In praise of baskets -and tips on how to buy them

I love to browse op shops for things that are both beautiful and practical, and none are more beautiful and practical than cane baskets. All of these have been found in op shops, and I have not spent more than about $10 on any one of them. I have quite a number now, and don't yet see the need to stop collecting them yet. Nothing screams "simple living" than a basket actually being used. If I were a social media influencer this post would contain a picture of me in a floppy hat and a frilly dress, with a basket hooked over my arm, in my garden whilst I harvest flowers or something.

Instead I use them in the following ways:

This is my library basket. It is strong and sturdy and feels great when carried. I can keep my library books near my chair and pick it up and carry it away if I want to go and get more books! 

This is the laundry recycling station. We have laundry baskets, flat baskets for drying seeds, baskets to take the recycling to the bin, and baskets to corral the scrap paper for the compost. 

There is nothing like a good sturdy basket to take to the garden to pick your own fruit. 

But if you have too much fruit, you need a basket to put some out on the verge to enable neighbours to help themselves. 

And if your seed is dry, you need a basket to hold the seed heads while you separate the seed from the husks. 

When not storing fruit,  baskets can hold dried flowers or your keys.

They hold toys for grandchildren. 

They keep spare parts for quilting.

They cover plastic plant pots. 

They fill the space at the top of bookcases in a decorative way, whilst waiting for another task. 

A few tips for buying baskets:

1. Set them on a level surface and see if they stand upright without wobbling or looking wonky. Wonky baskets are very hard to correct.

2. The handle needs to be securely attached if you might want to use it to hold heavy things. I have been able to reglue a few handles which were coming unstuck, but each basket seems to have its own way of attaching the handle to the base, and you need to look carefully to see if it is repairable. I have one basket which I repaired by wrapping with string, and it is still going strong. 

3. I can make do with a basket that has a tiny break in the cane weave, but not if it affects its ability to hold the contents securely

4. Fashion will tell you that you need your basket to have a washed out French grey look, and I have seen people spray painting them to get that look. Personally I think the golden brown shades of cane to be universally acceptable. 

5. If a basket has been damp and has a mouldy look or smell , you may be able to resurrect it (non-food storage only) by spraying it with a teaspoon of clove oil mixed with a litre of water, and sprayed on the can very thoroughly, then dried in the sun. I have one that I gave this treatment to, and it is still very useful to take Nanna's supplies of games and toys when I go babysitting. Note: our grandchildren are too old to put things in their mouths! 

6. Always buy them second hand or in charity shops! The price is very much discounted there. 

7. Consider picnic baskets - but take out the inner loops which were made to hold utensils- you will then have a very sturdy basket for other purposes.

8. Don't carry a basket close to your clothes if you are wearing a loose weave fabric which may snag on a bit of cane which is sticking out a tiny bit. 

Do you love baskets too? 

 

Is that rain? and other adventures

Apparently Western Australia was in a 'heat bubble" with unseasonably warm temperatures in late April and early May. We had had lovely warm days of about 25C with cooler nights, but worryingly, very little rain at all. Finally about a week ago, the rain started to fall!

I was harvesting limes, grapefruit, tangelos and limes, and still hand watering the snow peas and garlic I planted expecting winter rains. I still have so much citrus at this time of the year, and often I offer it to neighbours for their use. 

DH made a lime chutney but was disappointed in it -he thought the skins should have been softer after cooking. We left it in the jar for several months, and have discovered that now it is exceptionally yummy! 

Our 3 year old passionfruit vine has finally started fruiting. I grew it up over the dead lemon in the front garden, bordering our neighbours' driveway, so we are all getting excited to see the large round fruit appear. I check it every day to see the fruits change from green to yellow, when they will be ripe. It has been too many years since we had our own fresh passionfruit. 

This beautiful view of King George Sound's entrance is from nearly a week we had away in Kinjarling Albany -our favourite place for a holiday, 5 hours south of Perth. We had a really really good time. Due to the late winter, it was warm and sunny most days and while it is a worry for farmers, I have to admit it was a lovely time for us. 

I found this original watercolour of a beach shack on Wadjemup Rottnest island, in the op shop. I really love it!  We are gradually filling up the wall space over the sofa bed with a gallery of original paintings.

The autumn weather has brought seasonal flowers in our native vegetation: banksia and eucalypts in particular. 

I have been pleased with the roses in my garden which have enjoyed the autumn weather and put on a nice show of blooms, too. I am trying to put more perennials in my front garden so that there is a more full, abundant look out there. 

So glad to have a warm and comfortable home for the winter season, so grateful to have some rain at last! This is Dora who loves to sit on quilts, and will seek them out if they are available anywhere in the house. 

Thanks for visiting! 

How to decorate and refresh without shopping

I love being creative-I quilt, I garden and cook, and I decorate. I love to change things around inside my home -a shelf or  a mantle might get cleaned off and a new collection of items put there to entice the eye and the brain.

As someone who loves living simply, I try to do this without following decorating trends or buying new things. If you can make your house a home even if there is not a lot of money, you are on a budget or just sick of shopping, are there any things you can do to decorate and refresh? 

Well the first thing I try to make myself do is just tidy up!

It always surprising how a clean floor and a bit of dusting and straightening makes everything feel calmer and nicer. The same goes for opening windows to let fresh air inside, and cleaning up pet clutter. The cat tray is a mega issue for my happiness unless it is fresh. I think Dora prefers it that way too! 

I am quite conscious of things which are out of place and find it hard to work or relax in cluttered spaces. This is not true of everyone who lives in my house, but as it bothers me they are usually pretty good at putting things away, and I reckon that if it bothers me and not them, it is up to me to fix it. 

Long time ago I found help from Flylady and her cleaning routines. I actually read her book which I got from the library! We were parents of young children and both had to work long hours. The house was so messy that when we had a break in and the police came, I had to say "No, they didn't trash the place, it always looks like this'. Embarrasing much? 

Flylady mottos and practices are still part of my life. A five minute pickup does make things better. Cleaning your sink and making your bed does calm the space and help you feel in control. "Focus makes you fabulous".  Lately I have found Dana K White's podcast "A Slob Comes Clean" is very useful too. 

Apart from tidying up, which has its own real and cheap magic to perform what can you do?

A LIST OF STRATEGIES

1. Instead of buying cut flowers

If you look at online decorators blogs you will find plants and flowers feature in the inspirational photos. Flowers cheer any space up, but there are only a few times when I am certainly going to spend $35 on a bunch of supermarket flowers. Instead I do the following things:

• bring in a pot plant for a few days -some of them stay if they like the space, others need a long time outside and a few days inside 

• cut some green leaves and stick them in a vase or jar or pot or anything. If you have only a few pieces, they can go in a tiny vase or an eggcup or a medicine bottle. 

• go for a walk and collect some sticks and dead branches or seed heads to spread on a shelf 

• Use local flowers, seeds and cones that you find in your garden. In Western Australia it is a crime to take these from the bush, but we can have lovely things at home in our garden, like this hardenbergia growing over a stump of a dead tree in my garden. 

• Make one or more crafted flowers-and have fun at the same time!

• raid the collection of fake flowers -do you have any? I keep some in the cupboard and mix them up with real leaves -they look more realistic that way. In my climate there are times when flowers are hard to come by in the garden- the height of summer, for example, when the heat browns everything off. Fake flowers or dried flowers can fill a gap -but I don't leave them out until they are dusty! A swish in warm water will revive silk ones, but dried ones need to be taken outside and given a shake. Moving them around makes them feel different too. 

• Use fruit instead. Bright lemons, green olives in a wooden bowl or basket, anything you have. 

2.  It is dark in here!

Natural light is one of those things that architects get good money for designing into a space. You can't do much if it is dark and dreary outside, or if your house faces to a blank wall, without expensive alterations. Here are some ideas which are cheaper than those major changes:

• Open the curtains or blinds to the maximum they will go. I am shocked how often people live without even noticing the free light which they could have if only they pushed everything up, away and against the wall. This might include re-arranging furniture to maximise the light from a window. If there is foliage in the way outside, time to prune it down! I don't like furniture to block natural light if it is at all possible to put it somewhere else. 

• Check where you can encourage light to bounce from outside to inside. We had a dark brown floor on our entry porch, but when we tiled it with left over white tiles, the afternoon sun bounced off the tiles, to the porch ceiling and into our dark loungeroom. It was also safer to come up to the house because the step was easier to see. A colourbond shed in the garden shines light into our kitchen and brightens things out there. 

• Mirrors can bounce light around -try putting one in a place where it can collect light from a nearby window and push it towards the dark space.

• Add table lamps -I often get mine from op shops or the tip shop. Maybe add a nice shade if it is worth it. Fitted with a LED globe they are cheap to run.

• Can you make a colour change to something lighter? Cushions, rugs and curtains are not too hard to move around and some of them can be home made too. They can brighten a space. 

3. I am bored and this place feels tired 

Sometimes I just need novelty! What I do then is fall back on the old 'move things around or shop at home" to make a tablescape. The above is one I made around Halloween -a book I already owned, a couple of lanterns from the garden, a  gargoyle from the op shop and some magpie feathers found in the park. Other ideas include- 

• move pictures from one room to another 
• move the furniture around 
• put music on, open the windows, light a candle
• Choose a theme land make a tiny vignette on a table or shelf. You don't need to wait for a large holiday -if you have a collection of woodland animals, or cats, or a stack of quilts- put them somewhere new and admire them again. 

• Cook something nice and make the house feel welcoming! 

FINALLY! 

Recently I wanted to do my refresh thing and came up with a theme of "Mad scientist's Victorian library". I already had leather lounge chairs, book cases, and a mantle piece with an old clock. I raided my collections for wooden boxes for the mantle and bottles that looks like I have been collecting nature specimens.

I cleared off the console and added beautiful books, a book stand and a globe which I found in an op shop. All of this makes me happy! 

I will probably change this around again soon. Maybe for Halloween? 

Hope you found this post helpful to inspire you to keep your place looking nice too. 

Day bed gets its first overnight occupant

We have an old 1970s house and so, among its 'features" is a nook in the lounge room which was designed to be a bar. Yes, really -a bar! Drink bottles and a counter and such I guess. 

Don't know if anyone ever used it as such. We are the third family to live here. We have used it as a computer area for a while, and then when we were given DH's dad's piano, it found its home here in the nook.

Now that the DS and the DDILaw have just built their dream home complete with  a Music Room so I felt it was time for the piano to go to a new home. The musician son and grand daughter will certainly appreciate it.

What should the nook in the lounge room now be used for?  Well, we gave it some thought. We have been using a folding bed in DH's study for when the grandchildren come for a sleepover, and I thought we could perhaps have a daybed in the nook for them to use. It should be easier for us, as there will be no dragging the folding bed in and out of the shed, to set it up each time. It should be more comfortable for them. 

Here is the daybed in situ. Getting it here required a number of steps:

1. Moving the piano -specialist removalists required

2. Cleaning the floor where the piano had been

3. Chucking out stuff and tidying bookshelves -this was quite an operation!

4. Finding the bed we liked and could afford, and ordering it

5. Buying an nice mattress. 

6. Buying new sheets and pillows

7. Building the bed after it was delivered. DH and DD made it together, even though DH is still recovering from his second Knee Replacement.

8. Making the bed and decorating with pillows and stuff

I must say, though, that it is a lovely thing to lie on with a book and a rug! It won't be just used for the guests. This is a lovely space. 

 

Our cat thinks it a bit nice, too.

This week it was school holidays and the DGson came for a sleepover. He announced next day that it was 'the best bed I have ever slept on!".

There is a bit of work left to do. Most of the pillows on the bed in the photo were pinched from other places in the house. I am recovering from bursitis, but gradually will be making new cushions for the bed, using pillows found in opshops, when the shoulder improves. 

We are happy with this new feature in our loungeroom. 

Festive thoughts from our place to yours

 

One of the major factors in our Aussie Christmas season is the weather -if it is not bringing fire or floods it is most probably hot. Some people ignore the heat, and continue the northern hemisphere traditions of hot roasts and gravy and pudding. Often we sing carols from the other side of the world -about snow and frost.

When I found myself, as a young wife, away from the family traditions, DH and I decided we didn't care for all that food, and instead started experimenting with our own Christmas traditions. We have most often had seafood, salad and fruit, with a generous glass of champagne-style Aussie wine. We focus on what is in season and most often we sit outside on the patio to eat. Wherever possible we recognise that we are  celebrating Christmas the Aussie way. That means we put up the tree and have an Advent Wreath, but I have to keep the candles in the fridge and have enough to replace them should they melt. We sing carols outdoors -my choir is going to sing at the beach this evening. 

So far, the weather forecast is, after a hot Christmas eve, we will be a comfortable 32 C maximum for Christmas Day. 

The garden will, so long as I can keep a few things alive in the heat, provide us with tomatoes and basil, lettuce and chillis, oregano and lemons and parsley and mint. I am turning to my favourite recipe books from the Mediterranean regions for inspiration. We are planning a low-key celebration on Christmas Eve with just the three of us who live in this house, because the next day my son and daughter in law are hosting Christmas lunch at their place in Ellenbrook. They are relishing the fact that this year, they are not working on Christmas Day! No need to rush anywhere, no need to drag the kids away from their toys. We are just going to have everyone's favourite foods served buffet style -no need to nag the kids to eat, or make anyone feel uncomfortable. 

In the past, we have been away from each other on Christmas Day and often for months each side of it. This year has, despite all the problems, been a blessing because we are just 30 minutes apart. We are enjoying all the sharing of our lives and celebrations. 

(I have added a very simple Nutella Mousse recipe to the "From My Kitchen" page - it is so easy and yet so, so nice! You might find it just the thing for a no-stress treat during the festive season this year). 

Many people are having a very strange Christmas, and will be feeling a bit at a loss this year, due to COVID 19 restrictions. Parts of Australia are now back in lockdown and that is sad. Some will be alone, and that will be quite a challenge. I am wishing all of you, no matter where you are or who you are with, a day in which any sadness and loss can be met with some conversations by technology with those who are dear to you. I hope you can remember that the first Christmas was also a difficult time for Joseph and Mary and their baby, far away from support networks and homeless. They were able to support each other and find their way through it, and I hope you do, too. 

Is your Christmas going to be the same this year, or very different? 

Some achievements

 Finished and Installed

DH and DS were able to finally install a wonderful bench in DS's Ellenbrook home this weekend. This project included revamping/upcycling an old pine buffet style cabinet to be extra storage space, and a lot of work on a unfinished Marri slab of wood to make it fit and install it into the kitchen to be a 'breakfast bar'. Both DH and DS worked long and hard on this project, and it is lovely to see it come to completion. MY DDIL is thrilled. We are proud of both of them. The quotes they got from tradesmen for a similar job were very expensive, but by doing it themselves they not only saved a lot of money but had the satisfaction of getting a big project done. 

Refinished and Hung

I am always on the lookout for art work for our home, but I have some stipulations:

• It has to be cheap (less than $50 including frame) - I often change the art in my house, as I like variety and I can't imagine being happy looking at the same thing for years. 
• It needs to be something I can connect with -some local connection, or something of our history, or someone I know made it, etc
• It has to fit and look good with my decor at the moment. 

I found this picture in an op shop this week for just $5. It had a horrible purple frame but I noticed the artist had written the description of the scene, which is of a local holiday spot just off our coast. I brought it home and DH sanded the frame back to it's natural wood. We both love it!

Planted and weeded

I have been working in my garden this week, as the feel of spring is definitely in the air. I am out in the garden for a couple of hours every fine day.

The days are lengthening and getting a bit warmer. I have been watching the sun move higher in the sky, and so the decision I made to move some roses to a tricky spot in the garden is looking less risky. The spot is in deep shade in the winter time, but hot sun in summer. I figured the roses would be dormant in winter so what do they care, but the summer would be in their element. This picture was taken at 11 am about a week ago, and the sun was just at the edge of the garden bed behind the trellis. Today it was almost in front of the trellis. The roses have new leaves on them, so that is evidence that they did not mind being moved, and I have great hopes for flowers later in spring when the sun is actually hitting the leaves. I am growing a new passionfruit on the trellis and if it is anything like one I had there earlier, it will cover a lot of it in no time. I also have a climbing rose which I hope will grow on half of the trellis. 

I am planting late winter and spring seeds -but I feel that it is a bit early for the tomatoes yet. I did find a couple of self sown volunteers which I am encouraging as an early start on the season. I have planted some Diakon Radish in places where the snow peas have finished. The chives and the parsley have come back again after their winter dormancy, and the pomegranate is just putting out new leaves. 

I leave you with some inspiration!

Read this: food plant solutions How to beat malnutrition by knowing what is edible in your area 

Listen to this Pico Iyer on Dumbo Feather

Pico Iyer is regarded as one of the best travel writers of our time, but he’s not just an explorer of the outer worlds, he writes beautifully on the inner journeys available to us, too.

Having written 14 books, travelled frequently by the side of the Dalai Lama, done four TED Talks with over 10 million views and written for Time Magazine, New York Times and many more, he is a wise voice for our times on matters of stillness, transformation and the heart.

Fun bargains in winter

Last weekend we celebrated Solstice with a bit of a family party. The grandchildren came over the day before to help decorate. We talked about longest days and the way the earth moves around the sun -all sorts of things, and they decorated small trees and we spread candles and greenery around.   The next day DGS1 turned up with his stuffed toy from the Frozen movie -Olaf the snowman! Great idea, as this is the closest we will ever get to snow during out winter! 

Due to the restrictions in place to keep us all safe during the pandemic, we couldn't have our friends over for a Winter Feast but we still had a lovely day. As it happened, it was sunny day and we were able to be outside. Our DD helped the grandchildren to a long painting session -I think DGS2 must have painted about 14 pictures in about an hour. I had made beef cheeks into a pie, and we had an apple and raspberry crumble to follow. 

The weather has been a wonderful mix of rain and sunshine. When we can we get out the bikes and go to the park. All of the kids' bikes we have here have been found at our Tip Shop, which is a social enterprise employing vulnerable people and saving things from landfill. DGS2 loves his balance bike.

DGS1 now has a big bike at our place with trainer wheels -it was $15 at the Tip Shop, and DH just tidied it up, oiled it and made sure the bell worked! He was delighted with it -"it's perfect!" he declared.

In the same vein, we have noticed that we really like the kind of ambiance you get from table and floor lamps on a winter's day when it is grey and cloudy outside. I got the idea that our lounge room could do with a standard lamp, and went online to see what was available to fit our 'traditional/cosy' decor. That meant that we didn't want any modern lights, nor anything too fussy. I found a wooden lamp secondhand on marketplace, and bought a new shade.  The whole thing cost $105 which was a third of the price of new lamps which look like this.

The sunshine and rain have been great for the garden. I have continued to make compost, and am pleased that the new mulcher I got for Mother's day has improved the quality of the mulch a great deal. I have moved some roses and planted some native plants like this one, for the birds and the insects. It is part of my on-going campaign to add flowers to my edible garden, and to ensure that there are mid and lower story plants among the trees. The garden is by no means full! 

I have been working on a quilt, using some gifted panels with a gardening theme. It is almost at flimsy stage -I have found one of the border patches has a hole so I have to take it out and replace it. It is a generous single bed size. 

We continue to experience the house, following our insulation upgrade, to be a bit warmer overnight and less in need of extra heating, although there are of course days when a glass of wine and a fire seems just right.

My state of Western Australia is doing very well so far in the COVID19 epidemic, and we are moving out of restrictions for everything except interstate travel on July 18. As a result, my choir is working on a regime to enable us to sing together in a very modified way, and we are now holding small dinner parties in our homes. This is a wonderful feeling: today I can go to my library and get some new books! 

If you are still in more resticted times, I hope you are coping well and staying safe. None of us can go back to normal yet, but life is still good. 

Thanks to all who leave comments -I love to read about your responses and your different lives.