Doing Stuff

Brrrrrrr! Jack Frost has certainly started nipping at our noses here! 2 weeks ago Dad still had ripening tomatoes and now the asparagus is hibernating and the basil is gone.

I have finished Amelia's scarf and have mine about 1/4 done. Amelia's is called a cancan scarf - only took a day to do. Here it is:


It is pink, purple & navy

Last weekend also saw Amelia finish her artwork that she did for my sewing room. I think it looks awesome!

It's a cherry blossom tree losing flowers in the wind

Tomorrow I am off to Armidale for a drive and possibly a stop at Lincraft. Okay definately Lincraft, LOL!

Summer

Summer is certainly here! We have had some really hot days here, well at least for us! Inverell usually has much milder weather and I am hoping that there is only another couple of weeks of the stifling heat and humidity to go..... really hoping. Got into the car at Tamworth yesterday and it said it was 36 degrees celcius. That's hot.

But it also got me thinking about what reminds me of Summer. For me it is watermelon, sprinklers, cricket and tennis on the telly, tomatoes, zooper doopers, sound of cicadas and the smell of bbq's.



Yesterday's cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Hard to believe in less than 8 weeks, we will be looking Autumn in the face. Still we have a lot more Summer to enjoy. I need to build another vege garden and it will be in a spot that gets nearly all day sun, work out how to make a compost pile, which seems very technical, and get my worms back up to maximum eating. I am counting on lovely weather on my week off to make these things happen, I think Dave has a list of his own too like fixing the leak in the shed and digging out the fairy garden. Only one more week till our week off work!!! Can't wait!

Roly Poly

I was looking for a jam roll recipe when I came across this from Wesley's Grandma's Recipe Book -

A roly poly. I have only seen it before being made by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall and that one had suet in it and was being steamed. This one is baked in the oven and has butter instead of suet.

This recipe has only 4 ingredients and one of those is water! How thrifty is that??? It's easy too. Stirring 100g of grated butter (freeze it before you grate it) through 1 1/2 cups of SR flour, then pour 1/2 cup of water in and when it starts to clump together bring it into a ball, roll out into rectangle, spread jam over (I used homemade plum jam) and roll up. Bake for 30 mins at 180 deg Celsius.  Easy and did I mention delicious?!!

I took it out to Mum and Dad's place where we had it with a bit of custard. Mum told me that the last time she could remember eating it was as a child though she did think they may have made it in Home Economics at high school.

In a baking mood yesterday morning I also did a loaf of bread to take out and these Banana and Caramel Choc Chip Muffins. Yum but not healthy.... well it does have banana in it so maybe..... yeah probably not!

I am planning to make sure I have more time to cook, bake and sew. Doing the things I really love doing, in between all the things I have to do will definately make my life more rewarding.

What's your favourite homey thing to do?

Busy

What a couple of weeks! They have really flown by, I can not believe we are into the second week of September already.... its crazy!

It was Wesley's 15th birthday this week and tonight he is having some friends staying over. They are making homemade pizzas for dinner and playing video games etc. The dining/family room has been turned into a boy cave for the night!!

Last Sunday was Father's Day and we had a nice relaxing day. I cooked breakfast for Dave and my Dad, went to the local markets and then came home and weeded and weeded and weeded.

Wes made this chocolate malteser cake for Fathers Day

At work this week it has been the story of lots of customers and not enough staff, so it has meant being constantly on the go dealing with one thing or another. I have been doing dinner, reading and going to bed early. It has been tiring.

I have had a chance to make up some newspaper seed pots, I saw these in Urban Homestead book (I think).

And I made the potato cage thingy that was shown on last weeks Gardening Australia.

And this morning when I had a wander in the garden the dwarf peach tree had its first blossom! I was rather excited. Not as excited as I was when I spied the first asparagus spear popping its head up this week! Wont be eating any for a couple of years but exciting none the less!

like most NSW folks I voted this morning in our local council elections. There are 3 or 4 new people running this time and I am really hoping they get in, so the council has a new injection of life and hopefully fresh ideas in it!!

How was your week? Busy?

Day Off

Today has been my first rostered day off since starting in my new position. I have to work an extra 25 mins a day to get my day off but its really not that big a deal as I usually work till 5 anyway and have 50 mins instead of an hour for lunch. So I kind of get a day off every four weeks for working my usual hours.

I was up at 5.30 to see that Wes made it to the bus  on time as they are off to Ag-Quip. He isn't back until 7 tonight and will probably be very tired. Its alot of travelling in one day but Gunnedah is close enough that its not worth staying overnight.

I put some washing on, got tonights dinner ready and did the dishes, then went and had an extra hour in bed. Ahhhhhhh.

I spent this morning in the garden weeding. Not that you can really tell I spent all that time in there! But I do have the wheelbarrow as proof!

My winter garden has been pretty sad incomparison with last year. Everything has grown really slowly except for the first lot of broccoli which bolted really quickly.

I have just left them. They are pretty and the bees are totally loving them. I saw a bee that had so much pollen that I just don't know how he managed to take off!

I also made an orange cake with white chocolate icing which I got from Inner Pickles blog and is totally yummo. I will be using that icing on everything that moves.

Finally this afternoon Amelia and I pick some flower for the table. It is remarkable that anything grows in the front yard at all!

I am off to finish Radical Homemakers, what a great book, I highly recommend it to everyone.

Smugness is not Attractive

Especially when it is totally not warranted!

I recently read The Winter Of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart and was smugly shocked at how
'connected' she and her three teenagers were. How could they be allowed to stay up all night with laptops? Sounded so extreme.

Then yesterday, thinking about the book, I took a quick inventory of our home's technology.

3 Widescreen televisions
1 Analogue small television
2 DVD players
1  make that 2 laptops - thanks to the free one given to Year 9 students
1 iPhone
1 iPad
1 Android pad
1 Nintendo DSi
1 Game console
and 1 $29 mobile that I bought after my one died and I didnt want to spend $100+ on a new one.

Who is not so smug now? Ummm that would be me. Worse is that I know that there are people out there who will read that list and think the same as I did about Maushart's house.

I could try to excuse it by saying hubby works in IT so we kind of got some of that stuff by default, but it doesn't excuse the fact that we have come to rely on it to check ideas, enable homework or just to entertain ourselves. My kids don't sleep with DSi's, laptops or even tv's, they don't have mobile phones or are on Facebook - no, not even the 14 year old.

But we do use it alot, probably not more than any of our peers, but lets face it that really isnt saying much is it? Lately I have weaned myself of the PC and have been doing more craft/quilty stuff, both kids have taken up a new hobby each, Wes is doing archery twice a week with Dave and Amelia is learning piano. Since archery has arrived on the scene Wes' gaming is much much less and he has let his online gaming subscription lapse without tooo much whinging. I am taking that as a positive.

I am pushing for a more balanced life! How is your technology inventory?

Stockpiling

This is something that I have been meaning to do for a while but hadn't until this week. I read about stockpiling originally on the Down to Earth blog and have seen it mentioned on a lot of different websites and blogs since then, it just seems so sensible and would definately put a stop to any supermarket dashes before dinner.

I cleaned out three shelves in my laundry cupboard and have just started filling them up. Still have a heap to put in but took a pic anyway to give you the idea of what mine is going to look like.

This should really help so I don't run out of anything, isn't it frustrating when you want cook something and one irreplaceable ingrediant is missing? Irritating, especially since it is your own fault you don't have it. So I am going to spend a little each shopping day on my stockpile.

Incidentally, I have about $15 of free money to spend next shopping day. I have $10 to redeem on my Flybuys and I did a Coles survey and printed off a $5 thank you voucher (though you do have to spend over $100 to use, but not a problem for us), you can actually do the survey once a month, printing off a voucher each time. $60 of free groceries over a year, thats not too bad. I am earmarking the $15 for my stockpile.

I also made a lovely frugal frittata for lunch today. Total cost was $2.90 so it was 73c a serve, not bad at all and it tasted really nice. I got the inspiration from here, though I changed it to suite what I had!

How was your long weekend?

Hello Winter!

Wow, the second day into winter and it is certainly letting it be known it is well and truely here...Brrrrrr!

I can tell it is winter because......

 The cherry trees leaves are all gone - but do make a colourful spot in the the yard!

 Asparagus is dying off, as is the basil living near it.

 The garlic is already up and about! My little green soldiers.

 Broccoli is getting hammered by caterpillers. But I am now winning since I am doing a pick and squash daily.

 Our house painting still hasn't been finished. I am sure it will be done in another month.....or so!
 

 Now this has nothing to do with winter but I scabbed this from Mum and Dad when they were going to throw it out. I am going to fix the broken bit, paint it and hang it on my fence. I really love it!

How can you tell it is winter/summer at your place??

Good Friday - Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their Easter weekend, four days off for us! After our weekend away we haven't anything much planned, just suiting ourselves really. We are having a barbeque at Mum on Sunday, two of my sisters will be there with their kids so that should be a nice day.Easter to me is about family geting together so their visit has worked out very well.

Since all businesses are shut today it is a good excuse to get some sewing done. I had some mending to do, a skirt to make and I decided the back table needed a small runner on it and I used scrapes from the deck bunting to keep the theme, such as it is, going.

A searsucker skirt for Miss Amelia, she wanted this one to be a bit longer than normal, such a fashionista!

This is my runner.

Got this rug from Tree of Life at Byron - $17!

Mum got me this oh so cute jam jar! It is already in use with strawberry jam inside!

Catching Up

The last two weeks have felt really busy, though to say I had no time to blog would be a big lie. But finding where to start was a lot harder, so I didn't write but I read a lot of other blogs!

Have now been in the new work space for two weeks and I am still trying to decide if I like it or not. It has a lot of pluses going for it but of course there is a couple of negatives that I am going to have to learn to live with. I am really hoping it will grow on me cause I love my job!

I have made up some adult bunting for the back deck and bought a garden seat for the back garden. Ripped out alot of plants that have finished and started getting ready for the winter plantings.

My front porch is still coming along and the end is almost in sight! It is even better than I had hoped. We have organised for the house to be painted and now are trying to pick out colours. I had a specific colour scheme in mind, then I thought - If I had to sell the house tomorrow what colours would be ok?- so we are still thinking.

Buying nothing new in Feb went really well and we saved a good chunk - even in just four weeks! I didnt buy anything after we took the kids to the town show and think I did ok for the month. Mum and Megan just never got into the swing of it.

Tomorrow I am going to put up the before and nearly after pics of my porch!

No Buy New Check In

So it's been just over a week of buying nada new for February and I have done really well. I haven't bought anything new at all (not even sneaking in anything in the grocery trolley!) and I have only bought one thing secondhand. That was a girls sewing pattern in the Legacy Op Shop for the princely sum of 50c. I have to say my bank balance is loving it!

I sadly have had the school fees slowly rolling in, $75 for fees for the second grader and Wesley's Food Tech fees of $68. The rest of Wes's will trickle in over the next few weeks. I don't begrudge the school fees but please don't try to tell me public education is free, cause it's not.

One bummer for this week was my electricity bill, I desparately wanted it to be under $400 but it was tantalisingly close. The GST put me over by $16!!!! How rude is that?

Happily the kids are happy back at school and Dave and I are trying to be happy at work. I got a lunchbox cookbook out from the library this week to look at some more options. Lunchboxes are the hardest things to pack as the schools have lunchbox expectations!!! Ah for the old days when a sandwich, piece of fruit and a couple of biscuits were ok! What did you have in your lunchboxes?

To Do List Done!

I am so happy that the three things I really wanted to get done this weekend are done and dusted! I even sneaked in another little thing I have been wanting to get to!Here is my Worcestershire sauce. It made about 2 litres which equates to 10 bottles of normal sized bottles of the sauce. Some of my bottles are bigger so I got 7 bottles of it but that should do us about 12 months as I am the only big user with the rest being added to slow cooker recipes etc.

Wesley's apron is done. He would only model it if I "cut off his head" - Nice mother to agree, aren't I? I like it as his will certainly be one of a kind in Food Tech.

Zucchini and Corn fritters made by Amelia with me helping. Dave loves them, Amelia not so much. Sh is not a fan of zucchini and I thought this might bring her around but alas it was not to be. At least we had fun making them and Dave and Wes will love them in their lunches.

Finally here is a bunny I have made for my nephew Evan's first Easter. He will only be shy of 6 months old then so choccy stuff is definately out. I got the pattern from here - http://blog.revoluzzza.com/2009/04/06/lets-sew-a-revoluzzzionary-easter-bunny/ , there is also a version with arms and legs but I thought this was okay. I am making a pink version for my niece as well, it was quick and fun to make.

Of course I have had the other jobs to do too, you know the crappy ones, washing, ironing, cleaning - but doing what I want in between that makes it ok - don't you think? Did you get all your weekend jobs done?

Thank God It's Friday!

What a very very long week! Maybe it's just the first week back from time off or maybe the rain but this week has dragged something awful!

It still feels weird being in 2012, I just can't seem to get back into the flow of things. My office is moving in a few weeks so there is that but it is more than that. I will have to have a think on it.

Plans for this weekend? Finish Wesley's apron for Food Tech as their first practical lesson is next Friday. I am going to make some worcestshire sauce, I am going to try the recipe from Amanda Brooke's blog which you can find here. And I am going to make some zucchini and corn fritters with Amelia.

Happily I got past payday without buying anything - haven't even gone into Target!!!

What's your plans for this weekend?

Hospital and Holidays!

January has been very eventful in this household so far, not in all good ways either.

I had a three day stay in hospital in the middle of the month due to an inflammed gall bladder which will now have to come out sometime in the next few months. The pain was really awful and not something I want to repeat so I am on a no fat diet so my gall bladder doesn't have to work too hard. On the good side I had just started Weight Watchers so that fits in well with the eating plan - got to find a bright side!

Thankfully I got to spend some of my daughter's 7th Birthday at home with her after being released in the evening. She had her birthday on the Saturday at the locat RSM club which you paid per child and everything was done for you. I wouldn't do that again as I think I could do just as well for a lot less money but it turned out to be a blessing as I was in no shape to host a birthday party for 10 girls.

Then we headed off on holidays to Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid north coast. It was relaxing and fun but it rained the WHOLE time one day we had over 100 mm!! It started raining about 90 mins after leaving home and stopped when we were about 60kms away from home on the way back. AND its raining here now.

View from our balconey

We did get to have fun though. We went to the Pet Porpoise Pool, Solitary Islands aquarium, ice skating at the Big Banana, bowling and luckily the place we were staying had an indoor pool and games rooms so we took full advantage of that too. We did miss out on a few outdoor activities I had had planned but you got to work with what you got.

Sadly we all have to go back to work or school on Monday. Holidays just aren't long enough are they?

Cleaning Up and Cleaning Out

How many clothes do two children need? Apparently a whole heap! This morning I went through Amelia and Wesley's wardrobes and these four large garbage bags are the result. The cupboards are a lot cleaner, though Wesley's need some more work mainly chucking last years school junk. Three of the bags went to Vinnies (a charity shop) and one bag to a friend of Amelia who is two years younger. With a big clean up you can clearly see what they do and don't have and how much they DO NOT need!With Mum sending me daily Glitz & Blitz emails my cupboards are looking a whole lot better. Here is my platter and dish cupboard.
And my lovely pantry - you can see everything!!

And lastly one of my two pot drawers, its so lovely when i go past I am known to have a peep at their loveliness!

I made two purses today, one for Mum and one for Megan, it is to hold their cards.

Amelia made wrapping paper this afternoon, her friend is having a party next sunday and she wanted to get started straight away.

And keeping with my "no buying cards" this year, here she is making the birthday card.

It has been a really warm Sunday, I am just waiting for it to cool down to go mulch the garden. I was really happy to do a bit of sewing, after Christmas and New Year I am having trouble settling back into a normal routine (probably like everyone else!) I have only 7 more working days until I get some time off and I am way way way ready for it.

I haven't got any quotes for the fence or for the house to be painted yeat but we did have a builder around yesterday to get a quote for a front porch. Our house has a big porch area but no roof so if you do sit out there it feels like a fishbowl (cause it is). I think too that because it is high off the ground it is even more exposed. I want to sit out there in the evenings and catch the cool breezes and not feel like everyone is looking. I wonder how much the quote will be? I am guessing more than I want to pay!! It is still hot. Are you hot where you are?

2012 To Do List

After some debate here is the 2012 to do list. If not everything gets done so be it but we will try our very best.

1. Become more healthy.
2.Eat out of the garden more.
3. Financially our priority 1 is our mortgage, getting it down as much as possible.
4. Replace laserlite on the deck.
5. Get a few quotes to get the house painted next summer.
6. Get a few quotes for a front fence.
7. Get the kids more involved in chores, gardening, cooking, activity etc.
8. Get the parents more involved in chores, gardening, cooking, activity etc.
9. Have more fun.
10. Buy no birthday cards this year.

What do you think? They are a bit all over the place but this is what we came up with. There are of course a few personal goal such as both Dave and I wanting to lose weight, Dave wants to go for his 2nd Dan and I want to get my P's etc but we are happy for those above to be householdy ones.

I was going to put be more organinsed but my Mum is kind of doing that for me. Everyday she sends me and two of my sisters one job to do around the house. It's easy when its only one job.

What is on your "to do" list?

The Great Kilowatt Challenge

Gavin from The Greening of Gavin is hosting The Great Kilowatt Challenge! I would suggest for everyone to click on the above link and participate. You will learn how to read your meter so when you put some energy saving actions into play you will be able to see how much you are saving!

Gavin explains it far better than me so pop over and have a squiz!

Busy Busy Busy

Woo hoo! Three days off! I love the October labour day holiday! Always a Monday. Thank goodness I dont work in hospitality or I would have to work.

Got a few things planned for this weekend. Pull the last of the cauliflowers out and blanch them as well as blanching a bunch of silverbeet, plant more carrots, pick-blanch-freeze some peas and make some cheese.

I also have the material to make Harry's Christmas present and will look for a pattern for Megan's birthday present. On top of this we have to keep the house looking fairly nice as we will have a valuation Tues/Wednesday next week - oh joy!

Megan's shower was really good and I am sure the table was bowing under the weight of all her gifts, even though she told everyone not to bother. I have to say that she loved Evan's bunting and I will get her to send me a pic of it to put here. Mums quilt is gorgeous and I will get a photo of that too. And here they are!!!!! Looks like my washing is ready to hang - hopefully it will dry before the black clouds get here!

Back to Blogging

After a small hiatus from blogging I am back to it! I am currently obsessed about applique and will have to show you some of the squares i have done form my king size quilt. Loving it bad!

Being winter the garden is slow but steady. My lettuce is growing well and my broccoli is close to picking. Still picking silverbeet, carrots and beetroot. My wheelbarrow pansies are flowering as is the camellia out the front - gorgeous hot pink flowers.

The last couple of weeks have flown and I have been busy though not feeling like I am getting anywhere! Running on the spot so to speak. I have had a birthday so will have to update the bit about me on the side. 37.

I got some great presents and loved everything I got. I will post pics tomorrow after I get home from seeing my mum on HER birthday. We are making a lush morning tea to take.

Until tomorrow-have fun!

Save Power Kit Results

The results were actually pretty good overall. The fridge/freezer was more energy efficient then the specs said, though this is winter so it would be interesting to see the results when its working a lot harder through summer. Both the fridge and freezer temperatures were set at the optimum for efficiency.

The biggest user was the tv system in the lounge. We have a tv, dvd and austar hooked up. We think it was the Austar box that was the big sucker, we had been turning the whole unit off every night and then only putting it on the next evening but then the Austar people told us they update at night so its best to leave it on. Well not anymore, over a quarter the cost to run it on standby and to actually use it came to more than $60. Thats more than 10% of our last bill. Wow! So we are now turning the whole thing off every night.

Surprisingly Wesley's tv/Xbox system didnt use much at all, the microwave is now being turned off when not in use after we read that over a year the digital clock can use more energy than the actual microwaving.

Draft wise it wasn't too bad but we definately need heavier curtains in our bedroom as the infared thermometre dropped quite a lot when it hit our curtains, which isn't good when your having -7 nights!

We will get the kit out again in summer and check everything again. With the recent 17% increase in electricity rates we are hoping that the combination of being more pedantic with turning everything off and our solar hot water, we will see a decrease in our power bill. Hopefully.