Market: Kingston Beach Handmade Market

Woops! I was supposed to post this up a week ago, thought I had, and clearly hadn't! Nevermind...

The Kingston Beach Handmade Market is an established makers and producers market that's been running for more than 2 years in the bright and charming Kingston Beach Hall, a stone's throw from the blue water and golden sand of Kingston Beach. Only a 10 minute drive from Hobart city, what better excuse for a Sunday drive on a beautiful summer's day!

The moment I stepped inside the hall, I was greeted by the most amazing smell! It was, of course, the beautiful soy candles, handmade and hand poured by Lily and Charlie. 

In the sweetest jars, these candles are devine, and handmade by such a lovely person too! And with scents like Black Raspberry, Strawberries & Cream, and Mandarin Vanilla Cream (I couldn't resist Lemongrass) there's a scent to suit everyone. And you know what? The thing I love the most about soy candles is that when the candle is finished, its so easy to clean out! Because if you're a candle lover like me you probably have a stash of lovely containers that you can't bear to throw away but the wax is so stuck in the bottom you can't use the container for something else! With soy you simply run under the hot tap and it comes straight out. 

I was so in love with the candles I didn't even take a pic of the awesome jewellery range by Lily and Charlie! So you will have to go to the website to see the rest of the great stuff. 

The market was on the smaller side, being right after Christmas, but the setting is lovely (what a great hall!) and its a market worth the visit for sure!

Weekend Moments

The wild weather on the weekend saw me with the heater on, with a cup of tea snuggling my forever affectionate Zed cat... and some sunshine meant a nice catch up with friends and a bit of a drive as well! The office revamp is coming along nicely, it's so great to be setting up bits and pieces I've been collecting... pics to come soon! 

Oh, the mug in the top corner was a Christmas gift from my mum! I love rabbits, and the grey and turquoise is so me! It's by Ashdene, and the design is called Hedgerow (appropriate, right?!) by Belinda Strong. I love her work, it's so cute - there are other mugs in the collection you can see here. 

Apricots!

Living in a cooler climate means summer is a feast of local stone fruit, and for me, berries and stone fruit are something worth getting excited about. I can't remember if I realised there was an apricot tree in my backyard before or after I purchased my little house, but its definitely one of the things I love about my property and this year has been a particularly bountiful harvest. The thing with fruit is that it's all ripe pretty much at once which means a huge picking effort happened on the weekend!

Even after giving away bucket loads, I still had heaps left over so I popped a sign out the front and sold some to the neighbourhood! 

So my weekend was filled with fruit picking, grading and jam making! Oh I did have time to pop down to another market, which I will tell you about shortly. I have a dream of making a little stand out the front of my house and selling my excess jams, chutneys and other home made creations... maybe that's what my apricot sales money can go towards!

Market Find: Brass Scales

Wasn't the weather on the weekend just magic? I love the hot, muggy feel in the air before a storm, and it was so much fun watching the clouds roll in across the river. 

I decided to kick the year off with a visit to the Sorell Market on Sunday, and met a lovely lady with a great collection of vintage and antique items for sale. I almost didn't ask how much this lovely piece was, but when she mentioned the rock bottom price of $5!!!! I couldn't say no!

When I asked her where the scales come from, she said they lived in her dad's shed for many years. A lot of the items for sale were from her grandparents and dad's years of hording, and although its hard to let good items go, a person just doesn't have the room and after all you always have your memories! I'm glad she told me the story, I couldn't help but think of my own dad and all his collections, and how my sister and I are still wondering where to keep them all...

I couldn't wait to get the scales home for a polish, and posted a sneaky picture on Instagram to try and make everyone guess what my find was! The guesses were great (vase, hookah, candle holder, door knob, barometer!) but no-one guessed correctly!

And here they are all polished up! I love the little enamel flowers, and I think it looks so much better all shiny.

I can't wait to give them a home in my office revamp!

Transforming a step ladder - complete!

A few weeks ago I showed you my step ladder transformation project. I was a bit stuck on what to use as a bedside table in my teeny tiny guest room, until Pinterest inspired me and a little step ladder destined for landfill came my way - for free!

The stool was a little worse for wear and as the bed in that room is a timber finish, I wanted this little guy to be painted.

I would definitely encourage anyone to try a little project like this, it's so much fun, fairly quick and very rewarding! 

First step was to take the stool apart and give everything a sand. Sanding down creates a rougher surface for the paint to adhere to, and if the timber has been varnished you want to get most of that off. It also gives you a good up close and personal look at what you're working with, and if you are a perfectionist (not me) you can patch up holes with putty.

A good orbital sander definitely helps out with a job like this, but there's still plenty of nooks to get in by hand. The grit of sandpaper you use depends on how hard you want to sand the item back. I don't mind things with dents and holes so I just went over with a finer paper.

Next step is undercoat! If you were after a perfect job (see above, not me), you would need to use a stain blocking undercoat first. This will stop the varnish and colour of the timber coming through the paint at a later date. But word of warning! Your perfection comes at a price and that price is, stain blocker is a hard thing to use! I've tried a couple of different brands, and to apply with brush or roller it's stinky (being oil based), dries so quick you don't have time to smooth your brush strokes and is very annoying to clean off your brushes! This stuff comes in a spray in some brands and I would definitely say its worth a go to save the drama.

So this time I used a normal undercoat (one coat). I've found the trick with undercoat is to get your brush strokes all nice and pretty. It saves on sanding later on and makes for a nicer job, and I think its more important than a perfectly even coverage. But that's just me!

I also decided to paint the hinges and bars from the stool in black, as they had marks a sand wouldn't remove. Sometimes however its nice to leave the trimmings the way they are to leave some age on your piece of furniture. After all, you don't want to take away all it's story!

And here it is, complete and in place!

It's a perfect fit, and the pale grey fits in perfectly. 

I have no idea how other people do such a good job of hiding cords in their photos. Photoshop? Cable ties? Fake lamps?

I'm so happy with my little step ladder come bedside table!

Have you ever rescued a piece of furniture? Tell me about it!

Summer Blessings

Wishing you the very brightest Summer Blessings and Happy New Year! It's such a great time of year, isn't it? Here in Hobart the warm weather has settled in, other than the odd rainy day we are sitting around 25 degrees most days which is perfectly fine by me! The best thing about Summer, I think, are the beautiful warm mornings, before the sun is at full strength and one can walk around the garden in short sleeves and bare feet, not a shiver in sight! It sure is perfect weather for appreciating the beauty of Tasmania. 

For me, it's also a time of summer tradition and celebration - celebrating with friends and family, letting people you care about know with thoughtful gifts, and the new year is a great time for reflection, being grateful, and honouring the sun.

I hope you had time to spend with loved ones, have a break from work, and do some of the stuff you love!

I'd also like to say a thank you for everyone who has taken the time to read my blog. I appreciate your support! :)

Through the Lens...

A long, long, loooong time ago I purchased a DSLR Nikon camera. And I kinda thought that simply by having an expensive camera, my pictures were going to start turning out great (silly, I know!) and of course I was very, very wrong!!

So I started reading my manual, and looking through guides on photography, and although I understood what I was reading about shutter speed and aperture, I just couldn't seem to get my head around how to actually apply them! So like a big silly, I put my camera away and continued relying on my phone and instagram to record my life. 

At the start of every year, I sit down and write out a goal list of what I want to achieve in the next 12 months. It's not a serious list - previous years have included "read more books", "make hollandaise sauce from scratch" and "don't stress out if you don't complete everything on this list". Among other things, "learn to use my DSLR camera" has been a constant item on the list, being transferred year to year and never getting crossed off.

I was looking at my list the other day, and realised, this year I have done everything on my list!

I've visited Mount Field National Park...

Admiring the view from the top of the mountain

...I've read more novels...

I'm a late bloomer when it comes to Terry Pratchett, loving the Disc World stories!

...and I have replaced the garden along the front of my home with plants that I like, and that are edible!

I hated these square (!) bushes and boring ground covers!

This is an old photo. The Bay at the front is going really well and the Thyme just along a bit is huge!

Okay, so I might not have gotten any better at jogging. But I have jogged, so technically I haven't gotten any worse. So that counts, right?!

So, how could I possibly finish the year with that one thing left outstanding?! Well, I couldn't. I so I signed up for a course and learnt a thing or twenty.

Making sure an object is straight before snapping away is a good practice...

The results aren't perfect

But I like to think I know a little of what I'm doing

My Turkish Van cat Luna tolerates the camera for a short moment

And I'm fairly sure that practice will make all the difference!

Do you set yourself goals every year? New Years Resolutions? How do you go with completing them?