Reassembling the little shed

Ever since we brought the little shed home from the allotment it’s taken up residency in a spare corner of the garden, hidden behind the pizza oven. Still in its component parts. Our intention was always to reassemble it. I’d hatched a plan to use it to free up some space in the greenhouse, which was becoming a bit full.

And finally it happened.

MOH is a perfectionist, and I’m a just get it done kind of person. He wanted the warped doors straight, I was happy for them to provide some shelter for the contents. Well, they say opposites attract!

While he perfected the banana shaped doors, I cleared a space for it. Finally emptying the last of my ‘reserved’ soil in pots around the garden. That’s been hanging around for a while too.

Neither of us had even put felt on a shed roof before. But how hard can it be? It turns out, I was more of a perfectionist at this point.

It was about now that I shared my next masterplan with MOH. You’ll see why he’s the patient one. As part of clearing space in the greenhouse I wanted to change the staging, and the wooden shelving which had already been cut in half and repurposed once before, was now set for its final destination. Unfortunately it didn’t fit in in a single piece. Perhaps we should have built the shed around it?!

And so we started to take it apart. Some of the bolts were rusted, he was the one with the muscles and the patience. And no doubt bemusement. But they came apart, and along with some old brackets we had in the shed were soon inside the shed almost where I wanted them. Remember it’s a small shed, and let’s just say at some points he wasn’t that impressed with my shelving plan. Mostly when he was head and shoulders and twisted inside the shed, when I was insistent the shelves didn’t wobble.

These bolts, and a bit of rotten wood were all that was left. Not bad for a reuse project.

Once we got the shed in place - which took a little longer than it should have - it was surprisingly easy to fill. Without the shelves, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as useful.

Another job jobbed. Finally. Though he’s still not happy with that banana shaped door!

Love this #91 A Cardboard 'vase'

I’ve not seen these before, but as we wandered around the obligatory shop exit at RHS Wisley I’ll admit to being rather taken with these. Not only for their use of cardboard, but also because of their texture and functionality.

They’re made from recycled cardboard, and are described as a cardboard vase on the packaging. It looks as if they’re French, though so far I’ve failed to find a website for the company, or brand, cache-cache. I’ve found them on websites

They look to be pretty reasonably priced too. The taller necked vase in the background of the photo below is around 28 Euros. When I spotted them at Wisley, I assumed that they’d be readily available and easily findable online, but it seems shopping in person might need to be the approach if you’re interested.

There’s much to be said for the simplicity of this sphere, though I’m sure over time it would become a dust collector. But with such great form and texture, that could be endured, even just for a short while.

Reflecting on my week #78

I ended last week’s post saying that I might be in the market for a pouffe, and while that was tongue in cheek, I think it might not be such a bad idea.  I had some good news at the doctors last week; my vitamin D which had been scarce back in December has hung around following that course of tablets, and I’m back in the normal range.  The recent blood tests also showed that whatever is making my hips ache, isn’t polymyalgia - which having read up on the symptoms, I was never convinced about.  But it’s not that, which is good news.

The less good news is that I still have the hip pain.  And so after trying to explain how and why, and if anything I was doing could be causing it (I don’t think it is), and the doctor moving my legs around in all kinds of ways, and in some ways I had forgotten they could move, he thinks the joints and the areas around them are inflamed.  So now I have a course of anti-inflammatories which he hopes will knock it on the head.  He’s not the only one!

The trouble is any tablets only work if you actually take them, the hardest thing seems to be remembering to take them three times a day.  Luckily they’re to be taken with or after food, so that’s less of a problem.  Imagine if they had to be taken before food, I’d really be struggling.  As it is, I’m jumping up about 30 mins after I’ve eaten and once I’ve remembered, hopefully it’ll become more usual before the course ends  

I hope they will do the job, and my hips will be on the mend, as in unrelated news we’ve booked a walking holiday.  This might not be the most obvious choice for someone with aching hips, but as I regularly walk 4 miles and 10,000 steps plus on weekdays, it’s not such a leap of faith. The longest walk day, and an optional one I think is 18.5km, so about three times as far as I’d normally walk. But when you’ve got the whole day to do it, and are enjoying the scenery along the way it isn’t as bad as it sounds.  I hope.

And I’ll finally get to Lisbon.  I think everyone else in my family has been, and said how good it is, and yet I’d still not been.  We almost got there, but it was too tricky to tag onto our Porto and the Douro Valley trip.  We’ve had a few holidays in Portugal, we’ve been to the Alentejo region a couple of times too, so it's a favourite of ours, and I have high hopes.

I’ve also finished my crochet basket made from old t-shirts, it took about twelve in the end, but is a big basket. I think it looks much better in real life than in this photo, and I’m happy with how it turned out as it was a bit of a “suck it and see” project.

The lumpy bits you can see in the photos are the seams of the t-shirts, and I think add character.  Of course, if you were using bought t-shirt yarn you wouldn’t have this.  But you’d also have about 12 t-shirts too!

I’ve just watched the recycling challenge on the Sewing Bee (don’t tell me who won, I’m still behind - although I think I might not be surprised when I do find out!), and I was shocked to hear how much unwanted clothes go into landfill.  I can’t remember the exact amount, and daren't google it in case I stumble across the winner, but it was a shocking amount, and an amount that my twelve t-shirts will hardly make a dent in, but every little helps right?

It fits well into the cubbyhole of the wardrobe in the spare bedroom too, and was quickly full of some of my vintage crockery which had previously been in much shallower storage which didn’t make good use of the space. 

The basket is stretchier than I anticipated, but it’s doing a good job of holding things together. I’ve plenty more old t-shirts and will be making more, but not just yet as I’m keen to get back to my Vintage Sweetheart blanket, and make some progress with that. It’s good to start new projects, but it’s even better to finish some of the ones you’ve started! 

Looking ahead to this week, I’ve some time away from work on Wednesday as I’m off to brunch with Heston Blumenthal, like you do. The event is to celebrate Everdure by Heston and the launch of the 4K, which the invite says “is the next innovation in outdoor cooking” - it sounds interesting, and I’m sure I’ll share more here - and on my instagram stories on the day - when I know more.