. It always looks fake. But now, from Squirrel&Puffin - a solution! Teak coloured varnish/stain! I will have to experiment with more, and all over the legs, to see how we go, but I think we have a winner!

Back to the job at hand though - and I had a helper on the inside - a furry critter called Bowie who was like, super helpful. 

After one coat. I then lightly hand sanded it and did another coat. 

Then I paused for few days to work, work and then catch up with my old mate Bruce.

That's me there with the wristband. Lol, no. I was way back but oh my lordy lord it was amazing. the E Street Band sounded incredible and he played the whole Born in the USA album! And he was SO sexy. Puffin doesn't think he is sexy (but then, Puffin didn't come with me) but he really was. The ONLY song he didn't do - and the one Erin and I desperately wanted him to do - was the River. We so badly wanted Mary to get pregnant. I would easily put his in the top 5 concerts I have ever been to. I'm not sure exactly where it places yet as I will need time to stew on it. 

The next day, while I was still raving about the concert - I got my teeth into the really fun bit - stripping and re-upholstering the chair. I gathered my staple gun ($25 from eBay) and my wadding (about $10 from spotlight) and a few tools since we couldn't find the upholstery hammer (When I told Badger about this project he said 'Oh, your Nan and Pa did an upholstery course' which wasn't particularly helpful given they are sort of, well, not exactly in the land of the living any more).

This was my favored position for stripping the chair - a famous (I just made it up right now) position called 'the birthing position'.

An hour or so later, I had stripped the base and removed all of the staples. This might be a good point to mention where I did learn to do this, since I didn't go up to the cemetery and ask for guidance, I watched this excellent web series and read this excellent blog post! Bearing that in mind, there is an element of making what you have work for you, and making it up as you go .

I then laid two new layers of wadding to the chair - over what looks like one very old original layer of fabric and some recycled, lumpy filler. I then stapled it down, and removed excess from the corners. 

I then draped the fabric (again, you'll need your Delorean to get some of this as I got it from my Nan's house when we cleared it out 5 years ago) over the chair - cutting it back to go under the back, then smoothing and pulling it into place. 

Now, guys, this was my big discovery. Corners are HARD. I'll show you some close ups at the end though because I think this girl did good. 

Then the base was done. I squeezed in a trip to get more staples ($5.00) and then returned to finish the back.

This shot gives you a good look at the black/red original fabric! Blergh. And the gross old padding on top of that. I laid the fabric and filling stuff over this and dealt with the two corners and the two bits that met at the base. I was also sure to pull the material through and around onto the tacking rail and staple it down. 

Ok! Hard part is done! I then ran out of fabric to do the back of the chair - I knew this was likely from the beginning, though technically I had enough fabric - but none together or with the lines going the right way. So I got some plain coloured canvas like material - the closest I could find, to finish the back ($5.00 at Spotlight)

Alternatively, if you are following along at home, you could leave it open backed like this chair in this months Real Living... very hipster.

But if you've decided, like me, to finish the chair off, you might want some cardboard tacking strip and some  nail tackings strip, which I purchased from http://www.padghamupholstery.com.au/. 

Oooh, ouchy.

I then grabbed my cardboard tacking strip and stapled it along the top back of the chair, so that when the material is flipped back over....

It leaves a gloriously clean line!! Woo hoo!

This next bit took a lot of fiddling around with spacing etc - putting the nail tacking strip on. This works by pressing it underneath the fabric, and then folding it back under, which again, leaves a clean line.

Once it has been flipped under, you hammer it down with a specialty tool called a poodle hammer which you can get here. It may just be my hammer with some padding over it and I may have just made up the poodle hammer thing. But please look at the link anyway.  

I repeated that on both sides and on the final edge, just stapled it underneath. I then took a photo of the burlap and springs for arty purposes (hello new iPhone background and sure fire Instagram hit!) and then put the webbing stuff on the bottom, like such...

Hospital corners never were my specialty (top right - did a little of the cut twice measure one, ha, whoops).

And she's done! Below are some close ups of corners etc because I'm pretty happy with how I've gone.

I think it's probably just as well that the back is plan because trying to continue the stripe around the back and sides and corners and stuff would have sent me even more crazy. 

Now, the original as you may remember had arms. But after varnishing these and the legs I found them to be different woods and I didn't really like the red wood of the arms. I'm still um-ing and arr-ing over them going back on so here is Puffin holding them on.

I think that red just looks wrong, but anyway. It's weird because the shape of the arms are what I had loved about this chair but I really wish they had been a paler wood like the legs. Oh well.

This is how the chair would look in the lounge, but given the open plan I think we'll just bring it out when we need an extra chair - otherwise it's in the way of the entrance way. 

So this will be it's home - the bedroom!!

A proper before and after.

TOTAL COSTS

Chair $19.00

Spotlight purchases $15.00

Staple gun $25.00

Extra staples $5.00

Upholstery supplies $18.00

Bad juice at Boost Juice $8.00

Total: $90.00

A couple of other things we've done - REPLACE ALL OF THE PIPES UNDER THE HOUSE! Enormous thanks again to Lochy who was again, and as usual, a huge help and really, really muscular. Ahem. Sorry what?

We also grabbed these wine barrels from the beautiful mum of Jess and Casey - Leslie! This was an hour and a half of back breaking, sweat inducing work in 40 degree heat and wind to remove the old plants from the barrels! But now they live with Puffin and Squirrel!! 

And I am officially out of breath, But that may be due to the virus I have which is almost definitely a chest infection but the GP said I just had to wait it out. 

Back to uni in two days so project will be a little stilted but blogosphere - you are not forgotten!!! We will update you as we can!! 

How do they get the people on Embarrassing Bodies to appear and show their bits and their names and faces?!

About three weekends ago, Puffin and I completed the insulation of the roof! This was, again, and unsurprisingly, still a crappy job. Things I thought while in the roof:

Knees aren't even made for kneeling!

I wish my knees were fat so this hurt less.

Maybe I should buy these. and get the inserts.

I'm going to eat the dirtiest burger once I'm out of here.

I don't even care if I die up here.

And yet, it did end, and now the house is snuggly. A little bit fell off the roof and into the garden and I'm hoping that a bird will pick it up and make the most insulated nest going around.

Now - the side tables! These are my lovely side tables that my Pa made more than 50 years ago. I love these, but they were a little creamy for our grey house. I also had our new chest of drawers, which were whitewashed. So I set out to make them match!

The dresser - Cancun style, Freedom.

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I started off sanding the units back - initially I thought, hey - maybe I could just leave it like this. But the remaining white was still too creamy, and it was more shabby chic than white washed.

Several days later, due to a heavy work schedule which perhaps on my part was pretty bloody stupid (averaging 5 days a week at my retail job, 1 day a week at my work experience job, and in my spare time, getting more work experience by helping a local GP to organise a men's health night and throw into that mix trying to see family and friends and keep a house clean and running smoothly) the units were completely sanded. The slatted section, as you see, was a little tricky, but in this area I decided that the new paint would cover this 

Then laying the paint on - British Paints 'Infinity White'. As soon as I had painted a section, I used a damp rag to wipe it back until I was happy with the look. I could lie and say I got this right the first time but I will admit that a week after finishing the painting portion of this project and looking outside at them sitting there, I dd take the orbital to them once more and re-do a couple of sections.

And the reveal! Now. This pictures are shite and you can't really see the difference - think it's a problem with different lighting for each shot, and just using phone photos. But - new white washed paint job, new knobs, new hinges, new legs. Total cost - $35. And now we have a matching bedroom suite that I have every intention of keeping for a very long time! So to see what these look like next to the dresser they're supposed to match....

Ta-Da!!! I'm pretty bloody happy with this as previously these were a solid cream and the knobs and legs made them look their age. 

'

Aaaaaaand next to the bed!! So happy to have these back instead of junk on the floor next to the bed. I feel like my life has been transformed and soon I will understand life, the universe and everything. 

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Another quick project I've whizzed up was lining my jewelry box but since I forgot to take before photos, you just get to see my after... ta-da! The box was an old writing box that I sanded back and varnished a few years ago - so this week I knocked out the writing box sections of it, and lined it with black felt. I also covered the bottom of the box so it won't scratch the chest of drawers. 

One of my last interesting jobs that I want to finish before returning to uni is the upholstering of the chair. I took all the wood off a few weeks ago, sanded and varnished it but I used some of the left over floor varnish annnnnd that was my mistake. The floor varnish had gotten rather thick and sticky and I got a tonne of runs (not something anyone enjoys)  soooo this afternoon I took it all off again and got some different vanish. It's looking like I might get a bit of time off over the next few weeks so I can get stuck into this! I've purchased everything I need and I can't wait to get stuck in! 

Until next time bloggers!!

And P.S - Bowie the cat is starting to calm down and settle into the house of Squirrel and Puffin! But he is toggling between adorable and a menace. But we're giving tough love a go and he's getting the idea! 

The Cat Who Sold The World

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And those are just some of the words from the newest member of the house of Puffin&Squirrel. Blogosphere, meet Bowie!

(This photo comes about as we were informed that our table and chairs with white legs was never revealed! And because Puffin is a cutie!)

Bowie and his brothers were dumped in a box with their mum in a rubbish dumpster. Luckily, the rubbish man saw the moving, meowing box, and took the kitties to Pets Haven animal shelter in Woodend .

While we were chilling out today, Puffin decided that he couldn't keep his Valentines Day present a surprise any longer (and neither could Squirrel so we swapped pressies two weeks early!) and told me we were going to go pick out a kitten!

The hardest part of this was of course, picking just one kitten. We managed to do it though, and now we have a fluffy little friend! Here are a few snapshots of out little friend...

This last photo was Bowie in the middle attacking Puffin and then .... Bowie fell asleep. 

We're still finishing off our few other items, I hope you can all stay tuned because it is really lovely! And coming soon!!

I ate fiberglass insulation. It wasn't cotton candy like the guy said... my tummy itches.

It's getting hot in here, so take off all of your clothes.

 Things Nelly didn't have in mind when he broke that shiz down:

• Being in a Swedish sauna with many hairy men and moose
• A rectal examination
• Insulating a roof in an Australian Summer

We only had one of those in mind - the insulation. 

You may remember from many moons ago, we had the insulation removed (vacuumed!) from our roof because it was of the cancer causing variety! 

Mmmm. Carcinogenic-ness. 

Anyway, with a week of 40+ degree temperatures upon us, and finally enough money to cough up for batts, we got stuck into the replacement of insulation. 

On Saturday, Puffin and the Sea Eagle spend 3-4 hours up there and managed to lay about a quarter of the house, and spent the rest of the afternoon under the split system inside the house! I on the other hand, went off to work, happy in the knowledge of what was being done at the house and being smugly wrapped in the knowledge that I had escaped involvement of this unpleasant task. What I failed to do was of course, estimate the effort and heat involved in this task and lucky me, I got my chance on Sunday! Woooooo.

9:00am arrived on Sunday and Puffin was suited up, and I was rocking my top to bottom trackie suit and dust mask because hellllllllo I don't have the lung capacity to use that industrial mask and they need to make them for women! But not in pink! 

 

Here are our batts - rated 4.0 which the interwebs told me was a rating you should aim to at least meet. 

"Paint me like one of your french girls" Puffin told me.

 And this super, super flattering shot of me placing the batts into the eaves which was an AWESOME job that made me scream obscenities in between grunting. 

Now, you may be thinking, 'gosh, why did they take a friggin camera up there, isn't that a bit 'gen Y needing to document everything?' and the answer is: Yes. Also, pics or it didn't happen, amiright? I could barely believe I was up there, so I needed photographic proof! 

Even after another 3-4 hours on Sunday, the job is still only three quarters done so it will need another day or two of hellish work. Squirrel is also still working on her little projects but a crazy work schedule is pushing things back a little!

 So stay tuned bloggers!

I like big clocks and I cannot lie

Wow, our visitor count has pretty much EXPLODED thanks to Lindsey at Better After - So welcome to anyone who has landed here after checking out that wonderful blog. As a post-New Year wrap up, we thought we would show you around the house to see some of our pressies and goodies!

Our beautiful lounge featuring our new coffee table! Last one in stock at Freedom! We've also managed to wall mount the TV. This was more difficult than it perhaps should have been, as once the TV was mounted, the Sea Hawk announced that his phone had followed the cords through the wall and was most likely now living under the house. 

Which meant that Badger had to help Puffin get his headlamp on and mine for iPhones! Despite the look on Puffins face, he was in no way impressed with this new mission. 

We've also, finally, purchased our insulation! You may remember some months back we had to get rid of the existing insulation, as it was cancer causing (and budget ruining!). Well, with a week of 40+ degrees coming up, we will be slapping this down tomorrow morning! Big thanks to everyone who got us Bunnings vouchers over the past few months as this knocked a fair bit off the price for us! 

Here, behold, the Christmas present that I got for Puffin! No not the bed, though it is sexy. Nor is it the beautiful new Esprit doona cover (Thank-you Myer - all quilt sizes for $99!), no, for it is the incredible canvas print of Gunnamatta beach that I took over New Years 2012/2013. Cost only $100 thanks to a sale at Big W! 

 And just for interest, this is the canvas on the other wall - a photo of the Geelong foreshore at night. Note how I have taken this photo so you can't see the mess all over the floor? I took this photo a few years ago and Puffin had it blown up, also on canvas, for me as a little surprise!

Lastly, here, above our abundant fruit bowl (which includes home grown strawberries), Kitchenaide blender, new utensils jar, bamboo canisters that I got from Stac and some new Country Road trivets - is the Christmas present I received from Puffin - a beautiful big clock! 

As per our pre-Christmas list, the side tables and arm chair are currently under renovation but you will have to hold your baited breaths for another week or so to see the final product! 

Thanks for stopping by and we would love to hear from you!