Greetings lovely friends & readers
This post is written mainly as a record for myself, my sons & grandsons ... & I acknowledge it may be of no interest to anyone else. But I wanted to keep a record of clearing out my family home, as I have a tendency to forget 😉
 |
| Winter Pansies planted in my old trike just yesterday 🖤 |
I was down at Mum's house for 2 weeks emptying it out & cleaning it ready for settlement on March 10th. The new Owner was purchasing it as a rental property & I wanted it presented as "move in ready". I first came to live at No 44 when I was aged 1 so I had 61 years of memories tied up in the house & large section. I expected to feel all sorts of emotions the day I drove away for the final time but I did not feel one iota of sadness whatsoever. Which surprised me to be honest. I felt incredible sadness for my Mum who was lying in bed in a Resthome, just 6 doors away from the house she had lived in for the bulk of her 93 years of life. The morning of settlement I had walked up to visit Mum as I did twice daily, & she had been very frail & incoherant. So I felt a deep sadness over my Mum but certainly not over leaving the property.
My brother had sold quite a bit of Mum's furniture on Facebook Marketplace prior to my arrival so this was my little set-up in Mum's lounge, where I sat for my meals & to do a bit of knitting or reading in the evenings. A cane chair borrowed from my sister in law & a banana box for a side-table. There was nothing else left in the lounge room but this worked just fine.
My brother & I had to be ruthless when it came to Mum's furniture & possessions. We both have small homes & each have houses full of furniture already. So many, many loads went to the 2 Charity Shops that Mum liked - SPCA & Hospice. I kept some things that had sentimental value but even then I was ruthless. Some things I bought home were simply because I could not bear the thought of them going to an Op-shop. Like Mums wedding dress for example - like I would ever fit into it in a zillion years !!! But I kept it.
I certainly do Not need more sewing supplies but I kept Mum's sewing basket (which she made herself) & needlecase, which my Dad sewed himself when he went into the armed services & they all had to make one.
This mohair bear was made by myself a year after Dad died - the pattern is "Old Boy" & that's what Mum used to call Dad. The Granny bear I made for Mum after she fell in love with the pattern - I did not knit the cabled twinset - this was knitted by Mum in very fine wool. Before her eyesight deteriorated Mum was an exquisite knitter.
I have been working on a few revamps of some things I bought home & you can expect to see more over the coming months as I slowly sort my way through things. This table above was "donated to a mate" by my brother, & I promptly undonated it & hid it in my car. It was made from an offcut of formica many years ago & used as a bedside table in Mum's spare bedroom.
I chalk-painted it with cream & then used a lovely green on the top called "Pale Sage". Just to take the plain-ness off a bit, I added a stencil in the same colour as the legs. I gave it a light distress & a wax & it is just THE perfect size.
This concrete statue had sat in Mum's laundry for many years. She had a broken neck as you can see above (cracked right through). She was also a dirty pale lemon in colour.
I filled the cracked neck with some strong adhesive, left it to harden & then chalk painted her in cream. I love how she has come out & you would never know she'd had a broken neck!
The two silver trays above had Australian maps etched into them. Mum used to feed her neighbors cat whenever she went to Australia & these were bought back as thank-you gifts. The larger one had rust spots on it which I sanded off. I cleaned them well & then chalk painted them in cream - I really loved the floral edging on them both.
Then I applied a couple of the left-over transfers from Juno's rabbit suitcase in my last post. I added hangers to the backs & these are now part of my Easter displays.
This cutting board had seen alot of use but I loved the shape of it. Once again painted in cream & then transfers applied. I really like how this turned out too.
I hope to share some of my Easter decorating in my next post. 🐰🐇
Last week I dug an entire tray of worm castings into my raised veggie gardens along with lawn clippings & some compost. I dug them over well & then planted 6 punnets of winter veggies - silverbeet, spinach, broccoli x 2, cauliflower & baby cabbage. I saw cauli's in my supermarket last week for nearly $10 each !!!
While I was outdoors working I picked my gourd harvest. These are one of my most favourite things to grow as it's always a lucky dip what shapes & colours you get. I decided to do some autumn decorating on my deck table as I'd given it a good clean out there.
I washed my gourds & displayed them in my vintage scales .. I am not usually an orange-&-yellow-fan but I just loved these rich warm colours for autumn. 💛🧡
While at the Garden Centre buying my veggie punnets I noticed these celosia plants in autumnal colours so a punnet of those went in my trolley & the Kalanchloe plants were on special so I grabbed one of those too.
Love, love my new display .... & not a cat in sight (Yet!!) 😉🐱
Thank you as always dear friends, for your visits here today,
I am all caught-up now & hope to continue blogging more regularly.
Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week - be kind to yourselves & to each other,
Sending much love & friendship to you all,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x
