Hubby joins our August UFO finish month...

 My husband has been busy. Since his torn muscle and cracked rib injury he hasn't been able to do all the heavier garden work because every time he does, the injury regresses, so he decided to tackle a few UFO projects inside the home while he continues to recover. But being a man (smile) the inside jobs required more than a light hand. 

He's such a hard worker, and it's near impossible for him to rest, or to just sit and let his body heal...so he does what 'he considers' to be light projects. When we bought this house in late 2018, he declared one of his first jobs on his long list would be to fix the back door and replace the back security door. Well, he did start on a few things from that list, but then the flood happened a few months later and there were far more important things to deal with in the next couple of years to protect the house should we face that sort of event in the future. 

This month, referring back to the old list of indoor projects, he decided to begin with replacing the back security door. That door was an inch too high at the bottom, and an inch too low at the top. It also had a very old pet flap, and these three things all added to the invasion of spring/summer/autumn flies in our tropical climate. The security screen door is just 6 feet from the kitchen (with the laundry between the door and the kitchen) so this really has been a problem when the main back door is open. 

New screen security doors are pretty expensive brand new, so he bought a used one in very good condition on Marketplace. It was larger than the door space, so he needed to cut the door smaller, replace the lock, and shave away some of the original door frame. To keep the flies out of the kitchen while he worked, a plastic drop cloth became a psuedo-door (above).

It ended up being a two day job, but eventually we rejoiced over the new door and lock! 

Then he began on the main door, which was a bit the worse for wear, but really just needed to be sanded down and repainted. Well, he sure surprised me with this one!! I assumed he'd paint it cream, or some other bland colour, because he's never really been into colour (family joke that he loves everything to be mission brown!) ...but no, he said we should be adventurous (wow!) and paint it the same turquoise as our shelf in the front entrance. 

So off we went to Bunnings for some colour swatches. I brought home the ones I thought were close to the shelf colour...

...then back to Bunnings and that evening the first coat went on. 

The following night he added a second coat, and now I have a bright and cheerful back door!

In the midst of all this, my love brought home a gift after work one night. A new kitchen tap. I mentioned to him a few years back that I liked this style and maybe one day we could get something similar. I never mentioned it again...but he saw one on sale and remembered. 

He spent the next hour removing the old tap and installing this one. I am so blessed!!

I've completed a few more UFO projects myself, mostly in the garden, but some were sewing projects.

I 'finally' hand-quilted my red and green version of "We Will Serve the Lord" before hanging it in the front entrance...

...and I bordered and hung Home Sweet Home. The version in my shop (here) is a little different than this one, apart from this being stitched in blue and the original stitched in red. In the original version the top left section has three houses, but I stitched this blue one for my own home and drew just a single house. 

I really love this blue version, but we have turquoise through our home and it just doesn't look right anywhere, so I'm going to add it to my shop for sale next week. This is the first original Elefantz stitchery I've ever offered for sale, other than some quilts I auctioned for charity. I'll probably keep using the red version as it works well with all the turquoise. 

A lot has been done in the garden this past week. I had plenty of seedlings to plant out, potted plants that needed to be put in the ground or moved to shadier areas (it's already getting hot outside, but quite lovely), and plenty of fertilsiing and pruning.

After a long day in the garden yesterday, I sat back with a cuppa in my little spot under the huge umbrella canopy of the poinciana and considered what still needed to be done, while the birds flittered here and there singing their late winter tunes. It was a beautiful way to end the afternoon. 

I pray you have a lovely weekend, my friends, and that you take time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour. A day of rest is the most wonderful thing after six days of homemaking, don't you agree?

"And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good...And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done." 

Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 2:2

Hugs

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