July Wrap-up

Remember the Facebook group that I belong to : "Buy Nothing (my neighbourhood)" that I wrote about in May?

Well, recently one of the Admins offered to teach how to make sourdough bread. I jumped at the idea of learning it, as it's the only bread my husband likes to eat.

Sourdough bread making lesson- sourdough with turmeric

On Saturday 14th July a couple of us attended her lesson, and in the end she gave us some starter and five days later I baked my first sourdough and it was a success, crusty and delicious.

My first sourdough

The following day we  had lunch at the Italian Restaurant Ruocco's in Fremantle, to raise funds for our local Codfish Academy, and it was attended by about 80 "friends" of the Academy.
The Academy is a philanthropic association which was originally created by some members of the Portuguese community in Johannesburg, South Africa. To date there are 57 branches around the globe, and Perth was the 50th Academy to be created in 2011.
Funds are usually raised through monthly lunches or dinners.

Starters were the same at all tables, but we had a choice of 4 mains, and I chose Chicken Parmigiana. My dessert was White Chocolate Pannacotta with Raspberry and Jose had the Tiramisu.

Lunch at Ruocco's Italian Restaurant

We parked our car about a block away from the restaurant and loved seeing the garden verge where people plant all sorts of things from vegetables to plants. Fremantle is a quirky suburb.

Fremantle verges with quirky pots, cacti and a fence made with driftwood

                An American left hand drive car we came across on the way home from Fremantle

I've been doing some sewing mostly in the evenings, recovering our patio chairs with another fabric, as the other one is getting very faded.
I decided to use piping on the cushions to make them look a bit more professional, but it hasn't been an easy job, and I'm almost regretting using it, but now I have to do all 6 cushions the same way.

One of the new cushions with piping

The following Saturday 20th, I drove to Port Kennedy, about half an hour away, and met up with my friend and ex-colleague Jan at the "The Upcycled Barn", to buy Fusion Mineral Paint for my furniture projects.

After our shopping we went to a nearby Cafe for a hot drink - hot chocolate for me and we shared a huge slice of carrot cake, and we spent an hour or two catching up.

At the Upcycled Barn - a couple of painted treasures, the Fusion paint I bought and chocolate & carrot cake 

And mainly after work I've been doing a bit of painting too, and this morning I finished this little cabinet. It cost me $10, and I hope to sell it once I have more pieces painted.
I had to sand it a bit and fill crevices with wood putty, clean it up and then gave it two coats of paint and finished by rubbing in antique wax.

The small cabinet and the various stages of painting

All painted!

And I've just started my next project, an antique coat rack that I got for free. 
I've sanded it, removed the hardware, cleaned it all over, in the next few days I hope to start painting it ...

My next project - an antique coat rack

Hope you have a great weekend!