Hi all, Rosie is back!

It seems hard to believe but it's been the best part of a year since I last wrote a post on my blog.  It's been busy in my little world, sure, but in reality I haven't been feeling inspired lately.  I've been feeling stifled and that all of my big ideas are too hard to reach.  It's easy to blame all sorts of things for feeling stifled and uninspired, my work, people I care for, my responsibilities, lack of time but in truth I have allowed myself to be stifled, have created these feelings all by myself (with more than a little help from an active and healthy imagination ) and I now know the only person who can make my ideas and projects happen is me.

The things that I love, the projects I choose to spend my time on will never appeal to everyone, that's the whole point really.  If most of us felt as I do about old things, recycled furniture and fabric and saving other people's junk, reusing what we have, then the world would be a different place than it is today.  It's easy to say that it's up to me to follow my ideas and dreams but the reality of marching to a slightly different beat and trusting yourself and your ideas and aesthetics is a constant tightrope walk.  Confidence is a fragile thing.

A few days away negotiating the streets of a different city have relit the fire in me, got my mind working and made it clearer than ever to me that the more I try to stifle my creativity and independence (whether consciously or unconsciously) the more it refuses to be silent, the more attention it craves.  The need to create and reuse is a huge part of me and something I want to be proud of, even if it makes me different so here are my new mission statements:

• I actively prefer to buy my clothing and accessories second hand wherever possible and the thrill of finding a classic vintage bargain is second to none, I'm ok with this.
• I believe most people are genuinely good and with kindness you get back more than you give most of the time.
• Shape, form and style fascinate me, old furnishings, homewares, caravans and cars, you name it, they have a history, a living story and they deserve to be rescued.
• My blog and projects are my way of sharing what I love.

So welcome back, to readers and to myself.  Recycled Rosie is now a place for expression as well as my projects and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Don Rex retro chair obsession

Rosie's back!  It's been a little quiet here on the blog.  A person could be forgiven for thinking that I don't care (sniff) but that's not true, I'm just struggling with time management most of the time.  My latest plan is to take back control of my time and energy with a planner board which of course I will stick to.  Work has been busy and I know all of you out there who work from home and juggle lots of interests will understand how things slip through the net.  My planner board WILL have time actually allocated to blogging so expect to hear from me a little more often.

Classic Don Rex retro - for sale $250

I've also been busy on new projects.  Trouble is that once I've finished a project I so often love the result and don't want to part with it.  Due to my current chair obsession, a quick chair count around the house alarmingly reveals that we have a grand total of 51 seats in the house.  Obviously this includes the couches which seats 3 each, brekky bar stools and my trusty computer chair(s) but still, it's time to relax the grip and market some projects I think.

Super cute, super comfy

The first cab off the rank is this little beauty, an original labelled Don Rex piece in solid cedar. I am really happy with the way it's come up, all the time and effort is worth it for results like this.


This girl has been lovingly stripped of all that nasty polyeurathane to bring out the wood grain and shape of the arms, although not so far that she loses her charm.  I've deliberately left a few nicks in the legs and the deeper patches at the tips of the arms, after all, she had a life before I met her.  She's  then been treated to 3 coats of danish oil to bring her to her best. The funky retro fabric will look fab as a feature anywhere and the compact size of these chairs means that every home can find space for one (except maybe mine at the moment but hey).

Love the atomic arm shape

Close up of the beautiful wood grain

The pictures really don't do this old girl the justic she deserves.  She is looking for her new home where she will be loved and appreciated for years to come.  Contact via this blog or through our Facebook Page
at  http://www.facebook.com/RecycledRosie

House Swap Holiday

It's been a bit quiet around the blog lately as we've been busy planning, packing and going on our very first house swap holiday.  House swapping is an idea I've been keen on for a while now but this is the first opportunity I've had to actually do one so we swapped our house on the Gold Coast with a family from Wellington for 8 days and so far, the swap has been a great success all round. 

The ethos of house swapping works really well with the idea of reducing waste and using what we already have but with a slightly different slant.  This way, we've been able to have the holiday we wanted to see our NZ resident rellos without having to drag two small children through hotel room living.  We've been able to spend more than we would have at local Wellington businesses and have had no need to hire cars, pay for hotels and generally hand our hard earned cash over to multinationals at every turn.  We can self cater if we want to and have access to everything a family needs to feel at home.  Perfecto!

I should say though that we have been very lucky this time to have been able to set up the swap with a family who, although we have never actually met them, came recommended to us through our NZ contacts (and presumably vice versa).  I sort of look at this as an easy introduction to the house swap world but I have to say it is something we will definitely do again in the future.  It's also let me see what works, what I'd do differently etc.  so that next time if we swap through an agency, I'll have a better idea how to play everything.

All up, we've had a lovely week in a beautiful Wellington home with all the comforts of our own home.  I've also admired many of the lovely pieces of antique and vintage furniture in the house, spent time at craft and handmade markets and checked out the vintage clothing and furniture shops in the City.  Wellington has a lovely feel about it and they seem partial to vintage and quirky so I've got lots or ideas and inspirations to bring home and get started on.  There are a few things I'm itching to get going with as soon as I get back, I can't wait.

Ring, Ring, the happiest sound of them all .....

This is just a quick post with one of my latest lovely finds.  This little telephone table just spoke to me and asked to be saved.  As usual, I was so keen to start that I forgot to take "before" pics but if you can imagine stinky, nasty orange berber fabric, a wonky leg and tatty finish, you're about there.  The lines and proportions are great though and now she's had a little bit of TLC I reckon this little one is ready for a funky new home.

This photo sadly doesn't do her justice, it's a horrible wet day here on the coast and getting any kind of decent light has proved elusive but I think she looks pretty great anyway.

Save a sofa

We have a "leather" sofa.  It was purchased new by hubs 3 years ago with the idea that a classic thick leather sofa would last and last and age gracefully.  Unfortunately very few products are designed to age gracefully or get better with age these days, in fact most seem to be designed not to age at all and require replacement shortly after the warranty expires.

The "leather" on our sofa began to peel off (indicating that "full grain leather" was a stretch at best but hey, different argument) getting worse and worse.  What started as a little peel has fast become a mess, with the arms, seat area and back all shedding their dark brown skin across the cream carpet every day.  So what to do with nothing new?  Cover it of course, but upholstery fabric is costly and sourcing enough second hand to cover such a huge sofa is not very realistic so I put my thinking cap on.


I ruled out patchwork and waaayyy too much work for this piece and kept thinking about what to do.  Then I went on a trip to Ikea with a friend from out of town (hi Jules).  Simply in an advisory role of course and to watch her shop.  Love the place but no buying stuff.

Obviously I was unable to resist a quick squizz round bargain corner on the way to the check outs - frustrated children who need lunch or sleep notwithstanding this is always the highlight of the visit for me.  There, in the cupboard over by the wood bits almost hidden from view was the treasure trove I had been looking for, a big stack of boxes containing fabric covers for discontinued lines.  Oh the joy!  Of course there was nothing there which would remotely come close to fitting our sofa but I took a gamble that buying two sofa bed covers would give me enough fabric to make something to fit beautifully.


The most awesome thing about these was the price, knocked down to just $9.95 each, what a steal.  If you've ever had to buy upholstery fabric in Australia you will know how ridiculously expensive it is so this was incredible.  Even the lady on the checkouts was amazed.

Now back to home to figure out all the bits and see if I could make something of it.  So far so good...  mess, what mess....

Keep you posted.

Hats a go go

A birthday party invitation for a set of 4 year old twins gave me the itch to make gifts for the girls.  I've been a bit light on the sewing projects recently as my own Miss 4 has sooooo many beautiful clothes.  I always thought I would make more for her than I do but with so many great hand me downs coming our way, I've not needed to use much of the lovely children's fabric stash I have collected over the years.

What to make?  Something personal yet simple and something which they could use.  I don't know the girls well as they are kindy friends and I have never met their mother so I stuck with pinks and purples with a bit of denim thrown in.  Hats, personalised, reversible and no Queensland parent ever has enough hats!

With a great idea in mind I set about finding a pattern as I've never made a hat before.  I was lucky enough to find a freebie pattern on the net so gave it a go and here are the results.

I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and delighted to say that they were made entirely from things in my sewing stash, no new anything had to be bought.  I'm not really sure if that is great for the "nothing new" or just an indication that really must stop hoarding fabrics but hey, love the results.  Both hats are reversible so they are basically the same but with different letters for each twin.

If I did hats again I would tweak the pattern slightly and I'm keen to experiment on one with a pony tail hole at the back for my daughter so I'll keep you posted when I next feel inspired to make one.  It's pretty grey and wet out there right now though so maybe our next sunny spell will get me going

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Recycling comes in surprise ways

Today's blog post is a bit different to the ones I've posted in the past.  While yes, I've been busy with various projects which I will tell you about soon I promise, this one is about recycling in another sense and this is why I've decided to share. 

You may know that I've been recovering from injury recently.  Well, a future of surgery, recuperation and morphine for pain control doesn't figure in my one year, five year or life plans. So 6 weeks ago I stopped the painkillers and began to focus inwardly on healing the whole picture, mind and body.  Through rest, acupuncture (a million thanks to my wonderful acupuncturist and friend, Carla Chesters of Xtra Health, Burleigh Heads), inner focus, reiki and now yoga, I am pain free and getting stronger every day.  

Aside from the physical healing, the mental results have stopped me in my tracks and given me the wake up call I needed.  It has become clear (jumped up and bitten me more like) that my mind has been too busy, too crazy, I've been taking on far too much and achieving very little.  Stressed all the time and unable to give any one thing my full attention at any one time, I've been spiralling out of control, hearing negativity in my voice and my thoughts.  It's time to take a step back, live each moment and enjoy life one thing at a time (a challenge for the closet control freak but hey).

Yesterday I took the decision to stop officially practising as a hypnotherapist.  It's not that I don't love hypnotherapy, it's just not my job anymore.  There are many reasons for this and the main one is that while I'm helping clients, I'm not helping me or my family with this business model.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still a business owner, I've just changed the core of my business (more on that another time).  Recruitment agents will suggest that it's healthy to change jobs every 3-5 years and that's what I've done, I've changed jobs and boy do I feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders.

So what does all this have to do with reusing, recycling and sustainability?  Everything of course! 

Reusing my inner healing ability (which had been forgotten, shelved and was covered in dust) to get past what looked insurmountable at first glance.

Recycling (upcycling actually) my core business into a model which functions for me not against me.  Resuming control, refurbishing and creating something which works now from something which worked then, that's what recycled rose does, it's totally recycling.

Sustainability, well that's the choice I've made really, to be sustainable.  Sustainability comes from being able to stand the tests, to bend, grow and learn from every experience, good or bad.  Coming back stronger, more focused and happier than I can remember how to be, it seems so clear now.


This morning I saw the appointment with the surgeon in my calendar and cancelled it.  Just 6 weeks ago I was calling round trying to get an urgent appointment with any surgeon who would have me.  How great is that!