Gift wrapped soaps.

We have a gorgeous gift store down the road which is the source of lots of ideas. They have lovely wrapped soaps for $20 EACH. As I am crocheting face cloths and hand towels I thought pretty soaps would go in with these quite well. 

I began saving boxed soaps with a $1 per soap limit. It was easy and mostly I got soft moisturising pink soaps with a lovely perfume in nice boxes. And some vanilla scented.

Most of the papers I have used are left over scrap booking paper from card making and ribbons from various projects. I bought some small buckles as some of the bling.

Being so hot the great thing is that the Australian Open Tennis is on. I really love that. So while this is on I have a tray of soap and a tray of papers and ribbons and I sit and wrap and decorate.

This goes well until the tennis gets really exciting then I have to concentrate!

Mustn't have been too exciting last night as I wrapped a whole tray of soaps...

Things I have discovered so far.... soaps in boxes wrap nicely and the boxes have to be perfect too, no dents or anything like that. The scent comes through which is nice so choose beautiful scented soaps.

I have used scrap book papers and gift wrap. Gorgeous glossy magazine pages could be stunning also. I think I will try that next. I use tacky craft glue to secure the ribbon at the back. Beneath that I have used small amounts of sticky tape and placed it in such a way it it 100% covered then by ribbon so you don't know it is there. 

I want to move on to some blues later today or tomorrow as I have blue ribbons and stick on bling but I will need to buy a little blue paper. I will try to find some today. I also have gorgeous thick navy blue velvet ribbon and I would love to use that so I need to keep my eye out for a combination to use that in. 

Now I'm not saying they are worth $20 each but neither are the ones in the gift store, I'm pretty sure. I will imagine they are worth half that and be happy!

Apart from adding them to towels and face cloths to give I think a set of three would be a sweet gift or a good hostess gift maybe. It is lovely having things to give. They are really fun to wrap and experiment with what looks lovely.

We have around 44 today and 46 tomorrow so apart from evening swimming and doing what has to be done outside staying inside and trying to be cool is the only thing to do. Working on something lovely helps. I never feel bored but I know time passes so slowly in the heat or when you feel stuck indoors so getting stuck into something lovely is a big help!

Beautiful water.

Of all the beauty or health tips I could offer really drinking your water would be number one. What would be your own average number of glasses of water per day? For many people it is zero or one.

It can be really hard to start to a new habit and keep it going. One thing is you have to make it easy to do. For me a glass of water from the tap isn't appealing. I am good if I have been at the gym I always drink after a workout as I know the workout I have just had will do me so much more good if I have a big drink. So I do. Other times I need help.

So yesterday as I made up my afternoon water I thought others probably struggle with this too. Added bonus... as well as health and beauty this comes under budget. We do not buy soft drinks. I haven't been drinking soft drinks for ten years or more. Once I thought zero calorie ones were ok and now I think they are worse than the sugar ones. Sometimes these things are hard to give up! 

Ok so as a habit I always freeze into ice cubes things like the juice from a can of pineapple or tinned fruit, any lemons that are fading fast I slice and freeze in snap lock bags, same for cucumber. We had orange juice Christmas morning and I froze all the left overs. And I always keep plain ice cubes in abundance on hand.

I start with a half full jug of cold water and add some mint leaves (which grow at the back door) and a heap of plain ice and a few flavoured cubes. My favourite is unsweetened cranberry juice. I get this especially as one bottle will last ages when most of it is frozen this way. The benefits o this stuff! It is yummy, pink and it has a diuretic effect on me which is great as I seem to retain water in the hot weather.

Over all I aim that 80 or 90 percent of the jug is water and the rest is lemon, a juice or whatever. This makes it tasty and lovely and I will drink the lot.

Mostly I also add white tea. I do this by steeping one or two white or green tea bags in a cup with boiling water and letting it cool. I add that when mixing this up. It adds a whole lot of health benefits. 

So there is my mix and I do it everyday through the summer months at least!

Making sure a jug of water and ice is on the table encourages everyone to drink. If the girls were little now I would call it fairy water. For myself I call it vitamin water :)

During the day I keep it on the bench so I see it as I go past and then a jug is gone pretty quickly. 

Andy loves it with a couple of tea bags or lemon. He drinks a huge amount of water per day which is wonderful.

As I do this I will fill at least one water bottle to be ready to go with me in the car or to the gym. Another saving I don't buy a drink a the gym. I will always drink it all before I have made it home which is great. I just grab it as I go out the door.

This morning Andy left with half a dozen bottles of water. Some frozen and others with ice. A damped hand towel frozen in a snap lock bag and frozen blocks to keep his lunch cold. The girls always had frozen drinks and frozen flannels. All this was a night before ritual and still is. 

Today when I made my morning coffee I steeped two white tea bags ready for todays jug. I know it is good for me and this little habit does the trick. Whatever it is we need to be doing finding a few tricks to make it happen seems to be the thing to make it a reality! Oh ... I just thought to say the pretty jug and glass ins't for the photos sake, that is what I use. This lovely jug was an op shop find for $2 and I collect the glasses from op shops too. I am just a sucker for things that look nice and it makes it nicer for me.

Being 42 today I am mostly staying in today except for the watering. I have plenty of crafts and letter writing to do in between jobs. Stay cool everyone!

A nutritional boost that fills you up!

Whenever I want to lose a few kilos I know I need to get back on to my smoothies. If I have drifted away I end up paying for it, usually by feeling hungry and eating something I shouldn't. On them I don't get so hungry and feel great.

I worked for Curves for several years and taught classes on weight loss and it was really fantastic. Overall the ladies who had their shakes daily did much better and that included me. 

Why? Well they are protein shakes and protein fills you up. Generally carbs make me hungry. Bread is my kryptonite it seems. 

So here is my homemade recipe that I use after trying lots of things. You can use the milk of your choice, I use no fat soy.

You need a protein powder. Something with out artificial sweeteners. I say something with less than 3 g carb per serve and over 15 preferably 20 of protein. Protein is the thing that fills you up.

I add a spoonful of flaxseed oil (a desert spoon) some LSA (linseed sunflower and almond crushed) some yoghurt, a heap of berries as my fruit mostly. Berries are lower GI so I prefer them and a teaspoon of chai seeds. Blend. Thats it!

There are a couple of ways to use this. If you replace a carb meal with this you will normally lose weight. Breakfast cereals are my number one hate! I mean I used to like them but then I am hungry all day! So an egg is breakfast or a smoothie. 

The other way to use them is if you know your normal time of the day where cravings hit and the wheels fall off for you. For me this is late afternoon. Diet wise I am fine before mid afternoon. Then I hit the danger zone! So if I have a smoothie then I am fine. If not I am hungry and start thinking about food and feel starving at dinner and it's all a slippery slope from there!

One extra way is to have a smoothie before a problem time. ie have one half an hour before facing serious temptations. It will seriously slow you down and you will make less ridiculous choices and you won't wake up the next morning wondering what ever happened to all your will power and good intentions!

You can buy frozen cubes to add to your smoothies. If you keep ice cube trays just for left over fruit or yoghurt then you always have things to use and never waste anything.

This tray went in the freezer with left overs from the pavlova I had decorated. 

My smoothie yesterday was mainly strawberries so it's lovely and pink.

Another option is to blend up extra and freeze as ice blocks with the little handles like we had when we were kids. They taste lovely that way.

There are lots of versions of this to suit your own nutritional needs. These suit me, fill me up and the extra protein is great for my hair and nails etc. The flaxseed is for omegas as I am unable to eat seafood. A healthy oil like this also adds to the fullness feeling factor. 

For anyone that struggles at times with cravings (like me) a protein shake can be a huge help.

I have to post some roses Lucy gave me for my birthday. As they are fading they are so delicate and lovely! 

That only just, milk shake pink, is my favourite! 

Hot weather and cool food.

We have a week well into the 40s this week. Today is the last reasonable day for a while. It's my chance to do things outside before quite a few days indoors out of necessity.

The hot days are hard on people. Here in SA power is very expensive and many people cannot afford to use their air conditioning. It is tough on so many who have to work outside too. I plan things to do indoors to keep me happily occupied and meals that don't involve the stove at all. And we swim in the evenings which is the best bit.

When the girls were little I would line up plenty of crafts and a few DVDs for these times and we would hit the beach in the evenings. Ice blocks in the fridge and slushies... those drinks where you pour your drink into a cup and stir it and it turns to ice... they loved those. They were wonderful!

Last night we had dinner at Chloe's and I took a pavlova, I just used a bought base, so no stove. But it was great albeit a cheat pav! I pilled berries on to it so anyone could really have a bowl of berries if they preferred. 

It went down very well!

Today I'm getting lots of ice going in the freezer. Filling the freezer with extra ice is so handy as I add ice to all the drinks but if the power was to go out and the freezer is full it will stay frozen much much longer so doing this protects you to some extent in a power outage.

And the heat has uses. When there is a heatwave I will wash the pillows, doona, underlay etc. I would never pay to have them dry cleaned. The sun is wonderful and no nasty chemicals. On a really hot day the doona is dry and back on the bed by the end of the day.  These things all smell and feel beautiful after a day in the sun. This must be a big saving from what I have seen of the prices at the dry cleaner. The last time I had a dress dry cleaned a few years ago when I picked it up the dry cleaning bill was more than I had paid for the dress. Hello, it would have been cheaper to buy a new dress than dry clean it! I've never been back since. I do remember seeing a sign for doona dry cleaning and I similarly noted it would be cheaper to buy a new doona! This would be a good idea with things like sleeping bags that we forget about until we need them next!

Another is giving the chopping boards a good scrub and placing them in the sun to dry out for an hour or so. 

Many people sun dry their tomatoes or fruit over these days. So it does have some uses too!

On hot days outside animals need extra water and I put out bowls of water for the birds who come in under the trees and the verandah. 

Ready made salads in the fridge make meals so easy, I just add cold meats and if an evening is reasonable outside we will use the BBQ to do some cooking. That is easy and really nice. We will add lots extra and enjoy BBQ toppings to some salads for a couple of days.

As I write I think of our American friends who have been suffering the exact opposite with below zero temperatures that have been positively frightening. Extreme weather either way does mean you have to think and plan before doing anything and sometimes you can't do anything except lay low until it passes.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone. I just love Sundays. My day to plan my week and relax a little bit! 

Bakers Stand (and getting ahead this time of year...)

It is a lovely day today. We know next week is going to be hot so this is the time to be getting lots done! 

Making jam etc has made me think to post about my bakers stand. A couple of years ago Andy came home with this from the side of the road...

Yep, he saw it and knew I would want it! Well, the lady came out from the house and told him he was mad, it is junk and there is no way his wife would want it!! He had said to her how he would take it home for his wife who would love it. She thought he was nuts so by the time he got it here he was asking me if he had made a mistake or not but that he still thought he should persist and bring it home.

He had not made a mistake! I loved it! Within a day I had it painted and I asked Andy to cut me a wooden shelf from where one was missing.  I had a rearrange to make space for it and began to use it straight away. These days it is covered in rows of jam so the empty jars pictured are all now full of lovely produce! But here it is a few days later....

It is so handy. Lucky Andy couldn't be discouraged that day!

Painting things is so easy. It's the quickest way to transform so many things. I rarely have to go buy paint as I mostly use only one or two colours and I just keep a big tin in the shed. It is quite relaxing to paint.

Yesterday I went to the store and this is the most fantastic time to look carefully. Once again I bought a beautiful big frozen turkey marked down by $27! so that the turkey was $3 a kilo. Such beautiful meat for $3 a kilo. Joy. Last week I had already purchased two. I am lucky I can use Mum's freezer as well as mine as these guys are big! Each is about 5 kilos. Now it is hot I wouldn't want the oven on. But in Autumn and Winter these will be wonderful. I can use one for a family dinner but others will start as a roast (big roast!) then be lunches and I'll make turkey pies. There are a lot of meals in each one! If there are ten meals in each one that is $1.50 for meat per meal. Bargain.

As Christmas stuff is reduced I also got boxed glassware for $3 and $5, a huge christmas tree in a torn box for $3.50 (this will be made into wreaths next year) and boxes of three candles for $1. Stunning wrapping paper, bubble bath, gift bags and all kinds of things for less than $1. My Christmas cupboard is looking good! I have glasses for my nephew who is setting up a house. My friend Helen got even better bargains! We are both off to a stunning start. We have both saved a fortune and got so far ahead and I am in SA and she is in QLD!

After each celebration this happens. Christmas trees that were $300 are $10. Turkeys that were $60 are $15. After Valentines Day chocolates are marked down and after Easter.... 

I am so happy with the start I have! The freezer is filling, the present cupboard is filling, the jam jars are full and its only day 11 of the year! We have roast turkey to look forward to in winter. (I saw similar deals on hams and bought one of those too).

Seasonal bargains are just wonderful. It only takes a few minutes extra to have a look around too. While you can put money away for Christmas most likely in December things will be full price. Every shopping trip so far I have found something amazing! 

Like time spent planning, time spent checking for bargains is the hugest overall saving!

A world of flowers.

Starting to take photos of the flowers around the house has made me realise how many I have. This is kind of part two showing flowers and I still have more to go!

It isn't flowering at the moment but at the front door we have a standard honeysuckle. This was one of the best ideas ever. When it flowers the whole house smells divine. The scent is caught on the breeze and fills the house. I always have the doors open so it drifts through and is just beautiful. 

The back door has a plant Andy gave me which has actually never stopped flowering. It is continuous and just keeps growing. I am searching for something to train it over. It greets me as I come home from shopping! 

I love the gift of potted flowers as you get such a lot of enjoyment from them.

When we had first moved here one Saturday Andy came home and opened his van and the entire thing was full of flowers. It looked like he was a florist delivery van. I just couldn't believe it! He had seen a garage sale and some man was selling a house full of things and Andy had bought ALL the flowers which were huge arrangements, in vases, of mostly silk flowers. It was hundreds of dollars of silk flowers. Some were daggy and some were stunning ones that I know are often $20 to $30 per flower. He had bought the lot for $15.

I had the best time for days taking it all apart and creating my own vases of flowers. Here is one lot in an op shop vase that I just love.

I have managed to fill all kinds of gaps with flowers and some of these arrangements are just huge, this is over a metre high.

I have flower girl baskets to make for Lucys wedding so I am of to our big florist supplier. Can you imagine the fun that is!? I have ideas of things I would love to make.

After going past a florists yesterday I am inspired too. They had some stunning things but so were the prices. A Christmas pine centrepiece was heavily marked down (so they said) but was $199. It was dismal. Almost anyone could do better I think. If we use what we have around us and include greenery as well it's amazing the pretty things we can create and enjoy. I feel like some of my arrangements look expensive but have cost so little! 

Making the most of abundance.

This is a lovely time of year. Fruit from our tree, neighbours trees and vegies from the garden. the thing is with fruit often you get a lot at once and if you aren't careful to keep up with it ripening you can lose it to going too soft or mould.

If you don't have any fruit trees around you then possibly fruit is available more cheaply and you can take advantage of this. But if people you know have fruit that they clearly don't pick offer to take it off their hands and return with jam. Usually they jump at the offer!

Seriously I know every fruit tree in a massive radius! And I always have ... years ago I knew of a fruit tree on the side of the road in the country. It was an old apple tree and every March I would go there and we would pick buckets of apples. They were amazing. I would make pies and stew apples for days.

Jams are an easy way to keep spoiling fruit for future use. Once you have jam you have gifts, the ingredients for many things from marinades, glazes, toppings and fillings for cakes, muffins.... so many things. See my recent post on the easy way to make jam.

I stew a lot of fruit. I do it in concentrated batches (use less water) as it will take up less room in the freezer. Lightly stewed fruit is so good, it seems so fresh. On hot days I serve it still partially frozen, it's gorgeous. You can stew and blend it and make ice blocks!

I have posted this recipe before. It's my Mums recipe and it is such a quick way to turn fruit into pies that can go in the freezer. Very inexpensive too. All you do is cut your fruit in half and remove the seed. This is good for apricots, peaches, nectarines and plums. 

Cut off any blemishes and grease a shallow dish. I will fill as many dishes as I have fruit that needs to be used.

So there is no chopping or slicing, just cutting in half.

Then mix together 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of butter, 2 tablespoons sugar and 4 tablespoons SR flour. Blend. It looks like pancake mix.

Pour this over your fruit....

Pop into medium/high oven until golden brown. Thats it! Now if I plan to freeze it I slightly under cook it as I would with most things to freeze because it will probably brown further next time and you don't want it to end up over cooked. So I stop at medium golden...

If I have filled 4 dishes with fruit I will just times the recipe by four and pour it all over. Plums turn out so pink it looks amazing!

They freeze so well. When you do eat them serve them with good cream or ice cream. They are delicious! 

I like to keep a packet of puff pastry in the freezer all the time. I cheat at this. Having this on hand you can turn so many things into a handy pie. With puff pastry just line a dish, throw in your fruit just the same as above, sprinkle with sugar (I won't say an amount, it depends on what you like, the size of the pie, the amount of fruit you use, the tartness of the fruit... in general I will use around two heaped tablespoons...) Cover with pastry, prick and decorate and cook in a medium oven for around an hour. I think maybe I will just do a post on ways to do this! 

This recipe will work over tinned fruit. Sometimes wonderful tinned fruit is a bargain. My friend Helen got heaps of tinned plums last year for cents each. Just drain the fruit and follow the recipe the same. When I drain fruit I save the juice and make ice blocks from it. A few dropped into water are enough to flavour water in summer or add to a punch.

In winter when it's cold a hot desert is lovely. I use them when the family have come over for dinner. So handy! 

With back to school coming making up a big batch of muffins with fruit for the freezer would be very handy too. I will post a recipe shortly for that.

Being blessed with abundant fruit or any produce is a huge way to eat well and save money. A few days of extra cooking like this can set you up for most of the year for deserts and jams. I love it! And today I have more nectarines to pick! But this time comes once a year and I make the absolute most of it, it's a gift. We are so lucky. 

Our weather is warming up too so I will try to get all cooking done and out of the way before it hits 40!