School Holidays Day 1

We're off to a great start with the school holidays.

Miss R has commenced the festive season by promptly becoming ill. She has some sort of gastro bug along with a delightfully productive cough.

At least I can leave her huddled up on the lounge for the day and not have to worry about missed school and after school sport.

It's also fabulous weather to be sick at the moment. I, myself am sitting here in a jumper as I write this post and I'm loving it. There will certainly be enough long, hot Summer days for me in January and February I'm sure.

When Rhianna does manage to haul herself off the lounge we are going to attend to this little monstrosity.

This is what I call the end of school typhoon. When teachers like to send home 12 months worth of crap, I mean valuable teaching outcomes and leave the mothers to assimilate it into the house.

Or into the garbage - as is the case at our house!

We also need to make some much needed room for the new things Santa may bring.

And as you know, I do like a good clean out.

My quilt is coming along slowly. I have sewed the squares together into strips - 9 in all. The next step is to join the strips to complete the top of the quilt cover.

Yesterday I felt quilty looking at my very expensive organic carrots wilting sadly in the crisper.

So I found a recipe for carrot cake and got to work. The result was this fantastic cake. The icing was a mixture of cream cheese and icing with some orange zest and juice. So yummy. I will never eat a Sara Lee carrot cake again now I know how easy and yummy the real thing is.

My next baking experiment will be a Christmas Cake from a lovely recipe from Busy Mum's blog. Check out her blog - link on the right hand side of my blog for some great tips on making the perfect Xmas Cake.

Hello again.....

Sorry about the long absence. I've been a bit of a flibbitygibbitt. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I tend to flit from one idea to another fairly quickly. I get bored with projects in a nanosecond and am onto the next thing before you know it.

But what have I been up to lately?

Well.......at the moment I am into decluttering in a big way. I have hauled bag after bag to the op shop. My criteria has been any thing I have not used since Winter last year. That's a lot of stuff surprisingly. I take no heed of how expensive the item was originally or how sentimental I am about it. If its not beautiful or useful then look out. (Must warn Bill and the children to either start looking very attractive at all times or learn to put the damn garbage out when it's full.)

I have even decluttered the fridge. Love the new sparse look. Admittedly I never know what birthday parties are on when or what date the electricity bill is due to be paid but when have I ever let practicalities bother me? - never, that's when!

I've also just had a birthday to turn 42 and my Mum who has never really "got" me, surprised me this year by buying something I really, truly love and is just "me". Thanks for getting it right this year Mum.

I'm into all things retro and vintage and Mum found this little old recipe box in an antique store in Perth and carried it all the way home for me. Isn't it darling and it even has some old recipe cards in it with some recipes written on it in an old ladies spidery handwriting. However, I don't think I'll be trying Tripe in White sauce any time soon.

It's good to be back. Hope you haven't all deserted me.

Tuesday Happenings

The knitting is coming along nicely. I have decided to make Rhianna a full sized single bed blanket. I guesstimate that it's going to take about 64 squares and so far I have done 3. But I am really enjoying it and an added bonus is that it stops me picking at food late at night. If I'm lucky enough to still be awake after everybody else then I just pick up my knitting while I watch T.V. And you can't knit and nibble - it's just not possible.

The squares start to pile up

Well, I have finally accepted it. I am not a camper. I have tried to camp - many times. I have been in tents and caravans and then we bought this camper. I have hated camping, I have endured camping and sometimes I even tolerated camping but I never came close to liking it.

So, in a massive declutter we are selling our camper. Hopefully we'll make enough to enjoy some 5 star hotels sometime soon. Now, that's what I call a holiday.

And this is my Op shop find of the year so far. I found it at an op shop up at Mum's on the Central Coast (Toukley, if you know the area). Being a teacher and having had to buy these for various pre-schools I have worked at, I know they cost about $40-$50. I got this in mint condition for $2. Rhianna is using it in her room for motivation. As you can see motivation is low when you have a slave, I mean, mother like me.

Have a great day everybody.

A Bunch of Nothings

Here are some random things happening around here lately:

Going to the library (also doubles as my SS tip of the day) Don't buy books if you can get them from the library. This week's reading pictured below.

I got this craft idea off the net. It's my Dad's birthday on the weekend so I made him some "special" tea bags - except they're coffee bags cause he doesn't drink tea and he gets to see his grandaughter jiggle with every cup he has.
We got rid of the microwave. We rarely used it and Bill and I both have some real issues with how the heating process changes the molecular structure of the food. Plus I just wanted the extra bench space.

Rhianna can't believe we would just give something away for no good reason (as she sees it).
Nooooooooo...............


But Bill takes it to work as someone there is sure to grab it.

Also loving my friend Bec's new baby. 11 week old Erin is just adorable and so cuddly to hold.
Thanks for lunch Bec and letting me cuddle and kiss your gorgeous new baby

And there you have it, a whole bunch of nothings happening here today.

One Man's Trash........

I am lucky to have a wonderful and very generous girlfriend living nearby. As well as helping each other out with our children and drinking lots and lots of coffee together, we also swap our trash. Now, I know that sounds weird, so let me explain...


Julie and I are both on a decluttering mission this year. But as we pack bags ready for the charity shops we swap them first so we can dig through each others clutter. We do this just in case there is something that may be useful to the other person. Very often there is.


Last month Julie was getting rid of these shoes. She just doesn't wear them. I've been looking for a pair of clog type shoes for ages and all they need is s polish. The black leather shoes will be great for winter and just need a resole at the cobblers (are they even called that anymore?)

Gotta love a girlfriend who is the same shoe size.

Julie is finally having her kitchen remodelled and she had this fabric up in front of her lower cupboards to hide the clutter. I had commented often how much I loved the fabric. (I must of known it was coming my way someday!) When it came down Julie asked if I could do something with it......

How about two new "vintage" looking pillowcases. I still love this fabric and now I get to rest my head on it every night. Thanks Julie.

My second Simple Savings tip of the month is to have an alcohol free month once a year. I have a friend who has been doing this for years. Hi Natalie. Natalie and her husband make February their "dry" month. It not only saves them money but detoxes them after the Xmas and New Year festivities.

I am making March my No Alcohol month as I know how much I like a red wine through those cool Autumn and freezing winter nights. So I thought I better get this tip out of the way as soon as possible.



Hope everyone is enjoying the change in the seasons.

Under the Kitchen Sink

I had a couple of things I had put aside to repurpose. Firstly, I had some old towels that were too threadbare to use so I decided to cut them into squares, hem them and pop them under the sink to use in place of paper towel where it is appropriate. I even had a little Ikea container hanging around to put them into.

Some polar fleece pajamas that used to belong to Rhianna. Apparently they are fabulous for dusting. So I cut the pajamas into as many small rectangles as I could get from the fabric. Now I can throw out all those old, odd socks I have been using for years.




This is the cupborad under the sink. It's such a boring little cupboard which is why it's so neglected. Look at the mess and look at the plastic bags. So very naughty. I pulled these out and took them all to my local IGA which recycles them and then I bought some biodegradable bin linens. Apart from the bin liners there are to be no more plastic bags coming into this house.

This is the after shot. New dusters and "paper towels" in place.

I then stuck some environmental reminders on the pipes under the sink to remind me and everybody else in the family that we are no longer a plastic bag family.

Kitchen Decluttering

After much procrastination the kitchen declutter has been completed. This, as it turned out was not the huge task I was anticipating. I do love to cook and bake and most purchases in the kitchen have been worthwhile.


There were some things I had purchased from Tupperware parties that had to go and a mountain of recipes torn out of magazines that had to be culled and put into a folder but other than that not much at all.


Now, decluttered does not mean clean - this is a much larger job that I will tackle in autumn.

Other projects I want to accomplish in the kitchen this year are a compost waste container situated on the bench, better cupboard organisation and I want to start a pantry stockpile.

Back into a Routine

Well the Summer school holidays are officially over and this morning Miss Rhianna excitedly got her uniform on and demanded to be taken to school - pity it was only 7am

From school, it was straight to the charity shop. I hope to make this a fortnightly event until I have fully decluttered the house. This was this mornings stash. This is my clutter and my girlfriend Julie's clutter combined. We sort through each other's clutter before we hand it over to the charity shops in case my clutter is her new treasure and visa versa.




Then to the local fruit store. I am trying to buy local as much as possible but even in the fruit shop you have to check labels. Now, some of the oranges were from Orange (funny that) which I consider local but some of the others were from SA. You have to be careful.





A bit of crafting at lunch time. I chose an easy project that took me just half an hour. I made another pillow from an old jumper for my son's bedroom. Dead easy.



Then finally into the garden. I hung these pots by the pool as the possums won't come near them. At the moment I have strawberries in them and they have been a bit pitiful. The fruit is nice but only about a handful of strawberries a week. Today I will give them a tidy up and a good water.

Then my day is over and I pick up my little cherub from school to hear all about Year One.

Hope you've had a nice relaxing day also.

More Decluttering.

The school holidays have been a very lazy time for us. Lots of sleeping in, hanging around in our Pj's till lunchtime and plenty of time to potter.

I love to potter as it allows me to sort through our junk and toss, toss, toss. I have broken the house down into rooms to declutter. Obviously, I am starting with the easiest ones first. No point burning out in January is there?

The Patio.

Not much to do here really, just a straighten and a tidy. You can't see it but this area borders the pool so lots of towels and cossies and goggles often live here. In Summer it can look really untidy.

The bar area.

This is not really my area as I'm not a big drinker. This is more where Will likes to hang out and of course we use it when we entertain. Not much decluttering to do here although Will has offered to drink up any alcohol that I feel is in the way. Haha

The lounge area.

This area needs daily decluttering thanks to a little 6 year old we know who likes to do craft, gymnastics and cubby building in this area. But I have limited the stuff kept in this area to DVD's, books, Wii stuff etc.

Another thing that has to be done is to go through the DVD's and Ebay any we are never going to watch again. I mean how many times can anyone really watch ET?

The study

This "room" is a bit of a cheat by me as I call it the study, but really it is a desk and a chair in the corner. Still, it accumulates its fair share of crap on top and in the draws.

Will has one draw that I am not allowed to touch and as such, it is still a mess but the rest is decluttered. By the way if anybody needs a paperclip just ask me, I must have 10,000.

Next week I'll do (I can barely stand to type it) Broc's bedroom. If I'm not back on here by the weekend send in a search party to find me.

Hope you are having a great day

Vanessa

Simple Living

One of my 2010 goals this year is to get back to basics. Now this can mean many things to many people but for me its about living simply with the minimum amount of "stuff" that I can get away with.

As a reformed shopaholic this creates a bit of a dilemma - how to offload all the "stuff" I already possess. Luckily some bright spark invented Ebay for people just like me.

So this year I intend to tackle the house room by room, decluttering all the possesions that are simply taking up room and not contributing in any meaningful ways to our life.

A by-product of this decluttering will be that each room will have a specific purpose and items that do not contribute to that purpose can no longer live there.

For example the lounge room is a place to relax, watch movies, read books or listen to music so only items that relate to those pursuits may live in the loungeroom. So all toys, craft items, computer bits and pieces etc must be removed at the end of business each day.

The first room on the agenda is the dining room (see pic).

I cheated a little bit in starting with this room as it was pretty easy. This room has a table and chairs. It has a small pantry that is only filled with food, so everything good there. It has a small cupboard with my appliances in it.

The only thing I have removed was a candle centrpiece from the middle of the table. Firstly, we never actually lit the candles and secondly I was always having to move it when I wanted to use the table for craft or sewing. So not only was it not useful it was actually an annoyance on occassion so off it has to go.

Next, the office.