Moving the Furniture

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Gosh, it is 4 days later and I am yet to tell you about the rest of the furniture re-arrangements.  You see, I have been too busy actually doing things to write about it.

I had already removed the storage boxes before I took this photo.  I had earmarked this storage unit for my sewing room once the TV cabinet was restored and in place (see previous post).

001Here it is in the new location in the corner of my sewing room.  Not completely organised but a vast improvement on what things were like before.

004This meant that I could permanently re-home a couple of my other storage solutions from the sewing room.  A set of plastic drawers that I originally had for paperwork and documents when I was in a different job.  It was re-purposed for the sewing a few years ago.

2011-06-22 01 Now it has been emptied and has gone to a neighbour who was keen to have some more portable storage.

002This small white chest of drawers was also used to store fabric and craft supplies.  I bought it a few years ago from Gumtree and painted the bare chipboard with gloss white paint.  Thanks to the wonders of Facebook it now has a new home not far from us.

001The sewing room more strealined but still needs more work.  Most of the other rooms in the house have been decluttered, simplified and generally remain as they should be but the sewing room seems to be the one spot that regularly defeats me.  I have works in progress, things I have yet to start and general chaos but one day it will be sorted and mean that it is easier to actually sew rather than tidying.  I live in hope and anticipation!

Transformed

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From this

2011-07-18 01To this

002I am really pleased with how this turned out.  We trusted the skill and judgement of Hans at Montville Joinery and would highly recommend him if you live in the area.

Bringing this piece of furniture into the house has led to some further re-arranging of furniture to best meet our needs and there will be more about that in a later post.

New to Us

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I have been looking on Gumtree for the past couple of months for an armchair to go in the vacant corner of our office/library.  The space was created when we decided that we only needed one bookshelf rather than two.  You can read about the previous steps of the revamping of this room here.

This morning I found a listing on Gumtree for 2 chairs which were to be sold as a pair.  Although I really only wanted a single chair, we decided to take a look as it was not too far from home.

We bought the two chairs and by moving the bookcase slightly we can actually fit them both in.

012They are solid timber and are over 70 years old.  The current upholstery is in excellent condition and works perfectly in this room.  It is great to be able to find quality furniture and give it a new home.

In preparation for more furniture re-arranging tomorrow I have sold this small chest of drawers.

001They are nothing special, I bought them from Gumtree a few years ago when they were bare chipboard and painted gloss white.  I have used them for storing material and craft supplies in my sewing room but now it is time to move them along.  They will be collected tomorrow morning.

Come back tomorrow to see the newly re-vamped TV cabinet and more changes to the location and use of our existing TV stand.

One Last Look

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It is over 3 years since I wrote this post about my intentions to have a cabinet restored.  The wheels move very slowly here but I finally took it to a local craftsman a few weeks ago.

These are a couple of ‘before’ photos.

Silky oak cabinet2011-07-18 01

I am very excited to report that it is all done and we are going to collect our ‘new’ TV cabinet on Sunday so you will see the photos on Sunday evening, I hope.

Tracking 2015 – September

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Hold onto your hats!  Money has been literally flying out the door this month!

Budgeting

This is a good example of why we save.

January – $5,144.53
February – $1,783.49
March – $4,350.56
April – $2,385.31
May – $5,961.54
June – $2,939.07
July – $3,537.09
August – $3,601.19
September – $9,406.95

It was certainly no surprise to see that we had parted with almost $10,000.00 of our hard-earned cash in September.

As I mentioned last month, we headed to Singapore for a week and while we had already paid for our airfares and accommodation earlier in the year all of our other spending is included in a lump sum of $1,644.37 for the week.  This comprised of spending on transport, sightseeing, admission costs, groceries, alcohol and eating out as well as a dress for myself and a birthday gift.  We decided not to try to separate it into categories as it was all spent while we were on holidays.  If you are interested you can see the full breakdown of the holiday spending here.

There were 2 other major expenses in September.

The first was $3,050 for a deposit on a hybrid battery system for our solar panels.  There will be significant additional expense for this project sometime in the next month or so.  This is a substantial upfront cost but we believe that it will be a worthwhile long-term investment that will save us even more money and allow a degree of independence from the power grid.  The detail will be forthcoming in a future blog post.

The second large outlay of money was in the holiday category as we have booked our return airfares to Chicago for next year.  I have been watching the release of airfares for 2016 and the pricing and decided that the time was right to secure fares available for the dates and times that we wanted to travel.  Once again, there will be more details about that on my holiday blog.  I hope to get a post written today.

However, on the spending upside, we only spent $55.89 on food for the entire month.  Apart from a modest amount of fruit and vegetables as well as milk and cheese, we simply ate what we had available from the refrigerator, freezer, pantry and garden.  I did not necessarily set out to minimise our spending on food and it was really more about not having the time or inclination to shop as well as being away for a week.  It is good to know that we have plenty to sustain us if the need arises.

Real Life

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I apologise for the absence this week and lack of response to your comments.

Just like real-life this blog is filled with celebrations, sadness, routines and the unexpected.

2015-10-03 01My mother-in-law passed away at the beginning of the week and my mind has not been anywhere near my blog.  Due to family circumstances we will have a memorial service next month so we have not had a funeral to attend but there have been many other details to arrange.  This will continue to be the case over the next few weeks but hopefully not to the extent of the past few days.

I am looking forward to reading your previous comments and responding and hope that you will bear with me during this time.

A Blast from the Past

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Last week I had lunch at a local cafe and I chose a salmon and dill tart which was listed as gluten-free.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the base was actually rice!  I remembered a long-forgotten recipe which I used to make that was exactly the same except mine used tuna rather than salmon.

You could use any variation of a quiche filling that you wish but this is the idea for the base which is simple and gluten-free.

A quantity of cooked rice – about 1 – 1.5 cups and 1 well-beaten egg.  Stir the egg into the hot rice and press into a pie/flan dish.  Chill until firm then fill and bake as per any quiche recipe.

001

No Visible Change

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I have finally made it to my sewing room and done a small project.

This is one of 4 dresses that I own which are all the same style.

They are perfect in every way – except one.  The do not have any pockets.

001I have another dress that I bought recently and to my delight it has 2 large set-in pockets which are really handy but totally invisible.  This made me realise that it would be a simple project to add pockets to the existing dresses.

The first pocket is done and I am very happy with the result.

002Here is a view looking into the pocket.

003Finally, this is the inside of the dress.

004While this may not be feasible in a tight, fitted dress it is certainly easy in a dress with some fullness below the waistline.

I wear these dresses to work and as I am in an open office I tend to listen to music with earphones on my iPod.  I can leave the iPod on the desk but it is much easier to have it in my pocket so that it comes with me whenever I jump up from the desk to go to the printer/photocopier etc.  Handy to pop a handkerchief in, too.

Do you look for pockets in garments?

Bulk Cooking

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Since there are only 2 of us to cook for, I do not prepare huge quantities of food but it is nice to have a few meals planned and prepared.  The other factor that influences my decision is that I prefer to use the oven efficiently when it is turned on.

Yesterday I sorted out what was lurking in the freezer and decided that this week we would eat what I could make using freezer and pantry ingredients.  I should really only need to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables.

I started by making gluten-free pizza bases.  I par-cook these in the oven then freeze them for later use.

Here they are ready to freeze.  I have some old cereal packets which I use to separate the bases when they go in the freezer.

002It is simply a matter of adding the toppings and cooking in the bench-top pizza-maker.

005Next, I decided to make some gluten-free muffins which turned out to quite acceptable using a standard recipe and simply substituting gluten-free flour.  I made 2 batches – orange, walnut and sultanas in one and the other were banana, walnut and mixed spice.  The catalyst for these were the sad looking banana that I rescued from the fridge at work on Friday and some orange pulp I found in my freezer.

004At the same time I made some gluten-free wraps for lunches.

003These are cooked in a hot, dry frying pan and can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

A pack of sausages which had been left in the freezer by our house-sitters were grilled and sliced then made into a sausage casserole which made 4 serves.

005I usually cook a bulk amount of dried red kidney beans in the slowcooker and freeze them in portions ready to use.  I found a pack in the freezer as well as a pack of diced beef so I put them in the slowcooker with frozen cherry tomatoes from last season, frozen diced onion and some spices to make 4 serves of chilli beef.  That bubbled along all day while I was doing the other cooking.

So, I have the basis of 15 serves of dinners, 6 serves of lunches and 20 muffins.

Do you cook more than one meal at a time?  A big occasional cook-up, perhaps?

Swap and Share

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One of the things that I constantly feel is lacking in our society today is the willingness and ability to share and co-operate with people in our wider community.

Today I headed into Maleny as I had a few things to do.  Since it is a 16km round trip I try to make sure that I make the travel worthwhile.

Before I left home I gathered up what I needed.

Some eggs to swap.

003Clothes to take to the recycle boutique where thy are sold on consignment.

001Some pieces of fabric for my sister.  She is making a costume for a school event.

002First I met up with some other keen gardeners and swapped the eggs for some worm juice.

004This can be diluted 1 :10 in water and used as fertiliser on fruit and vegetables.  My seedlings will get a boost.

Next, I headed to the recycle boutique but sadly it is closed on Thursdays.  I have left the bag of clothes in the car and will take them on Saturday.  I have also made a note to remember the opening hours in future.

Finally, I met my sister and we had a leisurely lunch at the Upfront Club.

When I came home I replaced the buttons on the sleeves of the coat that my sister gave me last week.  You can see that the buttons are not identical to the ones on the front opening, however, they tone in nicely.

005Also in the spirit of sharing, we have Air BnB guests arriving on Saturday for 3 nights so I have made up the bed in the guest room and made it ready for their arrival.