Flowers For You!

You lovely ladies are all so sweet with your wonderful comments, that I've gone out into our garden and picked you, yes you, a little posy of flowers.  Not bad for the middle of winter is it?  Honestly our winter is just pathetic this year.  Some days we go out without jumpers or jackets on it's so warm.  Most days it's at least 16 degrees on the weather report.  Don't get me wrong here, I'm very much not complaining!

Remember I showed you the Homegrown Magazine last time?  Well at the back of it I found there more in titles in the series.  I have since got my mother to order the first Homegrown and the fruit tree one.  She subscribes to their monthly magazine so is able to get these at a much discounted rate.  She also has a great stack of the magazines for me to pick up and read through.  I just love the layout of them and the very useful info they contain.  Lots of ideas, recipes, hints and practical advice.  I must buy their garden dairy too when it comes out. 

Now I'm never going back to buying pre-grown plants after seeing just how quickly my seeds have grown.  Just look at my sweet babies!  All the trays but one have sprouted.  I am learning so much about gardening that sometimes I can sound quite intelligent when asked a question.  Imagine that?

Just before nodding off the other night, I suddenly had a super duper idea.  I just had to wake hubby up and tell him.  I thought, why do we have a pretty blossom tree when we can have an apple tree in it's place.  Well why wouldn't you?  Luckily he whole heartily agreed with me. 

I'm hanging apples off this tree anyway, imagine having apples that we could pick and eat.  You can get triple grafted trees which have three varieties on the same tree.  How neat is that?  I've got ideas about buying a pear tree with two different pear varieties (that would truly be a pair tree then!) and a lemon tree too.

These lemons were an absolute bargain so I am going to use them to make lemon curd and lemon cordial.  Homemade is so much tastier and I really enjoy that sort of cooking. 

My new green scheme is going very well thank you, only one hiccup when I forgot to take my bag into the shop.  Not to worry, I have systems now!  It's amazing just how quickly the shop people pop stuff in bags.  You practically have to tell them upfront that you have your own bags. 

My little one and I went supermarket shopping after visiting the plant shop this morning.  It's a brilliant plant shop.  They have a trampoline, two rabbits that she was allowed to feed, and fish.  It's a special outing to go there.  We must remember that it takes well over one hour to buy a packet of seeds and a bag of garden mix in future!

Anyway back to the supermarket, just look at how little I bought there.  There's a bag of garden mix in there too. What you see is what I bought.  A few bulk items to save money and packaging of course.  That's my shopping done for another week.

There was really not much in my trolley at all and it came to $174 which isn't much at all considering we are a family of six.  I am buying my fruit and veggies at a newly discovered shop, much cheaper and great quality.  Next week I am going to buy pears and bottle them.  I'd hand over the meal cooking any day but I love preserving food.  Is that strange?

I've just been eating my chicken salad while typing to you.  Doesn't it look good?  The salad leaves were from market day last Saturday. I hadn't been there for so long and it was lovely to be back buying locally grown delights.  My veggies last very well because I have wonderful Tupperware containers that keep the food fresh for well over a week.  Worth every cent I spent on them.  And they cost quite a few cents too!  Took hubby a wee while to get over that purchase last year. 

Anyway must go and pick up those mags.  It's nice to know so many of you are also very good recyclers and gardeners too.  See you!!

Rubbish is Not a Disposable Item

It all started with this book...

which has some fantastic chapters on shopping, recycling, green cleaning and growing your own vegetables.  As you may know, I am now cleaning with baking soda, salt and white vinegar with fabulous results.  I take bags with me on all shopping expeditions, so there is no reason to collect yet another plastic bag.  I've even taken goods out of bags and left them at the counter.  Do I get a gold star for that? 

This NZ Gardener magazine style book was gifted to my mother after sending them a recipe.  It's such a great read.  I read nearly all of it in one sitting.  Anyway now I am thinking what we can do to reduce wastage, packaging and money and lead a simple life eating more natural products instead of packaged ones. 

My hen hopes have been dashed due to regulations in our area.  Seems you need them to be ten metres from a house and three metres from a boundary fence.  That means they would be in negative space.  Now we wouldn't want that for some feathery friends would we? 

In our area we are all given a huge 240 litre wheelie bin for our recycling.  That's always been a great thing for us, as we sure put out a fair bit of paper and plastic each fortnight.  But I still feel bad about the amount of packaging that goes in there each day.  Honestly the bin is packed to the brim.  So...

from now on when I visit the supermarket I need to remember to take my bags with me, including the bulk bin ones.  If I buy from the bulk bins with recycled bags I will not be consuming any packaging at all.  If I buy other goods in bulk there will be less packaging in the long run.  It's not always cheaper, but perhaps if we make a fuss about it things will change.  And I'm hoping that our bin will be much lighter next collection day.  I'll keep you informed on that one.

I will bake all our bread so I won't be left with a bread bag each day.  I've worked out a really quick and easy way to make the bread too.  I filled five ice cream containers with all the dry ingredients minus the yeast.  So now when I want to make a loaf I just have to empty a container into the maker, add water, oil and the yeast.  All done in 30 seconds!  You can't beat the heavenly smell of it cooking and I know it's better for our family too.

Warning, real life photo ahead!!!!!!!!!!!

These bins now reside on our bench.  It's our food scraps and egg shell collection points.  All scraps, minus fats and meats, end up in here instead of down the sink.  The drain will thank me for that too as it regularly blocks up.  (Hubby too for that matter!) 

The plot to the far right is now my dig-in compost plot.  I'm going for this method as I don't want to buy a compost bin.  It should keep the smells away too.  The rest of the garden is looking pretty flash too after a day in the garden yesterday.  I found 22 self seeded lettuces too under the mass of weeds - bonus!  Oh and plenty of parsley plants too. 

A trip to the garden centre provided me with loads of seed packets.  There is plenty of time to start with seeds instead of buying punnets.  Besides I have so many empty punnets behind the shed waiting to be recycled. 

Shhh, the babies are sleeping in the nursery.  Daughter No.1 helped me plant the seeds and made name tags for them out of recycled yoghurt lids. 

I was finding The Challenge of the Utmost Kind a little unchallenging, (probably because of all the clauses I added!) so I am hoping that this will be more challenging for me.  I'm just going about it quietly and trying to make it a normal everyday life thing.  Feel free to join me if you think you need to improve in this area.

What A Weekend!

The girls and I have been playing. 

What do you think of the new blog look?

  I have a poll on the right, yep just over there, if you would be good enough to send me your opinion.  My mother is horrified that there is no longer any trace of red gingham on it!  Well I just don't know how to do one of those fancy headings everyone else has!  But I do like the cute little birds down the side of my blog now.  And my current fav colour is gracing most of the blog.

I've managed to do quite a bit more crochet this past week.  Do you see I've added two rounds of white to the grannies?  I do like lots of white in my quilt borders so thought it would also go well on a crochet blanket.  And it adds loads of extra size too which excites me!  I wonder how many more balls of white I'll need now?  Will it look good or is there too much white?

Well there hasn't been a lot of hooking this weekend I can tell you!  My goodness I've slogged it out with hubby prepping three bedrooms, a bathroom and wardrobes ready for plastering tomorrow. 

I ache. 

I really ache. 

I ache in places I've never ached before. 

Hubby's the same.  I couldn't get to sleep last night from so many sore points. 

Even my neck muscles ache.

I've been taping the carpet edges down. 

I've laid plastic protective covers over the carpet.

I've scrubbed the bathroom ceiling.  That was really, really painful!

I've cleaned.

I've sanded.

I even got to paint the wall edges!! 

(A big treat for me and only given the job as we were so pushed for time.)  Hey, doesn't everyone's painting look great in the dark?!

And the girls were left to fend for themselves.  Don't tell!!

You should have seen the house at the end of each day! 

After a while they ran out of floor space. 

They ate rubbish for tea last night. 

They stayed up later than they should have. 

They did not put a single dish, cup or spoon in the dishwasher.

Suddenly it looks like perhaps I do do a lot around the house.  It even shocked me!

I feel I deserve a little me time today.  I finished up my work at lunchtime.  The rooms are ready for tomorrow. 

Now I am going to read my new USA Country Living magazine, thank you Joan.  I really needed that today.  I also see that Spotlight is having a 20% off sale this week. 

How lovely. 

The extra white wool I'll be needing will be nice and cheap now.

Jug is on, I'm off!

Hope you lovelies have a great week.

Goodies For Me

I've done a little thrifty shopping this morning with my littlest helper.  She's ever so sweet to take shopping.  Here I was on the floor of the Salvation Army Shop, sorting through knitting needles, and I look over and she's lined all the others up, having a great time as well.  I have to admit to copying Dottie Angel's idea of  needles in a jug.  I just think it's such a lovely piece of art. 

Why don't they make such pretty knitting needles any more? 

This little lot cost me $1!  That's about 30p probably.

The shop next door is one of those emporium sorts.  With lots of interesting goodies that you never knew you needed until you saw them.  I came out with a medium sized bag of odd buttons.  I do like odd buttons.  They are usually a mix of the weird with the useful. 

Not sure about the orange hand!  That one will end up in the girls collection for sure.

Now I think you lovelies have waited quite long enough to see what was lurking in that parcel from yesterday.  Please forgive me for teasing you so much.

Well, dear Joan from Connecting The Dots (please do go and visit her, she's such a sweetie and so very generous) sent me the parcel.  Just look at these wonderful magazines she was getting rid of... yes there's even a Christmas issue, my favourite.

Would you like to have a closer look at that fabulously pretty yoyo quilt?  How long would one of those take to complete I wonder?  I'm tempted to make a cushion.  I know my limits!

And see these little treasure she popped in as well.  Love, love, love the red and white fabric so very much.  I think it will be in my next quilt.  The floral fabric was Joan teasing me about not having any purple fabrics for my quilts!  I could get used to it if they are as pretty as this one.

Now I wonder if she bought the hearts precut?  They will be perfect for my patch houses I'm supposed to be working on.  The ribbons and buttons are cute too.  How thoughtful of you Joan.  Thank you very much.

It All Started When This Arrived...

My 'Your Home and Garden' magazine.  It's a gift subscription from my parents, but I fear it's going to run out soon.  Well it all looks fairly innocent, does it not?

Mmmm, well, until you arrive at this page!  I think anyone who wears pastel blue would have to be more organised than myself at the best of times.  I dream of living in an organised home.  Well OK, probably not actually dream of such things because that would perhaps make me a little obsessive with cleaning, organising, tidying etc.  But more along the lines of, gosh I wish this place were a little tidier.

It's a bit of a one (or two when hubby is home) man game at keeping this house tidyish.  I really lost that battle years ago with four children.  But I do have the odd area that I do have well organised and it really does keep tidy.

Now click on this little bit of writing.  Go on, just for a laugh!

OK are you thinking you are outrageously filthy, like I now do?  Or are you wondering what the problem is?  Now be truthful!  I have to admit that I'm failing pretty much all of the above.  I won't say I'm proud of the fact, but it's just how it is.  Personally I would consider these things a 'once a year' spring clean!

Then I happened upon this dinky little photo of a very neat and tidy bookcase.  Well I thought, where better to start with a bit of a tidy up than here.  Pretty harmless really.  Oh please No.3's toes.  You know how they are sometimes!!

Here we have a pre-prepared, messy bookcase for your viewing...

And now we have a very neat and tidy bookcase, where one can actually find a book with ease.  It's a bit like using the local library really.  Would you care to borrow one?  Please just remember to put it back in the correct place when you return it.  There's a love.

Well today I need another wee project didn't I?  No.1's wardrobe.  It's a dangerous place at the best of times.  Takes after her mother this one. 

I now have tidy shelves and a jolly sore bruise on my right foot.  Seems mother put a farily large glass picture frame, on top of a whole pile of papers, on the top shelf.  Mmmm and I can't even blame her.

Does it look more organised?  I think it does.  Well if she could only see what I threw out!!  Oh the paper and the pencils we own.  Goodness, does anyone else have enough to open their own stationery shop?

And of course, just for us, there was a section on revamping your bathroom.  Ours is about to have a makeover, along with our bedroom.  Jolly exciting I can tell you!  Did I tell you this man of mine is on a mission??

I'm thinking ours will be along the lines of the clean/minimal picture.  But with coloured walls.  Not sure of the exact colour yet.  Perhaps darkish, brownish, greyish?  Or a half strength if I chicken out.  Oh and some outrageous accessories!  I'm prepping hubby for some splashes of orange.

This is our current bathroom.  So plain and boring.  The shower is about to fall apart.  And there's the same boring wallpaper on the walls.  It was a whole house job, the wallpaper. 

So that's what I'm up to at the moment.  So if I go missing for a few days you can picture me surrounded by bags, boxes and rubbish.  Lovely isn't it?

Anyone inspired to join me in a little clean out?