An Introduction & Dog Food Delivery

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Posted on March 19, 2015

Introducing……..GMan.

I know it is nothing like any of your suggestions, nor is it remotely linked to any of the ideas that I put forward but my husband is satisfied with the title so that is what matters.

So, The Duke is no more and GMan has joined the cast at Organised Castle.

We are not huge fans of online shopping but there are some instances where it is definitely worthwhile and pet food and supplies are one of them. This tends to be GMan’s domain and he orders tick and flea medication for the dog online. A few months ago he discovered that we could buy the dog food we usually purchase and it was cheaper to buy online and have it delivered than we where we had previously bought it. We buy 2 x 15kg sacks at a time and they are delivered to the door within a couple of days of placing the order. We no longer have a 70km round trip to buy it and don’t have to hoist 30kg of dog food into and out of the boot of the car. This is definitely quicker, easier and less expensive so we will definitely continue to buy it online.

Do you shop online? What do you buy?

Gluttony

5 Comments

Posted on March 7, 2015

It has been really interesting to read all of your comments on my post about food being wasted. Thanks for your input. I know I have said it before but it is the comments and subsequent ‘conversations’ that really add value to the blog.

Tonight I want to share an old post from 2012 on a similar theme. The thing that really strikes me about the processed food is the brightly coloured packaging – lots of red and yellow are the dominant theme. Are we really that easily seduced by pretty packets?

Over the past couple of days I have been working hard to re-instate more photos into the old blog posts so I encourage you to do a bit of blog-surfing and see what you find. You can always comment on old posts and I will respond. If you choose one that still has no photos please leave a comment and I will make it a priority.

I thought I would share this photo of hang-gliders over our backyard. We live quite close to a popular launch site and in the right conditions they often drift over our property. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground but it is marvellous to lie on the back lawn and gaze up at them floating overhead.

New For Old

2 Comments

Posted on March 2, 2015

Apart from consumables such as food and to a lesser degree clothing, I do not have a need to buy a great deal of stuff. Household items sometimes need to be replaced and I think this purchase falls into that category.

I bought a set of two china mixing bowls from Aldi for the princely sum of $10. It bothers me a bit because how something can be produced, transported across the globe and sold at a profit defies logic. Someone is losing out and I suspect it is the worker. This is a good reason to minimise your purchases, particularly of cheap, imported products.

They are to replace these two bowls which have seen better days.

The white bowl is a Tupperware one which came to me from my grandmother about 37 years ago. The surface is crazed and discoloured. The yellow bowl (36 years old) is more of a salad bowl and not ideal for mixing and it has a crack in the surface which makes it impossible to clean properly. It is time for them both to go and make way for my shiny new bowls. I hope they stand the test of time as the others did.

Tracking 2015 – February

Savvy Spending

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Posted on February 11, 2015

Today was my day off and I had arranged to meet some friends at the coast. We had morning tea and a long chat in a park and it was after 1pm by the time I headed off. I had planned to use the trip and petrol consumption wisely by incorporating a visit to East Coast Fabrics. I am regularly disappointed by the range and quality of fabrics available at Spotlight and Lincraft so when I heard advertisements for East Coast Fabrics on the radio recently, I made a mental note to check them out.

Since I am working through my stash of existing fabrics I am loathe to buy too much so I was fairly restrained. I bought these two pieces to make some more skirts. The mint green piece is linen and the other is a lightweight denim. The fabric plus a zip for each skirt cost $18.91 which I think is pretty good for two skirts. I will be using the same pattern that I used for this skirt I made recently.

I am planning to take these skirts when we go to Singapore in September. I have worked out which tops I will wear with them. There is this one that I made a few weeks ago.

I have chosen another three tops.

My thoughts are that all of the tops will go with the denim skirt, all except the yellow can be teamed with the green skirt and the striped skirt can be worn with either the yellow or white tops.

I plan to add 2 pairs of sandals, a pashmina, bathers, sarong, hat, fabric shoulder bag and umbrella. A pair of pyjamas and some underwear and I will be set for pretty well anything that a week in Singapore can throw at me.

What do you think?

New & Shiny Stuff

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Posted on December 30, 2014

Regular readers would know that I am not an advocate of shopping. Of course, I buy food to feed us and things that we use in our day-to-day lives but I am definitely not into shopping for recreation.

Every now and then I have a day like today when all I seem to do is buy. I had to go to Brisbane this morning with The Duke as we were to pick up our latest purchase this afternoon, but more about that later. It meant that I had the whole day to fill in so my first stop was Spotlight. I bought 5 white buttons for a blouse I am making and I also took some time to look at the fabrics which were all 40% off the marked price. I do not buy things just because they are discounted but I found some fabric that I am planning to use.

The white piece is linen/cotton blend and I am planning to make a summer dress for myself. I also bought some white lawn (not shown) for the lining. I am going to use this dress as the pattern.

The red is a stretch cotton (t-shirt) fabric which I plan to make a copy of a top I bought earlier in the year.

The other piece is white with black silhouettes of kitchen utensils and I am going to make some more potholders and a cover for my Kitchen Aid mixer which lives on the corner of the bench in the kitchen.

After my Spotlight expedition I went to visit my mother and we went to a large shopping centre near where she lives. Apart from having lunch there we wandered around and I checked out several boutiques and I ended up buying a pair of white, slim-fitting trousers and a blue, patterned cardigan/bolero. I did try on numerous other pieces but I am very selective in the clothes I buy and wanted to be sure that were exactly what I wanted but more on those another day.

The final hurrah was to pick up our new car after our previous one was deemed to be a total write-off after the damage sustained during the recent ferocious hailstorm.

I am planning a much less adventurous day tomorrow. I will be staying at home and hope to get some sewing done. It will not be any of the new material just yet as I have a couple of other projects that I need to complete before I start any new ones.

What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? Partying or a quiet night at home?

Live Rich

10 Comments

Posted on December 7, 2014

In the midst of your Christmas preparations, take a few minutes to watch this video with a clear and powerful message.

Will this be your way of living in 2015?

Sexism, Sadness and Simplicity

7 Comments

Posted on November 17, 2014

The catalyst for writing this post came in the form of a post on a friend’s Facebook page where she posted a link to this article. While the ‘extreme grooming’ that is described in the article is about a television presenter, it can be seen every day in our offices and shops.

Then just to top it off I found another link via Facebook about the ‘social experiment’ conducted by Karl Stefanovic. He wore the same suit every day for a year – and no-one noticed. This was his silent protest to highlight the way his female co-hosts were constantly judged and critiqued on what they wore and their hairstyles.

These articles in the media highlight the unreasonable pressures and expectations that society has on women in general and more specifically women who are constantly in the spotlight such as television presenters. It saddens me to realise how much of this pressure is on women in all walks of life.

There have been small, incremental steps to break down these ‘societal norms’ but we must all be a part of the solution if things are really to change. The Little Brown Dress project by Alexa Martin in 2005 – 2006 chronicled her anti-consumerism stance in which she wore the same dress every day for a year. Like Karl Stefanovic, no-one really noticed. Project 333, is loosely based on the same principle – have a small number of clothes that you wear and love and realise that the world mostly does not care what you wear. Anyway, none of us should be defined by the clothes we wear.

To return to the first link in this post, make-up and grooming are yet another facet of us feeling the expectation that we have to present ourselves to the world in a certain way.

I have never been a great fan of make-up and tend to keep my make-up to an absolute minimum. I no longer colour my hair and have a small but much-loved selection of clothes. My clothes fit my lifestyle and I feel good in them.

What about you? Do you feel pressured to present a certain face to the world? Does your workplace have an expectation of how you are groomed?

Christmas is Coming

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Posted on November 7, 2014

I know that the year is rolling by and before we know it Christmas will be upon us. In fact I read this comment on a discussion forum a couple of days ago,

“Everyone is so busy and it will get even busier as it gets closer to Xmas… which I haven’t planned anything….”

This got me thinking as to why everything has to be busy in the lead-up to Christmas. I love Christmas for the joy of being able to share the day with my family, especially the grandchildren. I do not enjoy the commercialism of it nor the endless round of parties, celebrations and gift-giving. The associated stress and pressure is simply not worth it.

I try to switch off to most advertising at any time but I find it particularly insidious at this time of the year. Every conceivable type of business is exhorting us to buy their goods so that they can be delivered by Christmas. Worse still, are the offers of no repayments until the New Year etc, etc. Just remember that everything has to be paid for at sometime and do you really want to be paying for Christmas at this time next year?

Like many other aspects of our life, we have managed to eliminate a lot of unnecessary Christmas festivities and focus on what is important to us.

This year we will be keeping it simple.

Neither The Duke nor I attend any work functions.
The Duke and I will go to a local festive gathering. It is an opportunity to socialise with our neighbours and is hosted by a different family each year. Everybody brings their own drinks and a plate of food to share.
We will take our grand-daughters to see the Christmas lights in our area. I want to take them to a carol service at the local church.
We will spend 5 days at the beach with family.
Christmas lunch will be at my sister’s place with extended family.
Gift giving for the family will focus on experiences and/or consumable gifts.

Over the next 6 weeks I will share some of the things you can do and make in the lead-up to Christmas which are memorable but relatively easy on the budget. Please share any special ideas from your family.

In the meantime, here is a photo I took yesterday when I went to Caloundra to meet some friends for lunch. I am hoping for some similarly spectacular weather when we spend some time there at Christmas.

Project 333 – 3 In, 6 Out

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Posted on October 26, 2014

It is now 5 weeks since we arrived home from our trip to the UK and Ireland. Those of you who followed my travel blog will know that I travelled fairly lightly and had 6 tops earmarked to go to the charity bin at the end of the trip. In this post you can see the 3 tops (red, blue and black) and the 3 striped 3/4 sleeve tops that I had decided would need to go. They were all pretty much past their use-by-date as they had faded, had small stains and the necklines were stretched and out of shape. I wore them to death for the 6 weeks that we were away and was glad to see the back of them at the end of the trip.

I think I have enough short-sleeved and sleeveless tops in my wardrobe but the 3/4 sleeve ones will need replacing. That will be a project before next autumn. In the meantime I did buy 3 pieces on the weekend we arrived home. I did not specifically set out to buy any of them.

The Duke and I went to Maleny to pick up a few groceries and I decided to take a look in a small boutique. I found this dress which is 100% cotton, lined and cool and comfortable. The fact that it is black and white is an added bonus.

Next, we wandered across the road to a recycle boutique where I struck it lucky. This blouse is also cotton (with a touch of spandex) and I don’t think it had ever been worn. I discovered why that was probably the case when I tried it on. The top button was at the level of the bottom edge of my bra! It was an easy matter to make another buttonhole and add a button. Also, black and white!

Finally, I found a lovely stretch lace waterfall cardigan by Mela Purdie. This was also in the recycle boutique and a steal at $35 when it would have been around $250 when brand new.