Icecream, Renovations and keeping busy

Geez, I'm exhausted today...I went a bit overboard this morning while I was feeling motivated and did lots of things, and wore myself out..lol....Did some dusting, vacuumed and mopped the floors, did the washing, and caught up on some phone calls that had to be made, booked the pest control for next week and ordered some candle making and skincare making supplies.  Over the weekend, I cleaned out the pantry as it was getting quite messy in there, so it's all tidy and organised again now. I also cleaned out the top drawer of our vanity unit in the ensuite, will do the other 2 as I feel like it. Damian pulled out Toni's shelving out of her cupboard on Saturday in preparation for the new shelving coming in. After he did that, I got to work painting it, so it would all be ready. The painting in there was finished on Sunday with the painting of the gloss on the trims. The new shelving for Michael's room arrived this morning, and is now installed.

I just have to paint the plasterboard door now to match the walls and then we are just waiting for the new carpet to be installed. School holidays here, so we made some ice cream this morning in the ice cream maker. We haven't used it before, so we just made up a basic vanilla ice cream, it's very yummy and very creamy, much nicer than bought...it comes out as soft serve, and we can put it in a container in the freezer for firmer icecream.

I made pumpkin soup in the slow cooker today, and have made a loaf of bread in the breadmaker to have with it

Got to sit down tomorrow and work out some activities for the school holidays so Kasey doesn't go stircrazy. She would like her friends to come over and play, so I need to work that out with their Mum's as to what day suits. We're going to spend a day out this week and go to the movies and have lunch out, and other than that I want her to have a break as they all get a bit worn out towards the end of each term. So lots going on to keep me busy, but will take it a little easier tomorrow after a busy day today.

A new sewing machine and backing up a little....

I have had sewing classes yesterday and today.  I have started on a textured Xmas table runner  which has 3 dimensional embroideries on it it rich creams and burgundy's, including rich ribbon embellishments, velvet etc. Today I started on a Xmas tree skirt, it is a stained glass look, meaning that all of the seams are joined in gold strips, it is looking very rich and regal, and is in some gorgeous Xmassy prints.  This is the work in progress so far:

I still need to join the seams with the gold binding to give it that stained glass look, and to the quilting etc.  The photo doesn't do the colours justice though.  I am going to pull out of most of the sewing classes for the rest of the month, other than the 2 I have just started.  I will do the BOM projects from home for a couple of months, and try to catch up on the Xmas prep and shopping, and get the house back in to order.  I also purchased a new sewing machine last week, it hasn't arrived yet as it has only just been released, probably a few weeks I would say, which will give me time to finish paying for it!!  I have purchased a gorgeous Husqvarna Ruby machine...it is sooo nice...

Tomorrow is a home day, and I will be catching up on the washing, mowing, cleaning etc, and just trying to get some order back in to things, as I have been so overwhelmed of late.  I did place a winning bet on the Melbourne cup today, turned $5 into $60, thanks to Charmaine the physic on the radio this morning, who predicted number 8....so hopefully with the few little things I am doing and saying no to, I will start to feel a bit more in control of things again...here's hoping anyway....

A busy, but productive week....

Saturday night already??  This week has flown by again...Wed and Thurs I was just running around really, tidying up a few bits and pieces.  Thursday morning/afternoon I cleaned the house and then went to the shops and picked up another christmas present for Kasey...KMart had the lava lamps on special for $10, so I picked up a pink glitter one for her room as a little extra gift for her to open on Christmas day.  Friday was wedding prep for a wedding today, gorgeous cream roses, white lisianthus and white freesias.  They ended up looking divine, and the bride was extremely happy with them:

Tammy came over tonight for a visit, so we had a chat and watched a movie.  I finished a bottle of wine...ooops...a nice girly night in.  Kasey had her first ever ballet performance today, they were soooo cute in these gorgeous little baby doll outfits, I have ordered some photos which will come in a couple of weeks, so will post some then.  As they were the only group in their age group, they got first place, so that was great for all of them. Damian leaves Moranbah tomorrow and heads home, hooray, I really miss him...so he should be home on Monday some time.  Off to the craft show tomorrow, Toni is babysitting Kasey in the morning until she goes to work, and Michael is coming over in the afternoon to babysit his little sister...aww...how nice.... I wonder how many goodies I will come home with from the craft show.....hmmm...have to control myself I think.  I am also meeting a couple of brides throughout the day, 1 wants to give me 2 of her grandmothers rings to incorporate into her bouquets in a fortnights time, 1 is from up north and wants to touch base with me while down in Brisbane, and another wants to bring her bouquet to me so I can preserve it....so a busy day coming up, however, it will be really nice to be "free" for the day with no kids or house to worry about, just some lovely time at the show.  Mum is also coming over tomorrow night to spend the night and have some Mother/Daughter time...anyway, it's late, so I'm off to bed :)  Night night....

Weekend wrap up

So, I had a productive weekend.  I didn't do too much when I got back from delivering the wedding yesterday.  I did a little weeding in the garden, there was some big horrid, prickly weeds growing in there, and I didn't realise how many there actually were until I started digging them out...lucky I got to it, as otherwise I would have been really struggling to contain them, as they were spreading like wildfire.  Mum popped in briefly, and then, other than the necessary daily stuff, I just plodded along. Made up a lovely beef chow mein, from the new Annette Sym cookbook, it was really yummy, except Toni and Kasey thought it was too spicy. We then sat and watched riverfire on the tv, and spent the rest of the night relaxing.  Today, we rang Damian for fathers day, and surprise, shock, Michael had already rung him, only because he hadn't been to bed yet from the night before!  I then spent most of the day cleaning the house, and it is now a peaceful, tidy haven again....we then moved Toni's old desk in to Kasey's room, as she was begging for it to be in her room, and moved her bed and chest of drawers, and threw out some rubbish, and took her little dressing table out.  Because I have moved her bed back against the wall, it makes her room look so much bigger now. After dinner, I tackled the sewing cupboard. I went to Bunnings today and bought 8 wire stacking racks and put them in the cupboard beside my sewing cupboard, and moved all of my fabric, stabilisers and patterns into that.  I didn't realise how much fabric I actually had, so this tidy up should save me quite a bit of money over the coming months with the sewing projects planned, as I can see what is there and get to the fabric really easily. Unfortunately, my camera batteries were flat, so I wasn't able to take a before shot, but this is the end result:

I can't believe how quickly I filled up my 8 shelves...ooops....   The cupboard where I have my sewing maching and overlocker is so much more organised now, so it will be much more pleasant trying to get some sewing done in there, as I can't work for too long in a disorganised area, as it drives me a bit nutty.  I cleaned our office earlier in the week as well, before the accountant came, and that is so much nicer to work in now also.  so, that's my weekend done and dusted, ready for another busy week. 

Cardmaking, Sewing and a nice clean house...

I had card making class on Monday.  It is always a nice relaxing day with lunch provided, and we always make some nice, different cards, utilising a lot of techniques. These are the 5 cards that we made on the day:

Tuesday I had my weekly coffee with Tammy, and afterwards I went home and started on cleaning the house. After doing the bathrooms, I decided to redecorate a little, and went to Loot and bought some flowers, and some potpourri and a couple of decorative items to go with what I already have here in vases etc. I am really pleased with how the bathroom has come up, and Toni says it looks like a resort bathroom now, don't think it's quite up to that standard, but it does look nice, and the kids have managed to keep it tidy for a whole 24 hours now....amazing.....I finished cleaning the house this morning, I only had the floors to finish off, and the house looks so much better, and I always feel really great and organised when the house is tidy...I also caught up on the washing and did a quick grocery shop before Mum came down today to pick up her sewing machine that I picked up for her yesterday. Mum spent the day here sewing and learning how to use her new machine, and we had a nice girly sewing day. Tomorrow I have embroidery club in the morning to sew up the owl...should be fun as I haven't ever done anything like this before. I will post some pics tomorrow after class as it is very cute...I have a really bad cough at the moment, it gets worse late afternoon and evenings when it's a bit cooler, and my stomach muscles are quite sore from coughing...I hope it clears up soon as I am definitely over it....I have a bit of paperwork to catch up on tomorrow afternoon and Friday, so hopefully I can get that out of the way if I can be organised....here's hoping....I am in the process of ordering some books through amazon at the moment, I will try and finish the order off tonight, just want to have a good look and make sure there isn't anything else that I want....Radical Homemakers is one of them, and some homesteading and country living ones, I will have a look at some sewing and craft ones as well before I finish off the order....

A long night.....and a busy day ahead....

I have snuck in a few sleep ins the last few days, and I paid for it last night/this morning....no sleep, not even a few minutes....by 4.30 this morning I figured there was no point in trying to sleep any longer, so just got up. It is very peaceful this time of the day, even though the eyes are quite red....I have a bit planned for today, I have been trying to get a daily routine schedule drawn up over the last few days, I am really over having no direction each day and just flailing along day by day. I much prefer to work to lists and a routine, and my routine has been sadly lacking for a long, long time. I don't think I am alone in not knowing where to start each day, and this has gone on for such a long time now, but so many people say the same thing, and that is that they just don't know how to get the routine back in their life...I am definitely in this category at the moment. I tried the flylady thing about a year ago, but it just wasn't really my thing, there was a lot of good points to it, but I just felt like I never stopped and that I was spending all of my time cleaning!  I think a modified version would work for me. The problem I am having is that I just can't prioritise what I should do first, so I end up not doing much of what I actually want to do. And I have so many things I want to do, that I don't get to any of them. I also find that even when I make up a list at the beginning of a week detailing what I need to achieve that week, while it helps immensley, I still need to be more structured with how long something takes me to do, and how long I should actually spend on it. So I have so far done up a day by day plan for Mon-Fri of each week. This will be the core things I will do each week. I have slotted in some free time on the Friday's that I am not doing weddings, and after dinner each night to do craft and sewing etc. I have done it up on an hour by hour basis, so that I know what I should be doing at what particular time of the day....if I find this too hard, then I will perhaps do it up a bit less structured, with a simple am and pm format...but I will try the more structured format first. Yesterday I stripped my bed and washed the sheets, doona and cover, pillowcases and pillow protectors, and I vacuumed the pillows and woollen underlay. It was lovely getting into a lovely fresh bed...not that I did any sleeping...I also made a batch of soap last night, it turned out really well...probably the best batch I have had in some time, I made the oils and the lye a little cooler this time, and it seemed to make a big difference...I need to go out and get a couple of things today, I also want to go to Spotlight and get a few craft things for Kasey, I am looking at getting her a pair of small knitting needles and some wool, and she can start to learn to knit. I may also get her one of those french knitting looms, and she can try that as well, and if they have any cross stitch suitable for her age, I may look at that as well. I want to try and make some lemon butter and some passionfruit butter today or tomorrow as well. I have a sewing class tonight, we are starting on a beautiful elegant evening bag, it is absolutely stunning...so I hope mine turns out that way!  I have heaps written in my diary today, I was thinking last night that maybe there was too much written there, but as I am getting a nice early start it should hopefully be achievable....

Home made Woolwash

I have made this wool wash, rather than buying it, and it works brilliantly. It leaves the woollens really soft and smelling lovely, and I also use it when I am wanting to freshen up sheets and doonas etc, and for sterilising these items while they wash. It's also great for towels. I have had this 1st batch for at least 6 months, and I freshened it up a week or so ago by adding some hot water to it, as it had hardened up and was becoming hard to scoop out. It is now really good again, and should last many more uses before I need to make any more. This is the recipe:

Home Made Wool Wash
200ml methylated spirits
300g lux pure soap flakes or grated laundry soap
100ml eucalyptus oil

Mix all ingredients and store in a wide necked jar.

Use 1- 2 tablespoons per wash.  Mix with hot water and then add to a warm wash.

Friday Wrapup

I picked most of the chillies today. I wanted to leave them until they had started to turn red, but something has started invading them, and has started to chew on a couple, so thought it best to pick them all and leave them on the bench to redden. With what's already in the freezer, plus these, I will have enought to fill Christmas requests for Chilli Jam....it is very popular with family members!

I was quite out of sorts this morning, I have lots of things I could have been doing, but just couldn't seem to get myself started. Finally, I decided to bake an orange cake and that seemed to be enough to get me moving. I put on some pizza dough in the breadmaker to mix, I made a double batch so I could put half in the freezer. I did a few other banking errands, wrapped a bouquet preservation being picked up next week, started the hardening process on one in process at the minute, put on a batch of yoghurt, vacuumed and did a bit of dusting, did a few loads of washing and a quick tidy around. We had pizza for dinner tonight, there is heaps left over, so can probably have that again tomorrow night, we have heaps of quiche left over from last night also, so that's another option also, but I may end up freezing that for a quick easy meal for another night yet.Ann came over tonight as she wanted a bit of help with some internet advertising, and stayed for a couple of hours with cuppas and chats, so that was a nice catch up. I was going to try and start on my vegetable garden planning, but didn't get around to it today, so will put that on the list for the next few days/weeks....I am going to go and get some yarn from the American Yarn shop tomorrow, for some of the sugar n cream yarn, to knit up some more dishcloths, and look for some other lovely yarn for my crocheting plans, and then we are going to go and pickup Toni's formal dress, and may have a nice lunch while we are out, so hopefully a lovely day coming up tomorrow :)

hmmm....today was well.....hmmmm

It has definitely been one of those days today. I have found it really hard to get myself out of bed this last week or so, and this morning was no exception. I think I have dropped Kasey off at school after the bell most days this week, which isn't like me at all. Last night I applied some liquid nails to the inside of the souls of Kasey's school shoes, as she has been dragging her toes on the concrete in her shoes and they soul has been flapping around in it's own universe for a couple of days. So this morning, the liquid nails had dried, apparently, so she popped her shoes on. I was busy cleaning her room (as usual) and she brings in a tissue and says "Mum, is this the colour of the stuff you used to glue my shoes together?" I was very frustrated with Kasey this morning as she was being a bit hard to deal with, so I didn't even look at her, and said, "Look Kasey, just give me 5 minutes, I'm not going to answer you right now, just leave me to get a bit organised"....I lived to regret that....when I came out of the jungle, I saw liquid nails smeared all over the floor, from the dining room to the lounge room. It had been seeping out from her shoes, as the stuff in the middle of her shoes hadn't quite dried yet....so after spending about 15 minutes scraping it all off the floor, I said, right, let's go....and as Kasey turned around to head out the door, I spotted it.....the back of her school pants was covered in liquid nails...!!!  oh lordy....
anyway....after I changed her, took her to school, and then returned home to scrub as much of it as I could off her pants, I proceeded to do the mountain of washing that has once again accumulated. I then did some bookwork, and organised the insurance renewal for Damian's car, then I went to the demo at the sewing centre for the Palmer Pletsch dressmaking course, picked Kasey up and took her to the doctor. Turns out she has a ringworm on her arm, so have to put cream on it for about 6 weeks. So this evening after doing all the usual stuff, dinner, light the fire, do the chooks, feed the dog, load the dishwasher etc, I was quietly sitting at the table reading some blogs, and Kasey decided she would make me a beaded necklace. Something in the back of my mind was shouting "danger, danger" to me, as I was envisaging all these tiny beads being spilt all over the floor, when Kasey took the lid off the beads, the lid was stuck so she pulled extra hard....and....yep....the teeny tiny beads ended up all over the floor....Kasey is in bed now thank goodness, so my floors might be safe for another day.....then again, Toni is due home from work any minute....so you never know....
4 eggs today, 1 chilli picked, a dozen or so passionfruit, 1 stalk silverbeet and a few heads of broccoli for dinner....the tv is off, the kitchen is tidy, and peace currently reigns....bliss...

Oh no, not my favourite little chicken..

I thought I would spend the morning cleaning the bathrooms, and doing the floors, but ended up doing the whole house instead. I feel so much better now that my house is clean and tidy.  It took me all day, but it is worth it. I did get into Kasey's room as well. I think once your child's room starts to really frustrate you, and your child is not able to keep it tidy or play with anything because there is so much stuff, it is a good sign to do a cull and get rid of some things. I cleaned out her toy cupboard, and got rid of all the bits of rubbish she has collected over the last few months, pictures scribbled over bits of paper, plastic rubbishy toys collected from the odd happy meal, broken bits and pieces and general clutter. I also went through her chest of drawers, and bagged up a heap of clothes to donate to the local charity shops.
This afternoon I got a phone call from the neighbour telling me that Max had one of my chooks. I raced outside to find my favourite black girl looking very dead, but to my surprise she was still alive. I quickly scooped her up, and put her under my jumper to calm her down and she is now recovering in a box in the laundry, covered with an old towel to keep her warm. She is still hanging in there so I hope she will pull through ok. She really is a lovely girl, and is one of the only ones who will sit calmly and allow us to pick her up. She actually had quite a good bond with Max and would follow him around, occasionally he would suck her head, I know that sounds awful, but he was so gentle it seemed to be an affection thing. Max is a real character actually, he thinks he is human half the time, and plays on the trampoline, and climbs up the ladder into Kasey's cubby and slides down the slide, dives and swims in the pool. Max is a little over 18 months old, and we have had him since he was 7 weeks old, and he has been around the chooks the whole time, and has never showed any signs of hurting any of them. I think he was probably trying to play with her, but chickens don't take very kindly to being played with! Max can be so gentle, he even goes into the chook pen and steals the eggs if I am not quick enought in collecting them once I let the girls out, and he brings them down in his mouth in 1 piece, and I can ask him to put them in my hand, and they are always intact. I think if he was serious about hurting her, she would be dead...but I am so surprised by him...he has been rounding them up the last couple of weeks, perhaps that has ended up being a warning sign...I really hope she pulls through, hopefully I find her wandering around in my laundry in the morning, and not dead...I think if she was going to die, she would have by now....I'm really hoping that's the case anyway....

Chillies, Passionfruit and Overlocking

I picked a heap of chillies this morning from the vege garden, the plants were absolutely full of them, and 1 branch had snapped under the weight of the chillies. I wanted to leave them until they had gone red, but as the branch had snapped, I had to pick them earlier than I would have liked, so I guess it will be green chilli jam this time. I also picked these lovely passionfruit from our vine.

I went to my overlocking class last night. We are constructing a weaved table runner. I have finished the weaving part, and next week we will finish off the centre part, and construct the rest of the table runner. I am quite liking how it is all coming up. It is amazing what you can do with your overlocker besides everyday overlocking of edges.

I have also folded the huge growing pile of washing in the laundry, and it has all been put away...I have reclaimed the laundry! I had to also worm Max today, as he was showing signs of having worms rubbing his butt on the ground, he was NOT happy. I do worm him every 3 months, but he has obviously picked some up somewhere a bit earlier than normal. I have also finished off some paperwork for Diverse, and will have to do the wages as well. It's nearly time to pick up Kasey from school already, I don't know where the day has gone! I have flowers coming in the morning for a wedding for this Saturday, and have to take Toni to Redcliffe Friday morning for eye surgery. I usually have a scrapbooking crop every 2nd Friday night, and Mum has also said she is now coming down on Friday instead of Saturday. I also have my 2nd Bali bag sewing class this Saturday, as well as the wedding delivery. Sunday is the craft show I am going to go to with Ann....oh my goodness....how am I going to do all of this....ok, big breath...1 step at a time.....what doesn't get done, doesn't get done, the most important things are Toni's surgery, and the wedding for my wedding client, everything else  can wait if need be.....all's good... :)

This morning was quite busy. I folded and put away the washing, from Tuesday, and put on 3 more loads and hung them out. I have also put 3 coats of colour on the gerberas and sealed them and they are now ready for framing. I will get the frame and matts tomorrow, and ask Damian to construct the box for me so that I can get them framed over the weekend. I have also mowed the front yard and raked up the excess grass, as the grass has been growing before our eyes with all of the rain we have had. The rest of the yard and the trenches desperately need mowing, but it is still way too wet to be able to mow these areas yet. I have also gone over the verandahs with the blower to tidy them up.  I have rung the hospital to do my pre admission for my surgery, and have also rung the eye hospital and confirmed Toni's operation for next Friday. I would ideally like to weed spray some time today while it isn't raining, but I have had a very sore back the last couple of days, I have pulled a muscle or something, and the backpack for the sprayer is very heavy when full and puts a big strain on my back, so I am not sure if I will do that or not. It is also that "blessed" time of the month, so the back and tummy are a bit sore already, without these extra things to make it worse. The weather is also starting to look a bit suss, so I think it will have to wait for another day. I have also rung the sewing shop and confirmed my attendance at the Bali Bag making class this Saturday, and they are going to email me over the requirements list for that a bit later today, I am really looking forward to this class, as I really like the bag, and I think I will get heaps of use out of it, as it is a really big bag. I haven't done any more on my table runner from Tuesday night yet, I have only taken the machine out of the car this morning, so may do some later today or tonight rather than watching the stupervision :) 
I may try to clean out the pantry today, it is really in need of an organisational clean out, it has steadily gotten worse and worse over the last few months since I last did it, as things don't get put back where they should, and it eventually ends up a mess. I have collected and purchased a few extra large glass canisters over the last few weeks as well, so will transfer some things into these while I am going. I would eventually like to have the pantry full of these for neatness, and I much prefer glass containers to plastic ones, even though Tupperware is fantastic, I just don't have enough Tupperware for everything in my pantry and it is very expensive, and the glass jars are either free or very very cheap.

Sweet Potatoes Galore!

I have been up at the vegie garden this afternoon, doing some more tidying up, fertilising and digging the soil over. I have cleaned up the pumpkin crop, and scaled that back down to a much smaller size. It still has about 8 or so pumpkins that are maturing quite nicely, so I am going to keep the existing vine, and see how it goes. I had 3 small ones that had rotted off the vine because of all the wet weather, but while they are small they still look quite ok, and also picked a very large one. I managed to get all of the garden fertilised and 1 side dug over. While digging this side over, I also scaled back the sweet potato crop, and picked 32 sweet potatoes from just a small portion of the newest area - there are absolutely heaps, and to think what is also in the older area, I think we have plenty to last us quite a while. I used 1 to make sweet potato chips with dinner tonight, and they were yum.

Today, I also did a quick tidy up of the house, and vacuumed the floor - with Kasey's help, she did a little vacuum and packed it up for me. I also did the washing, and then dropped Kasey off at her friend's house for a couple of hours of playtime. During this time I went to Aldi and grabbed a few things, and worked on a bouquet preservation, hardening the Gerberas. This has been quite time consuming, so will probably charge more for the next Gerbera preservation that I do.
Tomorrow, I have an appointment at the wellness clinic to have another scan and start to come off some of the vitamins and supplements. I have been following a strict high protein, low carb and sugar diet for 2 months now, and have so far lost 7.5 kilos. The aim of the diet is for health reasons, the weight loss has been an added benefit. I will probably stick to this for another month or so yet. In the afternoon, I have my appointment with the surgeon about my gall bladder, so tomorrow will no doubt fly by as usual.

House Cleaning

Last night I put on a nice batch of home made vanilla yogurt before going to bed.  This morning, lovely, thick vanilla yogurt was waiting for us. Today I have spent cleaning the house, which has taken all day.  I have also hosed off the verandahs, as they desperately needed it with all of this rain, they were horrible.  We usually use the blower to clean everything off, but unfortunately, the blower was not going to cut it this time. I have also done the washing - all of the towels, sheets etc, so now I have a lovely clean house, clean verandah and clean washing. Tomorrow I have to go for an ultrasound to see if I have gallstones, and if not, to try and determine what has been causing the pain under my ribs for the last week or so.