Tuesday, June 22, 2010

DIY is not for wusses and cptn kirk rules

I have a full time and demanding job in kenya that is 8-5pm five days a week.By the time i get home, supervise home work and play with the baby am just worn out.
So my home decor projects have to happen over the weekend the thing is sometimes you just want to sleep in, maybe watch some TV (read captain James T Kirk) btw i have the hots for the capt in the worst way  its ok  my husband is cool with it and after watching  the final frontier he teases me endlessly for having the hots for a fat old dude in a silly outfit -he doesn't get it. I admit not Kirk's finest moment, that was  the series but i digress.
Projects especially DIY are time consuming, taxing and cut into Kirk time and when you dont have labour saving gadgets? nightmare. This i found out while refinishing this chair 

sanding is a straight up bitch there is no other way of putting it. I was sandinng several pieces and grew muscles in one hand.The hubs is a sensible guy  he is like -just get someone to do it and am like then it wont be DIY!srsly!!!He thinks i need medication.
Covering chairs or any thing without a staple gun is a straight up bitch.
I had to hammer a gajilllion  tacks too tiny to allow a good grip and my fingers are traumatize by the hammer. who knew such a hell existed?

After suffering a lot and cursing my refusal to just get someone.....VOILA! I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR!




A pretty side chair and when it is admired, i swell with pride like a ..proud parent .all injuries are forgoten or forgiven. DIY has delivered big time all is forgiven.
once again before also picture my equipment-it worked good!


I used peacock blue spray paint,a fabric scrap and hessian a little light sanding and she was done!

one more look proud parent style!


Ignore the mayhem in the living room it is a work in progress and will soon be ready for close ups! you may
 enjoy a glimpse of the gray wall painted with crown's pebble.

 (BTW I succesfully linked something!major!)

autriche says later!

Monday, June 21, 2010

wanted : my own style

I have been rather silent of  late because starting this blog meant that i photograph (and i use the term very loosely ) my stuff and try to analyse critically-to avoid putting incoherent tripe up. This made me realise that
i need to have  a point of view a voice that rings true to me, a style i can identify as my own.So i have been on a quest of sorts to discover the true autriche .Mountains were climbed krakens fought  and i have an idea of where i want to be headed for instance my inbuilt shelves a fairly  foreign concept in these parts but  after much explanation, cursing, once even tears i got them. phew all that work and they not that fancy!

 

behold ! okay but i piled on everything but the kitchen sink and my eyes were like sweety... NO!
gosh taste so awful that i offended myself .
hey progress in the quest no crowded fussy piling on of stuff. simple clean that's the ticket.
not there yet but certainly (my eyes are no longer bleeding) the right direction. less stuff  way less tiny stuff and am thinking of painting the backs of the shelves a dark Grey . In the top picture i have historically important pieces such as on the top shelf the native hut poll tax levied against the natives by the colonialists to get them to need money and hence agree to provide cheap labour. this tax was a major grievance in the mau mau war waged by the locals for freedom  if only they knew freedom would involve being one of the most highly taxed countries in the world!
while at it, i also reworked my bookshelf. situated on the back of the in built with black boxes above.

its abit fuzzy ...sorry. it faces the back door opening out to the "forest" and i would love to have  seat there to read and get away from noisy children and super noisy games..... a lovely dream .look
the forest is just twenty trees planted close together and is lovelley  sigh.
i am now back to the quest  and will report back soon.