Royal Wedding fever

Well, I admit it. I watched the royal wedding and loved it. Loved the dress, loved the Irish Guard uniform, loved everything.

And this is my favourite footage from the day. It sums up the mood perfectly. Hilarious.

Parker Dining Table and Chairs

Our poor Parker dining suite gets the full brunt of the western sun. As a consequence, it needs to be oiled regularly to make sure it doesn't dry out and fade from sun damage.

With the sunroom renovation nearing conclusion, it was time to pay some much needed attention to the table and chairs.

I usually give it a once over with Danish teak oil and some beeswax. This time I tried some Penetrol multi- purpose wood oil. I wanted to achieve a longer lasting finish because it does not take long for the Danish oil and wax to dull - its position in the sunroom does it no favours.

Anyway, so far so good. I dusted the table down and removed all the built up marks before applying the Penetrol. The oil just soaked into the teak. 

I gave it two coats and then an extra aggressive buff with a lint free cloth. 

It looks as good as new for a late 60s dining suite. 

Parker dining table and chairs

close up of the wood grain

Sunroom progress

The extra long weekend has been fantastic for finishing off the sunroom. Dare I say it? It is almost finished.

Sunroom
The study door was rehung to open on the right hand side

We removed the large bookcase which previously lived in this section of the room. It did not work at all in this space but it was worth the try.  It is currently in our downstairs 'gimp' room housing the boys' toys.

We are going to build a bookcase for the separate study to keep our books behind closed doors. Bookshelves on display never look great when our kids are part of the equation. We are paring down in the main living areas.

The walls in the sunroom will be kept free to hang art instead.

Jason also re-hung the study door to open on the right rather than the left. The right hand side is the smaller section of the wall. It will allow better use of the space without a cumbersome door opening onto where our furniture is usually placed.

Sometimes these small changes make all the difference.

Anyway, one more coat of paint on the back and side wall plus two coats of gloss white on the door and we will be nearing the finish line.

The windows are now finished and this entire length of wall is completely done.

Saarinen and Featherston nudes

Our friend Chris who is a photographer is undertaking an art project. The concept is simply a series of individual nudes juxtaposed with iconic mid-century chairs. The photographs he has taken so far in the project are amazing.

One of my favourites is of a heavily pregnant woman posing alongside a Descon Kone chair. Her roundness mimicked perfectly the round form of this fabulous mid-century Australian chair.

A very brave Jason is the first male in the series to be photographed; his shots were taken on the weekend.

I tagged along to get some behind-the-scenes shots and to offer my two cents worth regarding the poses. "Give us your Blue Steel, Jason!"

The shots I took worked out well (if I do say so, myself). They also offer a small insight into a thriving Brisbane arts community, where people like Chris are constantly thinking and creating, no matter how big or small, for the sake of art itself. His chair series may never see the light of day...

Chris will show us his proofs next week, as he still uses film for his studio shots. Considering, Jason has a world wide following, it would be downright negligent of me not to share some of these shots with you.

Please enjoy.

A little bit of make-up before the shoot

Jason with Featherston Contour series chair in leopard skin.
The chair was being carried like a surfboard in this shot.

Posing with Eero Saarinen Grasshopper chair.
Most of the photographs were taken with the Grasshopper chair.

This is actually my favourite pose out of all the shots. Contemplative and at one...

Easter Decorating

With all the electioneering that had been going on around here, I completely forgot to attend to our Easter decorating.

It is too late to make decoupage eggs or crochet little woollen egg garlands; our local florist has closed up shop too.

And suddenly I remembered what we have hanging in our lounge room all year round - two art deco Stations of the Cross, salvaged from an old church. We have Numbers 10 and 14.

Vintage Stations of the Cross #10

Vintage Stations of the Cross #14

They are very tall and heavy; the intricately carved timber frames are just beautiful. I originally wanted the pieces to hang in our bedroom, but Jason hastily vetoed that suggestion. The lounge room was our default position.

Interestingly, they are a great conversation piece and I personally like how they instantly aggravate a guilty conscience in every lapsed Catholic who enters our home...

So, I guess you could say our Easter decorating is sorted.

Happy Easter!

The Concession Speech

Friends!

(Visualise that my arms are raised above my head and I am shushing the vociferous audience...of three dirty children and an overweight budgie.)

Sssh! Friends, please!

Well may we say God Save the Queen, because nothing will save (not even the Nuns at Nundah) the Fun and VJs Best Australian Blog 2011 Campaign. (apologies to Gough)

My friends, it is with a heavy heart that I write this post. We fought hard during this week of blood thirsty campaigning, but there comes a time when we must acknowledge when our good work is done.

And so, this evening I tweeted my opposition to congratulate them on their victory and to wish them well leading the Australian Blogging Community into 2011.

Although we do not see eye-to-eye on matters of blogging, I am confident that their head and heart is in the right place to steer this great blogging nation into prosperity.

I am deeply disappointed with the result, however I am not disappointed with my indefatigable team.

My Campaign Manager, MMMC who believed strongly in the dream. I thank you.

Kerry for her role in knitting campaign leg warmers. I thank you.

Mr Rooney, our loyal builder, for wearing his shorter-than-short shorts to acquire the nun vote. Good on ya'!
(check out how far his loyalty will go here)

To my dear Jason, who suffered terribly at the hands of the nudie run paparazzi....I say to you now with tears welling in my eyes, we will rebuild our lives together. We will continue to renovate the Sow's Ear to its former glory. Our hearts will go on and on and on.

And of course to you my dear readers for putting up with such buffoonery this last week. I pledge to you that I will never, ever, enter another blogging competition I know I will lose. He...he...he!

To that end, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy, safe and restful Easter.

Good night!

P.S Oops! I forgot to put a list of the finalists as judged by the panel. Click here. The People's Choice is still open until next week.
PPS And I just found the perfect image for this post!

Our back door and Miranda Kerr

Vale to our distressed back door.

The inside of the back door is white. And check out the new pane of glass in the windows. It is the clean one.

It is now white.

Who is our major competition in the Best Australian Blog Competition 2011?

Given the scandalous events of the past 24 hours, Make mine Mid-Century compiled a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of our Blog-go, Brismod-a-go-go campaign. She's a savvy one, I grant you that.

She idenitified our major threat; our main rival in the competition. It's Aussie super model, Victoria's Secret Angel, founder of KORA Organics and author of Treasure Yourself, Miranda Kerr. (She is also married to Orlando Bloom)

Yep. I am not kidding...for once.

Arrogantly, I wasn't paying too much attention to our rivals. I am now. That's a pretty major threat. Sadly, our campaign morale has gone from rooster to feather duster.

Miranda Kerr image from here
So far, her blog has 100+ votes

Brismod
So far, her blog has a handful of votes

I jumped onto Miranda's blog and read that they were nominated 13 000 times. Oh dear. I stopped myself from leaving a comment saying you only need to be nominated once to be in the running...and you could self-nominate too. Bleh!

But that would be petulant.

My friends, please don't think this will be the end of us. Team Fun and VJs is up for the challenge. It will mean we have to bring out the big guns. We will be putting our campaign efforts into full throttle.

Jason said he'll come out of hiding and face the music about the ikea nudie run in 1996. Tracy Grimshaw's producer has been calling non-stop for a tell-all interview. There could be some Jason tears. And we'll quash those rumours about Jason's secret wife in New England. (Thanks for the heads up about that rumour Jo!)

Is there anything else we could do to pip Miranda at the post for the Best Australian Blogs 2011 People's Choice Award?

Barkcloth cushion and Best Australian Blogs scandal

A groovy new cushion led Son #1 to clean up his room. Hallelujah!

He sorted his toys and books, threw out old school work and removed all the forgotten bits and pieces he had stored under his bed. We can now confidently walk into his room without trampling on a colony of Storm Troopers.

Groovy barkcloth cushion (are they Roman horses or Greek?) with new polka dot pillow case

Keeping it real with the crinkly covers.

The new cushion cover was a gift from Jo at Desire to Inspire. Vintage Roman/Greek horses on barkcloth. It looks fantastic. Thanks Jo!

As you can see, I also got my package of polka dot cushions a few weeks ago. They have worked out brilliantly and I would be happy to recommend them if you were looking for affordable polka dots.

Day Four of the Australian Best Blogs Competition 2011

It is day four of the Campaign and all is not looking well.

My Campaign Manager, Make Mine Mid Century has been busy strategising, but her good work could all be for nothing...We could not have prepared for the breaking-as-I-type scandal.

Yes, you heard. A scandal.

Apparently some old pictures of dear Jason have emerged on the Internet. It's just dreadful timing.

This is not the forum to go into the specifics. Let's just say photographs of an alcohol-fuelled nudie run through ikea in the late 90s have somehow managed to rear their ugly head.

I now understand why Jason is always reluctant to accompany me to ikea! Oh the embarrassment! It makes Kevin Rudd's strip club adventures look positively tame.

Jason has ceased all go-go dancing lessons and has gone into hiding. If the media get whiff of this, I would suggest our certain victory is looking less certain.

This is a time when we need to bunker down and focus on policy, policy, policy. How will we get the popular vote to win Best Australian Blog 2011?

Glazing casement windows

If you can make things with play dough then you can glaze a timber casement window, according to our Latin-speaking builder, Mr Rooney.

It is so true. Jason replaced a couple of panes of glass on some windows and it was probably the easiest job he's ever had to tackle at the Sow's Ear.

Jason removing the windows.
I told him to take off his shirt because no one would recognise him otherwise, but he didn't listen. He said he was busy...

The first task was to take the windows off its hinges and remove all the old putty and broken glass.

The measurements of the replacement glass was just right, allowing a few millimetres gap on each side of the space.

Glass fitted into the casement window. Checking to see if the size is right. The glass is fitted into the window via the external facing side

This was the moment of truth for me because I was the one who measured the windows and ordered the glass. Phew! Can you imagine the grief I would've gotten if I had stuffed that up?

A bed of Special Putty was laid around the window rebate. The putty is linseed oil based and similar in texture to plasticine.

We used special putty. It costs about $24 for a large tub from the hardware store.

Putty is used to keep the glass in place.

Jason centred the glass onto the bed of putty and made sure it was a snug fit. Another layer of putty was moulded around the glass to seal it in; fingers were used to spread the putty out. Hi-tech we are not.

Afterwards Jason used his 'blunt as his knob' chisel to smooth out the putty, running it along the edges to remove the visible finger indentations.

Smoothed out putty on the casement windows. You can see the excess of putty on the underside of the glass

Some putty oozed out onto the internal facing side of the windows. Jason used his BAHK chisel again to remove the excess. We let the window putty dry out for a couple of hours before re-installation.

The windows are up and they look great. You'll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take a photograph before it got too dark this afternoon!

P.S Thank you to everyone who has voted in the Best Australian Blog 2011 competition. We are still campaigning strongly spreading the Blog-go, Brismod-a-go-go message.

Jason's been practising intensive go-go moves as part of the effort. He's modelled himself on the shirtless dancers in this clip. Too funny.

The campaign trail

Yes, it's election time at the Sow's Ear. We've hit the campaign trail for the Best Australian Blog 2011 competition.

You'll be pleased to know, I've appointed Make Mine Mid Century as my Campaign Manager. We've already think-tanked the all important campaign theme: Blog do, Brismod do. (Our apologies to Campbell Newman). The mid century version is Blog-go, Brismod-a-go-go.

As well a being a great political strategist, MMMC comes equipped with a selection of cute kids to choose from and I will borrow her baby for the supermarket walk-throughs. Cute babies equals winner.

After thoroughly analysing the Neilsen data, I concluded the Cougar segment of the population is very influential at the polls. As such, If I Can Turn Back Time by Cher was selected as our theme song; shirtless Jason is our mascot. He is having intensive go-go lessons this week-end.

The Cougar strategy is two-pronged - we hope to win the gay vote too. Jason consenting to a chest and back wax impinges on our success.

Mr Rooney, our enigmatic builder, is part of the team. He will lobby the Nuns at Nundah for their support. Unfortunately, Holy Week is their busiest time of year. However, I believe Mr Rooney could distract them momentarily to get their vote, if he wears his short builder's stubbies.

I personally will court the Seniors' vote. The local nursing homes in our area will allow me to conduct internet tutorials for this largely ignored segment. I will help every resident practise internet voting skills on the Best Australian Blog Competition site. Computer literacy is a vital life skill in this day and age.

Working on my policies is the gruelling part. I fully appreciate how our PM Julia Gillard must feel. I need a winning policy platform. What do you think of this one? No Australian child blogger will live in poverty by 2020.

I know it's been done before, but I actually intend to deliver on this promise.

I'll be approaching Kerry from A Tranquil Townhouse to act as my Merchandising Manager. I hope she will rally a Granny Square Army to crochet and knit Brismod-a-go-go leg warmers. We're going for the indie/etsy vote and will be yarn bombing a street corner near you.

Typically, it's all about image when it's election time. I'm thinking of recruiting Faux Fuchsia to be my Stylist and Time Manager. If she can look immaculately groomed immediately after giving birth and still cook for a troop of people, then I need her on my team. Hell, everyone needs her on their team!

At the very least, she could impart some tips about touching up my mani.

As always, the international community has been watching my progress with interest.  My people on the ground in Canada, Germany, France, Ireland and New Zealand are mobilising computers ready for voting as I type. It's truly a global campaign.

And in breaking news, my Facebook friend numbers have jumped to 15. Things are looking up at Team Fun and VJs. It's too early to call the vote just yet, but according to the early indicators, we could very well be a shoo-in...

Now all of you, get a move on because the voting link for the Best Australian Blog 2011 is open. Vote HERE.

Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition

You can't believe how thrilled I am to be nominated for Best Australian Blogs 2011.

The feeling to have such an  honour bestowed upon this little blog is just indescribable.

Never mind the fact that I nominated myself for the award. It is still an honour to be up there with the very best of the Australian blogosphere.

I know you guys were always intending to nominate me. After a few weeks when there was no email from the Sydney Writers' Centre notifying me of my nominee status, I bit the bullet and saved you all the trouble.

I get it. Life can become busy and sometimes you just forget to acknowledge one of your favourite bloggers.  Y'know, ME.

When it comes to the voting process for the People's Choice Award, I've got it covered. Jason promised he'd vote for me at work every single day that the voting is open. He said he will desk hop and use his colleague's computers too. Love that man to bits.

I'll also be visiting the Brisbane City Council Library religiously for their free internet access and voting on your behalf at each computer terminal.

I've always derived inspiration from elections where candidates receive 1200 votes from 1000 registered voters. Those candidates who go that extra mile get my vote, especially if I don't even have to go to the ballot box...

My Facebook mates will no doubt answer the call. If all 13 of them vote, I should be in with an excellent chance. I'm debating about whether I should tweet about it; I suspect it could become a one-horse race if I do. How unfair would that be?

I don't think I will have much chance with the judging panel though, since I haven't slept with any of them. They are probably legit and will be mainly looking at the quality of writing in this blog.

Lets' hope they turn a blind eye to the rogue apostrophe's, not goodly grammer and poor staccato-like sentence structure. The grand prize is a writing course. God knows, it would go to a worthy cause, if I happen to win.

What's the bet a very good writer wins the writing course...isn't that like Miss Universe winning plastic surgery? How much better can they get?

If I win, I'll use the prize to commence work on my autobiography My Life with VJs; my children's book Mr Rooney Renovates with Jason; my Fun and VJs cook book 4 Stale Ingredients; and pictorial coffee table book Shirtless Jason. Given that sex sells, the wordless pictorial book will be a a huge success.

And then we'll make that movie.

Arctic glass for casement windows

Cracked glass is not a good look. And we are sporting such a look in the sunroom. A couple of window panes were accidentally broken during installation. Ooops!

I've been hiding the cracked glass in my photographs of the sunroom.  But there is only so long we can keep up the façade of perfect windows. I know, the shame.

Now that painting in the sunroom is nearly finished, the glass has to be replaced.

I called a large window replacement company which quoted us $300 to have someone replace two medium sized panes of glass. After receiving that quote, I mentally delegated the entire job to Jason.

He's a handy kind of a chap...Why can't he do it?

I rang a second place called Decorative Glass which is a family owned business established in 1921 and based in West End. They sell Arctic Glass  - the obscure patterned glass which is typically used in old Queenslander windows.

I ordered two panes of glass to fit the measurements of the windows. I measured twice. Actually, three times, just to be on the safe side.

The guy at Decorative Glass said I needed to measure the windows from the outside and take about 4mm off each measurement to ensure an easier fit. He said most windows are not square so taking off a little more would ensure they wouldn't crack during installation.

Total cost of the glass: $33.

If you peer into the background of this image, you will see one of the windows boarded up with ply. Ha!

This weekend, Jason will install the glass using some trusty window putty. I hope he's reading this. This blog is like his to-do list!

Featherston chair

Sit down in the lotus position and use your best meditation voice as you read.

Omm. The Featherston chair that I plan to buy is equivalent to Jason buying a swish suit.
Omm. The Featherston chair that I plan to buy is equivalent to Jason buying a swish suit.
Omm. The Featherston chair that I plan to buy is equivalent to Jason buying a swish suit.

That's the mantra I am practising to help alleviate the guilt when my Featherston chair arrives in the not too distant future.

A310 H chairs
The armless chair is ours

Yes, that's right. There's an A310 H Grant Featherston occasional chair  earmarked for our bedroom, waiting to be reupholstered by Colin the Upholsterer. It is very exciting.

We chose a dark green fabric in a wool tweed which will work well in our bedroom.

I am buying the chair off my friend Chris, who collects Featherstons. The chair, which is a Space dining chair designed in 1953, is surplus to his needs, as he's branching out into Robin Day designed furniture from the UK. Wouldn't you love to have that predicament?

It's a nice little chair to add to our collection of Australian made furniture and look, Jason would just splurge on another swish suit if I don't get in before him.

The chair will be a very late birthday gift from Jason and it will give me an inordinate amount of pleasure.

Jason's mantra:
Omm. Buy the f*cking chair and stop whingeing about my suits.
Omm. Buy the f*cking chair and stop whingeing about my suits.
Omm. Buy the f*cking chair and stop whingeing about my suits.

The Sow's Ear in print

As promised, here is the print ad in which the Sow's Ear was the back drop. It was featured in today's Sunday Mail.

It was a really interesting day when they came out to shoot. I tried to stay out of the way as much as possible which was difficult since I am such a sticky beak.

The producers of the ad arrived first thing in the morning. They set up under one of our carports and had access to our downstairs toilet and laundry sink for the talent and crew to use while they were here.

It was a very painless process for us and we really would not have known they had set up camp at our place for over two hours. They organised refreshments from a local coffee shop which is literally a two minute walk from our place.

This is a back view of the pose in the ad.  I was looking out the front entry lattice when I took this photo.

Lizzie the Director was the liaison person on the day. She was fabulous. I think I thought that because she told me her cat shared the same name as Son #3. Same middle name too.

We're watching #3 closely for fur balls now.

The crew packing up under the carport where they had set up camp

After the shoot, I signed all the relevant paper work and found out the producers were mad keen Art Deco collectors. Don't you just love meeting interesting people who collect things?

So there you have it. We finally got an ad. Thanks Qld Film Locations! It was really fun.

I like that the Sow's Ear has been captured in print and that we have something tangible to pop into our house history file.

Brisbane mid century house snippet in Inside Out Mag

Our good friend Chris had a small snippet about his home published in the latest Inside Out Magazine. It is always so exciting when someone you know is in one of these magazines.

Chris is an avid mid century chair collector. He concentrates on mainly Australian furniture with a smattering of English and Danish design interspersed into the mix. 

snippet from Inside Out Magazine

Chris's home is a testament to the value of saving Brisbane's mid century houses. When he and his partner, Susan, bought the modernist house a few years ago, the previous owners had done a poorly thought out Tuscan renovation. Remember when it was all the rage in the 90s?

Anyway, the house looked like sh*t. And a few people thought they were mad to buy the house at the time.

Fast forward to now, you'd never know there had been anything remotely Tuscan desecrating the highly modern home. Although some of the original features could not be reinstated, the home is now a better reflection of the architect's intent when it was originally built in 1961. 

Mid century house in Brisbane
image courtesy of here

We got the ad!

It was a nervous, nail-biting wait near the phone...No, not really but I did double time it to the phone when it rang last night.

And yes, it was the call back to say our front fence made the grade for the print ad (i.e crappy enough).

The Sow's Ear was a hive sty of activity with all the photographs taken early this morning. The ad campaign is scheduled to appear in the newspapers this weekend.

All in all, it was a very good experience - the ad producers could not have been any nicer.

Our mismatched front fence. Jason may or may not repaint it. It hardly seems worth it...what would you do?

Also, our celebrity front fence did extremely well to withstand the touch of a paint brush without collapsing. Thank goodness for paint and habit!

No doubt, this will probably be the fence's last hurrah before we demolish it. We don't want it to get too big for its boots and develop a diva-like attitude, do we?

Front fence in an ad?

One of the most unattractive parts of the Sow's Ear may be in a print advertisement - our dilapidated front fence.

Front fence  under the lychee tree

Termite eaten and rotting front fence.
Wood straight into dirt is a recipe for termites

Nat Duncan from Queensland Film Locations called me this morning to give me the heads up that we are on the short list for the print ad.

We'll find out in the next hour or so whether we get the gig. I don't know all the details about the ad but the premise of the photo shoot is a family painting our front fence. Let's hope they do a good job...Maybe I'll get them to finish the sunroom while they're at it!

I'm going to have to warn them not to paint too hard or else the fence may fall down. As Mr Rooney, our wise builder, usually says about dodgy structures, "All that's keeping that together is paint and habit."

It is so funny that Jason works and slaves to make this house look fantastic, but clearly it's the crappy parts of the Sow's Ear which are most in demand in the advertising world.

Not that I'm complaining, because the extra cash from the ad would be very handy and we can put it towards the renovations. Or maybe Jason can treat himself to a new suit?

I'll keep you posted.

The iittala collection is growing

The iittala textured glass collection is growing steadily.

I added two of the four ring Festivo candleholders to the growing 'family' in January. They were an 'inexpensive for ebay' purchase to celebrate my birthday. Any excuse, really.

Finnish glass collection

Last week my Ipswich booty from Jo included one small Ultima Thule dessert bowl, a small cream jug, sugar bowl and the Arnica vase, all designed by Tapio Wirkkala. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement!

Iittala Ultima Thule bowls

And on the weekend I bought a large Ultima Thule bowl from my regular supplier of all things vintage.

It feels like 1969 at my place as the kitchen shelf glistens and sparkles in Finnish style.

Reno Hard

I've scrapped the original Arthouse theme for the Fun and VJs movie.

Apologies to the Die Hard franchise.

Inspired by a comment from Jo here.

Fun and VJs: The movie

Today I went to Boolarong Press, which is a small publishing house in Brisbane, with a friend who is thinking about self-publishing a book.

It was just a general presentation about what is involved in publishing and how to get your manuscript 'out there'. The talk touched upon book distribution, contracts, the printing process and about epublishing - a very interesting seminar for my friend.

Since I was just an imposter, I had prepared a story if anyone questioned me about my presence at the seminar. Being there for moral support wouldn't be a terribly exciting thing to say.

So, I said I was working on Fun and VJs: The Book. Yeah, I did.

I worked out the storyline - youngish couple renovating an architectural treasure that is the Sow's Ear.  You know... the drama, the conflict, the elation and the heartbreak. Of course, there would have to be an alternating historical flashback story with the original owner Zoila Stables.

The publisher talked about never signing away the movie rights if you had a small run of your work published. Movie rights? That made me think of Fun and VJs: The Movie.

When I came home this afternoon, I told Jason all about it. He's such a wannabe celebrity. As quick as a flash, he said that Jason Statham should play him.

I said, "Who?" And then I googled this mysterious actor.

Jason driving to work in the new car

Quite frankly, the only thing Jason shares with Jason Statham, apart from the first name, is the hair line. And maybe the suit...unless we use the shirtless shot below.

Jason just about to punch a nail in

Jason said that Catherine Zeta-Jones would play me. What the?

Hmmm...me?

A generous cleavage would be the only thing that Catherine and I have in common. Oh and the dark hair. Now I know who Jason thinks about when he is with me...

Mr Rooney

Hugh Laurie was my inspired choice to play Mr Rooney, our favourite builder, but without the facial growth as Mr Rooney is always immaculately clean-shaven. Like Hugh in the image below.

Clean-shaven Mr Rooney

Hugh is tall and lanky like Mr Rooney and has an acerbic wit which is essential for the role.

A young Judi Dench would play our generous patron of mid-century homewares, Jo from Desire to Inspire. Actually the similarities are quite uncanny...and they both have beautiful voices.

Jo wondering if she needs to keep the iittala collection

Katherine, from theoldboathouse, was very hard to cast. I thought Meryl Streep would be the only one to capture the complexities of the woman whom we know as Katherine.

Katherine at an estate sale

And Zoila Stables must be played by Helena Bonham Carter.

What I imagine Zoila would've looked like

Now, my dear readers, since you are the main reason why I am still blogging, you all get a walk-in role! Which actor would play you in my future blockbuster movie?


P.S I have a feeling Fun and VJs will go straight to DVD if it were ever made.

Two thirds of the sunroom is white

The sunroom: a work in progress

Seriously, I feel like you guys are watching paint dry when I post images of the agonisingly slow progress in the sunroom.

But this is real time DIY painting/renovating while living in the Sow's Ear with a young family. We are no Speedy Gonzales', that's for sure.

At least you know what we are up to this fine weekend in Brisbane...

Retro Parker dining chairs from the early 70s

I took a photograph of some of our green Parker chairs against the white walls. The original wool fabric and 'teaky' goodness literally jump out at you when you see them.

It gives us a taste of how our retro furniture will look when the room is finished.