Repurposing an old side table for next to no Money!

Hi guys. In my quest to create something wonderful for next to no money I started looking around the house and found this old side table that I rescued from a roadside dump collection quite a few years ago. I had been using it beside the bed for ages with a piece of plywood sitting on top and a tablecloth thrown over it to hide it's many flaws.

This is what it looked like before I started. Next my trusty handyman partner cut a piece of ply to fit inside the frame at the top of the table and braced it underneath so that the plywood would have something to sit on. I tried it out and it fit snugly. I drew a pattern on the ply in pencil and cut up some red tiles that I'd bought from the tip shop ($2.00 for 25 tiles, not bad huh?). I'd also put an ad in the local freebie site seeking unused or unwanted tiles. I sure didn't expect to get some beautiful glitter mosaic tiles and metal ones for free but I was really lucky and that's what I ended up with. Yay, happy me! I dug through all my glass gems and decided to incorporate them into the design as well.

I'm still using the same tube of silicone to glue the tiles on that I have used in 3 other projects. One tube of silicone for $5 goes a really long way.

This is the table top glued and grouted. I had planned on painting the table but after sanding it I discovered that the timber I thought was pine is something a whole lot nicer and possibly cedar which ties in perfectly with my timber floors and raked ceilings. I have run out of sandpaper and will have to get some more tomorrow but in the meantime I couldn't resist posting a pic of the nearly complete new table.

I'm really happy with the result so far. I've decided to have a go at beeswaxing it instead of painting it with a coat of clear varnish because I have quite a bit of beeswax in my fridge leftover from a previous project. I'll post a pic when it's all finished. So far the cost of this project has been under $10. I'll have to add a few more dollars to the final cost after buying the sandpaper. I did buy a pair of cheap tile cutters for $5 (included in the costing) and they have been very useful. I hope you've enjoyed the process as much as I did. Please feel free to ask any questions or comment below. Thanks for taking the time to read this post, Diana. :D * A few days later now and I've finished! Yay. It turned out so much better than I thought it would. After sanding and waxing and polishing I think I may never make another one (whew was that hard work) but was it worth it? Sure was! I'm loving it. What do you think? This girl who's never used an electric sander in her life created this! The waxing and polishing I did by hand. That was the hardest part of the whole project. Hmmm, now working on a crazy new project idea. I'll let you know how it goes soon.

Having Fun for no Money...

Hello and Happy 2014! Whoa, time has flown by. I haven't made an entry on this blog since August 2013. I wish I could tell you that I've been cruising the Carribean or spent the last few months  in Greece harvesting olives with my family but that'd be dumb. Coz I didn't, sigh. Life just has a way of getting away from you sometimes....

I've decided to let go of the stresses of work for a while and plod around at home,  get some vegies happening in the garden again, work on some new recipes and try my hand at some new crafts.  So here's the problem, no job = no income. :( (sad face).

Being cash poor means learning to be resourceful and if it's one thing I'm good at it's that. (Being resourceful that is, not being poor). My mission has become creating beautiful and  useful things from waste. It makes sense to me. In the last 6 months I've set out to see what I could do for next to no money.

This was my latest project of jazzing up an existing birdbath. I smashed some old tiles that my lovely neighbours had lying around and now I'm totally hooked on mosaics. I did have to pay for the grout ($11) from the local hardware and some grout sealer ($11) but it'll last for many more projects.

 This sweet little snow globe was a Christmas gift I made for a young friend. I had to buy some glitter for this project ($1.50). The turtle I already had from a 'kinder surprise' collection. The sea glass and coral he's propped up on were found at the beach.

 This was my first attempt at mosaics. All done in sea glass on an old photo frame. I already had a tube of silicone so it cost me nothing.

Wind chime, sun catchery thing. Drilled sea glass, copper wire and telephone cable wire stripped and viking knitted. It took a little time but cost was absolutely nil. I actually dug up an old disused telephone cable in the yard, cut it and stripped it. The copper wire I had in the craft room and the sea glass I also had in my collection.

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These sweet bangles I made from the same telephone wires I used for the above project. 

So these are just a few of the things I've been creating in the last 6 months or so and I've got many more to share and many more to make . Hopefully I'll get around to posting a couple of tutorials for you in the future. Hope to see you again soon. Thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to comment. 

Easy Peasy Anti Flu Remedy

Hi there. Although winter's almost over there are still a few yucky flu viruses hanging around. I have a simple all natural remedy that I've used for 20 or so years and have never even caught so much as a sniffle, (touch wood).  My children used to take it on a regular basis and they too swear by it. Be aware though, it's not for the feint hearted. It'll make you sweat. You've gotta be tough to take this stuff.

 I love it because it's easy, all the ingredients are straight out of the pantry and believe it or not you can also use it as a salad dressing if you feel like it. Yep, that's right. It's fabulous on a greek salad!

 ANTIFLU REMEDY



INGREDIENTS

•  2-4 tablespoons cayenne pepper powder 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar (please only use apple cider vinegar, white or brown won't work the same)
• 1 cup boiling water 

METHOD

Grind together the cayenne pepper and salt with a mortar and pestle. Tip into a wide mouthed jar Pour boiling water over the top and stir until it dissolves When it cools, add the vinegar. May be diluted to taste if you wish. That's it. Whenever you feel a cold coming on just take 5-10mls every hour or so. Don't forget to shake the jar before you take some as a sediment will form at the bottom and it will probably be mostly cayenne.

Vinegar and Bicarb Oven Cleaner

Hi there. After looking at my grotty oven for far too long I decided that today was the day to give it a good old fashioned scrub. I'm so totally in love with how vinegar works as a cleaner so I googled 'Vinegar Oven Cleaners'. (Don't you just love google? I don't know what I'd do without it now). I've made so many simply wonderful cleaners with vinegar but this was one I hadn't tried. 

The idea was to mix a paste of bicarb and vinegar, brush it all over the bottom of the oven and then wipe it all off to a sparkly shine. Sounds too easy doesn't it? Hmmmmm.....

First I wiped out the oven with paper towels and got rid of all the charred loose bits of gunk in the bottom. I then sprinkled bicarb in the oven and squirted it  with vinegar that I had put in a spray bottle. I let it  sit and fizz away (about 20 minutes or so) while I cleaned the oven racks with steel wool and lots of muscle. I made a paste for the glass door and smeared it on with my hands.

I probably should've taken a pic of the oven before I started but I was really too embarrassed because it was pretty bad and I didn't want you to think I was a total grot. 

Removing the baked on grime was not as easy as I'd hoped. I started with a toothbrush but gave up on that pretty  early on because that could have taken up a whole year of my life, and I can think of a million other things I'd rather be doing. I opted for the dishbrush and scrubbed as I've never scrubbed before.  It took a whole lot of hard work and in the process  I put my shoulder out. Ouch... (Luckily a friend called in for a visit later on in the day and gave me a lovely massage, thanks Re)...:)

I managed to get the worst of it off and although it still has a few spots on it, it's cleaner than it's been for a long time. I still had the glass door to clean though. OMG!!! I will NEVER leave it that long again. I have  to admit that I used steelwool on the glass (even though I know it's a no no) Even that didn't want to shift it but I perservered and I think I've got it as clean as I can get it now. I've decided that if I  do this once a week, instead of every 6 months it should be a breeze. Well, that's my plan anyway. (We'll see how long that lasts, haha).

At least I didn't  stink the house out with nasty chemicals or have to wear a mask or gloves. Actually, gloves might have been a good idea. My hands are a bit dry but nothing a bit of hand moisturiser won't fix. I love my oven and I use it a lot. In fact I'll be baking in it tonight. And that's the beauty of it. I can pretty much turn it on straight away without that awful burning off smell that you get when you use a commercial oven cleaner. Anyway, here's the final pic. Shiny,a bit spotty but much cleaner. 

If you're not into chemicals give it a go but try to do it before it gets too bad. 

The Rag Rug Bug Bites Hard

Hi guys. I found a little pic in Pinterest not long ago that showed a beautiful rag rug made from a pile of old raggy sheets. I was pretty excited by this and it motivated me to drag out all the old bed sheets I'd stashed away over the years. There were single bed sheets and doona covers that belonged to the children way before they moved into double beds and way way before they moved out of home. I found double bed sheets that are useless now because  ours and the guest room are queen sized beds. I even found a couple of old cot sheets. What fun! I had the goods. Time to start.

Next I had to decide how I was going to put it all together. There's heaps of tutorials out there for rag rugs and I trolled the net for days just looking. I finally found one that I really liked the look of. It was just plaiting right? Plaiting's fun. I can do this. Simple.... I then looked at the pattern  again. Hmmmm, It involved a needle and thread. I'm not keen on the idea  of sewing all those metres of plaited fabric together . I knew right then that at the end of the day I would have long useless coils ( but pretty right?) hanging around the house collecting dust, waiting for the day that I felt like stitching it all together. That day, I know in my heart, will never come.

I see a crocheted rug I really like. Easy, I can crochet can't I? I made a blanket for my baby 25 years ago. It'll come back to me if I find a crochet hook and get started, surely. I find an old hook that I'd bought about 20yrs ago and get started.

I've already torn the sheets into strips, pulled out all the loose threads and rolled it all into balls. That was the most time consuming part. (When I made the first rug I was just knotting the strips together. I've got a much better system now which I'll show you later. ) I started the chain stitch and started putting it together. I didn't really know what I was doing until I got to about the 20th round and didn't add any stitches so it got a bit bumpy in places. I persevered though and managed to make a rather charming and evidently home made circular rug. Oscar just loves it, as you can see.

I made a second one. I tried for an oval which kind of  went weird and turned into a basket. I still had no idea that you need to increase stitches every now and then. Next I made a rectangular one. I love this one but I couldn't get all the edges straight for some strange reason. (Notice the gorgeous patchwork quilt my talented sister made for me. I just love it. )

I've just started another one. This time I'm using a crochet hook that my partner Barry made for me from a piece of 12mm dowel. The texture of the rug is much thicker using a bigger hook but it does use more fabric. I've just about exhausted my supply of sheets so I had to go out to the local recycling tip shop to see what they had.

This was a really awesome way to get what I was after. I found 15 sheets in various colours and it cost me a total of $6!!! I took them home, soaked them in nappysan overnight, washed in the machine as usual and dried them in the sun. I tore them all into strips about 4cm wide and joined them together using a really cool trick (linked below) when making a ball of fabric strips for crocheting.

http://tottietalkscrafts.com/2010/05/13/how-to-make-a-join-in-fabric-strip-yarn-or-tarn/

It's simple, there's no messy knots! Awesome.
I think I've got the hang of it now. I'm actually noticing that when it tightens up a little I just need to increase a few stitches here and there. It actually sits flat. Amazing. Every time I put it down to measure it Oscar sits on it. Here he is biting his bum on it. Charming isn't he?