Weekly Challenge – Week 5

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Posted on June 14, 2011

I forgot to post the new challenges yesterday as I did not realise it was Monday due to the public holiday , but here I am now, back on track.

Countdown time – 19 weeks to go! I hope everyone and everything are OK in Christchurch after the most recent round of earthquakes. Although we will only be spending 3 nights there, Christchurch is our arrival and departure point for our trip. Keeping our fingers crossed!

1. Clean car inside and out -DONE

2. Finish making sandwich wraps for Miss O and Izz – DONE

3. Create a spreadsheet for future holiday packing needs

4. Make trackpants for Miss O and Izz – DONE

5. Send emails to book accommodation for New Zealand trip – DONE

6. Buy and plant seedlings for winter vegetables – DONE

7. Email friend to arrange to meet for lunch – DONE

8. Finish knitting dishcloth and sew ends in on first two – DONE

9. Make dressing gown for Miss O – DONE

10. Upload music to my iPod

11. Declutter and clean bathroom cupboard – DONE

12. Plan birthday celebration for Missy – DONE

13. Make an appointment to have our tax done – DONE

14. List 2 items on Freecycle

15. Clean kitchen windows

16. Book train trip for New Zealand holiday

17. Follow up what I need to do to change my superannuation

18. Assemble the required paperwork for our tax appointment

19. Finish pinafore for Izz

20. Discuss 80th birthday celebration plans with my mother

Gradually making progress on the list. It is good to see what I have actually achieved.

Meanwhile the sorting, decluttering, sewing and general housework continues unabated.

Tourists in Our Own Town

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Posted on June 13, 2011

This morning we went to Baroon Pocket Dam. The southern, or Maleny side where we went is only about 5 minutes drive from the centre of Maleny. We took a short walk on a circuit overlooking the lake. It is easy to overlook some of the spectacular natural scenery on our doorstep so I took these photos to remind us of how lucky we are. We travel halfway around the world to see views like these and here it all is in our own backyard. We took the camera, stainless steel water bottles, home-made muffins and apples in a backpack for our excursion. So for next to no cost or environmental impact we had a lovely morning walk.

Here is one of the lake…..

And another….

Nesting box

Bunya pine – a local species

We have decided to discover a new place in our local area each weekend. There are some hidden treasures nearby.

What natural attractions do you have on your doorstep?

Birthday Brunch

Bargains and Collecting

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Posted on June 10, 2011

Even though I was working from home for part of the day yesterday I did not get around to posting. It may have had something to do with how cold it was. The temperature did not make it into double figures all day and although we do get quite cool days here things are not really set up to cope with that kind of weather. It was grey and overcast as well which did not help my mood.

Anyway, I am back and keen to tell you about my latest acquisitions. When I went into Maleny to do some errands and shopping I popped into the 2 op shops we have here in town. I dropped some thing off to the first one and then had a look at their buttons. Apparently any garments that are not fit for resale have any buttons cut off (still attached to a strip of fabric) and these are all tossed in a basket. I went through the stash and found these to add to my collection. They cost 5c each.

Then it was off to the other op shop to see if they had anything that caught my eye. I was in luck and picked up a pair of jeans for Izz for $3.95.

They don’t look anything out of the ordinary from the front. But the back view…..

…..is rather cute.

As I was heading back towards the counter I saw these for $5.95

A pair of unworn Clarks leather shoes. They will not fit Miss O for a few years yet but too good a bargain to pass up. They will be great with jeans when she is a bit older.

For those of you who are interested in my dialogue with Origin – I rang yesterday and they will be sending the bill as a priority so I should get it in the next week! I did establish that the 1 month free is the offer I signed up for and it is an average of our usage over the past 12 months. It is a credit of about $35 – every little bit helps. I have changed the bonus offer so that we actually get 5% discount on all electricity used from the grid for the next 12 months so that will make the differential between the amount they pay for what we generate and put into the grid and what we draw out even more substantial. Bring on the savings! I also asked how I could claim the credit from our solar panels. Once we receive the bill/statement I will know much credit we have and I then ring and ask for it to be credited to us. I am not sure yet whether it is paid as a cheque or directly into our account. More on that another day.

Exercise and Electricity

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Posted on June 8, 2011

In my first 7 days of walking in the Global Challenge I managed to average over 9,000 steps per day. Today, Day 8, has been a bit of a failure as I have only done about 5,500 steps. I am working from home tomorrow so hopefully will find the time to go for a long walk and improve my average for Week 2 of the challenge.

Speaking of challenges, I hope to cross a few more things off the list tomorrow as well.

The final challenge will be ringing Origin Energy tomorrow, no, the bill did not arrive in the mail today. However, I did get some mail from Origin.

I will address the issue of “One month of free electricity” when I phone Origin tomorrow. How will they measure it when I am in credit? I think a reasonable option would be to give me credit equivalent to the cost of my usage for the month. What do you think?

Stamp of Approval

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Posted on June 7, 2011

Today I spent about an hour with Miss O as Belle had a specialist appointment for Izz. I took the various garments that I am making for Miss O so that I could show her, check the fit and length for hemming and generally gauge her opinion. Everything got the thumbs up so it will be full steam ahead to complete them all. The yellow pinafore/sundress with red pockets was extremely well received. She seemed particularly keen on the contrasting pockets and was eager to slip her hands into the pockets to try them out. I will have to have another look through my stash and see if I have got other suitable pieces of fabric as I think it will be a very practical style for wearing to daycare.

On another note, Origin Energy are not looking like getting a stamp of approval from me. We normally receive our bills about 3-4 working days after the meter is read. Last quarter the meter was read on 28th February and the bill was not generated until 5th April. When I rang to inquire about a month after I expected the bill I was offered some vague explanation about the delays being due to the floods. I am not sure how that works. The meter was read last Tuesday (I was home so I saw it being done) and we still have not received the bill. If it does not arrive by Thursday I will be phoning Origin to find out what is going on. Just strikes me as a bit odd because these are the first 2 readings since the solar panels were installed and our account is in credit that there seems to be a delay in notifying us. Call me a cynic if you like! I want to know how much credit I have so that I can request it to be paid to us. Better earning interest for us than Origin.

Watch this space for an update on me vs. Origin.

Weekly Challenge – Week 4

Sunday – Sorting, Sewing and Stepping

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Posted on June 5, 2011

I have a moderate-size walk-in pantry in the corner of my kitchen. It was not spectacularly untidy but I did need to clean the shelves, check for any ‘orphans’ lurking in the back corners and generally get things sorted. I do not have a before photo but here it is when I had finished.

I only store the things that I am currently using in here as I have bulk stores in 10 litre buckets downstairs as well as another stock cupboard in the kitchen where I keep quantities of tinned food and extra packets of pasta, dry crackers etc.

The container in the middle of the bottom shelf is a few things I found that were not likely to get used so I have put them all together and made a note to myself to use them up. One thing in this bundle was some rice noodles which have been used the the stir-fry for dinner.

Today I did some more sewing for my grand-daughters. Here are the results of my efforts over the past week or so. I still have more that I am working on and will add the photos when they are done.

This the pinafore made from the sea-green corduroy I mentioned in yesterday’s post. I have yet to do the hem. The photograph does not do the colour justice and it is difficult to see the little embroidered flowers also.

While I had the pattern out I decided to make a summer one as well. It can be worn with a blouse or t-shirt underneath or alone in really hot weather. The fabric I used was originally a caftan I made for my sister many years ago. The only variation I needed to make was contrast fabric for the pockets and facings as well as a join in the centre front of the front and back bodice pieces.

This is the pattern I used – originally bought in 1986 and still going strong.

Here are a pair of basic trackpants I made.

That is it for today. I am still working on a dressing gown for Miss O as well as a hooded polar fleece jacket. I bought material today to make some more winter nighties for her and I have material here to make singlets and skivvies for both of the girls.

I managed 7,500 steps today which is not too bad since I did not go walking as such. That was just incidental at home and also at the market and Spotlight.

More Sewing

E is for Exercise

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Posted on June 2, 2011

A couple of weeks ago I posted the acronym ‘COFFEES’ to describe facets of my life which I would blog about. One of the E’s was for exercise, however, that has been sadly neglected for quite some time.

I have recently had the prod to make me get back to doing what will hopefully be regular exercise. Firstly, I discovered Frugal Queen’s blog Frugal in Cornwall in which she writes of all things frugal, including her decision to eat well and exercise on a shoestring.

If this was not enough to inspire me, my employer (a large global business) is running a pedometer challenge for the whole of June and I got roped into a team. There are 4 per team and I could not let the rest of the team down so today I was out pounding the footpaths in my lunchbreak.

After a slow start yesterday of only 4,500 steps today has been better with a total of 11,050 steps. I do not know that I can keep that up every day but I do know that wearing the pedometer and being in a team certainly provide some focus.

I will update my progress from time to time throughout June and hopefully beyond.