Category Archives: Blogging

Welcome & What’s New

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A warm welcome to all my new readers.  Please leave a comment and say hello.  I would love it if you would tell me a little about yourself and your interests.

This blog is wide-ranging and reflects what happens to be on my mind.  It can be anything from mending, gardening, sewing, cooking, decluttering or anything else that catches my fancy.

I am currently posting a series titled, “Sew My Stash Sunday” in which I am showcasing what I am making from the fabric I already have.  Do you have a stash?  I’d love to hear if you are trying to reduce it and what you make.

I have also changed the settings on the blog which should mean that you never see any ads on the blog from now on.  If you do, could you please let me know?

This week has been a bit unsettled with the approaching cyclone and then some very wet weather.  Hopefully, I will soon be back on track with lots of news and tips to motivate us all in our quest for a simpler, organised life.  If you have anything that you would like me to focus on, please let me know.

2011-09-29 02Meanwhile, take some time to smell the roses (or any other flower that you have in the garden).

Sew My Stash Sunday – 1

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I do not usually read heaps of sewing/craft blogs because they often feature projects or items that I am simply do not interest me.

However, I stumbled across this idea here and seemed almost too good to be true.  Basically, I can sew or make whatever I like as long as at least 50% comes from my stash.  I had pretty well intended to do this but had not thought of articulating my ideals quite so eloquently.  I love sewing and am working towards decluttering more stuff so this challenge will definitely help.

003My personal plan is to post each and every Sunday about what I have done in the preceding week which fits the challenge.  This will help to keep me accountable and will also be an interesting future record of just what sewing  I achieved in 2015.

002To see what I did last week see my previous post.

Thanks to the lovely Leasa who decided to run with this germ of an idea and also StitchnSewCreates for linking to the original.  Please check out these blogs if you are interested in this project.

001Then when the pieces are too small for much else there is always the ongoing patchwork!

I know that my fabric stash is not huge compared to what some people have but it is getting to the stage of frustrating me because I have so many plans/ideas for a lot of the pieces and I simply haven’t got around to doing it.  2015 is the year.

2014 – A Year in Review

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Bizarre, tragic and downright evil are some of the adjectives which come to mind when looking to describe the events which shaped 2014.

Invariably, the most recent events are those which are clearest in our minds – the Sydney siege, the stabbing murders of 8 children in Cairns and the loss of the Air Asia flight.  Unfortunately, the horrors seem to have been almost never-ending.  Two Malaysia Airlines flights lost in very different circumstances, the untimely death of Phillip Hughes and the tragic death of Luke Batty at his father’s hand.

Two other matters were resolved with trial and sentencing of the perpetrators of crimes against Daniel Morcombe and Alison Baden-Clay.

On a different note the G20 roadshow came to town and despite Mr Abbott’s threats, Mr Putin appeared to depart with his shirtfront intact.

Ferries sank, volcanoes erupted, the Ebola virus rampaged through parts of Africa, we became aware of the appalling agenda of Islamic State and the fighting continued in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Gaza.

It is not exactly a good news story.  I am sure there were some highlights but I am struggling to find them.

Meanwhile, I tried to keep my focus on blogging but there were times when I just felt too overwhelmed by events in the world around me to write about simplifying our life.  There was also a 6 week hiatus while we jetted off to the UK and Ireland for an amazing holiday.  That adventure is documented here.

One of my goals for 2015 is to re-capture the enthusiasm for my simple,organised life and share it with you all on a much more regular basis.

Thank you for sticking with me and may 2015 be all that you wish for.

Happy New Year!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 33,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 12 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

That Moment When……………………

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You realise that the ironing board cover needs replacing.

2014-12-21 01One minute it seems OK and the next it has ripped to shreds.

2014-12-21 02This is the cover I made from a brand new cotton doona cover I bought from the op shop.  It was the first time I had made one and I was very pleased with the result.  You can read about it here.

I could never have told you how long an ironing board cover lasted but thanks to this blog I now know that this one has given 2.5 years of service.  I regard that as pretty reaonable as I do a fair bit of ironing.

Holiday Hangover

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It is now 10 weeks since we arrived back from our overseas holiday and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get properly back into the swing of blogging.  With less than 4 weeks until Christmas, I suspect that it is going to be next year before I get things really back on track.

Apart from trying to get things done at home, I am finding that I am particularly busy at work.  I constantly feel as though I am trying to catch my tail as there has been quite a backlog from while I was away.  I have almost got that under control and now am trying to fit in a couple of additional projects which I will be working on next year.

Yesterday we attended our Christmas drinks celebration with all of our neighbours.  The road we live in is about 3km in length with only about 26 houses scattered along its length.  Some of the residents are permanent and others homes are weekenders so we see some of our neighbours very infrequently.  The annual get-together is a fun evening and everyone brings theirs drinks and a plate of food to share.  I took a bowl of Pumpkin & Feta Balls and some homemade tomato sauce for dipping.  The recipe I used is here.  I adapted it slightly as I used standard feta, chilli powder (1 teaspoon) and 1 teaspoon of powdered coriander.  I rolled them into small balls rather than as fritters.

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Today I picked 2 large bowls of cherry tomatoes.  These grown wild in our garden – sometimes in rather inconvenient places.  Here are some of them.  I remove the stalks, discard any with blemishes, rinse them and then freeze them whole in recycled bread bags.  I now have about 6 kgs in the freezer.

2014-11-30 02I am  off to Sydney this week for 3 days for work but more about that next time.

Open Your Eyes

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Today I was reminded of how often we really do not take notice of what is going on around us.  I read this post by Zoë Boccabella.  I had never heard of Little Free Libraries but worst of all this one is actually located in the closest small town to where I live.  Why is that bad?  I go to town usually once each week and I have seen the Little Free Library and know exactly where it is but I had never bothered to investigate what it was or its purpose.  Now I have found out, thanks to a blog by someone who does not even live here.

Little Free Library also has a Facebook page if you are interested.

Thanks, Zoë, for opening my eyes.

 

Why Blog?

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It is not that many years ago that most of us had never heard of a blog, let alone read one, or heaven forbid, actual written a blog post.  Some days now, it seems as though everyone is writing.  All of this got me to thinking about what made me start and why I continue to blog.

My blog is not an advertising vehicle.  It is not a money-making exercise.

simplicityMy blog is a diary.  I am able to share my thoughts and ideas on a wide range of topics.  It allows me to connect with others who share similar values and interests.  It is me.  Pure and simple.

Shiny Shoes

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Just a short post tonight as I have been busy with the photo project which is progressing well.  There are a lot more of the older blog posts which now have the photos reinstated.

Last week I was in the local shoe shop where I had bought these 2 pairs of shoes a couple of months before we travelled overseas.

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I wore them practically every day for 6 weeks and have worn them quite a bit both before we left and since our return as they are simply some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned.  I asked about cleaning them and as I had suspected I was told that they could be washed in a washing machine.  I decided to handwash them using a little of the regular liquid detergent that I use in the washing machine.

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After soaking them for a few hours, I rinsed them thoroughly, squeezed the excess water out and set them out on a towel on the bench to dry.

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Once these are completely dry, I will repeat the process with the red ones.

The lady in the shoe shop also advised that you can buy replacement inner soles for $5.   It is nice to know that some things are actually made to last rather than designed to be tossed in the bin at the first sign of wear and tear.

Behind the Scenes

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I have been doing quite a bit of organising over the past week or so but it has been behind the scenes and I cannot really show you photographs of it.

Although it is not immediately evident, I have been working hard to reinstate a lot more of the photos that I accidentally erased from the first 2 years of the blog.  I am doing it in conjunction with slowly but surely sorting out my digital photos which is a huge job.

2014-10-18 01
One day all of the photos will be back in place, but in the meantime I wanted to share this older post with you.  When I look at my blog stats, it is one of the most consistently viewed ones so I am sure many people will be happy to know that the photos are back in place.

Please take some time to look back at some of the older posts and you might be surprised to see some previously unseen photographs.  There are still plenty of posts left to add photos to, so if you find one without that you are interested in, please post in the comments and I will try to make it a priority.

 

Sorting the Photos & Myself

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Some of you will remember this blog post from last year when I shared the awful realisation that I had deleted all the photos from my blog posts.  While I have put that experience behind me and moved on, I am aware that many of the older blog posts really do not make a lot of sense without the photos.

I am forever trying to sort out all of my digital photos and naturally my recent focus has been on getting all of the ones we took during our holiday into order.  However, I have been looking at many of the others and have found that most (if not all) of the ones that I deleted are still in various folders.  It will be a huge job but I am going to attempt to reinstate them in the relevant blog posts.

As with any big project it is best to do a little bit at a time so I have set myself the goal of fixing at least one blog post every day.  There will be no particular sequence but one day it will all be fixed, I hope.

It is now almost a week since we arrived home from overseas and I have worked 4 full days and am exhausted.  I am definitely looking forward to the weekend and the family coming to visit tomorrow.  We are looking forward to showing them the photos and giving them the small gifts we bought.