The Cupboard was Bare – Not Really

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Posted on September 13, 2015

We arrived home early this morning after an overnight flight from Singapore. I had pretty well cleared out the refrigerator before we left and shopping was the last thing on my mind this morning. The house-sitters had bought fresh milk for us and GMan made a loaf of bread.

This afternoon I began to think about what we might have for dinner and I really was not in the right frame of mind to go grocery shopping shopping so I decided to make do with what we had on hand. There were sausages in the freezer as well as some pre-cooked rice and diced raw onion.

I grilled the sausages and then sliced them up. Next, I fried the onion in the pan, added 1/4 teaspoon of chilli powder, sliced celery (from the garden) and a broccoli stalk which was also lurking in the freezer. A can of tomatoes and 5 olives which was all that was left from a jar in the frig completed the sauce. I added the thawed rice and sliced sausages and heated the mixture before putting it in a Pyrex dish.

I topped it with a mixture of grated cheddar and parmesan cheese mixed with flaxseed meal and ground pepitas and popped it under the grill for a few minutes.

Since we had not bought any fruit and vegetables today, I served it with a generous helping of kale from the garden which I chopped and stir-fried with a sprinkle of chilli powder and squeeze of lime juice.

GMan and I ate one half of this tonight and the other half has been divided into 3 serves for my lunches this week.

Small Talk or Social Grease

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Posted on August 27, 2015

Tonight I want to address a discussion I became involved in on a forum. Someone asked if people felt that interactions with businesses, either face-to-face or in telephone conversations had become overly familiar and insincere.

I felt that this was the case and even quoted the following example which was fresh in my mind.

I had just been to pick up my new glasses and during the process of fitting and adjusting them I was asked

“How’s your day been?” – “fine, thank you” then
“Are you working?” – “yes” then
“Where do you work?” – “name of employer” then
“So, what have you got planned for the weekend?” – “just a quiet weekend at home”.

At this point the glasses were ready and I escaped. I am much closer to 60 than 50 and the interrogator was was a male who was probably in his 30s. I had to bite my tongue not to reply with something the lines of “none of your business” after the first question and answer which I accept as standard. Am I being too harsh? I am quite happy to sit quietly while the fitting process is completed.

I do not mind chatting and some people who know me in real life would attest to that. However, I am essentially an introvert and prefer not to share all of my details with a random stranger who is not really interested in my answers. One of the aspects of this particular example which I found particularly annoying was the interrogative style of questioning. I have thought about this and examined my interactions quite a bit since the experience I outlined above. I have decided that it really all in the delivery. Probing questions that leave you feeling as though you are being interrogated are not the way to go. It is clearly an art to set the customer at ease and have a casual conversation.

Like the poster at the top, perhaps I should build up a collection of witty one-liners for times when I feel confronted by the line of questioning.

What are your thoughts?

Project 333 – New Additions

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Posted on July 30, 2015

I know that the concept of Project 333 is to ‘dress with less’ but one of the clear benefits for me has been to be able to identify gaps in my wardrobe. It means that I can confidently and consciously purchase new items of clothing knowing that they will fit with my lifestyle and work with the existing pieces in my wardrobe.

Today a parcel arrived with 3 items of knitwear that I had ordered online. They are all merino/cashmere blend from Woolovers online shopping. I have not been overly confident of buying online but my sister had previously purchased from the site and had actually found a couple of the pieces were too big for her so passed them on to me. One was a black v-neck cardigan which I found perfect so I bought an identical one in royal blue.

I am trying to incorporate more plain pieces into my collection to increase the versatility. I bought this cardigan specifically to wear with this dress but it will also be great for wearing with collared shirts and trousers.

For years I have dreamed of having a short-sleeved black cashmere top. I finally have one, albeit, merino/cashmere blend.

It will be able to be worn in so many ways but I am definitely looking forward to pairing it with this skirt.

And this one.

My final purchase was this 3/4 sleeve cowl neck pullover. I love 3/4 sleeves and am looking forward to wearing it with a selection of jeans, trousers and jackets.

My red scarf will go well with it.

I have no affiliation with the site but if you are interested in buying from them (and have not done so before) you can use the code and instructions in this link to secure a 10% discount off your first order.

Project 333 – Shoes

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Posted on July 25, 2015

Today I decluttered my shoes – again! I am now down to 15 pairs. This includes my thongs and slippers which live in my wardrobe but excludes the gumboots and old gardening sneakers which are downstairs.

This is the least number of pairs of footwear that I have owned anytime in my adult life. I do like shoes but in recent years my fascination has not been about falling in love with totally impractical styles and colours but rather about the pursuit of the ‘perfect’ shoes.

It is interesting that the more I streamline the selection of clothes that I wear the easier it is to let go of shoes. If I tend to wear lots of a similar style or colour it stands to reason that the same shoe will work with many different outfits.

Here are the shoes that are in my cupboard today.

On the floor (from left to right)

Hiking boots – rarely worn but still make the cut
RM Williams dress boots – worn with jeans in cold weather
Short boots (red) – bought last year overseas when I needed some to replace a pair of shoes that wore out
Red lace-up shoes – Ecco brand – worn with jeans or trousers
Sneakers – for walking and exercise
Australian Geographic slippers – lightweight, great with socks
Purple thongs – summer casual wear

Top shelf

Bronze Mary Janes – super lightweight and comfortable, can be worn with dresses or trousers
Red Mary Janes – as above
Black patent kitten heel – dress shoe for after-five wear
Red walking sandals – Ecco brand – very comfortable

Lower shelf

Black low-heeled sandal – Taos brand – flexible sole, comfortable but quite dressy
Black low heeled ankle strap shoes – dressy winter shoe
Pink summer sandals – very comfortable
Red summer sandals – as above

Comfort and ease of wearing are my main criteria when buying shoes and they also need to be able to be worn with a variety of outfits.

Here are a couple more that I would like to add to my collection.

These are identical to my red and bronze Mary Janes and are available here.

I love red shoes and this pair look perfect. I don’t know that I can justify them at the moment but I do love them. They are from Frankie4. I have not bought any shoes from this range but a friend has and she recommended them. I like the selection of summer sandals that are both stylish and look comfortable.

I will be keeping an eye out for their spring/summer catalogue as I will definitely need some new summer sandals. The pink and red ones that I have are just about at the end of their lives after a couple of long, hot summers.

What do you look for in shoes? Have your criteria changed over time?

A New Desk – Part 2

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Posted on July 18, 2015

Well the desk is all assembled but not without a hiccup or two.

This morning we opened the box containing the hutch and it was the wrong colour!! Yes, we had managed to pick up the wrong one. So, it was off to IKEA again which really threw our plans for the day into disarray.

The traffic was a nightmare on our way home but we finally made it back and set about assembling the hutch.

Here is the final item all completed and in position. It is shorter and narrower than the old table so creates a bit more space in the room. I have been able to conceal almost all of the cables behind the desk which is much neater than before.

I moved the pictures that were above the old desk to the other side of the room now that the second bookcase has gone.

Now I need to find a suitable chair to place in the corner to create a comfortable reading nook.

I am really pleased with how this room has been altered and redefined. I have some plans for minor alterations to a couple of other rooms in the future. No doubt, I will post about those when they happen but please don’t hold your breath.

A New Desk – Part 1

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Posted on July 17, 2015

I have just checked the date and realised that it is 10 days since my last blog post. I have been busy – in that time my mother has come home from hospital after having undergone heart surgery, I have attended a gathering of my extended family which I organised to celebrate a milestone from my grandfather’s life and been away for a work conference for 2 days. That has all been in addition to running a household and holding down a full-time job.

There will be some blog posts about some of what I have been doing,but that is enough of my excuses for the moment.

GMan and I both had a day off today and we decided to make a round trip of over 200km to IKEA to buy a new desk for our home office. I had searched online for either a new or second-hand desk and the one we bought was definitely the best to suit our needs.

We arrived home this afternoon with 3 large packages.

GMan and I have spent several hours assembling the desk. We are very happy with how it has turned out so far. It is currently sitting in the middle of the office.

Tomorrow we will move all of the stuff of the existing desk and position the new one in its place. The next step will be to build the bookcase/hutch section which attached to the desk.

Watch out for tomorrow’s post in which I hope to show you the completed desk and revamped office/library area.

Sunday Shopping

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Posted on May 3, 2015

No sewing of the stash this week despite the best of intentions. Today was mostly about shopping which was a little different to our usual weekly shop which consists of going to a local fruit and vegetable stall and a few groceries from Aldi. We went a bit further afield – to Caloundra because I wanted to buy some more salmon. It is about 50km round trip so we generally try to make the most of it when we drive that far.

We collected our thoughts and made a list which looked like this:

Farmers’ Markets – fruit and vegetables
KMart – relacement gas canister for Soda Stream, coathangers and long-handled dustpan/brush
Fishmonger – salmon
Discount chemist – tablets and deodorant

After checking the pantry I decided that there was nothing we needed this week from Aldi so we set out on our expedition.

The fruit and vegetables were successfully bought then we headed to KMart. This was not quite as good. The gas canister was swapped with far less fuss than last time we wanted one. You can read about that event here. However, they did not have the type of coathangers that I wanted nor any long-handled dustpan and brush. In fact, the selection of household items was very ordinary and there were numerous empty shelves – I am not sure what the reason was.

Off to the fish shop for 4 pieces of salmon which makes 8 serves cost just under $40. While this is not spectacularly cheap it is a meal that we really enjoy and is better than paying $30 – $35 for a meal of salmon at a restaurant.

There is a Bunnings hardware across the road from the chemist so we tried for the dustpan and coathangers there. We struck gold with the dustpan but not the coathangers.

Here is the dustpan. It is the third one I have had in almost 35 years.

I bought it to replace this one which has now cracked near the base of the handle.

Finally, at the chemist I bought 2 bottles of calcium tablets because they were on special and I made sure they would be used by the expiry date. I won’t need to buy any more for about 20 months! GMan could not find the particular deodorant that he uses so we will look elsewhere.

I will keep looking for type of coathangers that I want as well as the deodorant. There is a Big W and Target in Brisbane near my office so I will try to check them out during the week.

Speaking of shopping and spending money, I have tallied up our spending for the first 4 months of the year. I will have all of the details for you tomorrow.

Tracking 2015 – March

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Posted on April 3, 2015

It is a few days into April and you could be forgiven for thinking that I had forgotten this series. But no, I am just running a little late.

Here are the monthly totals so far:

January – $2,628.73
February – $1,783.49
March – $4,320.56

Well March really blew the averages! What did we spend our money on?

The blowout in our March spending has highlighted the precise reason why I wanted to track our spending for a whole year. I knew that our variable spending was very patchy.

One example is the category “Pets/Vet/Registration”. Our combined total for January and February for this category was $43 yet in March it was $673. The dog had his annual check-up and annual heartworm medication, we bought 2 large bags of dog food, chicken feed and a fancy chicken feeder which will hopefully save us money in the long run by not allowing other wildlife to access the feed.

Food was also higher due due some bulk buying of nuts and dried fruit.

We both bought clothes this month – 2 dresses, a bag and shoes for me and Gman bought 2 new business shirts.

One of the cars was serviced and we continue to spend on things to do with house maintenance and developing the garden.

The spending was carefully considered but I certainly would not want to be spending like that every month.

The regular Friday Flashback post will be up this evening.

Bargain Buys

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Posted on March 23, 2015

Following on from my post on Saturday, I have bought this bag.

When I went to buy it, the sales assistant pointed out that if I bought 2 items they would both be 25% off. I did not need another bag but then she added that it included any merchandise including wallets, hats and scarves. I was not necessarily looking for anything else but I decided to take a look. I found this gorgeous red scarf for $20 so added that to my purchases. I can’t wait for some cooler weather.

Thanks to discounts and a $50 gift card I ended up getting the bag and scarf for $114.

I also ordered this dress from Rivette & Blair in Melbourne.

Instead of ordering online which is a relatively new innovation for this brand, I rang the store to check that the dress was an identical style to the 2 I already have. I placed my order over the phone and was advised that there was 20% off the price and I also ended up ordering another in the same style which was on special for $59 which is less than half price. The description is red and blue floral so it will be a bit of a surprise packet!

That is certainly enough buying for me at the moment.

What about you? Have you bought anything lately or scored a bargain?

Project 333 – Wardrobe Additions

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Posted on March 21, 2015

Adding to my wardrobe may seem to be contrary to the essence of Project 333 but it is not about denial but having a small collection of clothes that you love and wear. The more I work with what I have the more clarity I have about the direction I want to take.

Last week I bought a new pair of shoes but they do not really count as they as for walking (exercise).

I did consider actually selecting 33 items to participate in Project 333 this autumn (fall) as I am in the southern hemisphere. However, I am constantly drawn to the idea of a modest selection of clothes which can be worn year-round (with modifications) as we live in a warm temperate climate. I work in an air-conditioned office during the week and live on a small, semi-rural acreage.

I tend to wear separates – skirts/trousers and shirts to the office and a few years ago I only owned one dress. I have since realised that it was not really my choice – I love dresses – but dresses that I found suitable and flattering were difficult to find. I now have 5 dresses plus a dress suitable for wedding/special occasions. Additionally, I have fabric to make another dress and am seriously contemplating buying this one.

It is identical to these two dresses I already have in my wardrobe.

Along with a plain black and two black/white dresses these could form the basis of a year-round office wardrobe. I have a red jacket that can be worn with the two existing dresses and I would make or buy a navy jacket which could go with the new dress as well as the pink/red one.

My other proposed purchase is this bag.

I found it on Friday and plan to go back and buy it on Monday. I have been looking for a bigger bag for some months as I want to be able to put my laptop in it and still have space for a few personal items – purse, sunglasses, phone, car keys. My plan is to make this the one bag that I take to work so that I am not carrying a laptop case as well as a handbag. My small black handbag will still be used on all other occasions.

By judiciously choosing the additions to my wardrobe and removing those items that do not make the grade, I am gradually creating a collection of clothes that I love and which work together in a variety of ways.

Unlike the earrings, my clothes are definitely a work in progress and that will continue to be the case. What was perfect 3 years ago is now worn out, looking a bit jaded, no longer a perfect fit or just not a favourite. I can see my wardrobe evolving to match my changing style.