Friday, November 15, 2013

Fabulous Find, Espalier and an escapee

Today I've got a bit of this and that for you. I have to tell you that the very best day of the year to buy goods at an auction is the day of the Melbourne Cup. Last week I had a great haul. I also showed a couple of the regular dealers a lesson. I found the cabinet below and kept my mouth shut. I was the only person in the room to bother opening the doors. The cabinet with it's ugly walnut veneer doors was nondescript and just ugly. 




But once you opened the doors, there was a lovely surprise. Gorgeous old fashioned open fronted drawers! 


I thought wow I can make this look amazingly industrial but held my tongue and waited for the bidding to hit rock bottom. Then I kind of said "oh okay... I'll take it."  When I opened the doors all the other dealers were like OMG wow we missed that. What a great buy. It just shows that sometimes you REALLY need to look past the ugly exterior.

In progress photo - not waxed yet but I wanted to check my plan was a good one.

This was one makeover that I needed no decision making for, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I unscrewed the doors and started sanding. The finish on the carcass was very rough and I wanted to make it much smoother so I sanded and sanded. I then painted with ASCP Graphite and spent about 4 hours on and off sanding, waxing and buffing. It was worth it as the finish is extremely smooth.

For the drawers, the bases were loose so I nailed and glued them and oiled the whole lot. The fronts of the drawers are so smooth from years and years of use. 

This piece was snapped up very quickly and is now serving the next part of its life in Bella Emporio in Rozelle. Belinda kindly sent me a photo of it all filled with her beautiful treasures.  If you are local or in the area, go visit the shop as she has so many gorgeous things for sale.


Do you ever have something you have promised to do, that's a 20 minute job but takes you 6 months to get around to do? Well that happened to me and now it's off my plate I feel a world off my shoulders. One of the mums who run the school garden committee asked me ages ago to espalier the orange trees against the fence. She knew that we have several citrus trees espaliered in our garden and thought I'd be a good person to ask. Well in theory perhaps, but I was so embarrassed about continually forgetting to take my secateurs and flexi ties to school that I ended up avoiding her for months. I'd remember at midnight or on the weekend but come school mornings I'm always rushing the kids out of the house. Anyway I finally got around to doing it this week. Thankfully the trees haven't grown too big. I'll now have to pop in a 6 monthly reminder in my diary to keep pruning them into shape.




One of our chickens, the White Leghorn, named Cloud is very cheeky. She is such a good escape artist that we call her Houdini. Anyway the other morning my daughter went to say goodbye to the chickens before school and noticed Cloud was missing. The neighbours are doing some building next door and they'd knocked the fence and the roof to the chicken run had fallen in. Cloud wasted no time in escaping! Anyway as we were rushing out (see above) I decided I'd just have to find her later in the morning and hope she was okay.  



She's a funny chook. I found her wandering up our street, having a grand old time eating bugs out of grass on the verge. Luckily we don't get much traffic. I think she was quite happy to be home again. I'm happy to have her home again anyway.

Fiona xx





14 comments:

  1. Hi Fiona. Any hints on espaliering? I love the idea but have always thought it to be very complicated but when you said it was a 20 minute job then maybe I might give it a go. Would love to do a lemon tree. Love your work. Unfortunately I live in an ultra-modern apartment after old semis around Leichhardt and Lilyfield for years. I wish I had found your site back then! Lind Regards Sharryne

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    1. hi Sharryne, I have had a lot of questions on espaliering, so i'll write a blog post this week. I have a lemon, a lime and a mandarin tree espaliered in our garden.
      Viva the inner west!

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  2. Ooops that should be Kind Regards lol!

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  3. Love your post today Fiona..and the chook story made me smile.-love dee x

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    1. Thanks Dee, you would love this chicken. Exactly like a naughty little boy, keeps me on my toes
      Have a good weekend
      Fiona x

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  4. Brilliant idea to remove the doors! You have such vision, Fiona. Thanks for another inspirational post.
    Robin

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    1. Hi Robin. Thanks so much . I was so chuffed with how this piece turned out
      Hope you are well,
      Fiona

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  5. what a cool piece! great find! and if/when we get chickens i want one like cloud- she's got a mind all her own!

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  6. Such a great piece Fiona, and love seeing it in it's new home!

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    1. such a thrill Catherine! and Belinda said she'd be happy to stock some of my pieces so that's great
      hope you have a good week
      Fiona

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  7. Love this piece and wow, so much fabulous storage and the redo is wonderful. Great with the doors off. Hugs, Marty

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  8. OMG, what a find! Didn't you have an urgent need of keeping it for yourself?:) I can imagine it was difficult to give it away... Beautiful colour!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! Sorry if you have trouble commenting, you can always email me at lilyfieldlife@bigpond.com