Bicycle inner tube woven chair

See here for an update from March 2017 on how the chair has survived three years in the sun.

The plastic 'cane' on one of our outdoor chairs recently started to snap all down one side:
 

The chair was still usable, but clearly wasn't going to stay that way for much longer!

Inspired by my success with our bathroom stool, I decided to weave a new seat for it out of old bicycle inner tubes.

It took:

• 4-5 inner tubes cut into 1 inch strips lengthways (they came in two different widths, so some gave two strips and some gave three).  I forgot to count the tubes before I cut them up so I'm not exactly sure how many I used!
• 7 'sessions' of 30-45 minutes each (two to prep the tubes, two to cut off the old cane, one to thread the length-ways parts of the chair seat and two to do the actual weaving);
• scissors (to cut the strips of inner tube), a bucket and rag (to clean the tubes - the insides are powdered with talc), secateurs (to cut the cane), a stanley knife (used in joining strips of inner tube together) and sellotape (to secure the tubes while part of the work was in progress).

And now it's done!

As I couldn't find any tutorials online for doing such a thing, below are some notes on how I went about it.

Please note, the chair lasted about three years (in full sun, in New Zealand where the the sun is uncommonly harsh) before it needed 'recaning'.  Click here to see the deterioration in the rubber that had occurred after three years.

Lots of writing!

A week or so back I finished a piece of writing I started in 2010.  It's called Enabling Technologies Part 2 and describes things I've discovered since my previous article on the topic in 2005.

Then, in just two days (!), I wrote my entry for this year's ANZMES (CFS support society) competition.  The theme was "Things that give us hope" and my entry is My Hope is in God.

Click their titles if you'd like to read them :-)

God is my only hope

A couple of months back I returned to listening to a psalm a day.  This time around I've been struck by something new: again and again the Psalmist affirms that God is his only hope.

Take yesterday's psalm, Psalm 62, as an example:

¹ For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.
² He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

³ How long will you assail a person,
    will you batter your victim, all of you,
    as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴ Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.
    They take pleasure in falsehood;
they bless with their mouths,
    but inwardly they curse.Selah

⁵ For God alone my soul waits in silence,
    for my hope is from him.
⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people;
    pour out your heart before him;
    God is a refuge for us.Selah

⁹ Those of low estate are but a breath,
    those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
    they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰ Put no confidence in extortion,
    and set no vain hopes on robbery;
    if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

¹¹ Once God has spoken;
    twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
¹²     and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
For you repay to all
    according to their work.

Again and again, the psalmist affirms that he can only get out of whatever pickle he's in if God helps him: anything else is in vain.  In various psalms he notes that there are those whose hope is not in God who seem to be doing well, but he feels certain that their prosperity is only temporary.  God is the only hope, the only source of what we need.

I've found this both an encouraging and challenging thought as I've gone through life these past few months.  Encouraging that God is sufficient.  Challenging in that I often put my hope and trust in more temporal things, rather than "seek[ing] first God's Kingdom".

Door cloth

Our bedroom door shrinks and swells with the weather.  At the moment it's shrunk and no longer latches.  Until recently, we kept it closed by jamming a handkerchief in the gap, but today I completed work on a much prettier solution :-)

It has a flap on the back so its thickness can be changed as the door changes size.

 

Here it is in use:

I learned to do three new stitches to do this: a woven leaf stitch for the green leaves, the cretan feather stitch for the red and yellow motif and cutwork for the holes for the door handles!  It was fun :-)  It took about 2 weeks to do but it's so much prettier than the hanky we were using before :-)

Feijoa skins!

Don't you think that feijoa skins smell delicious?  After you've scooped out the flesh, you're left with a skin that is tart and crunchy and not hugely enticing - and yet, the compost bucket always smells amazing after they've been dumped in it.

I've recently discovered how to extract that flavour and make some delicious concoctions.

Feijoa fizz
Loosely fill a 1L jar with feijoa skins.
Add 2T white sugar.
Cover with water (just cold water straight from the tap).
Leave (covered) in hot water cupboard two days.
Transfer liquid to a 750mL plastic bottle, discard skins.
Add 1T brown sugar.
Top up with tap water.
Return to hot water cupboard until the bottle feels quite 'tight' when you squeeze it (1-2 days).
Chill then drink.

With thanks to Nourishing Revolution.

The yeasts naturally present on the skin ferment the added sugar and turn it all into an incredibly amazing drink :-)


And if you don't have time to wait for fermentation, you can make a still drink in a matter of hours instead:

Feijoa drink
Place a few feijoa skins in a bowl and toss with 1tsp sugar per skin (you really need this much sugar - the skins themselves are very tart).
Cover with boiling water (approx half cup per skin).
Leave to cool, refrigerate and drink :-)

With thanks to OHBaby!.


Lastly, absolutely delicious on white bread (or melt-in-the-mouth consumed off a spoon - ask Martin!) is:

Feijoa jelly
skins of 15-20 medium feijoas (15 gives a mild flavour, with 20 it's almost spicy)
3 1/2 C boiling water
1 x 70g sachet pectin (e.g. Hansells jam setting mix)
4C sugar

Cover feijoa skins with boiling water.  Leave to cool (at least an hour; overnight is fine).
Pour through a seive into a big pot (I used our pressure cooker pot, which I think is 6 quarts).  Discard skins.
Add pectin, cover and bring to the boil.
Add sugar and return to the boil with stirring.
Boil at rolling boil 4 min. (or 2 min. for a softer gel).
Transfer to sterilised jars and seal.

Gives approx 5 cups.

Thanks, again, to OHBaby!.


NOTE: If you only eat a few feijoas a day, you can accumulate the skins in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make fizz or jelly.

DIY sleeping mat/pad chair kit

For Christmas, I wanted to make Martin a chair that he could use when he goes to the cricket or goes camping.  He's already got a self-inflating camping mat so the obvious chair to make was a "camping mat chair kit": a kind of fabric sleeve that would slide over his existing mat and turn it into a chair.  Finally, admittedly a few months after Christmas, it's done!

I couldn't find any instructions online about how to make such a thing so gleaned information about commercial chair kits from promotional materials and online reviews.  It turns out there were many details to get right.  I'm wanting to share here what I learned along the way so that other people don't have to sew and resew their mat chairs quite as many times as I did in order to get a functional product!

Regular blog readers might want to stop reading here - what follows is detailed and rather long!

Resting to love

During Lent I'm doing the daily reflection I've used previously (and which you can find at the bottom of this post).  In recent days it's given me a new commitment to take good rests during the day.  I've realised that, if I don't rest, it's harder for me to hear from God, harder for me to reflect with Him throughout my day, and harder for me to love my neighbour.

I've heard people say that the command to 'love your neighbour as yourself' contains an implicit command to love yourself.  I've always been uncomfortable with that: it's felt like an interpretation that takes the sting out of a really challenging call.*  But, in the last few days, I've realised (again?) that, if I don't take at least basic care of myself, I'm less patient with people, less humble in my interactions, less generous etc.

* There's a wee video here of me reflecting on this call a few years ago.

So now I'm approaching my days with a renewed commitment to:

• my 5 daily 'special rests' (where I do absolutely nothing - not even staring out the window);
• avoiding playing Solitaire in my 'down times' (unless I need to to avoid doing more tiring things like surfing the internet);
• to listening to my body and slowing down or going back to bed earlier than scheduled if that's what it feels like I need.

Today's gone well :-)  Let's see about tomorrow!