Thursday, July 12, 2012

Long Weekend Pie

A few weekends ago, Andy and I bought this acceptable but scuffy old table & chairs from a garage sale around the corner.

Then, two weekends ago, we had a long weekend. The public holiday on Monday was Townsville Show Day - for American readers, the Show is the equivalent of the County Fair, and I *love* that it gets its own local public holiday. I haven't ever actually been to the Show (though I did once enter the baking competition). But who doesn't love a free day off? We used the long weekend to refresh the table and chairs. Andy had sounded down the top, which was a lovely light coloured wood. But those curvy, turned chair legs were not going to be easy to sand. And I didn't want to restain the nice-looking wood to that bland brown. So, how about bright blue?!

Painting was stupid and not fun. For three days, we primed and painted. My back was sore, my legs were sore, my bum was sore. But, at the end of the three days, we had a beautiful new dining set!

While the paint was drying, I used some of the time to cook. I made some pie filling, so later in the week we just had to put it into pastry and bake and dinner was done.  The filling was mainly eggplant, with a few other veggies and a thick vegemite gravy mixed through. It was thick and wonderful and very tasty.

And when we baked it up, it got all golden and flaky and beautiful.





And, served up with some easy roasted radishes, mushrooms, and corn, it was the perfect meal for two tired people on a cold night.


But we must have been bitten by a painting bug, because this weekend just gone, we used one of our work-free days to turn our bathroom from this...

To this.

It is the first room we've painted in our house, and it feels good! I've got big plans for the rest of the place!

13 comments:

Hannah said...

You are going to have such a magical house, hurrah! Roasted radishes? I must try!

Emma said...

Ha I love getting a public holiday for the Ekka. Never been.

Love the chairs + table. Looks just like the one I've got except mines just covered in faded bits and watermarks. Maybe you've just encouraged me to get some sanding action in...

Mel said...

Love your paint jobs and the pie looks fantastic too. The table and chairs came up really well and your bathroom looks great. Can you bring your painting bug down here please, we lost our painting mojo over a year ago and still have to finish painting the exterior of our house. It has been multicoloured since our renovations as we haven't got around to doing the old section!

Millie said...

Theresa, the house loks great and I love what you did with the table & chairs. That is terrific. my whole house has been filled with treasures from garage sales & thrift stores. i restore their beauty with stains, paint or decoupaging them. Its great to have things look nice without spending a fortune for them. Good job.

I just finished painting & decorating my grand-daughter's bedroom. I posted photos of my work on my vegan blog after my food info...check it out sometime.

http://nuestracena-vegancuisine.blogspot.com

Bianca said...

Oh my!! I need to do that with my ugly old table! Those blue chairs are FAB! And I love the light wood. Also, the bathroom looks great!

I just bought the house I've been renting for years, and now that it's mine, I plan on painting all over the place soon. Yea!

Kate said...

The chairs and the bathroom look so good! I wish I was more handy with these things, we have lots of things around the house, including the house itself, that could do with a paint... Pie looks yummy too :)

radioactivegan said...

Wow, the dining set looks so much better now! And I'm pretty jealous of your pretty bathroom - I'm getting ideas for when I ever have my own house :)

Kari said...

I love your painting efforts (gorgeous chairs!) and the look of the pie - sounds like some very productive weekends.

sara said...

i love the bright colors you chose for the chairs and the bathroom -- so cheerful!

Joey said...

Scientists should really pay more attention to Vegemite - it's some freakish wonder stuff that improves whatever it's added to. I bet it would even work on ice cream and stuff. OK, maybe a step too far...

Theresa said...

Joey! There was an episode of masterchef recently where Heston Blumenthal came in and some of the contestants had to cook dishes including vegemite and chocolate. The results actually looked pretty delish.

Angel said...

Food looks good and a I LOVE what you did with painting. I adore that shade of blue <3

urban vegan said...

I LOVE the table/chair makeover. It's amazing what people discard that some paint and elbow grease can make new again. The yummy savory pie looks like a great reward for your hard work. I'm really enjoying your edition of PhD-vegan-Aussie home makeover. A new TV show, perhaps?