Introduction to Annie Sloan

My first intro to Annie Sloan Chalk paint was a few months ago when I was looking for tips on antiquing with wooden furniture. Whitewashing never went well for me, so I was concerned that it would be a similar experience, I was extremely surprised when I first used it to brighten up my garden decor. There was no prep involved, I only needed one coat, and it dried so quickly.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on a previously varnished shelf and on a veneered chair - the whole project was done in an hour. I experimented with scuffing to create the distressed look. I've pretty much been addicted to it since then!

Cross-stitch for your mobile phone cover

 I recently dabbled in some old school needlework when a friend gifted me a do-it-yourself cross stitch iPhone cover, and I absolutely loved it.  Typo, a trendy stationery store, are selling kits with a selection of cotton and cute patterns to get your creative juices flowing while you squint away at your phone case with needle in hand. I chose the owl design :)

The kit comes with the perforated silicon case, a needle, patterns, and all the thread you'll need.

The finished product is very cute but unfortunately the silicon case is quite floppy and the thread caused it to warp somewhat - so it doesn't actually stay on your phone. I suggest if you want more than just the experience of cross stitching you should try and find a harder plastic cover perforated in the same way. Definitely looking forward to some more projects with cross stitch!

Growing garlic in a South African garden

Green fingers are overrated, now what you should want are dirty fingernails because let's face it... That's what we look like after hours of toiling in the garden! 

I have a tiny, bucolic front garden with copious amounts of tiny pot plants and planters with flowers, cacti, veggies and herbs planted helter skelter. And I love it. 

Now let's get to growing garlic in a South African climate:

What you need:

You will need to buy cloves made for the purpose of home growing because the garlic you buy at retailers is almost always engineered to be sterile. 

Planting: 

You can grow garlic in planters if that's all you've got, I preferred it so that I wouldn't lose any garlic when it came to harvest time! Plant your garlic about 10cm deep and 10cm apart, if you have clayey soil or you are using a planter make sure that the soil is well-drained to prevent the garlic bulb rotting. Mix river sand into clayey soil and make sure planters have holes in the base. 

Harvesting: 

Plant in Autumn and harvest 9 months later. The leaves will die off mostly but try not to pull them off for two reasons:

     1. It helps you find all your bulbs!

     2. As the leaf dies so the bulb absorbs it's nutrients until the end

Curing:

Cure the garlic for two weeks with the leaves attached in a dry place out of the sun. This helps bring out the flavor and allows it to be stored for longer. 

Pickling:

If you would prefer to pickle your harvest then peel and wash every clove and store in a jar of white wine and white vinegar so that it covers the cloves. The ratio of wine to vinegar is half and half. Store the jar closed in the fridge, it should keep up to 6 months. 

My first harvest!

We used rosemary to infuse some more flavour

Painting nice n neat stripes on your walls

There are cheap and easy ways to paint stripes on your walls by hand and there are more complex and somewhat more expensive ways. I didn't have the patience or will to waste money on 'specialised' tape or lasers, my list of tools was short, sweet, and blissfully available.

All you need is:

  • pencil

  • masking tape

  • measuring tape

  • your desired paint colour for the stripes

  • paint, the exact match to your existing wall colour (you'll see why!)

  • faith in yourself

I painted stripes in my tiny upstairs bathroom. The vertical, light-coloured stripes made the room appear larger and more friendly. 

I started by measuring the distance between stripes with my measuring tape and making marks with my pencil. 

I then used the masking tape to make the stripes. I know this sounds kind of counter intuitive but make sure it's not too sticky as it may pull chunks of your paint out when you remove it. 

Here's the Big Secret to preventing your painted stripes from bleeding or appearing jagged. Go over the inside edges of your masking tape with your wall colour (mine was white) and go just over the tape. This seals the space between the tape and the wall, and if any of that paint goes through you won't notice it as it's the same colour as your wall! 

Paint as many coats of your stripe colour as you need until you have the desired effect, when dry GENTLY pull the masking tape away from the wall and you will have perfect stripes! 

Here I am giving it a bash. That's my painting jersey so don't judge my fashion sense :P