The Great Giveaway

4 Comments

Posted on March 6, 2013

I do not usually do 2 blog posts back-to-back but while I was writing my previous one Sarah posted a comment with this link about the giveaway that she received.

I had not previously had a giveaway on this blog as I did not feel that giving away more ‘stuff’ was necessarily in the spirit of what I write. However, I thought that the milestone of 500 posts was worth celebrating and the my readers (or at least one lucky one) would be the winner.

The bag is modelled on this one and can be used for a variety of purposes – pegs, cleaning rags, dirty laundry or even children’s toys. I would love to hear of other creative ways you could put a bag like this to use.

The giveaway, as Sarah correctly surmised is made from the remains of a doona cover and pillowcase which I bought a couple of years ago from the op shop. While they did not have tags on, everything pointed to them being unused and they were made from a strong cotton fabric. I have made a tablecloth, ironing board cover and now the giveaway from this fabric.

I am glad that Sarah is pleased with her surprise and as an added bonus, it matches her decor!

What do you think of giveaways on blogs? Surprise or not? Conditions applied? Items supplied by sponsors /product endorsements?

I am in the process of creating a pattern and instructions to make this bag yourself so if you would like a copy please let me know in the comments and I will work out how best to share this information. Granny, I have not forgotten you – just a bit busy these past couple of weeks.

Marvellous Mango

1 Comment

Posted on March 6, 2013

We have a small mango tree which we planted about 4 years ago. This is the first year that it has fruited and I am not sure whether it is due to maturity or simply the unusually warm, dry summer that we experienced up until the middle of January.

The tree is an R2E2 variety which is grown commercially here in Australia and has large fruit but the fruit we have picked are as large as any I have seen.

Regardless of the reason, we have enjoyed the half a dozen large fruit.

The flesh is smooth and firm with a fairly thin skin which is able to be peeled with a knife.This is one cheek or side of the mango.

Here is the cheek diced and ready to pack in my lunch. The remaining portion is covered in the fridge and will be used over the next couple of days.

Mango harvests are subject to seasonal variations so I will have to wait and see whether this season has been a “one-off” or whether we will enjoy home-grown mangoes each year.

I love eating seasonal produce, particularly those things with a relatively short season. Half of the joy is in the anticipation.

Suit Yourself

1 Comment

Posted on March 4, 2013

When we were in Melbourne last month, The Duke bought a new suit. Before we left the store it was packed onto hangers and placed in a suit bag.

These bags are fairly lightweight plastic and we now have at least 3 of them at home. They are convenient if you are taking a suit when flying interstate but I would never store clothes in them as the plastic does not allow any air to circulate and the clothes would be mouldy in no time.

We are going on holidays next week and will be travelling by car for a couple of weeks. The suit will be packed as we have a wedding to attend in the latter part of the trip so I decided I wanted something better than a plastic bag.

First, I removed the zipper to re-use in the new bag. Then I used the existing bag as a pattern. I made the new bag somewhat longer so that is able to hold a dress as well. Thanks to the generosity of a friend I have several metres of poly cotton fabric, some of which was perfect for my project.

Here is the suit in the finished bag.

All zipped up and ready to go.

We now have a breathable carry bag/dust cover for special occasion clothes and another piece of plastic has been eliminated from our home.

Slow Living – February

4 Comments

Posted on March 3, 2013

This is my second month of joining in the monthly round-up at Slow Living Essentials and already I seem to be struggling with what to write. A couple of things seems to have conspired against me – it is a short month – is it really the end of the month already? and the weather! Since the dry spell broke on the Australia Day weekend (26th January) it has rained almost constantly which limits our activities somewhat

Here are the Slow Living categories:

{Nourish} With the onset of some cooler weather with the rain it was an ideal time to pull out the slow cooker.

I made a batch of pumpkin soup and and beef casserole.

{Prepare} We had an excellent crop of figs.

As well as eating lots of them fresh from the tree, I was able to dry some. This was very successful so I am hoping to have enough to do again next year.

{Reduce} This is always a hard one as we do this each and every day. I turned a singlet of mine that was too short into one for Miss O.

{Green} The weather has brought out the mould but I am keeping things clean and smelling fresh with the use of clove oil. You can read a previous post here.

{Grow} The warm, dry beginning to the summer meant that we had about 8 mangoes on our small tree. We planted it about 4 years ago and this is the first time it has fruited. I suspect that it is generally too cool for them here but this year’s crop has made it worthwhile. They are some of the best mangoes I have tasted and the flesh is as smooth as anything with no sign of stringiness.

Last weekend we had a rare fine day so we bought and planted some vegetable seedlings. They have more than doubled in size in a week.

{Create} Since my sewing machine has returned from being serviced I have got quite a bit of sewing done. I am working through my stash of fabric as well as some pieces I have been given. Here are some of the results.

Winter and summer pyjama bottoms.

A new lining in my skirt.

{Discover} I don’t think I have read anything this month but in a different vein I did discover some fabric to be used when I was sorting out my stash.

{Enhance} We gave away the used fencing wire via Freecycle. I also shared some of the many self-sown cucumber seedlings with neighbours, work colleagues, blogging friends and also on Freecycle.

It is a shame that I did not take some photos of them. Not so much for the seedlings but the innovative packaging. I used some excess egg cartons that I had been given and each seedling and its soil was packed in a space in the carton.

An internet friend sent me some fabric and I used some of it to make a dress suitable for an 18 month old. I will send it to her for her granddaughter who was born last week.

{Enjoy} We travelled to Melbourne and spent a weekend with our daughter who moved there recently. We saw her new home, sampled food at some local establishments and shopped.

I bought this dress to wear to a wedding in a few weeks. I just need to finalise accessories.

The slow living this month has been heavily weighted towards sewing and I guess that is not entirely unexpected with being stuck indoors due to the weather.

Now I am off to check out some of the slow living blogs.

Til next month………..

Building Resilience

6 Comments

Posted on February 28, 2013

I have said it before and will say it again. Life is fragile. It can be snuffed out in a moment. Cherish what you have and live for today.

As you can probably guess, I have found out that an ex-work colleague was killed in tragic circumstances last week. He was younger than me with a loving wife and 4 children. This is the point where people often say (or write), “he didn’t deserve to die”. I find that statement offensive because it implies that some other people do deserve to die.

Death is inevitable and we all face it. There are close family and friends, acquaintances, connections through friends as well as those we ‘know’ only through the media. It is important to acknowledge the passing of anyone but it must be appropriate to the level of connection or we will find ourselves overwhelmed and consumed by grief.

This also applies to people who are gravely ill or facing a diagnosis which provides an uncertain future at best.

A friend’s elderly mother is hovering between life and death after a nasty fall. A well-known media personality is said to be gravely ill with possibly only days to live. Another friend’s mother has received a diagnosis of cancer. Each of these impacts on me and I am saddened but I need to process the information appropriately. I have not met any of these people directly but I can support my friends with messages and perhaps phone calls.

Life and death goes on every day and it is possible to receive almost instantaneous updates on everything via Facebook, email, Twitter and so on. In order to maintain your strength and resilience you need to take some time-out and recharge your emotional batteries. In the current time of being constantly connected it can be difficult to step away from the never-ending bombardment of information.

Your emotional well is not infinite. Top it up. Take care of yourself and you will be able to provide an appropriate level of support to those you care for when they need it most.

Project 333 – How Many Can You Make?

7 Comments

Posted on February 27, 2013

While I don’t adhere precisely to the concept of 33 items for 3 months, I have been working on streamlining my wardrobe. I make sure that everything in there is something that I truly love and wear. It also needs to be capable of being worn in several different ways.

Today I want to show you how versatile a few pieces can be so I selected a total of 13 items.

2 skirts

A pair of 3/4 trousers

Dark blue jeans

That is a total of 4 ‘bottoms’. Then I added 4 tops.

Three are the same style and the white one is slightly different.

A jacket with 3/4 sleeves which is very practical for our climate and also air-conditioned offices.

A cardigan

Finally, some footwear.

Look carefully and you will see that almost any combination will work.

In reality there are a few things I would not do.

Wear sandals with jeans
Wear sandals when wearing jacket or cardigan
Wear white top with spotted skirt (cream) or with the white trousers (too much white)
Wear red top and red jacket together
Wear black top and black cardigan together
Wear blue top and black cardigan with checked skirt or jeans (too many different dark colours together)

By applying the ‘rules’ I set above I have calculated that I could create 72 different outfits by adding/deleting a jacket/cardigan or changing the shoes.

How versatile are the clothes in your wardrobe?

Use It, Don’t Store It

8 Comments

Posted on February 26, 2013

The rain continues to pour down here with more flooding predicted. This is our third round in less than 4 weeks so I think the only ones enjoying the weather are the ducks. Extreme weather events make life a bit more challenging so we just manage the bare basics. The systems and organisation that I have in place make it reasonably easy to get by but there is no denying that I do long for a bit of fine weather.

Our lake

In the meantime, I wanted to share something small with you. We do not have a toothbrush holder as a permanent fixture. At one stage we would put them on a shallow tray in the cupboard but I decided that it would be easier to have them accessible on the bench so I cast around for a suitable container. I wanted something stylish but did not see the need to rush out and buy one so I re-purposed this vase.

It is the right size and shape as well as being stable and quite heavy so is unlikely to be knocked over.

I was involved in an online discussion recently regarding how many vases people had and where they stored them. I found that I had 5, including this re-purposed one. None of them are stored as such.

This one which came from my mother is a piece which I love and it is the centrepiece on my dining table.

Two of the others live on the sideboard and are essentially decorative, although they can be used for holding flowers as required.

The final tiny vase which I was given for my 21st birthday is an ornament on my dressing table.

Do you have vases and how do you store them?

Weekend Work

8 Comments

Posted on February 24, 2013

We have had a busy and productive weekend but it was not without some recreation as well.

Yesterday was the one bright spot, according to the weather forecast, in an otherwise wet couple of weeks. We set off early and headed to the markets at Yandina, which is about 40 minutes north of us. Our main goal was to buy some seedlings for our vegie garden. There is a great stall there and this was our first stop. We bought cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, bok choy and lettuce seedlings.

The main focus of this particular market seems to be plants and The Duke always checks out the fruit trees and yesterday we bought another mandarin tree. I cannot remember the variety but it was not one had heard of, although the stallholder said she finds it is one of the sweetest varieties. We are happy to give it a try.

Once we were back home our next project was to hang the gates to complete the new fencing. I also did 2 loads of washing. After lunch the Duke mowed the lawn. I was very thankful that the weather stayed fine and windy so the washing was all dry and I got the ironing up to date.

It was easy to stay focused on what I needed to achieve as we had decided to go to the movies last night to see Quartet. It was the first screening by the Maleny Film Society back in the revamped Community Centre. We also had dinner there before the movie and had a fun night out. The meals are catered by Pomodoras on Obi, a local restaurant and function venue which also has on-site accommodation.

Today the weather has not been quite as pleasant, and we had some rain this morning, but it has not deteriorated as predicted yet. I have made some progress with several sewing projects. Three pairs of trousers for The Duke have been shortened as well as a new skirt I bought in Melbourne.

I have put a new lining in a skirt and am working on the waistband.

Here is the lining attached to the skirt.

And the right side with the waistband partly attached.

The reason I relined this skirt is because the original lining was straight and very narrow and I had split the side seam on it. I find this disappointing and annoying when I pay for a good skirt and find that they have skimped by making a lining that does not match the shape of the skirt. I am confident that my alterations will work well and I am looking forward to getting plenty of use out of the skirt. I also did some sorting of my fabric and have some ideas for several pieces so there is plenty to keep me going for a while.

Finally, this afternoon we topped up the soil in the raised garden bed and planted the seedlings. There are no photos as it was getting late and the light was not good. I hope to post some later in the week. It is now raining lightly so the seedlings will be enjoying that.

I am still waiting to hear from SarahN to claim the giveaway. Once I send it I will share what it was with you all.

And The Winner Is…………

5 Comments

Posted on February 23, 2013

Thanks to everyone who took the time to follow my blog and comment on the Fabulous 500 post in order to be in the running. The draw has been done and I am pleased to announce that the winner is SarahN.

Although the actual comment had no bearing on the outcome, I would like to post Sarah’s comment (in part) here.

“500 posts – that’s inspirational! I’m curious about this mystery give away business – only cause I’m committed to being uncluttered – so I’m always assessing things to see if they suit my life etc.”

That is so ironic because it is the very reason that I am wary about lots of giveaways! However, I am sure that the gift will fit with Sarah’s goals (and mine) of an uncluttered home.

Sarah, could you please contact me with a postal address so that I can arrange delivery?

When Sarah has received her gift I will reveal it here on the blog as well.

Once again, I would like to thank you all for participating and I look forward to your thoughtful and engaging comments as I head towards the next 500 posts.

Memories

8 Comments

Posted on February 22, 2013

Today is my father’s 84^th birthday, however, we are unable to celebrate it with him as he died nearly 12 years ago. While his death was sudden and unexpected, we are thankful that he did not suffer.