and now for something completely different

So, here’s my news:  The Carpenter’s Shop in Cape Town has a new Marketing Manager. And it’s me.  I start officially in January (but actually I’ve already started …because there’re a thousand things to do, and because I can’t wait!)

The Carpenter’s Shop is a non-profit, public-benefit organisation that offers rehabilitation services, training and accommodation to people in need so that they can re-integrate into society.  It is committed to providing academically-disadvantaged people with skills that will help them achieve independence.

The Carpenter’s Shop premises at 14a Roeland Street, Cape Town (you can just catch sight of the cable car station at the top of Table Mountain in the background)

After a 3-month training period, the trainees are already producing awesome wooden items from bookcases, wine crates and shelving to breadboards, benches and storage boxes.  This is where I come in.

wine boxes. or juice bottles? nah, wine.

bread boards

branding!

bookshelves

Yes, there’s a Plan. Yes, I’m excited. Yes, I’m totally going to love this challenge, and working with the amazing people I’ve met there.

And in case you were wondering, this blog – Nice Piece of Work – will not be about The Carpenter’s Shop  (Nice Piece of Work will always be ONLY ABOUT ME,  heh!)   TCS will have its own blog very shortly, which I am of course hoping you will all be interested in subscribing to…

And in the meantime, for more information, please check out the TCS facebook page and the website.

Back soon x

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How to turn a door into a shelf

1. Find an old door (a long time ago already)

2. Put it in a corner of the spare room and forget about it for a long time.

3. Suddenly remember the door and get the urge to do something with it. Carry it from the spare room to the patio, not realising how heavy it is. Put your back out. Spend the next three days lying on your back, swallowing Coxiflam, and decide you hate the f*$#ing door and never want to see it again.

4. Months later: take the wrong turn-off from the N2 one day on the way home from Milnerton and so drive past a vintage furniture shop in Salt River that you didn’t know existed.

5. Visit the shop immediately. See that much of what is being sold is revamped old stuff, and remember the blasted door and think about how nice it could look.

6. Be realistic and accept that you will not be the one to make it look nice because you never seem to have enough time. Also you swore never to touch it again.

7. Ask Rob to put the door in the car and go back to the shop and ask JP and Gerald to do their thing.

8. Go back when JP phones to say your door is ready. Take cash and Rob.

9. Get the door home. Allow Rob to put it up on the wall.

10. Be as happy with it as if it was all your own work.

sunny sunday

Today was the third day of an unseasonably warm sunny spell in the middle of what really should still be winter here. Jessie took the opportunity to tan her tummy.

Some of the flats where I live are having new uPVC windows and frames installed, and the old wooden ones are getting chucked out. They aren’t particularly quaint, since the complex was only built in the 1960s, but still – an old frame’s an old frame, right?

I bought new sandpaper last week for the belt sander that Rob inherited from his dad. I asked the man in the hardware shop for very coarse sandpaper and he said, Okay but be careful, it’s really coarse. Maybe you should try something a bit finer? Nah, I said, I don’t want to mess around. I should have listened – a couple of secs of power sanding with the coarse stuff got me right down to the wood, much further than I’d wanted to go.

I had to repaint it.  And put Rob in charge of the sanding process this time:

And now I have this:

Not owning a spirit level meant we had to go by eye, but my eye never was very good when it came to getting things straight. I used to do a lot of sewing in my 20s, and never ever managed to get a straight hem on a skirt or a dress.

Anyway, skew or not, I’m very pleased with my window with the turquoise doily bunting.

Back soon x

through the window

I picked up this old window frame from one of those little hole-in-the-wall shops off Main Road in Salt River. Set me back a whole R40.

This week, with all this lovely sunshine-in-winter we’ve been having, I finally a) got it outside, b) sanded it down a bit, c) blobbed on a bit of blue paint,

d) sanded it some more, e) screwed in some picture hooks on the inside, f) added some hearts, and g) hung it up.

  

As you can see, I left the back pretty much untouched and, even though I got a couple of splinters, I still couldn’t be bothered to fix it. It’s the rough look, okay. I like it. And yes, it’s because I’m lazy.

The mosaic double-heart was made for me by Rob, and the one underneath is a ceramic heart by a very talented Cape Town artist whose name I simply cannot remember. I do remember buying it for R90 at the Constantia Waldorf medieval market a couple of years ago.

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magnificent submit

The whackiness of drivel spam sometimes makes me laugh out loud. This is my favourite so far – “Thanking you for magnificent submit.” You’re welcome, freaky spam bot.

Meet Hattie. She was made for me by Steve, one of the wonderful woodworkers we’ve met through being at Kirstenbosch Market.  She’s as light as a feather and can display 10 hats at a time and, because she’s a table stand, won’t get blown over if there’s wind. Pic out of focus, sorry. My bad. Bad and lazy.

Next up, two wooden boxes that were taking up space without purpose at Rob’s flat: I’m not in the mood for painting right now so I decided to wallpaper them with newsprint. I have to say, I’m not entirely sure that this really is the way to go, but if I don’t try I’ll never know. I’ll do the tops and one bit of the insides and then, if I think it looks stupid, will just have to do something else!

Still working on Tammy’s cushion in aubergine, lilac and willow, but nearly finished. The middle was the flower from the afghan in Issue 3 of Simply Crochet, but I changed things a bit after the row of cream. The purple cotton I’m using isn’t Vinni’s and I’m finding it a bit thinner, so I felt a smaller stitch than a treble was called for. I’m pretty much just making it up as I go along now. I like that about crochet, although it’s not an approach that works with cooking.

Last thing for today, the winner of the Jam Tarts facebook give-away last week for a frog beanie was Mary-Anne from Woolhogs.

She said she was thrilled but felt “undeserving” – not sure why, maybe because we know each other (only through blogging), live in the same city, have the same interests, etc.  I told her she won fair and square.  Life’s random, so things seem  coincidental some times.  That’s how random works.  I wish we could give away a frog beanie to everyone who entered and shared and liked, because you are all lovely people who would all look good in one :-)

Back soon x