eBay used to be the default place to sell concert tickets and tickets for other events if you could no longer use them. There were also a lot of people selling tickets on eBay making large profits on the original cost price of the tickets. But can you still sell tickets on eBay? Continue reading Can You Still Sell Tickets on eBay?
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Painting Furniture with Chalk Paint
There is a trend right now for painting old furniture to give a shabby chic effect. There are many people out there doing this professionally but if you want to you can also get similar results on your own old and worn furniture.
The way to paint old furniture is to use chalk paint. There are two main manufacturers of this kind of paint – Annie Sloan, which seems to be the most popular make at the moment, and Autentico which is slightly lagging behind. Both paints come in a range of colours so that you have a great choice of matching in your revamped furniture.
One thing you do need to look out for though is the possibility that you might need to put an undercoat on the furniture you are painting. One of the misconceptions of painting with chalk paint is that you can paint on anything. Well, some dark wood furniture in particular will bleed through if you just paint on top of it. Both manufacturers also have an undercoat/sealant that you can use but you can also try using something like PVA. A lot of painting furniture is to do with trial and error, so try and paint a hidden part of the furniture you have first to see if it needs sealing.
You should not need to sand the furniture beforehand as the whole point of the chalk paint is so that you can just paint it straight on. If you do sand down the furniture first then you could just use a standard primer and paint and that will save you a lot of money.
Once you have applied the chalk paint to the furniture you will also need to seal it with some wax and again the 2 manufacturers supply their own wax products. If you want an ‘aged’ look to your furniture then apply a dark wax over a light coloured paint.
Annie Sloan paints are generally only available from appointed suppliers, some of which sell it online but Autentico paint can be bought from Amazon:
Easy Vegetarian Lasagne – Pesto and Mushrooms
Easy Lasagne with Green Pesto
The official name that I have given this dish is ‘Lasagne a la Portofino’ which is a small coastal town in Italy where I had this lasagne in a restaurant and I can honestly say it was the best lasagne that I had ever tasted! So the problem after that was trying to recreate something that I did not have the recipe for! The lasagne was totally melt in the mouth and was made up of fresh lasagne sheets with plenty of olive oil and green pesto. You can either make the recipe just like that or else add a few extras if you like.
I have made this recipe quite a few times and each time I vary it a bit just to see what it will turn out like but this is the staple that I start off with. If you have vegetarian guests then this is a great main meal or if you want to make the non-vegetarian alternative then you can add some chopped cooked chicken.
Vegetarian Lasagne Ingredients
The main ingredients are as follows – some are optional depending on your taste.
- Lasagne sheets (can be fresh or dried) – you will need around 4 to 8 sheets depending on the size and shape of your dish.
- Green pesto (homemade or from a jar) – one small jar will suffice
- Mushrooms (optional) – one standard pack of around 500g.
- Bechamel sauce – you can make this from a packet or else it is easy to make up a fresh jug of sauce yourself – see below. For this you will need, butter (around 2oz), flour (plain, 3 tablespoons) and around half a pint of milk – the measurements also depend on how much lasagne you want to make and how big your dish is but this should serve 4 people.
- Mozzarella cheese (or other cheese if you prefer) – one packet of shredded/grated cheese.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (if extra is required)
Quick Bechamel Sauce
For my simple bechamel sauce I find it easy to make it in the microwave and it does not come out lumpy.
Melt around an ounce of butter in the microwave. Stir in enough flour to soak up the butter. When this is mixed to a thick paste heat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds to slightly cook it. Then stir in around a half a pint of milk. Put the mixture back in the microwave for 30 seconds then take out and stir. Repeat this until the mixture thickens which should be after a minute (depending on how much milk you have added). As soon as it starts thickening stir it all together and you will have a nice bechamel sauce. Add some salt and pepper to this and a sprinkling of the grated mozzarella cheese. Don’t make the sauce too thick so that it spreads across the lasagne.
Lasagne Cooking Method
Cook the lasagne according to the instructions on the packet – some lasagne sheets need boiling first where others you can use straight from the packet. This works best if the lasagne is precooked.
Slice up the mushrooms and fry them for about 5 minutes in some butter with either half a chopped garlic clove (or more if you like your garlic!) or some garlic salt or powder and set aside.
Layer a dish with each item starting with the lasagne. Then add spoonfuls of pesto so that the lasagne is covered with a thin layer, adding extra olive oil if required, then a thin layer of the bechamel sauce and finally some mushrooms (see pic on right). Keep layering until the dish is full and finish with a layer of the bechamel sauce.
Sprinkle the grated mozzarella on top of the lasagne and then cook in a pre-heated oven for around 15-20 minutes (assuming the lasagne is pre-cooked, otherwise follow cooking instructions on the packet).
How to Freshen Up Feather Pillows
So I recently moved house and I had to store a load of stuff in my garage for a few months after moving, due to lots of renovation work being done in the house itself. A fair bit of this stuff I didn’t really want to keep in there due to the fact that it might get damp, but as the garage was watertight and it wasn’t going to be for too long I figured it might be OK.
Unfortunately when I brought the spare pillows back into the house they had a bit of a musty smell about them. As they were not that old I didn’t really want to throw them away so went hunting online for a solution to freshen them up. Most posts that I found (in fact pretty much all of them) said to put the pillows into the tumble dryer with a new tennis ball (sure of the significance of that!) but the problem was that I don’t actually have a tumble dryer!
Also I think that if the pillows had been filled with foam or other similar material I could have put them in the washing machine, but of course the ones I had were feather down.
I think most of the issue is that they just need airing. If it had been summer then I would have tried to hang them out on the washing line for a few days to see if that would do the trick. I might still do that again once summer is here. But in the end I just decided to lean them against a radiator. I kept turning them round so that both sides would get an airing and after a few days I did find that the pillows had lost that musty smell. I might also try spraying some fabric freshener on them but at the moment the radiator seems to be doing the trick.
Cheap Property Inventory
Renting Property in the UK
If you are renting out property in the UK then there are quite a number of things that you need to do and rules that you need to comply with before you can rent out your house or your buy to let property.
Although you do not actually have to have a property inventory carried out, it is a good idea to do so to protect not only yourself but also the tenant.
If you have a letting agent managing your property then they will likely either have a company that will carry out the property inventory for you or be able to do it themselves. However, this can be quite expensive and can cost in the region of around £100 or more to carry out a property inventory when the tenant moves in.
If you are looking to maximise your profit then it is possible to carry out your owncheap property inventory.
Why Do You Need A Property Inventory?
Under the current rules you must place the tenants deposit in a registered deposit scheme. Under the rules of this scheme, if you want to claim back any money from the tenant after they have vacated the property, for example if they have caused any damage or removed any of your property, then you must have proof of why you want to claim the money from them.
The best way to do this is to have a fully completed property inventory that is signed off by both the landlord and the tenant when the tenant moves in.
Not only should the property inventory include any property, fixtures and fittings etc that are left in the property, it should also include a condition report stating (preferably with pictures) the condition of the property in the event of any dispute about damage.
Cheap Property Inventory
So, if you want to save some money then you can do the property inventory yourself. However, it is good to go through a standard format to make sure that you cover everything that you need to and make the property inventory thorough and one that will stand up to any queries that may arise when the tenant vacates.
So you can find a cheap property inventory at shops like WH Smith. They have them available for around £20 together with other forms for landlords. Or you can find them for less than £10 on Amazon. There are currently a couple on offer so check out this cheap property inventory for starters. It includes templates for the property inventory plus guidance notes for the correct way of completing that and the statement of condition of the property.
