Kitchen hanging

I've been looking for a kitchen conversion poster for ages, but have never found one I really liked.

And then I found a £3 tea towel at Sainsburys which had all the stuff I wanted on it! 

After sewing in some dowel rod top and bottom, ready to hang.

Catch up: Planter cage

Another garden project!

I have a couple of planters for fruit and vegetable growing. But I need to protect them, both from birds (when/if any fruit finally turns up), but perhaps more importantly from my cats who see compost as a lovely clean outdoor catlit tray.

For a while I had netting hanging down over the planters, but it was annoying to move and hold out of the way to work on the planter contents.

Now, on one of the planters (the other one is empty right now), I have a newly made cage sitting on the top.

It even has doors!

Catch up: Trellis

I had this exciting plan for a winter flowering clematis at the bottom of the garden... But, a climber needs something to climb up.

Again, Arjan has provided, using wood left behind by the previous owners of the house - since it was perfectly aged to match our existing trellis!

Catch up: Cass' Christmas Stocking

Since being made part of Arjan's Dutch family I have managed to sneak in the odd British tradition. One of these is Christmas stockings.

As a new addition last year, Cass the black Labrador puppy was the only one without his own stocking. So he had to have one... right?

Catch up: Clothes shelf

In our bedroom in the flat, we had less wardrobe space, but I had a chair where I could dump clothes that weren't clean, or ready for washing.

Our current bedroom doesn't have space for a chair, so instead Arjan has made me a shelf for clothes to hang from, and bits and pieces to sit on.

Catch up: Christmas ornaments

Yes, this is about 6 months late! some of the following posts will be even more so.

For Sinterklaas last year, Arjan made his parents, sister and brother each a set of wooden Christmas tree ornaments. Also done by cutting, drilling and filing.

TV Riser

Ever since we got our current TV, it has been lifted up off the TV bench by an ugly plastic monitor stand. This was partly to add height, as we generally watch TV whilst also using laptops, but also because we have a surround sound system where the voice speaker is best placed centrally over or under the TV. We also have a kinect that we still haven't unpacked.

I've always wanted to have the riser made of wood, but haven't been able to find one. And so, Arjan to the rescue!

He designed something to echo the TV bench we're using - a Benno from Ikea.

Obviously, first he cut the pieces out.

Then assembled it (using just dowels and glue, no screws allowed!).

And finally, a couple of coats of varnish, and then put in place.