The Stress of Painting the House and Spring Things

Share this post

The Stress of Painting the House

It was time to finish painting the interior of the house. Last year we had the exterior re-painted. Four weeks ago we had the downstairs painted, last week we had the upstairs painted. The interior hadn’t been painted since the house was built 13 years ago.

We had quotes from painter decorators to paint the ceiling, doors and door frames, skirting boards window sills and walls. We settled on a painter who had been recommended by a neighbour.

The first stress in this lengthy process is the cost! Our painter has done a very good job and taken care in every aspect of the job. His quote compared well, he worked hard and we’re pleased with the painting, but it is still a lot of money.

It’s stressful having someone in the house from 7AM every morning and hoping he’d make sure the dog didn’t wander out the gate because the front door was open, so that was another worry, too.

The third enormous stress was readying the house for painting. We realised just how much stuff we have but hadn’t allowed time for a good cull. All the furniture had to be moved, and everything else had to be packed and stacked. In theory, it should have been unpacked soon after the painting was finished, but that hasn’t really happened, yet. There’s so much to sort and decide if it stays.

Interestingly, the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, a list indicating the degree of stress created by specific activities, doesn’t list House Painting. These are the first 10 major stressors on their scale:

Death of a spouse or child: 100
Divorce: 73
Marital separation: 65
Imprisonment: 63
Death of a close family member: 63
Personal injury or illness: 53
Marriage: 50
Dismissal from work: 47
Marital reconciliation: 45
Retirement:43

We had decided to have the downstairs painted then three weeks later, have the upstairs done. Moving, sorting and boxing things was a major stress. And very hard work.

One of the reasons we arranged to do the painting in two parts was so we could stay in the house. This was less disruptive but the smell of the paint, especially the gloss enamel used on the the timber bits, was very, very strong. I had a slight headache for days.

Unpacking, sorting, finding things needed repairs and getting them done all added to the tension and stress. We had discussions about what could go to the charity bins or the rubbish bin. Most of it stayed.

We changed the paint colour. The bathrooms were painted a warmer white called Creamy White, the least imaginatively named colour on the paint chart. It has a warm glow about it which looks really lovely. The rest of the house was painted in Subiaco Sand, a more “bleached” or watered down version of the original colour. The colour changes depending on the light. It looks really good and I’m glad we did it, but I am moving house before it needs painting again!

Considering the Holmes and Rahe list, it would be interesting to know what causes the most stress for other people. Do you agree with their ratings? Have you re-painted recently?

SPRING THINGS

This part of the spring garden looks pretty and is finally almost free of weeds. After a wet winter we had SO many weeds.

Thinking about spring, now it is the Spring Racing season in Australia. The highlight is the Melbourne Cup, run on the first Tuesday in November. First run in 1861 it is now a public holiday in Melbourne and known “the race that stops the nation”. It is televised across Australia and known for fashion parades, champagne lunches, glamorous parties and a huge spike in betting!

Share this post

Why Should We Use Less Plastic and Re-Covering a Pouffé/Foot Stool/Ottoman

Share this post

WHY SHOULD WE USE LESS PLASTIC?

Are you aware of the amount of plastic infiltrating our food?

I don’t usually buy fashion magazines. The clothes featured are not really suitable for my post-paid work lifestyle, the make-up is mostly directed at younger or working women, the issues of dating and relationships don’t apply to me and the features are so often about film stars or sports stars and that’s not part of my life.

This month’s Marie Claire magazine was a big surprise, packed with information about plastics in the environment and features about women working towards cleaner oceans and waterways. It made interesting reading.

Just consider:

* more than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the world’s oceans every year

* a rubbish truck load of plastic is dumped into our seas every minute

* by 2050 plastic will outweigh fish in our oceans

Thanks to Marie Claire for drawing attention to these frightening statistics. The article about women trying to address this looming disaster and their passion and determination made interesting reading.

There are easy changes we can all make to reduce our use of plastics. Make or buy lightweight bags for putting your fruit and vegetables in at the shop, use your own non-plastic shopping bags, buy your skincare products in glass jars which are easily recycled, return all your contact lenses materials to your optometrist who sends them off to be recycled and only buy bread wrapped in tissue or paper. Look for other ideas online; there are so many you can slowly implement.

I’ve found one of the hardest plastics to replace in the home is cling wrap. I’ve actually given up on beeswax wrappers and rely on containers with their own lids or use silicone stretchy lids. These are very good but a bit of a fiddle to stretch taut over some cups, bowls and containers but I’ll persist.

Yesterday I was really pleased to receive this month’s issue of Country Living, an English magazine, sealed in a paper envelope. It arrived safely with no damage. One less piece of plastic. Well done Country Living!

RECOVERING MY MOTHER’S POUFFÉ

Do you call it a pouffe, an ottoman or a footstool? Whatever you call it, it’s for resting your feet on or an extra seat.

My mother has had this pouffé for many years and the cover was brittle and cracking. We went to several shops looking for a replacement but she’s not a very tall person and all the foot stools/foot rests/ottomans available were too high for her to use comfortably.

The lining had also worn off the base and it was starting to fall apart. I offered to recover it.

Cleaned up the base and glued the remaining lining down and left it two days to cure. Tested all around the glued edges and it was quite secure.

My mother chose a fabric with a slight stretch in it which made it easier to fit the rounded edges.

Glued some advertising brochures together to make a sheet big enough for a template. Traced around the pouffe and cut out the circle.

Folded the template in half and placed it along the fold of the fabric, pinned and cut out the top piece.

Cut a length of fabric to wrap around the pouffé, leaving a hem allowance at the top and enough to fold under at the bottom. Stitched up the short edge to make a circle. Pinned and sewed the top to the side piece, clipped and trimmed the join.

Added a casing on the bottom edge to thread with elastic for a drawstring.

This will allow the cover to be tightened if it stretches or removed and washed if necessary.

The finished pouffé!

Sunday 20th October was

World Osteoporosis Day is observed annually on October 20th, and launches a year-long campaign dedicated to raising global awareness of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease. Wikipedia

October 26th is PUMPKIN DAY. Is it Pumpkin Day just because of Halloween? I wont be carving a pumpkin, but I’ve already cut some up with other vegetables to roast for dinner tonight.

Share this post

Cooking, Fixing Leaks and Preparing the Fruit for Christmas Cakes

Share this post

COOKING

Sorting things in the pantry and looked at the USE BY date on a tin of condensed milk. It had expired. Looked at the other tin of condensed milk and realised I needed to use it soon, so a few days later I made 100 BISCUIT DOUGH biscuits/cookies. I actually only made 94 as I must make them bigger than the originals, but it’s still a lot of biscuits and they’ll be great for a few events this week. This is such an easy recipe and requires only four ingredients plus decorations and flavours. It makes enough dough to store some in the freezer for when you could use almost instant biscuits.

This recipe was all over the internet some years ago and I can’t remember where I found it. I copied it into a diary and have added notes in the intervening years. If this is your recipe, thankyou, it’s a favourite. Please let me know and I will acknowledge the source.

100 BISCUIT DOUGH RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

* 500gm butter at room temperature

* 170gm caster sugar

* 395gm condensed milk

* 700gm self raising flour

Flavourings I have used at different times are choc chips, raisins, finely chopped crystallised ginger, cinnamon powder mixed in with brown sugar sprinkled on top, Smarties, 100s and 1000s, Milo and lemon zest.

Left to Right: Smarties, 100s and 1000s, crystallised ginger, cinnamon and brown sugar

1. Pre-heat fan forced oven to 180 degrees C fan-forced, place baking paper on as many baking trays as you have.

2. Using a stand mixer or hand held electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar until it is pale and frothy. Use a big bowl as this recipe makes a lot of dough.

3. Add the tin of condensed milk and stir in well before adding the flour, a cup at a time. Mix until well amalgamated.

4. Scoop up generous teaspoons of dough, slightly round it in your hands and place on the baking tray. For the ginger biscuits, I put about a fifth of the dough in another bowl, mixed in four finely diced pieces of crystallised ginger, then continued as above. I also added the cinnamon to another fifth of the dough in a separate bowl. Later I added brown sugar on top.

5. Place in a pre-heated oven, cook for about 10 minutes, watching closely towards the end as all ovens are different. The biscuits will be soft when they come out, but will crisp up as they cool.

After I’d made four trays of biscuits I still had dough leftover. I rolled it into a sausage, wrapped it in baking paper, labeled it then put it in a recycled plastic bag in the freezer. I actually do this each time I make these biscuits, so I have a roll of dough I can lightly thaw, slice, decorate and then have ready to cook by the time the oven has pre-heated. Handy for unexpected visitors or hungry family.

FIXING LEAKS

CELADON VASE

Saw this vase on an online site and ordered it. Took ages to come and eventually arrived while we were away. Then it was about 10 days later before I put flowers (and water) in it.

Came out the next morning to find it sitting in a puddle. The vase leaked. The base seemed to be unglazed, so I emptied it and dried it out. Then I tried sealing the unglazed base with a clear glue.

Left it a few days and then filled it with water. Later that afternoon it was sitting in a much smaller puddle, but still not fit for use. By now at least six weeks had passed since I’d ordered it and tried sealing it so I felt I couldn’t return it. Besides, I really like the celadon colour and the design.

Next plan was to pour melted wax into the base.(It is hard to see the wax being poured in this photo) We poured about one centimetre of melted candle wax into the vase and left it two days to dry. Viola! Usable vase.

We chopped up and melted the candle in a glass jar in the microwave. We heated it in 60 second bursts until it was ready to use.

According to Wikipedia,

”Celadon is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware (the term specialists now tend to use) and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was first used on greenware, but later used on other porcelains.’

PREPARING THE FRUIT FOR CHRISTMAS CAKES

I make at least two Christmas Cakes every year, following a recipe I got from my aunt years ago. We put the mixed fruit with added cherries to soak in brandy around the beginning of October. My husband inverts the jars of fruit every morning. I try to make the cakes by the beginning of November. I also have extra peel soaking in brandy to add to some other Christmas cooking.

October is BRANDIED FRUIT DAY. Apparently you need to leave the dried fruit in brandy for three weeks but I’m sure longer is no problem, well, I hope so, anyway! Originally, dried fruit was steeped in brandy as a preservative, but continued as it tastes so good!

Share this post

Repairing, Reading, Eating and Growing

Share this post

REPAIRING

The downstairs rooms are being painted so everything had to be moved, covered and stored. Discovered the plasterwork and gilding on one of our mirrors was broken on a corner.

The break.

The repair, prior to sanding and shaping

The finished repair.

I repaired the missing piece using Polyfilla, moulding and shaping it as it dried. Wiped it free of dust. Left it four days to cure, smoothed and shaped it again then painted it with gold paint. Very pleased as it is impossible to see the repair.

READING

Enjoyed reading time as we couldn’t really go downstairs while the painter was working.

Kate Atkinson’s Big Sky has one of her favourite characters, Jackson Brodie, no longer working as a Detective but now working as a Private Investigator. Set in a small seaside town, there is nothing sleepy here! Atkinson’s thrillers are fast moving, complex and compelling reading. Really enjoyed it and I’d recommend any of her other books, too.

Doris Brett and Kerry Cue’s The Sunday Story Club, described as ” like a bookclub without books, real-life tales of love, loss, trauma and resilience” was fascinating. A group of women meet at their Sunday soiree to address topics introduced by the hosts and some of theie responses make up the text of this book. All heartfelt, many are experiences common to all women, all enthralling. The appendix has suggestions for starting and running similar groups as well as many provocative and thoughtful story “starters” for discussions. You’ll think about these stories long after you’ve finished the book.

The Sunday Story Club By Doris Brett

This is debut novel by Suzanne Daniel. Allegra in Three Parts is a story set in the 70’s during the second wave of feminism in Australia. Allegra is a child living between a feminist grandmother, an extremely hard working, immigrant, no nonsense grandmother and a mainly absent father. Her mother is dead and she wants to unite the remaining members of her family. An interesting book and rather nostalgic with well researched brand names and products from the 70’s mentioned throughout.

( The book refers to cuisenaire rods for teaching mathematics. In use for over 50 years, this reference took me back to my first teaching job. I’d used these rods extensively during teacher training, but soon discovered they didn’t help some children. In fact, they seemed to confuse rather than help some children master basic operations. I realised I needed to employ a number of strategies to teach new concepts as learners could be visual, tactile, auditory or a mix of all these types. Lesson learnt!)

Allegra in Three Parts by Suzanne Daniel (9781760781712) - PaperBack - Modern & Contemporary Fiction General Fiction

EATING

Bowl with zest which packs a lot of flavour, the oranges and the syrup.

Blood Orange Sorbet

In Western Australia we are nearing the end of the citrus season so this is probably the last lot of blood orange sorbet for this year. The fruit is slightly tart and is mixed into a water and sugar syrup before it goes into the icecream making bowl to ‘paddle’ for 10 minutes. Result? Delicious, pretty, sorbet!

GROWING

The spring garden is full of hippiastra, roses, lilies and alstromerias. The “sticks” of hydrangeas I’ve planted are thriving as is the spearmint scented lavender. I’ve planted tomatoes and put in seeds for lettuce, chives, spinach and coriander, plus some multi-coloured petunias. I have never grown petunias from seed before, so, fingers crossed.

Alstromerias are a long lasting cut flower.

Optimistically large supports for the tomato plants.

Lush, healthy hydrangeas grown from “sticks” harvested from last year’s plants.

Spearmint lavender always covered in bees.

Cream clivias. I have grown some from seed but don’t think they’ll flower for several years. I have orange clivias, too.

October is the month many countries celebrate Octoberfest with drinking and feasting. Do this sound like you?

Share this post

Visiting Beautiful Brisbane

Share this post

Our last city on the eastern coast visit was Brisbane, the second best kept secret in Australia! ( Perth is Australia’s best kept secret) We flew instead of taking the train as we were still recovering from poor health. Off the plane at the Domestic Terminal and onto the Airtrain which delivered us in the centre of the city. Up two escalators and into the hotel reception area.

Well positioned hotel and a really lovely unexpected upgrade. So comfortable, delicious food and so easy to use public transport to explore Brisbane.

Our first day and off to the Queensland Art Gallery, part of the Cultural Centre. It was an easy train ride. Really enjoyed the QAG collection and spent some time talking to a guide about some of the Japanese art. This was very interesting as I’d just had a long conversation with a Japanese lady who was doing an ikebana arrangement near the entrance to the Gallery.

Chinese Art Collection Sculpture

Across the courtyard to the Gallery of Modern Art to see the Margaret Olley Exhibition: A Generous Life. It was fabulous! After I’d been around once, I watched the film about her life and then went around again. Passionate about her art, Olley’s vibrant use of colour and frequently repeated still-life themes was wonderful to see.

This is Danelle Bergstrom’s “Conversation with Margaret Olley”. It was a finalist in the 2003 Archibald Prize.

Following my Mother’s suggestion, we took the train to the Roma Street Parklands. What a surprise! This 16 hectare garden is in the middle of urban development and next to a train line. In fact the garden is created on what was the old railways goods yard, built up from soil removed to create a more efficient and modern rail system. Lush, cool gardens with wild dashes of colour and water crossed by bridges, it also featured works by local artists. Lots of families playing and picnicking and other people enjoying the garden. We enjoyed it, too!

Friends drove us to the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre to see several reconstructed rooms of Margaret Olley’s house. Gorgeous views, nice lunch, interesting art on display and, of course, the exactly replicated rooms from Margaret Olleys house, a former hat factory, which was also her studio. She liked a lot of colour and a lot of ornaments!

The next day our lovely friends took us north to see the Glasshouse Mountains and the Sunshine Coast. Particularly liked Marleny but every little town was interesting. I loved the Working Harbour at Mooloolah River. I could sit watching the movements on the river all day. So many interesting little towns.

Glasshouse Mountains. Bit hazy due to recent bush fires.

Water Dragon at The Spirit House, Yandina, where we had lunch.

Mooloolah River

Train back to the City from Landsborough, well, train, bus, train due to an incident on the line. By the time we got moving again after waiting for the buses it was too dark to see anything but we’d like to return to Brisbane and explore more of the state.

The City Hopper ferry was a great way enjoy to Southbank and the skyline. The little red dot just above the bridge is the new moon.

Our room overlooked ANZAC Square, a town square and war memorial commemorating the men and women who participated in the armed services. Very peaceful and very moving.

Also enjoyed hotel flowers and room picnics.

Launched in Milan in 2015, INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY is celebrated on the first of October. It marks the global celebration of coffee’s journey from the farm to your cup and is an opportunity to recognize the men and women who grow and harvest the beans.

This is an easy day to celebrate. Enjoy!

Share this post