This week, somehow

I sewed a thing badly and hung a door well

Feb 06, 2026

Did this week fly by for anyone else, because, same.

I swear I just wrote one of these and suddenly its 8:20pm on Friday night and I haven’t even started this week’s one! But I guess I have an excuse… I have been working!

The carpets in my office finally got cleaned so I was able to unpack my desk and computer and all the bits and pieces so I have actually had the physical ability to work. Maybe what I have been struggling with so much these past couple months isn’t so much not wanting to work, but the frustration of not even having it as an option.

So all that said, skip to the end if you want to see the three new pieces this week! Or, just keep reading and you’ll get there in the end and I’ll have taken you on a wonderful journey of how I spent my week.

To pick up where we left off yesterday, I completed the skirt for my laundry sink. Well, kind of.

Any time I try and sew, it is such a palava. I promise you I’m not being overly hard on myself when I say I can’t sew. There are many things I can do, and many things I can do really well. Sewing is not one of them. I really just struggle so much. There is something about the process of sewing that my brain just balks at, and it doesn’t really matter how hard I try, I just make this giant monumental errors that are just so bad it’s almost laughable.

Anyway, I was actually really determined to do this one well because I did not want to look at that sink every day. In a style that is very uncharacteristic of me I measured THREE TIMES. I drew what I was making on paper with all my measurements that I had checked THREE TIMES. I ironed the hems and pinned them before I sewed them (I do not normally do this step). Everything was looking good when I realised that I had not accounted for a wider than normal seam at the top for the bunching up. But no matter, I made it work, it just was going to sit a little bit off the tiles rather than skimming over the top.

For a small moment I was riding high. I finished all the sewing and choofed off to Bunnings to get the fixings to attach it to the basin. It wasn’t until I got home and started to thread it that I forgot to double the length of the sink to account for the bunching up of the fabric. Farrrrrrk. CLASSIC. All those measurements I checked THREE TIMES were correct, but even though I had discussed the need for doubling the length with a girlfriend, I still forgot to actually do it when cutting and sewing.

So what was meant to be a skirt that went from the wall around to the wall, only goes about 5cm back from each corner.

I mean, it wasn’t my biggest failure. But I felt so shattered because I really thought I had thought of everything and covered all my bases. But she still got it wrong. BUT OH WELL. She is cute, and actually looks and functions fine so we are actually going to take this one as a win overall.

Now, just scroll back to that last photo and take note of the laundry door. I have to say. It was bugging me. The colour is not it, and it sits beside our really beautiful mudroom french door and it just was not a vibe.

Anyway, there is a door to our hallway that is the matching 10 pane, gorgeous French door and I had a wonderful idea to swap the doors over. Genius, right? And remember how good I am at measuring THREE TIMES?

Well, this time all I had was Monkey’s 2m tape measure so I did the old Soraya classic and measured, marked it with my finger, and measured the remaining bit. Same same, both [about] 2040mm I thought. So, while Blake was at work I just decided that my days job was going to be to swap some doors over. Please keep in mind I have absolutely never hung a door, or even watched a door being hung. But how hard can it be, right? Even men can do it.

Firstly, I immediately realised how heavy glass doors are. But hey, I am farm strong* so there isn’t much I’m not willing to do. So through the house I drag this door, propelled by the vision of two gorgeous doors with my newly painted rooms tucked behind them. I lug it into the laundry, stand it up and pop it against the frame and it turns out that when measuring doors you need to actually be a little more precise than I was. That 10mm that I missed because I used my finger to mark the spot actually mattered. Who’d have thought?

I don’t know if you have noticed, but I can be pretty damn determined when I want to be. I am very hesitant to accept defeat. So that heavy door was lugged outside where I propped it up on some saw horses, whipped up a nifty cutting guide and sawed that offending 100mm off. Not to brag, but I did a really good job.

But wait, hanging a door is not that simple. Which I was still to learn. Using a very precise and industry standard method I propped the door up on three Julia Donaldson soft-cover books and screwed the hinges in. I had done it, a door! Went to shut it and crrrrrreak. Dammit. I don’t know how to explain this but, but the door was slightly thicker than the old one (definitely did not measure that before I started) so it was hitting the door stop (this is the little strip that runs around the inside of the frame). I moved the hinges three times before I realised it was probably just easier to remove and reattach the stop - which thankfully was only held on with three little nails so this was actually really easy.

Then it was just as simple as routing out the jamb to put the door catch in and Bob’s your uncle. Easy peasy (not). Actually dead thrilled with how this one turned out. I absolutely learned a lot, which is great because now I need to hang another door back in the hallway.

But, cute right!

*farm strong refers to a particular strength. It’s not like a muscle strong strength, but more a determination that results in pulling off amazing feats that should otherwise be beyond your capabilities

We took a little family walk through our bush to find our creek this week. Currently it’s not much more than a trickle, but what a sight. One of my favourite things about this block is that we have both fields and forest. I don’t really want to touch the forest part because it is home to so so many native animals and insects.

Property clean up continues. There is so much old and messy electric fencing all over the place that doesn’t look like it’s been used for years. We are slowly working on pulling it all out and saving the old star pickets for use later on.

Operation ‘make the sheep friendly’ has been going well. I go out there 2-3 times a day with some sheep nuts. Two of the times are through the day and I have Monkey with me so we just sit outside the fence and get them to come as close to the fence as we can. They are still very jumpy so little things like moving your hands or head can be enough to make them run away. But we just stay there calm and quiet and they come back. Over the course of a week they really started to work it out. To the point that if they saw us coming they would bleat to us and head down to the fence to meet us.

After dinner I get about an hour to myself and I started taking my phone up to their pasture and just sitting there (reading substacks). Part of the processs is to get them used to your presence. So I would literally just sit there for about half an hour on my phone with some sheep nuts that I would throw to them. Gradually I moved from outside the fence to inside their paddock.

Then, finally, raging success yesterday!

They ate from my hand!! I had been trying for days and days. I would just sit my hand through the fence but they would sort of sniff it and step back. But on my solo trip yesterday I just patiently and quietly sat there with my hand out. Surprisingly it was the littlest/shyest one that was the first to take a piece from my hand. But it wasn’t too long until that one in the photo (the leader of the group) worked out she could do it too.

I took Blake and Monkey out there tonight and they all came down and ate out of my hand! They are still a little skittish so pats are off the table. But three weeks ago they wouldn’t come within 20m of us, so this is progress! I really love them so much and can’t wait to be able to pat them properly!

Tasmania cherry season is spoiling me! I’ve always liked cherries, but guys, Tassie cherries will blow your socks off. I buy 1kg a week and fill up this little bowl each morning and Monkey and I both much all day. My favourite way to eat them though, is over yoghurt and muesli. Random? Maybe. In all my years I have never been served, nor have I had cherries as a muesli topping. However, they are divine. The flavour, the texture. The current recipe is a local honey yoghurt, local blueberries, local cherries, a ginger and almond muesli mix and local hazelnuts. Put a spoon in me, I am done. It is probably the best bowl of yoghurt I have ever had in my life. I will be devastated when this fruit season ends!

Speaking of local produce. This is the best milk I have ever had in my life. In my life!! (this might not actually be true as I grew up on the same road as a dairy and we drank fresh dairy milk for my whole childhood but, in living adult memory, this is the best milk!). Each Saturday I get myself one 750ml bottle for $4.50 and try my hardest not to drink it by the end of that day (this is really hard). I did the math and worked out that it would cost us $54 a week to drink only this milk. Which, sad to say, is much more than we can afford to spend on milk. But a woman can dream.

Vegos and vegans, scroll by for a sec.

I found a butcher at the Harvest Markets that does whole pigs and cows - who, incidentally moved down a couple suburbs over from where we used to live. Buying whole organic animals has always been a dream of ours so we were thrilled to find someone close to us that we could buy from. We don’t have a deep freeze yet so we could only get half a pig this time. But holy moly. This is a large black pig, which is one of the best breeds of meat. They are slow growers and have been free range their whole life. Organically fed and happy. Slaughtered humanely and delivered to me a day later. These pigs finish out their days eating nothing but hazelnuts. What a dream.

I have only cooked the fillet from it, but good lord it was the best piece of pork I have ever had in my entire life. Blake and I threw it on the BBQ and had it as a snack after Monkey went down. I cannot wait to try the other cuts!

That brings me to the end of this weeks yap! And for the first time in a long time I have some new gold to share with you! Blake and I keep laughing at ourselves because we have been saying for 12 months that we just want to slow down, but then we get here and we work harder than we ever have. We are coming to the conclusion that we actually like being busy and working. We just want to be able to to it on our terms, I guess. So yes, within 24 hours of me unpacking my office I have shot, edited and listed three new pieces. I told you I have a complicated relationship with working!

The first piece I have for you this week is a sweet little brooch conversion. I just loved the colour of the sapphires and diamond encrusted wings. I knew it wouldn’t be worn much as a brooch but would make a super sweet pendant for someone. I have had this one tucked away for months and months, and here she is.

14ct, $450aud / $314 usd

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