Academic, writer, storyteller, digital creator.
This is an antique wooden box I bought for about R50 at a boot sale about six years ago. I have no idea what it was originally used for, but we use it to keep our games in – chess, Uno, cards, poker set, etc. The lining had gone when I got it, so when…
Old cars are like a comfortable pair of jeans – one day with a shock you realize it’s already threadbare and starting to wear through in places!
A back garden might seem like a bit of an odd sort of DIY project to some, but it really isn’t all that complicated. All you need is a little ingenuity, not much money – and bucket loads of patience! Nowadays our formerly cement garden is a place where we can relax and forget about…
Pelmets! They’re quite an old-fashioned feature, aren’t they? Most new houses don’t have them, and a lot of older houses have been redecorated in favor of newer tastes. But pelmets have another use – literally over and above just hiding unsightly curtain tracks – as you will see!
Some years ago, when I started to do some DIY improvements around the house, I was struck by how boring and dull our old vinyl-top kitchen table was. At the time I was enamored of the look of a wooden “butcher’s block” type of kitchen table, and pondered my options. Buying a tailor-made item would…
A couple of years ago, about a month before our wedding, Kay and I were busy little bees prepping everything that needed doing. We were expecting a few house guests who would stay over for a few days during that period, and so we had our hands full getting the guest room presentable. Part of the…
There are probably a lot of different reasons why someone would want (or need) to make a lectern! In my case, it was something of a challenge – and for reasons I’d prefer not to go into, I had to do it fairly quickly. Also, for the same reasons, I had to do it as…
Having an old car brings many things to one’s life – there’s joy in driving it, and there’s joy in beholding it – and there’s joy in the reactions other people have when they see it. Similarly, there’s also the flip-side of that coin! Every time you hear a funny little noise, your sphincter tightens,…
This time I’ll be talking about revamping an old ornamental mirror frame. Quite a long time ago I acquired this old mirror from a second-hand store for not much at all, and for years it hung on the passage wall, looking yellowed and over time, increasingly tacky. Finally I decided I had a choice between…
There are lots of different reasons why you might consider closing up a doorway, but in our case, it was to gain more useable space in our kitchen. Our bathroom and kitchen are situated beside each other leading off the lounge, and each has an entrance leading to them from the lounge. There’s also a…