We've Been Building...

... some yards for the sheep - they aren't finished yet, but Derrick has been hammering in nails, taking nails out, hammering in more nails and cutting planks of wood. I was the very best assistant, supplying nails and holding up ends of planks! Plus I made yummy date scones in exchange for delicious espresso coffee! (Photo when yards are near completion).
I also picked some of our agapanthus flowers and here are 2 macro shots - the colour is simply natural and gorgeous!

Collaborative Art Journal - Phase 2

Here are the 2 pages I have done for Dianne. Her choice of colour is blue, with paua undertones. So a little play on one page doing some scrapbooking and a small quilt for the other page.

I chose to do a layout about Moeraki, because when I was about 10 years old, we would go to the lighthouse bach for holidays. Dad made a 'paua' catcher because it was difficult (and dangerous) getting them off the rocks otherwise. There were other little secluded beaches where we could gather mussels and cook them in a kelp bag on a driftwood fire, or just find beautiful little shells.

The fabric page has a selection of fabrics, doublesided, which represents the colours found in paua shells. Some cool beads and stitching that looks like the stilts prints in the sand.

Lots of fun to try new things.

Restoring the Oak Buffet

After making such a good job of the oak cabinet, which I now use for wine glasses and some special antique crockery, I was requested to start on the dining room buffet. This is the before photo - oops, it's got a bottom drawer stained, which is not how we bought it. As you can see it is a blond oak and it is far too light to go with the other oak furniture living in the dining room.
4 weeks after starting the project it is now ready for unveiling. It has been stripped of all the old varnish, sanded, stained, varnished, new felt, cleaned handles and new locks.



Doesn't it look fantastic with the blue felt? The product I used for sealing was Woodoc 10 Indoor Velvet Polywax Sealer. It is so easy to use, in fact, I put it on with a cloth, so there were no problems with brush marks, it doesn't smell strongly and with the wax in it, the woods just soaks it up! It's ideal for furniture where you want a low gloss or matt finish - necessary I reckon, for antique furniture. I also bought the Woodoc Deep Penetrating Furniture Wax which will help nourish the wood for heaps more years.
As you can see in the photo on the right, even the silver has been cleaned!

The Chickens at One Week +

Oh, they are sooo cute!! Their wing feathers are well formed and the tail feathers are little tuffs at the end of their downy bodies.

Here are 6 of the 10 Blue Andalusian chicks at tea time. There is a range of colour from the light grey, through to the black ones (they have yellow tummys still).

This photo is of the Mum with the 3 bantam chicks - this chick has had it's tea, now it's time for a preen and a nap!

Sunshine At Last!

Today is the first day we've had sunshine for a week - typical spring weather, wild and windy!
I now have 10 little Blue Andalusian chicks. Some are black and some grey/blue, but their colours may change. Here are 3 of Snowball's hatching, they are still in the guinea pig hutch.


The bantam chicks are about the same size although a week older - see their wing feathers?

A Little Blue Surprise

Last night when I was feeding the chooks I found a beautiful blue surprise in the nesting box. I forgot that my hens hatch their young from 19 days, not 21! So here you have it the first of the Blue Andalusians.

Next, I needed housing for them and hadn't been that organised. Derrick arrived home early and built a teepee shaped hutch, braced and all, from a desk top. This we manoeuvred into the enclosure and I filled it with hay. Two mums, 1 chick and 3 eggs later, all safely under cover and out of the rain. Plenty of hay to keep them warm.

This morning, more chicks, but it's raining really heavily so I'll look at shifting them later today.

Such excitement!!