This is on my mind....

I deperately needed to clean the fridge.....we were flat out fitting anything in there amongst all of the half used jars of this and that, and left over containers of things.....it took me about an hour of cleaning, but it looks so much better now...

I have about 4 containers of margarine to get through, I usually use butter, but Damian and Toni keep bringing margarine home from camping trips and working away, so I have to get through all of this first. So now I have visual proof that the fridge was actually clean and it wasn't a figment of my imagination :)

Vent....

Bloody Men!!!!!
Vent over......

Happenings around the place...

My oldest "brown" chicken died overnight, I said to Damian last night that I didn't think she would last much longer, her comb was pink instead of red and floppy instead of upright, and she didn't want to go in to the pen last night, and let me just walk up and pick her up, which is very unusual for her. I found her dead in the pen this morning...I was very hesitant walking up there this morning, fully expecting to find her dead...just old age..it was just her time....so picked up the shovel and dug her a big hole, lucky we have had all of this rain and the ground was nice and soft. 

On a brighter note...Kasey has her class breakup party today, so we made star and Xmas tree shaped cookies last night, and iced them in red and green icing and hundreds and thousands.  I also made up some rocky road and wrapped these up with a christmas card and a thank you note for her teacher. We got her class lists for next year yesterday, and she is in the same class as 2 of her best friends, so she is happy.

I organised Damian's xmas present this morning, will pick that up either tomorrow or Monday when it comes in. I finished most of the wrapping yesterday, so everything is looking pretty organised. Toni's xmas present is just about here, I have been tracking it online, and it is very close by this morning, so I am expecting it this afternoon or tomorrow morning, Hopefully it comes before Toni finishes work, so I can take it out and make sure it is all as it should be...fingers crossed.  The bricks for the pool pump house arrived on Monday, and Toni has moved all of those to where they need to be for the bricklayer, not sure when he will be able to come, we were hoping this weekend, but we're not liking our chances for before Christmas.  We also had the termite protection done on Monday, and they also re-did the pest control as we had started to see a few little nasties again, so they did that under warranty as it had only been 6 months since they came. I also had some straw delivered yesterday, so that I can thickly mulch the vege garden ready for a new planting. 

Being home a lot more at the moment is seeing things get more organised much more quickly, which is great.  With Kasey being on school holidays from this afternoon, I am looking forward to the morning schedule being much more relaxed for a few weeks...even though I do get much more done when I get up earlier! Anyway...off to clean the shower....(sarcastic yay)

A bit more Christmas preparation....

I have been busy continuing on with Xmas preparations etc over the last few days. I have organised Toni's present and it is being delivered over the next few days sometime.  I will be picking up Michael's present tomorrow.  I should be finishing the last of the present shopping tomorrow hopefully.  I spent some time on Saturday setting up my sewing machine in the spare room so I can get some serious sewing done.  I have finished the Xmas stockings, so they are ready for filling up.  I also finished the Xmas tree skirt yesterday, and I was up until midnight last night finishing off another Xmas gift.  I was a bit tired this morning, so I will have to try and get to bed a little earlier from now on! At the moment I have 6 mini xmas cakes cooking away in the oven, I am trying a new recipe this year, as the ones from last year seemed a bit dry. This one seems to be a nice rich cake, so I am hoping it will be nice and moist.  I will keep topping them up with brandy in the leadup to xmas day. We have had so much rain here lately, the vegie garden has been taken over by weeds....I spent an hour up there this afternoon pulling weeds, I ended up covered in dirt and mud but it looks a lot better, still a lot of the smaller weeds to pull, and then will have to do the other side. I need to get in some mulch to cover it over, and then do some replanting.  So, lots of things to do....Kasey finishes school this week, and has her end of year dance concert as well, so I need to get all of the shopping and wrapping out of the way before school finishes....but I am definitely feeling more organised than I was a couple of weeks ago.....

My scrapbooking weekend

I did lots and lots of pages at last week's scrapbooking retreat.  It seems to be the only time at the moment that I get to sit down and concentrate on scrapping....sigh.... anyway....I find scrapbooking, sewing, painting (not house painting...blah) or any form of craft that I can immerse myself into very therapuetic, and it takes away any other worries of the day....here are the pages from the weekend:

New soap varieties and shapes, and my xmas endeavours so far....

I made some soaps a few weeks back.  I used my log mould, which yielded 11 bars, and a new rose mould I purchased, which made 6 soaps.  I used red clay to make a dark browny colour, as I used a chocolate essential oil, and I used mango essential oils in the rose ones. I probably won't used the chocolate one again, I think I prefer fresher smells for our soap.  Some of the rose ones are for Christmas gifts, and the rest will be for our personal use along with the bars.  I made some more soap yesterday, with vanilla essential oils, which I will post photos of next week.

I really enjoy making soap, and would like to start experimenting with different scents etc and different colours and textures.  Next year when I am making a concious effort to spend more time at home, I am hoping to have lots more time to devote to these type of ventures.  I went and had my hair cut and coloured today, and my eyebrows waxed.  They included eyelash tinting in the price, but I was too claustrophobic to get it done, just the thought of not being able to open my eyes had me freaking out, and I had to tell her not to go ahead with it, and she had to take it off after putting it on just one eyelash....gawd....she must think I'm a nutjob......anyway, made a dent in the Christmas shopping, and I am hoping to finish it all off next week....I am nowhere near finishing my sewing projects I had planned so if there is no way I am going to get those done, then I will have to come up with some other pressies for certain people....will see how I go...

Bugger......forgot again...

arrghhh...I have forgotten Kasey's full dress rehearsal this afternoon for their Christmas ballet concert next week....I have rushed her down there an hour late :(  but they are still running through another time yet....I felt pretty silly running Kasey in there, and the teacher was very gracious, but what she was thinking I don't know, I forgot her normal weekly class last week as well, as I am still getting used to her having classes on a Monday....  I thought I was so organised today, I was busy making lots of phone calls and organising things I have put off for months, I made some soap, and went and organised the quote to get the car fixed from where it was damaged when it went in for a service recently, I just forgot to write today's rehearsal in my diary..... where is my organisation???  Whoever stole it....I want it back.......