The Smallest Thing

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A few months ago we bought a mobile broadband USB stick.  “So what”, I hear you say.  Well as everyone knows they are pretty small.

2011-05-31 01The cap comes off and I am always worried that I am going to lose it.

2011-05-31 02So I have been trying to work out a way to attach the cap.  The idea gradually came together and today I finally did it.2011-05-31 04

I drilled a hole in the cap and then threaded a piece of round elastic through the hole in the base of the stick, through the hole I had drilled and knotted the ends together.

2011-05-31 03Now when I am using the device the cap stays attached.

2011-05-31 05I also labelled the cables for our various electronic devices.  This should make it easier to find them as they are all stored together in a small box.

Organising does not always have to be big projects.  Sometimes the smallest things can really make a difference.  What have you done to organise/simplify things in your home?

Weekly Challenge – Week 3

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Another week – another 4 tasks added to the list.  While having the list has not necessarily ensured that I do everything each week it has certainly made me accountable and is a reminder of what I need to catch up on rather than just letting things slide.  It is now 21 weeks to go till our holiday.

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

9. Make dressing gown for Miss O

10. Upload music to my iPod

11. Declutter and clean bathroom cupboard

12. Plan birthday celebration for Missy

There are a few outstanding things on the list but I hope that with a day off tomorrow I can catch up with the ever-growing list.

 

Frugal and Fancy

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Today I want to share a recipe with you.  It is for a dessert – Passionfruit Flummery.  I decided to make it today since I bought a bag of 20 passionfruit for $2 at the market yesterday.  That is 10c each – I could not believe my luck!  They are large fruit, full of tasty pulp.

I hunted out my trusty recipe folder and found this recipe which has been passed down to me from my mother.  I have made it several times over the years – usually for a special occasion dessert.  I remember having this dessert as a treat when I was a child.  What I did not realise was that it is frugal and relies on seasonal produce.  What a perfect way to impress your guests and keep within a reasonable budget.  Unfortunately, I do not have a dinner party coming up so it will be a dessert treat for The Duke and I which will last all week.

FRUIT FLUMMERY

INGREDIENTS

2 oranges
6 passionfruit

½ lemon
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 dessertspoon gelatine

1 cup sugar
2 cups water

METHOD
Squeeze the oranges and lemon, remove pulp from passionfruit.  Place in a jug and set aside.  Mix flour and gelatine with water in a saucepan, add citrus peel (chopped) and sugar.  Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes.  Strain through a colander to remove the peels, add juice and pulp and allow to cool.  Beat until stiff and frothy – about 20 minutes.  Place in a glass bowl in refrigerator to set.

I beat the mixture using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer – so much easier than my hand-held beaters and a better result.  The mixture made almost half as much again as it previously has.  I am really looking forward to it as the flummery will be so light and fluffy.

The total cost of this recipe was less than $1 and it has made at least 10 generous serves.

I planned to post photos to go with this post but I am unable to upload them at the moment.  I will post them when everything is working properly.

Markets & Gardens

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My plan for this weekend was to buy seedlings for our winter vegie garden.  So, we were up early and off to the Yandina Markets.  We are spoiled for choice of markets on both days of the weekends.  While it is a little further to travel to Yandina than some of the others, it is definitely worth the trip for vegetable seedlings.  I dream of being able to grow all of my produce from seed but for the moment it is far more practical to let someonelse do the seed raising.

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We also bought some local pineapples, bananas and zucchini as well as some beans.

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Then we headed for home with a slight detour to Caloundra.  First stop was K-Mart to get the makings of another batch of home brew, followed by Aldi to get a few things and finally Bunnings.  We bought a large bag of potting mix, some seed raising mix, 2 more hanging baskets for the verandah and a tin of paint stripper.  The paint stripper will be used by The Duke when he starts restoring the silky oak dressing table that we bought a couple of months ago.

We spent the rest of the day in the garden and we now have our winter vegetable gardens all planted up with what will hopefully be a great harvest over the coming months.

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First things to plant were baby spinach, bok choy and cabbages.

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Then broccoli, cauliflower and beetroot.

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A trellis for the beans and snow peas.

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Finally, the celery and onions.

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Since we do not have the vegetable garden area fenced we have a variety of fencing/covering methods to exclude the chickens from the very tempting new seedlings and mulch.  Fencing is on the ‘To Do’ list.  One day…………it will happen.

A New Look

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This is not really a blog post as such but more to let you know that the blog is still a ‘work in progress’.  I have sorted the existing links to other blogs and added some more.  Please pop in and have a look.  There are some very talented people out there.  More will be added so keep watching.

Back to real blogging tomorrow but in the meantime enjoy the selection listed on the right hand side of the page.

A Sunny Day

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After a summer of rain and only a handful of sunny days it is a delight to have a real autumn day, even though autumn is nearly over.  Winter is only 5 days away.

These photos were taken this morning, I hope you like them.

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2011-05-25 03These zygocacti, in various stages of flowering, came from my mother’s place over 6 months ago.  I have to confess that they had been left sitting on the concrete at the back of the house.  They had absolutely no care, got drowned in flooding rains but have still managed to put on a great show.  The Duke hung them up on the verandah last weekend along with a couple of other hanging baskets.  I am looking forward to adding to the collection in the future.

Those of you who are particularly observant may have noticed that the photo on the header of the blog has been changed.  The Duke has been pestering me to put a current photo on the blog header, so while I was outdoors with the camera I also took an updated photo of the house showing the solar panels and also the solar hot water system which have both been added since we have been living here.

The weather today will definitely allow for some generation from the solar panels.  The wet and overcast weather during the summer has really limited our capacity for generating power but hopefully the winter months will be mostly fine and sunny.  Our electricity reading is due within the next few days so I expect that we will get our bill in the next few days.  I really must stop referring to it as a bill as I am confident that we will once again have a credit balance.  We will then have records for 6 months of our electricity usage and generation from the solar panels so will have a pretty good idea of how much credit we can reasonably expect.  I am then going to request that the credit be forwarded to us as the funds are better being put to good use here than earning interest for Origin Energy.

The Big Picture

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Even though most of my goals are small, bite-sized chunks there is a big financial goal underpinning everything we do. After years of accepting that the mortgage for our home and the regular payments was just part and parcel of our existence we now have a strategy and timeline to have it paid off. The magic number is 8 years. A shorter time would be great but we have to be realistic and have chosen to enjoy our life in that time as well.

Like everyone, we pick and choose which parts of our spending can be minimised and which we are not prepared to compromise.

One example is my clothes. I am always neatly and appropriately dressed. I buy good quality clothes and choose to wear things for several seasons. Boots and shoes can be repaired and mending repairing clothes as required will extend their life.

I also rationalise what I do spend. I had my hair cut yesterday and as it is really short I find a good cut every 6 weeks keeps it looking good. My haircut cost $30 which equates to $5 per week or about 71c per day. When you break it down like that it seems like pretty good value. I do not have my hair coloured anymore (love the silver streaks for free). The only other cost is a tiny bit of shampoo and conditioner.

The biggest saving that we can make is by not eating out on random occasions. A menu plan helps as if I have the meals planned and usually partly prepared before we get home from work the temptation to eat out is far less.

Here is my meal plan for the next week.

Menu Plan

Tues – Tuna patties & veg
Wed – Steak & kidney bean pie & veg
Thurs – Tumeric chicken & veg
Fri – Pumpkin soup
Sat -Hamburgers
Sun – Quiche & salad
Mon – Risotto
Tues – Spaghetti bolognaise

Till next time.

Weekly Challenge

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Last week I posted my first 4 goals. These are not goals related to ongoing housework such as washing or general tidying. They are mostly one-off things that I know I need to do. By breaking it down to 4 things per week and adding 4 more each week I have a better chance of achieving my goals. My Monday post each week will be a review of what I have managed to get done the previous week plus my new challenges. I decided on this strategy in order to get things done before we go on holidays – 22 weeks now.

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 – STARTED
5. Send emails to book accommodation for New Zealand trip
6. Buy and plant seedlings for winter vegetables
7. Email friend to arrange to meet for lunch
8. Finish knitting dishcloth and sew ends in on first two

This is not exhaustive, there are lots of other things that I do every day to make sure that our life is reasonably organised and runs smoothly. An example of things I did last week that were not on the list were buy and post books to a friend, drop botts in to be re-heeled, make hair appointment, have medical tests and contact medical specialist about test results. Today I need to collect Medicare refund, have haircut and pick boots from the repairer – all in a day’s work!

Letting Go

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Today I spent the morning with Belle and Missy at Belle’s place.  She is doing a big purge of 28 years worth of ‘stuff’.  Most was achieved yesterday but we did help with a few things today.  She has come to the realisation that she cannot hang onto every single ornament, photo etc that she has so the time has come to be a bit ruthless.

Belle is finding that she now has not only has her own things accumulating but also the girls’ stuff.  One item which prompted some discussion today was the childrens’ artwork from daycare.  What do you keep and what do you toss?  Do you let the artist see the disposal?  Challenging questions and I would love some feedback on this conundrum.

I understand the struggle to offload ‘things’ only too well and am still waging a battle with various piles of stuff in my spare room.

I think that the most important thing is that once you have decluttered not to simply refill the space with other stuff.

I will never truly live a minimalist lifestyle but I do aspire to have an uncluttered, orderly house that contains only things that I actually use.  Aahhh, one day!!

My motto is, “Live simply so that others may simply live”.

Shopping & Sewing

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s post I had a successful op shop expedition. Here are the results:

Summer jeans

A pair of summer 3/4 jeans for Miss O – look almost brand new.

Hoodie

And a hoodie for Miss O.

Denim dress/pinafore

A gorgeous denim pinafore for Izz.

I spent some time today sewing and finished the sandwich wraps as well as a pair of trackpants and have started a couple of other outfits for the girls.

I did some mending and also altered a pair of trousers for Miss O.  They are a pair of corduroy hand-me-downs which were too loose for her last year so I made the little belt.  Now they are too short so I added some extra fabric on the bottom.  It matches the belt and looks quite smart, I think.

We are off to Brisbane tomorrow.  First stop to see Belle and drop off the clothes, although she does not have the girls this weekend so it will be a surprise for them when they get home.  I am going to help her sort out some things as she is trying very hard to cull a lot of the ‘stuff’ she has collected over the years as well as clothes and toys that the girls have grown out of.

After that we are off to the other side of town to see Missy and to drop off 2 prints which she asked me to get framed recently.  I had them done at Holden’s Gallery, a gallery and framing business here in Maleny.  We have had a lot of work done by them and it is some of the best framing I have come across.  Phil and Jennifer do a brilliant job and are very pleasant and helpful.

Here are the prints after framing.  They are ones that Missy got when she was on holidays in New York last year.