Needing to cut back and save...

I must apologise for my lack of blog posts. While we are renovating it has just been all consuming. The mess, the dust, and the cooking outdoors! Well, we are getting there! Doing it ourselves means we can do this (and only just) otherwise it just wouldn't be happening. 

I can't wait to put up photos of the end result!

This leads me to last night we watched the state budget details come out. It was really terrible. I felt quite sick. So many bills going up for the people while the government do things like spring $8 million for a new office for a new guy (the office is already there this is to upgrade it) and they said oh this is just a little bit,  a drop on the ocean and makes no difference. Well, it makes a lot of difference to ordinary people. I just know so many people who have no heating etc as they cannot afford it. I felt really upset!

So how do we not throw our hands in the air? How do we not get discouraged? How do we find hundreds of dollars when things are already accounted for? This is what so many people are wondering today.

At the same time I am in the hardware shop buying items I need to re plaster the wall where we removed cupboards from. The guy tells me, no, I cannot re plaster this myself (I went armed with photos) and it is a professionals job. I reached a stale mate with this guy. So I said to him if I don't do this then it simply won't be done. Still he said I couldn't do it. I literally had to wait until he turned his back, get what I needed and bolt towards the cash register!

I guess I should go back with photos when I have finished? 

There certainly are times when DIY is not a good idea. Brain surgery for one. But with online instructions and You Tube tutorials so many things are made really easy and there are massive savings.

In a tight budget so many basic skills come in wonderfully handy. From knowing how to hem a pair of jeans to knowing how to turn leftover vegies into a good soup. Knowing how to make muffins or scones as they can be sweet or savoury and extend anything! All our kitchen skills, budgeting and planning skills, shopping for bargains, making our own gifts, growing some herbs and vegies, making preserves, using what we have to the maximum advantage.... they all stretch our budget hugely. 

Now I'm looking at what new skills can I learn that would help us? One is as I have some lovely crochet cotton I am learning a new stitch that looks like bobbles and is suitable for swiffer mops, dish cloths and general cleaning cloths. It is so pretty! You can then throw them in the wash and continually use them to wipe things down and even clean your floors. Except they are so gorgeous, very vintage homemaker. I think they will make lovely gifts and be beautiful to use as well. So I have some sweet gifts planned from those.

I am also just making up an all purpose cleaner from a recipe I got from Simple Savings. I am trying an adaptation of it using lavender oil. The idea is your home ends up smelling beautiful as well as being sparkly clean. Once I have tested it I will share this with you as it is a huge money saver and also you don't need air freshener or scented candles as your home smells beautiful. Little projects like this cheer me up on these kind of days!

It is cold and wet but we are making progress and I hope next week things will start to return to normal!

Have a wonderful weekend! I am so looking forward to being able to make soups and stews again in my beautiful new oven and have countertops to work on! 

xxx

Make your car a happy place.

Recently I had the chance to downsize my car. I had lived in the country and had a four wheel drive as the roads were terrible and so were the kangaroos! It was a great car and served me well but not so good for city living and as the price of petrol goes up it became expensive to run.

Now I have a much smaller car oh my goodness what a saving! It is saving money in several ways but petrol would be number one. I cannot believe the difference!

My car is a small white car with no distinguishing features.... and it didn't occur to me what would happen next... I went to the supermarket and when I returned there in front of me were what seemed like a thousand small white cars. Opps, I didn't even know my rego number! 

Sometime later after working out which was my car I resolved to personalise it so this wouldn't happen again. (nd I took a photo of my number plate!)

I spent $25 and gave my car a Bluebird upgrade. I ordered car magnets based on my business car and cut them out to suit the shape. I really love it. (it is the same on each side)

Then I hung something that looks like me so that I can also spot that and pretty up the inside.

Then I thought about all the things I need and stocked it up with tissues, nail files, hand cream, hand wipes and so on.

My friend Mimi had inspired me. Recently she made over the console of her car so she has hand cream etc. next to her. She has a lovely blog called A Tray of Bliss. Her ideas are always lovely and she is the best cook. Thank you Mimi for the inspiration on this!

And it has worked! I have no trouble recognising my car and I feel instead of plain it is personal to me. I really love it! Every time I get in to drive I am greeted by things looking lovely and smelling lovely. After adding things that are good to have on hand and making it look nice I made it smell lovely as well. It smells faintly of my favourite perfume. 

On a practical level I have added a good first aid kit, a torch, a bottle of water, a rug and a stock of shopping bags. Now I feel very happy that I am prepared.

We spend so much time in our cars, ferrying people around and running errands. We might as well make it a pleasure. This little bit I did was amazingly simple but really it has made a difference. It is lovely. I love it!

I'm committed now to keeping it clean and sparkly and my little place that I love. 

Flylady has it that every week you clean out your car. Wisely she knows that a few minutes a week keep your car from becoming cluttered and messy and irritating. It's true. Things become kind of depressing when they are a mess and cars seem to easily accumulate rubbish. We may as well make driving a pleasure and make this little aspect of life so much nicer. 

I hope you have had a lovely weekend. It is very cold here! xxx

The order of the day.

A friend of mine is the most amazing hairdresser and always looks beautiful. She once said to me people say they don't have time in the morning to do their hair as they would like and she said to me "yes they do, it's just that they do things in the wrong order". She went on to explain that in the morning if I was to shower and pop velcro rollers through my hair then do everything else and take the rollers out last thing my hair would be perfect everyday. (well more or less!)

I can honestly say every morning when I get ready I think of Holly and what she said.  There are people who achieve so much everyday and people who achive nothing everyday and most of us in the middle somewhere. I think a lot of it has to do with the order of the day. Some clever use of this little phenomenon can make us much more productive.

How can we use order and timing to help us? I think it's the same as with everything else a little planning makes us see things more clearly and saves lots of time overall. Like putting dinner on early and you know it's cooking itself while you are busy with after school things and early baths. It is just cooking away and will be ready when you are. It's kind of an insurance policy against whatever might happen later in the day!

This also involves being realistic. I remember when the girls were babies. Late afternoon just was a bad time, I would be tired and if they were going to be grizzly this would be it. Evenings could be downright overwhelming.  I soon learned to have dinner on way before then so I did not have to try to cook dinner then. And I learned to bath the baby early and did that for a while until this period passed. Just to take the pressure off that time. But babies or not we have times that work mounts up and you hit a bottleneck of too many things in too short a time. Stress! Working out what those times are for you and deciding on "relocating" some things to another time just just save the day.

Planning soup or a crock pot casserole for the next day, knowing I may be late, tired or busy, I will part prepare it the night before. Have the meat thawed, maybe cut some vegies and a few things sitting there next to the waiting crock pot on the bench. Then even getting it going is easy.

If mornings are pure chaos the evening before becomes part of the order of your day. A few things set and ready to go the evening before can make it all go so much more smoothly!

In the morning get all your handmaidens working while you are doing the things you need to do. Then so much is accomplished and you feel like you're off to a wonderful start. Everything is happening and your helpers (washing machine, bread maker, crock pot etc) are all going flat out. it's a great head start.

When you plan your order of the day plan your breaks. You will do so much better and get much more done if you allow and make sure you have a morning tea break, lunch and an afternoon tea break. Instead of feeling burnt out, headachy and stressed you will feel calm and refreshed and ready to carry on. Seriously it took me ages to learn this. Flylady teaches to take regular breaks, admire what you've done, have a cup of tea then move on to the next thing. It truly works!

We all have days that just go wrong! But when every day goes wrong then re planning the order of the day might be in order! Set things going and do what you can while other things are happening and you just sail along nicely! If the weather is going to be sunny, just now in winter, I will do a load of washing in the evening so it is ready to hang out first thing. It gets more things out in that sunshine before it passes! That is how I helped the order of my day last night.

Have a lovely weekend. I don't think we have sun for long so I'm taking full advantage of it! xxx

You can't buy...

You have heard me talking about Laines Letters so many times. Of all the things I learned reading them the biggest is this.... you cannot buy most of the things that are really important. No amount of money will buy you the list of things I am about to talk about. Your own work, your own hands and your own attitude are just more valuable than you can know.

You cannot buy atmosphere for your home. There is no candle you can burn that makes a happy nurturing and safe atmosphere. No interior designer and no amount of money can buy safe and cosy. Nope that stuff just isn't for sale. But you can create it, increase it, maintain it and nurture it through all the loving little things you do.

You can't pay someone to look after your child as you would. No amount of money ensures even the basics are going on when you are not looking. A Mothers watchful eye cannot be easily replaced. Unfortunately no amount of money spent  protects a child in a strangers care. This is a hard one. There are times we may have no choice and there is an age where you have no choice. But none the less money does not buy trustworthiness.  I heard a judge say that pedophiles are smart. They always place themselves where children are, where they are most trusted and where they have access. They are not stupid. Parents are! I have never forgotten that. 

You can't buy relationships. No amount of gifts and stuff replaces spending time with someone, loving them, knowing their thoughts and feelings. 

You can't buy style. We all can visualise vast amounts of money spent by people only to look tacky and worse.... you just can't buy style.

You can't buy empathy, sympathy.... I'm not sure it can even be taught to some but a good example and good discipline can teach it and nurture it in a child.

You can't buy class.  Like the funny scene in Eliza Doolittle when she is at the races... she speaks BEAUTIFULLY but the content is so terrible it's hilarious. 

You can't buy practicality. No amount of money is enough if it all slips through your fingers. Good sense and wisdom just can't be bought either!

You can't buy grace. Restraint. Humour. Kindness. Determination. Resolve. Resilience.

In the end you can be hire help for certain things and we can learn and increase our skills and understanding over time. But really the overall atmosphere of our homes, the general state of things comes down to us. The wonderful part of this is that a beautiful atmosphere can be created without much money. We can look nice and act in a gracious way with little cash. Clean brushed hair, clean clothes, good manners, considerate nature... all make a person who is respected, not large amounts of cash spent on this seasons wardrobe. 

Really you can't force anyone to learn anything. A person has to have a teachable heart. We have to have teachable hearts and want to continually learn and do better. Like when Helen Keller's brain suddenly "got" the relationship between the squiggles on her hand and the item she was touching and she realised it was language, had meaning, mean't communication! That huge !!! moment when we understand a new concept and things are not what we thought or presumed! That mind bending moment when you realise there is another way you had never thought of! Well, you can't buy that you have to be teachable and willing to accept new ideas and possibilities!

You cannot buy peace or contentment. A million dollars on relaxing therapies still might not relax you and no amount of money buys contentment. As far as I can see these are things that grow as kind of a fruit of how we live our lives. No amount of stuff fixes a hole in your heart.

You can't buy love. Especially with kids. They can stop a fraud a mile away. Many of us will have someone in our hearts who we know loved us. I am betting when you think of it, it's not the things they bought you, it's the time they spend with you and the way they made you feel.

What it all means to me is so much comes down to us. I know not everything but so much... Rather than feeling overwhelmed I think lets feel important. Our work is not for nothing, it is irreplaceable. Our attitude sets a tone and affects everyone around us influencing people enormously and changing generations to come. With little kids we are laying down a foundation and you only get one chance to do it. It is soon gone and they have grown into another stage. 

There are so many ways your daily work is truly worth more than rubies.

A simple card tutorial. Part 2.

Yesterday we started on a simple way to make lovely cards. Today I am showing you how to make crepe paper ruffles and use your cards as gifts as well.

I buy a pack of crepe paper for 90c. That's the price in our local cheap shop. You can choose a colour you like. I buy white and while it is still folded (as it comes) I pop the whole thing into a tray filled with a brew of tea or coffee. I want it to look antique. You need to help the "dye" get into the centre and right through it. Then I sit that in the sun to dry which takes a few days. I try and open it up a bit to let the air into it. This lot I added a tiny fleck of pink fabric dye to my coffee to get a pinkish brown that looks old and faded. When it dries it looks crinkled and shabby which is what I am after. Then I cut it into the width I want, usually about 3 cm wide, but whatever you want.  I cut it while it is still folded so it is quick to cut even strips.

Run a steady line of craft clue along where you want to place your ruffle. Fold under the end of your crepe paper strip and press it into the end where you want it placed. Then gently squish little pleats and make it ruffle up together, press and keep working along your line. End folding under the last bit. Quickly adjust it anywhere you are not happy. You can be full or soft as you like with this effect. The first time practice this on a scrap rather than on a card you have just right! Once you have done this once it is so easy. It looks wonderful on gift boxes, gift bags, tags etc as well. From you 90c you get an enormous amount.

You can also do rows of ruffles....

I gives a soft and romantic effect. I love this stuff! 

As I said yesterday consider confining yourself to ensure your card fits in an envelope when you are doing ruffles etc. if you are wanting to post it. Otherwise I don't worry... ruffles and trims can make it tricky with envelopes.

At the end of the day no two cards are the same. My idea of success is when someone loves their card. I try pretty hard to give people a card that I think is in the colours they love and with images I know they will really adore. Most times as I assemble a card I will know who will end up with it. 

The whole bonus here is working away on something like this is really fun. If you were a little girl who loved to colour and cut and paste this craft is for you! You find yourself absorbed in what you are doing and it's lovely. 

Now this is a really simple method. There are stamps, embossing, 3D methods and all sorts of beautiful things you can do to make gorgeous cards. My online friend Susan makes stunning cards with great technical ability that amaze me. If you get into it the sky is the limit. You can make stunning invitations, thank you's and get well cards. You can pack them up into groups and include a pen and give them as a gift. What a useful and money saving gift too. Lining a pretty box with tissue paper, fill it with cards and tie it up with a ribbon. Or use a cellophane bag and tie that up prettily. Now you have wonderful gifts as well. We all use and need cards. 

Things do not have to be perfect to be beautiful. Remember you are hand making something with love. Do not be too critical of your work! Many times there are imperfections, it is ok. Many times charm is the result of imperfection. 

Now you have cards in plentiful supply and you are not worried by the price of them you can give them freely. Write thank you's and beautiful notes. These will be gifts in themselves. 

I make a card like this every week for Kath in the nursing home and fill it with a letter. In her dull room she has displayed my cards (and flowers) and her room is looking much prettier. Something pretty to look at. But if I was buying them, well, I wouldn't really be able to send one every week! Just bless people with your cards. They are often enough and no further gift is even needed.

Bless people with your cards and nice words. You can have an abundance of beautiful cards on hand all the time and a lovely time making them.

An easy card making tutorial. Part 1.

I've had some requests to do some tutorials on card making. I often say making your own cards and gifts is the most massive money saver. I just had a look in the newsagents and selected a few cards I thought were nice and the average was about $8 with some really divine ones being more. 

I am making this super easy. I'm going to show you how to make very simple cards using bits and pieces you might have (and can certainly save from now on) for card making sessions. My aims are to keep the price right down, use up things I have and make cards that are really pretty for my family and friends. To keep plenty on hand at all times so I never have to buy one. 

Yesterday I gathered up some lace scraps, ribbon and bits and pieces I have that are really left overs. I had purchased blank cards. These ones are from Cheap as Chips (our local cheap shop) and they are $2 for a pack of ten. I choose soft pastel colours. Choose whatever suits your own taste and who you are making cards for. I also bought a packet of butterflies as Chloe loves butterflies and they appealed to me. They were also $2 for 6.

I found this book in an op shop for $1. It is perfect for my cards and I'm guessing it has 100 suitable images. The other thing is it has good quality paper, heavier glossy paper. I also use English home magazines that Mum buys. Cheaper magazines have thinner paper and it is not so good, it shows wrinkles and glue marks making it difficult. So go for good quality paper. The imagination is the only limit here. Beautiful childrens' books make gorgeous baby cards, think Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh... all lovely. I have used illustrated bird and rose books, wildlife and also music books etc depending on who I am making cards for. This book of glorious flowers is really good for me and my colours...

I really love a larger square card as they look lovely with a great image and I use these for gift giving but I use a standard sized card mostly when I am going to be posting a card to save on postage. Think of that as you go.

So yesterday I had these supplies that I picked out as they went together with my flower and colour themes. I have another box of bits that are more rustic but I was going pretty/girlie. So think in terms of a theme and a bit of a colour scheme. Apart from your images you could use buttons, broken jewellery, lace, fabric, braid, ribbon, motifs, sequins, old cards, glitter, pressed flowers, doilies, stickers, stamps, wrapping paper, string ... anything really. Save save save every pretty little thing that comes your way. Once I used a lovely jewellery catalogue and made card covered in diamonds! Another time I made cards with gorgeous high heels and handbags from a vogue magazine. Imagine a book on ballet for a young girl studying ballet or a book on ships for a little boy. So many cards just right!

I simply select my image and trace around my card with a pencil and cut it out. Using a glue stick glue this to your card. Turn your card over and if there is any overhang carefully cut that off so everything is straight and flush.  When placing something like a flower a general rule is do not centre things, be a little off centre. And when gluing things on be the same, things tend to look natural in odd numbers and off centre. That's nature! I try to incorporate several elements into each card. I have a little play around and when I am happy I just glue things on using craft glue. If I am going to be posting the card I keep things within the front of the card so it will fit in it's envelope. If it is going on top of a parcel I go crazy and might add a ruffle, 3D elements etc as it doesn't matter. I will make it a pretty feature on top of the gift wrap.

As you know I get a lot of pretty bits and pieces from op shops and especially old slips and nightwear. Another way to get lace inexpensively is to cut up old lace curtains. (see below this is just strips of curtains) A lace panel might be $3 at an op shop and give you 100 metres of lace! This also looks lovely on parcels. Torn pretty floral fabrics also make nice ribbons. Crepe paper is gorgeous for ruffles and I will show you how to do that tomorrow. It is so cheap to use this as one pack lasts forever!

The steps I've been through today will make a pretty card with some embellishments and use up all sorts of bits and pieces you might have saved. Each one will be unique!

Often I tie a ribbon though the middle and attach a charm. I might use three thin ribbons or one thicker one...  I will include ideas on this tomorrow.

While doing this I still save the little leftovers to use on gift tags which are smaller again. Tiny little bits will make gorgeous gift tags. I will do a tutorial in them another day... they are just so sweet and very handy.

It's a bit gloomy here today and my kitchen is ripped out... I had to find a clear space to do this tutorial! It was actually an enjoyable distraction. Even looking at the colours and flowers brightens me up! 

I hope you will have a play with your supplies and enjoy making cards. They are so handy and fun to give. xxx

How to use a windfall of produce.

The other day I posted about gathering. Even the word makes me happy. This reminds me of my friend Helen. Where she lives there is a lemon tree in a public space and she and others go there to pick lemons. It is such a big help to her and she makes the most of it. Yet I know most people would drive past and not even pay any attention. But to a few that tree is so well loved. Sometimes we don't need to even do that, produce just comes our way anyway. It might be a huge bargain and suddenly you have a crate of tomatoes for $5 or are given a bucket of lemons or something equally wonderful.

This week I had a little windfall which was produce from Chloe's fridge as she was going to be away for a week. Now I have heard of people just throwing produce in the bin and am happy Chloe isn't one of them! Anyway I count this as a windfall. It was a whole head of celery, a capsicum, parsley and bunch of spring onions.

Just now we are pulling out our entire old kitchen. It was a really terrible kitchen and no amount of handyman activity would fix it. Andy is building me a new one. So all this has been bagged up to use when my kitchen is back up and running. It gave me enough celery for my next three chicken soup/stock cook ups, enough parsley for the same plus some for something else, capsicum to go into a beef stew and three little bags of spring onions. I just pop it all into the freezer for easy additions to things. What lovely supplies to have on hand. So many things can be done this way ready to pop in soups. The soup you end up making is like free soup when you do this from left over bits and pieces.

Windfalls and gathering tend to produce great amounts of something all at one time. In summer I had some like 30 kilos of apricots... another time a whole bucket of plums, also lemons, quinces, plums and so on. And many of these you have to work quickly as in two days they can be ruined and wasted. While fresh produce is great and we eat it all as it is there is only so much you can keep up with and beyond that it's give some away or preserve, cook or freeze it so that it is useful and none is lost. 

Usually I make jam and pies from fruit. My easy microwave recipe is in an older post as is my easy cobbler and pies recipe. Also chopped fruit can go into muffins and frozen chopped for smoothies, made into ice cream, slices and so many things. Many of which can be frozen then for later in the year.

Whatever it is if I am stuck I google "Plum recipes" or whatever it is and am amazed at the suggestions.  Having made so much jam I googled "uses for jam" and found so many ideas from glazes, marinades and sponge cake fillings to jam drop biscuits, plum jam glazed pork chops, apricot glazed chicken pieces, jam in bread and butter pudding, jam tarts, melted as a sauce on pancakes and 101 ways to use up too many jars of jam. 

So whatever your windfall there are ways to turn it into a great asset and money saver. Possibly even gifts by giving hampers of homemade produce, a pie, a tart, tied up with a label and given away. Lemons here make their way into easy lemon curd (this was one of my early recipe posts) Tied up with a yellow ribbon a jar of this is like a gift of sunshine. So delicious and useful.

I love a windfall. And I have had very good news on this front. Someone in the family has a new house with a huge fig tree out the back! I feel some gathering coming on. Apparently it is enormous and covered. Given figs in the city get close to $1 each this tree has $1000 worth of figs on it! Figs are just divine and I have so many recipes that use them ready and waiting! How wonderful I am so excited.

These things just leap out at me as ways to use what we have, where we are and make the most of them.

While Chloe is away I am babysitting (budgie sitting?) her budgie Houdini. So it is like Chippy has a friend over to play. Chippy looks like small fry next to Houdini. But they seem to be getting pretty friendly although I don't trust them together yet!

Chippy seems pretty happy anyhow. And boy can they talk. Houdini has a bell which he likes to ring several times a MINUTE.  Lucky they are cute!

We have the extra bonus of rain. It has come in cold and I am really feeling it so out with the warm and snuggly clothes. This suits me I am a lover of cardigans, great longline ones, and scarves. 

I hope your week has started well. xxx