chateau le chookie: part deux

Our humble chook pen state of the art poultry facility is finally completed! After 10 months living here at Brindabella and the chook pen being (apparently) high on the priority list we thought it about time our poor hens have somewhere to call home of an evening. (We only got the chooks back recently, they were staying at Mr M's parents prior to that).

Last time you saw Chateau le Chookie it may have resembled something like this, minus the aviary wire which Mr M started doing before I got my camera out!

We'd rammed the posts in, strained the assemblies, put guide wires up for the netting and put a sloping tin roof on half of the pen. Next step was to dig the wire into the ground all the way around the pen to fox proof it. Even though you may think this wire looks fancy and new (and we had taken an oath of using only found materials on the farm to build Chateau le Chookie) this 10mm aviary wire which is usually used for, you guessed it, aviary's, was used to fence off my Dad's new pool area on the garden side to make it kid friendly. So there - we didn't purchase anything!

After the wire was dug into the ground to stop the sneaky Mr Foxsy Loxsy's Mr M screwed tin sheeting we already had lying about to the back wall, enclosing the chookies little house. He also built their raised platform where their perch and nesting boxes would be.

The nesting boxes we put on the outside of the overall structure, with a tilted tin roof to weatherproof and a lift top to easily collect the eggs. Mr M was busying himself making the nesting box extension and then in a panic called me over. "Can you reach in there and get eggs?! Have I made it too high?!" Ah the joys of being 6'5" and thinking the rest of the world is too. It was fine though, I can easily reach in and get the eggs.

After putting the nesting box extension together, fiddling with the lift top, dividers and finding an appropriate stick to be their perch we turned our attention to the door. We put down a little pad of old red bricks to fox proof the doorway as well and hung our old door.

Then the other weekend Mr M and his brother completed Chateau le Chookie with a hinged door into the nesting area and added a little ladder for the little ladies, as well as hooked up their watering system to easily get a drink by themselves.

We used hay straw in their nesting boxes and sawdust on the raised platform. The mesh wire under their perch is so their dropping fall underneath the platform and can be easily collected for my garden! We've noticed a marked improvement on egg production, but the silly chookies don't seem to be able to perch at night and we've been literally putting them to bed of an evening! Any ideas how to make them perch or are they a lost cause? Perhaps the perch is too high or not smooth enough?

Chateau le Chookie I think could just be our greatest construction to date!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

the curtains that were!

I'm back with the second installment in my curtain saga...(catch up here if you missed the boat).

So we had our fancy butterfly screws (due to the crummy fibro sheeting the dining room is built out of and worrying normal screws would just pull the wall to shreds), then upon measuring, measuring and re-measuring we realised the screws for the brackets would just be going into studs anyway! Basically I couldn't hang them widey-wide like I wanted to because these curtains were only just going to meet in the middle if we put the brackets on the edge of the window frame (i.e. not about six inches out like I had originally planned). So good-bye fancy butterfly screws, we don't even need you after all.

Up go the brackets. Then we have to measure the rods and cut to size using a hack saw. Because the windows are so wide I had to get two rods per window plus this crazy joiner thing-o. Bobs-your-uncle and rod's are in place.

Up go the curtains. Now, I tried to explain to Mr M that it's 'on-trend' to have extra long curtains that 'pool' on the floor but he just thought it was super dumb. I had to admit they were a tad on the long side, there's 'on-trend' and then there's just plain annoying when you're vacuuming and mopping around them...

I must admit though, things were looking a whole lot better in the dining room, long curtains and all...

But to the sewing machine I must go - hem, hem, hemming! So. Much. Fabric. I ended up cutting 10 inches off the bottom and then putting a one inch hem on them. Let's face it, for some of them I cut too much off (!!!!) and they ended up not skimming the floor. Oops. By this point in the months-and-months-long curtain saga I was over it and just pretty excited to have some curtains hanging, let alone less than desirable length.

Moral of the story? Don't sweat the small stuff, the curtains turned out fine, even if according to my list at the start they don't match up, they are still looking mighty fine! Making our dining room much more homely and cosy like our lounge room.

Happy days :)

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

get your craft on #6: diy invitation pocketfold

With The Wedding Day approaching, my attention has turned to all things papercraft as I gear up to send out our invitations. In my true DIY wedding style I have taken it upon myself to make all the stationery for the wedding - this includes the invites, the reply cards, the gift registry cards, the map and any extra information we might want to include for our guests. All these inserts meant only one thing: pocketfolds (for anyone wondering what the heck I am on about you can go here to catch up).

In keeping with our rustic elegant theme we are going to use all classic creamy thick ivory card with kraft paper accents. After a search high and low for all things pocketfold I only came up with one supplier which did a kraft paper one. I got samples sent from the U.S to no avail as they were just not what I was imagining (too pale, not grainy enough and a bit flimsy rather than sturdy card). So I thought to myself how hard could it be to make them? All 70 of them?! Here goes...

To begin you will need...

• A3 size sheet of kraft card, or any colour/pattern which takes your fancy (I got mine from Papermarc)
• Paper trimmer (I use a fairly cheap Fiskars for this sort of work, I also have a more heavy duty guillotine but don't find it as accurate - you need accuracy for these pocketfolds to work!)  
• Sharp paper scissors (for any spots you can't reach with trusty paper trimmer)
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Paper scorer (I use Martha Stewart Craft's paper tool, purchased from Spotlight)
• Magic dot adhesive tape (available from craft stores and I find very accurate and strong, you can also just use double sided tape but I think it would be more fiddly and less adhesive)

I wanted our invites to be 5 x 7 inches and the pocketfolds to open like a book, with two sides as opposed to the popular tri-fold you often see with a wrap around cover. To allow some room around the invite I decided that each side of the pocketfold would need to be 5.5 inches x 7.5 inches, allowing half an inch border around the invites and inserts.

On your piece of A3 card measure and rule the following lines using your pencil and ruler, make sure they are accurate and straight as when you fold it together it will make a difference!

You should have two 5.5 x 7.5 rectangles as well as a rectangle below the right one which will become your pocket flap. To make the pocket flap sturdy and for your inserts to sit neatly inside the pocket you will need to add some 'wings'. My magic dot adhesive tape is 80mm wide, so I made my pocket wings 100mm wide to allow room to run the dispenser along the strips of wings.

Now you can cut out your pocketfold template using your paper trimmer. Slice down the 7.5 inches, careful not to slice off your 1cm wings, and  then all around the shape you have ruled up. You may need to use your scissors to accurately get in around the 1cm wings. You should end up with a template like this:

Using your paper scorer and ruler, score down the main fold line of your pocketfold. Then score the pocket flap fold and the two wings. Fold on all your scores to create your pocketfold. See how it's coming together now???

At this point I realised I wanted my pocket flap to not be as large so decided to trim that down to 2.5 inches. Ideally I should've done this in the trimming process, or at least before I scored and folded my wings. A lot of pocketfolds have a v-shaped pocket flap also, I wanted mine to be straight but you could cut whatever shape you like into yours.

Roll some adhesive tape along the outside of your wings (the side which will be pressed against the main body of the pocketfold). Don't tape down the inside of the wings, as this is what is creating a sturdy little pocket for you to fit your inserts in perfectly.

Now fold your pocket flap up and press the wings down to stick to the main body of the pocketfold. You can fold your pocketfold closed and press under some heavy books to make it sit nice and neat (and to make sure that the adhesive tape really sticks and your pocket flap doesn't jump back out).

There you have it - my DIY pocketfolds for our wedding invitations. Easy as pie. Now just another 69 to go...

*Note that this pocketfold was actually my third I had attempted and I still made a few mistakes! You will get really good at them after a few I promise, it's all in the accurate and straight cutting. The straighter your lines, the less room for error!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

lamp make-over via spray paint

Remember when I showed you my lamp I scored at the op shop? Sure you remember, here it is. Well, after sitting on our hall table for the longest time in all its forest green glory (I hope you can 'hear' sarcasm in my typing), I decided enough was enough. This little green monster needed some help.

Having never painted anything of the ceramic variety I was a bit lost. According to the most helpful lady at Bunnings I needed to just clean down the lamp, give it a light sand, a wipe with a cloth to get all the dust off and two coats of different types of paint - Dulux Quickdry Undercoat and Dulux Quickdry Vivid White to give it the gloss finish I was after.  There was a cheaper generic brand available but I thought I'd better go with the quality choice. This after all was going to be one luxe lamp. I armed myself with some trusty blue painter's tape also to tape off the top fitting I didn't want to get paint in. 

So on the lawn I went with my cardboard box to contain the spray, my lamp, my sandpaper, my two spray paint cans and my old rag (formally known as Mr M's farmer work jeans). After a quick sand with fine sandpaper and a wipe down a'spraying I did go. Like Sherry says: 'If you are a'sprayin', your arm is a'swayin'!' Amen sister, keep it moving.

I knew the undercoat primer wasn't going to be glossy like how I wanted, and yet I still panicked and thought 'Oh my goodness what have I done, this is going to be a horrible mess with this dull hideous paint job!' I quickly reassured myself (y'know in my head, talking to myself) that this lamp as it was screamed ugly so I really had nothing to lose. Oh and I also quickly realised the lamp needed to stand on top of the box rather than in it in order for me to spray the bottom of the lamp. Genius.

I let the undercoat primer dry for a few hours, in the midst of which some misty rain descended upon Brindabella and I was madly running about with a half painted lamp to get it under the back porch. Crisis averted. Once dry, and thanks to a break in the weather, I went for the top spray coat of the gloss white.

And oo la la! Gloss white lamp at your service. Enter me doing a happy dance with Tessa on the lawn. Ooooh yeah. Straight from the pages of Belle I told Mr M. His reply? 'Belle who?'

One lampshade from Freedom later in a rustic linen later and hey presto, instant hallway appeal teamed with my vintage typewriter, a milk bottle, a peony and our hall table which we picked up at a local market shortly after moving into the ramshackle farmhouse. It's made from 100+ year old recycled floorboards and it has become quite the favourite around here. Now all my favourites can hang out together in the hall. 

Any DIY projects going on over at your place? Lamp make-over stories? I love a good rags to riches tale. 


Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

my diy bathroom curtains

When I last shared photos of our bathroom with you all (just prior to us moving into the ramshackle farmhouse), it looked a little bit like this:

I'm still sad I don't have a full before shot - without the new tiling, new vanity and new toilet. But here is what the bathroom is rocking these days...

...some new grey gingham curtains handmade by me, a new mirrored door cabinet above the sink (from Bunnings care of some Christmas vouchers), crisp white towels, a hand towel ring and the faux-timber lino has been put back in place. Trust me, that stuff looks a thousand times better in photos than in real life, it has a horrid soft sticky vinyl texture and we plan to rip it up (one day) and polish the original boards beneath. I also want to put a gooseneck light above the mirror cabinet but need an electrician to do this as apparently this light isn't 'earthed'. Whatever that means.

But back to the curtains.

Because our new vanity, toilet, towel rail and tiling was all very white and modern I wanted to bring some country charm to the sterile space. I originally planned on making the curtains in a blue toile print but we decided we would like to paint the walls (the not tiled above the picture rail parts) in a dove grey, and somehow repair the original sash window as it is currently painted shut. Enter the grey gingham fabric I found on special at Spotlight, actually a quilting fabric.

There really was no method behind my curtain making madness. I simply measured the window, added about half the width again to accommodate for the fullness when gathered and made two panels, with double hemmed sides and bottom. The top of the curtain panels I made a little casing for the rod to slip in, I used the original piece of dowel that was already there and just spray painted it white. Trusty Mr M then screwed in two curtain tie hooks (also from Spotlight) and I used some random pieces of white grosgrain ribbon as tie backs.

The hardware in the bathroom is now a bit of a mish-mash of silver. The towel rail which was put in just before we moved in was obviously in keeping with the new modern style (read: not our style at all). The toilet roll holder seemed to be a different style again. We wanted another towel rail to go behind the door as well as a little hand towel ring, we got both in a style more befitting of my country chic bathroom I had envisaged (see below right). I wanted to get another towel rail in the same more traditional style we liked to replace the modern one, problem is the traditional towel rail style isn't the same length as the super-sleek modern one (see below left) so we can't just simply replace it due to the holes in the tiles. Dang. It's the little things that annoy me!

But it's also the little things that make the difference, like just putting some of our sweet camellias in a little vase on the vanity. Now when I walk from the kitchen to the bedroom down the hall I catch a glimpse of them. All in the detail.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

diy champagne cork shadowbox

Today I am a guest blogger over on Polka Dot Bride with a DIY tutorial on how to savour a special momento from your engagement. 

When I was approached by the lovely Ms Polka Dot to be a contributor for the Aussie wedding blog extraordinaire I may have done a high pitched squeal and a little happy dance (fists clenched above my head, you know what I mean). I will have more posts in the pipeline throughout this year as I prepare for our wedding, hopefully a lot more DIY tutorials for the budget savvy brides. If there is anything in particular you would like to see please let me know!

Head over here to check it all out.

Photo by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

our diy engagement thank-you cards

I thought it finally time I share with you our engagement thank-you cards that I made. Yes - we did get engaged in September, and yes it is now almost May! But we are still getting engagement cards and gifts from random family friends and distant cousins. And so the thank-you card production line rolls on...

If you remember way back when I designed our invites for our simple Sunday lunch engagement party, we went with a kraft paper and black vintage stamping method. I wanted to carry this through with our thank-you cards so I picked up some kraft paper card and envelopes which I folded using my handy Martha Stewart paper tool. 

I stole some of my mum's scrabble letters after discovering that (shock horror!) we don't actually own a game of scrabble even though I swore we did. I wanted to incorporate my engagement ring into the card somehow as every man and his dog keeps asking me about it, so I arranged some letters and my ring to spell out 'Matt Loves Em' (using the ring as the 'o'). I used our hall table which is made out of reclaimed floorboards as the backdrop to give it a more rustic look. Originally I planned on using a hessian or linen fabric but decided it wasn't enough of a contrast with the kraft paper card which would make up the card. 

I played around with the photo I took in photoshop (mainly using some of these vintage polaroid actions) and got them printed onto normal photo paper through Harvey Norman photos online. I then used some fabric floral tape I purchased from here to stick the photo down in a haphazard style, each card seemed to be a little different as to where I placed it. Some finishing touches with my alphabet stamp set to say 'thank-you' and voila! DIY engagement thank-you cards complete.