TTDWJIA (things to do whilst John is away)...

The weather forecast for today was for storms and the forecast 90% probability of rain was probably enough for me, so last night, after a lovely day, I brought in my two ancient village chairs so that they would remain dry - they are scheduled as one of the TTDWJIA (things to do whilst John is away).  Impressed by the job which my lovely friend Hazel had made of upcycling her lounge furniture with the help of chalk paint I had sold a kidney in order to purchase a small tin of said paint from Maria at Glykkis which was in a shade called Duck Egg Blue.  I am going to upcyle (for which read slap on some paint) rather than repurpose (for which read chop up for firewood).

Apparently the beauty of chalk paint is that there is no preparation necessary - this is my kind of stuff!!!  after painting you can finish off your furniture with some wax or varnish to protect the paint but as I want them to 'weather' and look distressed I am happy just to paint.

Chalk paint does exactly what it says on the tin - no preparation required you just slap it on.  The first coat looked rather pale and just an off-white colour but after a couple of coats it dried to duck-egg blue and covered all the dints and imperfections although as I said I am happy for the chairs to age so I am not overly bothered.

I was a good girl and laid down some newspaper so as not to get paint everywhere as I am famous for that.  I did the two chairs - one of which is a bit wobbly so will need some attention from John on his return.

It was a bit fiddly with all the rungs but happy that they looked ok I then decided to cover a terracotta pot which will temporarily house the olive tree which John bought me for my birthday.  I have another blue pot earmarked for the tree but it currently houses a rather interesting twig which is one of the plants which seems to have been destroyed by the inclement weather we have had this winter.

For anyone interested the two chairs and the pot used up about half of my tin of paint which I think cost around 10 euros maybe a bit more I am not sure but on that basis the cost per upcycled chair is very reasonable and now I shall be searching for other projects to chalk paint!!  No actually I think in this instance less is more and the welcome splash of colour just as you come into the garden is exactly the effect I was hoping for.

Ta Da - here is the finished job although the colour is quite hard to capture when the sun is shining on the chairs.  Chuffed with what I had achieved and pleased that I had minimal paint to remove from me I quickly showered and then headed off down to Polis where I planned to get some spray paint to do the knobs on the drawers on the furniture in the spare bedroom.  I am trying to pretty it up a bit as we have quite a few visitors who will be using it this year and it is really not 'spare or guest' it the the room that John uses for his clothes, getting changed etc etc so I cannot 'dress' it and leave it - when he returns from the UK it will be carnage in there for a bit but with Kenna arriving shortly afterwards we will have to get it tidy.

Once again, down in Prodromi, there was evidence of the rains we have been having.  I have never actually stood on the bridge by Glykkis but took the opportunity to take a photograph of the river.  At least the work they did a couple of years ago to prevent the flooding in that area seems to be doing its job.

On my return I spray a few knobs but the weather looked to be getting a bit unsettled so I didn't want to have any of them outside if it was going to rain.  I turned my attention to another TTDWJIA and that was to make some birthday cards.  I want to get my craft stuff down even further and if I can find a few designs that I can reproduce and feel happy with then that is what I will stick to.

Shortly after finishing my cards and feeding the cats I was just about to sit down and enjoy my evening when we were treated to a massive thunder storm and we lost our electricity.  It went initially for about 2 hours and so I was glad to have plenty of candles around but without electricity I cannot light the gas fire so I was glad it had been a warm day as the house was reasonably warm.

There were strange weather conditions - early evening it was so dark it was like it was night time and then as the storm moved away there was sun breaking through and we were treated to the most magnificent rainbow but it was still raining so I only managed a quick shot out of the kitchen door - it would have been complete if I could have stood somewhere to get it all into view without getting soaked.

The power came back on but not for very long so I gave up and decided to go to bed - the only trouble was that when it did get restored I had to get back up and turn off everything that had sprung back to life!