Gift for an expecting friend and gift for a 6 year old girl

My no-spending week is going well. I almost succumbed today though! Today is the day the children and I normally eat out. And they did *not* like the change in their routine. And I almost succumbed to their cajoling to get me to agree to visit "their" restaurant.

Thank goodness all of you gave me ideas for quick hardly-any-effort meals before! I was able to walk in the house with 2 whingeing kids and managed to whip up a quick noodle, peas, corn, and ham (sound familiar seepi? hehe) meal for them and they LOVED it. ...well my son didn't eat any of the peas and corn but he can be a bit like that sometimes.

Anyway, just thought I'd show off some of my sewing/crafting from the last couple of weeks:

Gift for an expecting friend

I can post this now because she got the parcel. My friend Lynn is pregnant and expecting a little boy at the end of the year. We chatted online and I learned that she really wanted to use cloth nappies for her little boy.

So I made this pressie for her last week. She knows that I used thrifted fabric/materials (including thread! - all bought before my no-spend week) to make this and she doesn't mind. :) I really enjoyed doing this... I had forgotten how cute little babies' clothing are!!



I used this video tutorial on Youtube to make the nappy.

Gift for a 6 year old girl

This one was a quick and simple tutu-like skirt with matching hairbands (or arm bands). My DAUGHTER made the hair bands (at the top of the hanger in the picture)! Its her first sewing project using my sewing machine. How cool is she!


Brazen of Brazen's Crafts actually taught me how to make this a couple of years ago but I found this tutorial on Flickr that shows you how to make this.

Anyway, the little girl loved it...she apparently wore it to school today :).

Oh and other things now...

On another note, a couple of people who commented in my Op-shopping post said that they would like to learn how I made my tablecloth dress. I actually used a pattern for this one. The pattern I got from an op shop and I blogged about it here: http://consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-first-sewing-from-pattern-project.html

Its a basic petitcoat dress from the 60s. :)

Anyway, that's it! I'll post tomorrow about the big activities I'm planning tomorrow morning.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

My Top Op-shopping Tips

Actually this post can also be titled: "Showing off my "new" bed linen" :P

Firstly a HUGE thank you to everyone for the "get well" wishes! I am feeling MUCH better today, so there's no doubt that I will be going to work tomorrow. Also a big thank you to everyone who gave me such yummy ideas for virtually no-effort meals! I'll have to incorporate a hardly-any-effort meal for my next menu plan. (I can't think why I didn't think of doing it before!) I know that all of your ideas will be something I'll be referring to quite often in the future.

This post on op-shopping tips has been on my mind for awhile. It was not that long ago that I used to walk into op-shops, not find a single thing and walk out again swearing that I wouldn't go in. My year of not buying brand-new changed that. One of the skills I learned during that year was how to source things second-hand - and op shops plays a HUGE role in this.

Tip 1: Learn how to look at items when they are NOT looking their best.

This is the biggest adjustment for me and one that took time for me to get the hang of. When I'm in a shop that sells brand new, *everything* looks great and tempting. You see items all the time that you just *know* would look great at home or on you.

Now next time you're in a shop like that, imagine that great item you want not displayed tastefully with strategic lighting...instead imagine that same item rolled up and shoved into a corner full of odds and ends. Imagine that item perhaps lightly covered in dust...or standing next to the most unlikely items - eg candleholder next to a stack of dusty tupperware.

Now hold that mental picture... THAT is what you normally get at an opshop. The item is still great - after all, you've seen it look great - but its no longer displayed to look the best it can be. Op shops are full of great items - most are not displayed in the same way as other shops - its up to YOU to make it look great.

Here's an example (and this is where I get to show off my new bed linen).

A few weeks ago, I went to Goulburn for a stint of op-shopping. I went to Smith Family (heard echos from ONC* op-shoppers "oh Smith Family, how I've missed you") and found this queen size patchwork bedspread with matching pillow, slightly dusty, all rolled up on the floor and shoved under some curtains for $14.50. I bought it despite dubious looks from my mum (hehe, remember mum?!). I went home, gave it a quick wash and line-dried and...



Like I said, it only had one pillow (the one closest to the camera). So I found some almost similar fabric off cuts at Salvos that I made into pillow cases. My friend Karen also gave me these little blue cushions when I moved into the house and I had been using for the kid's "couch". I decided to give my kids some other cushions and nabbed the cushions for myself. Added cost of fabric offcuts = $5.

So now for the grand total of $19.50, I have some very nice bed linen. I knew it would be fantastic, only 'cause I could picture it looking fantastic after a wash and some added pillows.

Tip 2: Learn how to clean or repair things


This kinda goes hand-in-hand with the above. If you spot something and you see that it has a stain on it or has a small tear, then make sure before you buy it that you can get the stain off or the repair job would not be so onerous. Again, it takes time to learn how to do this. But the better you get at it, then the more items you will be able to get at the op shops.

Tip 3: Be nice to staff and do NOT haggle.

Actually this tip goes for any kind of shopping. I find that I get better deals and/or service if I am nice to staff... at the very least, it makes for a more pleasant time.

And as for the haggling...well if you think the item is too expensive, then don't buy it. Op shops are there to raise money for their various social programs.

If you truly need it but can not afford it, you may want to talk to the staff about getting a referral to their programs...and you'll find that you will get the item for free.

Tip 4: Learn to look at things in a different way.

This tip would apply to crafters and sewers out there. Just because its a sheet, doesn't mean it has to stay a sheet. A sheet could become a dress. A tray could become a side table. Let your inner reconstructionist go!

Tablecloth I turned into a dress. I felt it was ugly as tablecloth but cute as a casual dress

Tip 5: You WILL find it.

If you don't find what you're looking for, then don't settle for second best! Walk away and have faith that you will eventually come across that perfect item.

Sometimes, a little tribute (via donation of unwanted but still good items) to the op-shop faeries is all that's needed to improve your op-shop karma.

Tip 6: Always bring your own bag.

Some op shops - like Salvos or Anglicare's Bargain Hunter - have shopping bags you can buy, but most don't.

If you are an op-shopper, what are your top tips?

Edited to add, if you are in ONC*, and you don't know where the op shops are or what they're like, check out: I op therefore I am - ACT Its a great site and I especially love the spreadsheet with locations, opening hours and quick synopsis of each opshop.

*ONC = Our nation's capital

No-Spend-Week: Days 1 and 2

Hello everyone!

Firstly a huge thank you to all the people who have commented here or emailed me asking me how my no-spend-week / return to work is going.

Not much to update because...I haven't returned to work yet.

I woke up very early Monday morning feeling as if someone had hit me over the head. A quick consult with the temp thingy gave me the reason why...38 degrees (100.4 Farenheit)... yep I woke up with a fever. A not so quick visit to the local doctor and diagnosis was "flu"... and no I didn't get tested for swine flu...we are apparently not doing that for everybody anymore - only for anyone who is in a high risk category (eg. history of asthma, suppressed immune system etc). Ah well, apparently if I'm not better by Wednesday, then I'm to go back to the Doctor.

So being sick is making my days to not spend quite easy in some ways. Last thing I want to do is go shopping! In other ways, its also not so easy. I *really really* want to get dinner delivered!!!

This, does highlight yet another "habit" I've developed. When I'm sick, feeling stressed, or just having a "down day", then I tend to buy takeaway or eat out. See, I *love* my food. I love food that is cooked well. And I have used buying food as a quick "pick-me-up" when I can't spend what I see as the "required energy" to making it. (Now that I've written that down, I feel like a dick for thinking this way.)

Still, I have resisted the urge to buy food - but only with a LOT of help.

Monday brekkie was toast and lunch were sandwiches, I just made very quick meals and then my mum insisted in cooking us dinner (thanks Mum!).

Tuesday brekkie was to reheat some pancakes, and lunch was reheating the spaghetti - kids got sandwiches. Dinner tonight is in the oven - my daughter cooked it. Its our version of "fried chicken". I've already mixed together breadcrumbs, garlic salt and parsley flakes. So when she cooks fried chicken its only a matter of putting the mixture on a plate and pressing the chicken on to it. Then putting it in a lightly oiled baking tin.

Anyway, dinner was yummy.

So I think we're not going to be sticking to the menu plan this week, but that's okay. The ingredients I've bought can come together in a totally different way which probably means I'll have more than I anticipate for leftover ingredients for next week.

I was thinking during dinner, what other dinners that I can do with as little amount of effort needed, and here's what I came up with:

- microwaved potato with butter
- avocado and coriander on toast
- toasted sandwiches

My facebook friend Alastair (of the knitted boggle set fame) put up this link sometime back and I bookmarked it: 100 easiest fastest recipes ever. It might be time for me to review that.

Anyone else have any ideas on hardly-any-effort dinners?

I also wonder if me getting sick now is the Universe telling me something about work...or helping me along with my no-spend challenge by making me not want to go out? hehe

Anyway, I hope you are all having a better start to week than me :)

All ready for my no-spending week! (but...) Menu Planning Tips

I just realised that if I don't spend on the 7th day (Sunday), then I won't be able to do my grocery shopping until the following weekend! So I will have to make it Sunday night at 5pm. You know I'd love to do fortnightly shopping but unfortunately, my fridge and freezer aren't big enough to accomodate it all.



So how did my preparations go? Well, I have to say, I've never been so paranoid with my menu planning before! Which is silly. I've been menu planning now for a couple of years and I can't remember the last time I've misjudged my meal quantities, but the fact that I knew there was no "out" made me a bit more paranoid and I ended up throwing in a few extra things in the trolley that was outside my menu plan.

So here I am pretty peeved that I succumbed to paranoia and blew my menu plan budget slightly...then I realised something, I still did pretty well to keep my weekly grocery budget under $100 (total was $95.06).

See my average weekly groceries for the three of us (and my children eat like adults) has been $60. This of course doesn't count the fact that we have been eating out once a week and the fact that I have been buying little things at work. (And when I was living with my parents and shopping for a family of 5 - 3 adults and 2 children - my average weekly groceries was $100).

So, $95 is not too bad considering. (See there I go with my self-talk).

Anyway, its been awhile since I've talked about menu planning in this blog so I thought I'd share my philosophy/method or whatever you call it on how I do my menu plan.

Tip 1:

Plan for at least 1 meal that you can make using existing ingredients that you already have. For this menu plan, I can make Spinach Potato Bake using some potatoes, milk, bit of cream (and I mean a bit 'cause there's only a little bit), cheese and some left over spinach. The more meals you can make the better.

Tip 2:

Plan for at least 2 cheap meals. For me this tends to be dishes that use a lot of bread, mince etc. As I am saving for my nest egg, I planned 3 cheap meals this week - Burgers, spaghetti and Dhal with Chapati.

Tip 3:

Plan for a little luxury and make it go a long way. For this menu plan, I decided to make lunches the luxury. So I planned for some lunches to consist smoked salmon, avocado and capers. My daughter incidentally loves this lunch too. I can make it go a longer way by using buns instead of sliced bread and heaping on the avocado (was on special $2.50 for 4).

Tip 4:

Always buy in season. You know what's in season because they are the ones on special.

Now since I'm not a gardener (still a wannabe rather than a real one!) I don't actually know what's in season until I'm at the shop. For planning purposes, I used to just write: "fruit - 2 types" or "green leafy veges - 1 type" so I can choose what's in season.

On this matter, it's always good to be a little flexible with your meal and learn to substitute or experiment so you are always buying in season.

Tip 5:

Plan for leftovers! This was valuable advice given to me by a reader here (thank you TSS!) and its made a world of difference. For this menu plan, I will be making roast chicken (always buy free range). I will be using any leftover meats to make mini chicken pizzas (using bread as the base) and the carcass will be used to make chicken stock for soup.

I also always leave an extra day for leftovers again - because we *always* have leftovers.

And that's it! I hope what I've written is helpful. I'd love to hear of any more menu planning tips if you've got them. :)

In the meantime, I have already made the burgers and the spaghetti and have placed them in the freezer for re-heating. I've paid all bills that are not coming out automatically.

I'll try to give updates as I go but as I don't know how my work will be after so much time away, I'm not sure.

Wishing you all a great week!

A new money challenge for me

Hello everyone!

So here I am in the final countdown before going back to work on Monday. While I normally love my work, I have to admit, I have enjoyed my leave very much. I enjoyed having an increased time with the kids and I know I will miss this aspect of my life when I return to work.

Ah well.

Thinking about my pending week of return to work and my current depleted nest egg has made me realise that this little change in my routine (or return to routine) actually presents an excellent opportunity for me to go through a new money challenge.

A no-spending week. My no-spending weekend went well but I would like to explore a bit further my spending habits. I have long ago curbed my need to buy brand-new to fulfill my needs, but I still am spending. I think having no-spending days or weeks (and I've heard that some even do no-spend months!) really forces you to think and actually get organised. It forces you to think about your reserves, your income and to plan.

So this coming week, starting this Monday (27 July), I will be not spending a single cent for 7 days.

Now of course, there are exceptions to this rule - automatic fortnightly bills (for mortgage, electricity, water, gas etc etc etc) will of course continue to go out. I had already organised it so that 90% of my expenses come out automatically. This is actually a good organisational tool and stopping it for the sake of a challenge would defeat the purpose.

The other exception is payment for the damage to my car. I can not pay that until Monday (as that is when I'll be picking up my car..yes I'm picking it up a whole 5 days later than planned - the repair job didn't go as smoothly as planned - but luckily its still within the existing budget I had in my nest egg).

And the final exception is for unforseen medical expenses - of course.

So this weekend, I'll be planning out the next 7 days. For me, this means:

1. Making sure that my weekly menu plan accounts for:
- my lunches and snacks (yes, every now and then I top up my lunch at work with more lunch or snacks), and
- my 1 cup of coffee that I buy at work (while I do use my own mug for this, I still am paying someone to actually fill it).

2. Bulk cooking on Sunday to take into account quick meals. As a working solo parent, I do admit that at least once a week, I resort to buying dinner from the local Vietnamese restaurant. This is my 'treat' for the kids and me. I grab them from daycare on Friday (when I tend to work late) and we head straight for the Vietnamese restaurant. So for at least one week, I want to avoid what has now become our routine. Having meals in the freezer ready to re-heat would discourage this practice.

3. Make a meeting with workplace counsellor and start the process in learning how to set boundaries at work, so I don't take on more than I should... and end up working late... and ending up buying dinner. The sad thing is that I know I don't NEED to work late. Its not like I am getting paid by the hour. The problem is that I don't know how to say no at work. Workplace counselling is provided free of charge at work and I need to take advantage of it.

4. Plan my car use for the week so 1 tank of petrol will last me all week. It normally does last me 1 week (at least, sometimes more) but its so easy to lose track especially now that its winter. This means making sure that after I've picked up my car, start making the little changes I mentioned in my post about my car - including tyre pressure.

Anyway, so lots of planning this weekend - wish me luck and I hope I get all my plans right! (and if not, then I hope I'll be able to come up with a creative alternative that doesn't involve spending).

P.S. Some of you may have noticed that the related post widget thingy on Family rituals (post below) have come up with an older post of mine about what I do for birthdays. I have given an update on this at the other blog I write in - Simple Green Frugal Co-op: Meaningful Birthdays for My Children

I hope you also have a wonderful weekend!

Family rituals

This morning, we got to celebrate a huge milestone for my daughter - her first tooth has fallen out. She has been waiting for this to happen for a looong time. All her friends at school have already experienced this and she has been worried that her wobbly tooth was too stubborn to fall out.

For me, this event marks the day my daughter has started leaving her early childhood - just as how her first tooth growing marked the day she started the process of leaving babyhood.

I have always wanted to celebrate these significant milestones in a way that is meaningful. So many of our celebrations have become materialistic and commercialised. Last night, when my children finally went to bed, I sat down and wrote a letter to my daughter. I wrote of her early childhood - how she was when she was a toddler and pre-schooler - and how she is now. I wrote of the qualities that I see in her now and I told her of how proud I am of the choices she's made so far. I told her of how much I love her.

She loved the letter - I would like to think that my letter to her will mean much more to her than the 60c I gave her to make up for the shortfall in buying her stick insect. (Yes, my little girl has also finally achieved her first financial goal!).

Celebrating her tooth falling out in this way also made me think of family rituals. And I realised how important these things are. It made me think of regular rituals that just "happen" in our house and I realised that we actually do have many of them - CHORES.

As I have said in my previous post about my children and pocket money, my children have always done chores. I'm not exactly sure when they started to do them. I have a feeling it may have started when my daughter was around 18 months and she would be the "peg holder and peg-putter-away person" when I was hanging out the laundry. Today, my children do quite a lot around the house. They iron hankies, help me hang up the washing (we use a clothes airer rather than a washing line), dry the dishes, wipe down the table and an assortment of other chores. We don't really have set jobs with people responsible for a particular task - at least not yet anyway. We just do what needs to get done.

However, in thinking about these chores in the context of family rituals, I realise that there is an element missing. I do not do these chores with a mindset that celebrates the caring and resulting cooperation inherent in these tasks. Indeed, there have been times when I have snapped at my children because I felt they were talking too much while doing chores.

Tonight, while my children dried the dishes, I saw the task of washing dishes from a different light. I left the kids to talk (they always do anyway, but this time I didn't chastise them, I just silently handed them another plate while they talked).

I finally got the importance of the homekeeping ritual. And for the first time, I consciously joined in the celebration.

My children talking to each other while drying the dishes.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday. :)

How to keep my car costs down

So tomorrow, I get to finally pick up my fixed car. My bank balance is looking pretty light (almost starving in fact) but I know that with a little bit of care, it will start looking healthy in no time.

For those who don't know, I recently crashed my car...and I wasn't insured (note that I do have the compulsory -aka legally-required - insurance, just not the comprehensive one). I wrote about the immediate lessons I've learned in this post - though I have no doubt that there will be a few more lessons waiting for me to learn.

Now that I will be taking out (almost) comprehensive insurance (using the tips given to me by Darren and Gleaner in their comments to that post) I have started to think about how I can keep my car costs down. These, I think, are the lessons I still need to learn.

Some things I've become more aware of:

1. I need to learn how to maintain my car. I bought my very first car when I was 20 years old...and that car was 21 years old. I loved that car and I learned how to do basic maintenance on it. Then, very slowly, I got slack. And very slowly, I started to relegate the task more and more as "something-men-did". Not very enlightened of me I know. Some 17 years later, I am now adjusting to single-parenthood and I have realised I have lost this skill. I opened the car bonnet and realised that cars have come a very long way from that 21 year old (which would now be 38 year old) car. I barely recognised the engine!

Rosalie Jones, Woman Mechanic - circa 1920s/30s. From: www.old-picture.com - If she can do it then, then surely I can do it now??

The truth of the matter is, that if I want my car to run efficiently and therefore cost less in the long run, I will have to learn how to do basic maintenance again. Not sure how to do it at this stage... I checked the local community college and I didn't see any car maintenance courses for this term... Maybe I'll just have to borrow a man somewhere to show me? This website seems good too: Car Maintenance - Illustrated Tips.

One thing I know I can do right away is to check my tyre pressure and make sure its correct. Having the right tyre pressure will lower my fuel consumption.

2. I need to walk more often. Without my car, I have been walking more often. All my basic necessities are within a 2 km radius from me (1.3 miles). While I admit that walking with a whole weeks worth of groceries (no way was I going to stop menu planning!) and two young children was not my idea of fun, it wasn't that hard. The kids handled the distance okay - it was the weight of carrying it all while at the same time trying to keep up with them!! (picture a middle-aged mum running behind her kids yelling in whiny voice "GUYS, WAIT FOR ME!!" whilst carrying 5 full bags of shopping - talk about extreme exercise). I saw an old trolley bag at Salvos today...maybe I should get one of those to help?

So maybe I won't walk when its grocery shopping time, but I know that I can walk for other times. I need to get over my excuses of "its too cold" or "its too hot" and just go do it. I did it while I didn't have a car and I had a wonderful time.

3. Buy a sun shield for my car and always try to park in the shade. Apparently doing this can decrease my fuel consumption by a lot! Of course, parking in the shade often means having to park further away...but then see lesson 2 above.

4. Get the hang of public transport again. Now I've already started doing this on weekend outings with the kids but its not really the same. Public transport here at the ONC is pretty hard to get. The system is confusing and its so easy to catch the "wrong" bus. (I put wrong in brackets because pretty much any bus will take you where you want to go - provided you stood on the right side of the street and the bus is going the right direction. However, some buses could take 5 mins to get to your destination - others can take 1 hour... and once you are on the hour long bus, its not easy to just get off and catch a better bus.)

When I was at school, I used to be a whizz in deciphering the bus timetables and catching the "right" buses. Now I'm hopeless.

Anyway, that's my list for now.

So are you a good mechanic/car-maintainer? Do you have any tips for me?

For ONC'ers - do you catch buses regularly? Want to share your secret on how to read those bloody timetables?? hehe

Other than that, I have two very exciting bits of news I want to share:

1. Bel told me that this blog of mine was mentioned in the August edition of Notebook magazine! For the first time in years (since beginning of 2006 actually), I have bought a magazine to have a squiz. My blog was mentioned in their blogs that are worthwhile reading section, alongside Julie's Towards Sustainability and Rhonda's Down to Earth. I am very flattered to be in the same list as them - both have been an inspiration for me.

2. My daughter has lost her first tooth tonight!! This is just such an amazing milestone for us. She is well and truly leaving early childhood.

Falling with style

This isn't flying, its falling...with style!

~Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story

I love that line. The kids and I laugh our heads off every time we get to the 2 parts in the movie where it is said.

I've been thinking lately, that in some ways my journey to a simpler life really does reflect this. In many ways its been a journey of falling and learning how to make do creatively. Sometimes I've fallen because I jumped (to get away from so much stuff) - sometimes I've fallen because I let go (of expectations of how I should buy my way through life) - sometimes I've fallen because I was pushed. :)

When I was buying and living a high consumer lifestyle, I know that I enjoyed the highs that went with it - the high of acquiring the latest and newest. I know that many would look at what I do now and what I have and would see it as a fall from society's high standards of living.

But I don't see my fall as a sacrifice...or even that I am now living a lower standard of life. In fact, I would see it that I am much more empowered now. I am not burdened with stuff and the physical and mental cost associated with having that stuff.

Perhaps its because I have done it (for the most part) slowly. Little steps that led me to learn valuable skills and, with practice, learned that it is possible for me to be creative in finding alternative ways to meet our needs. Some of those skills are the traditional skills - like cooking and sewing. Some skills are just an enhancement of what I already had - an understanding of how to save money. And some skills are ones that came as a surprise - like learning to find things second-hand, learning how to relate to others without buying and learning how to give and receive help from others that doesn't involve money.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my fall and yes, sometimes its clumsy but slowly, I am finding "my style". I'm getting there.

Autumn leaves refusing to fall... Photo taken by Miss J

What's that?

I love short films. They always seem to surprise me and, ocassionally touch me. My cousin posted this on her profile page on Facebook and I thought I'd share.

Enjoy! (Viewing time: approx 5 mins, subtitles)

My neighbourhood through my children's eyes

This is the very first blog post from my children. They know about this blog and we have talked about what I write in here but this is the first time they wanted to contribute to the blog directly.

It all started with this challenge at Blog This. I happened to have been reading a post there when my daughter came over and asked me what I was reading. I told her that the challenge was asking us to take photos of the streets of our town (to a maximum of 10 images) and she said: "ooooh I want to do that!!!" So here it is.

We went out today with the camera and they took (or asked me to take) certain photos of our neighbourhood. The rest of this blog post will now be from my kids. The kids have dictated their words to me. I put in the caption to give their comments some context.

Eilleen: We hadn't even made it out of the garden when Mr S (4 years old) tells me "take a photo of me giving you this flower!"

Mr S (4 years old): I like this photo because it was lovely that I gave a flower to Mum. The flower was from home.

Miss J (6 years old): Those are my favouite flowers. They grow in our garden.

Photo taken by Miss J (6 years old)

Mr S: I like this photo because the flowers were pretty. The flowers were from a garden, I don't know who owned the garden.

Miss J: These flowers look like rose-flowers and I like them a lot.

Mr S: I took this photo! I like it because the plants look like a rainbow. And it has my shadow too!

Miss J: I like it because its so rainbow too.

Photo taken by Miss J

Mr S: I think these rocks are amazing. They're giants!!

Miss J: I like these rocks because I can see faces in them. These rocks are in our neighbourhood.

Miss J: I took this photo because I like birds a lot. We don't get too many birds in our neighbourhood.

Miss J: I took this photo because the holes in the tree look so pretty.

Miss J: I got Mum to take this photo because I love my bike. I like my shadow the best in this photo.

Miss J: I took this photo because it [the flower] looks like a lily on a lily on a lily.

Logs separating the street from the nature strip. Photo taken by Miss J (don't you think she takes great photos?)

Miss J: I love logs. I climb, walk and balance on them.

Miss J: I think my neighbourhood is the best 'cause it always looks pretty and green. Our neighbours are so nice. I like the houses and the way they're painted.

Goodbye, from Miss J and Mr S.

Eilleen: I really loved going out today and consciously looking at the neighbourhood from my children's eyes. One thing I re-learned today is to appreciate how surrounded we are by nature. I had forgotten how beautiful my neighbourhood is! So thank you, Blog This! for a wonderful challenge.

Food that young kids can cook

It is apt that I'm blogging this while watching Master Chef.

Back in the "olden days", when I left home for the first time, I didn't know how to cook...at all. The first night on my own, after I shoo'ed my parents out (assuring them all the while that I would be fine), I remember walking into the kitchen and thinking "what now?".

I ended up calling a friend asking him "how do you boil an egg?".

Fifteen years later, I am proud to say that I can cook passably well. Not as well as those people in Master Chef but enough to please my family and friends (usually). :P

One thing I've always wanted to do is to involve my children into household activities - including cooking. Tonight, my children, aged 4 and 6, cooked our dinner.

I have found that our journey with cooking together has been very haphazard. There were times when the mess in the kitchen created too much stress for me afterwards to not attempt to cook together again for a long while.

However, in keeping with my parenting philosophy, I am glad that I persisted and we've eventually developed shared understandings and a "rhythmn" in the kitchen.

My children do best with simple, "set and forget" dishes. They also have a definite limit in terms of how long they are able to concentrate in the kitchen. My daughter can stay in the kitchen for about 20 mins. My son about 10 mins. This means that foods that don't require too much preparation are the ones they love to do. Less preparation also means less ingredients. Which is good because they have to be able to remember all the ingredients as they can not read very well. :P

While the kids wash their hands prior, I have found it useful to place wet face washers near them when they're cooking. They use these face washers to wipe their hands during preparation. I don't know if its just my kids but if they get a bit of uncooked mixture/ingredient stuck on their hands, they don't like it. So a wet face washer is handy to wipe up messes.

Tonight, we had Honey Soy Chicken Drumsticks, with rice and steamed veges.

Honey Soy Chicken

In an oven proof dish, mix together honey, soy sauce and 1 clove of crushed garlic.



The way my children remember it is: 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce for every drumstick of chicken. Crushed garlic is last and is stirred in.

Heat oven at 200 degrees. The kids prefer to place the dial at an actual number instead of a line.

Place dish inside oven and set kitchen timer for 40 mins (again at an actual number instead of a line).

Walk away until timer goes off. Mum is the one who takes it out of the oven.

Rice

In a large microwave proof dish, add 3 cups of rice and 3 cups of water. (note that my daughter is the one who cooks this - not because my son can not remember it but the weight of the water and rice is too heavy for him at the moment)

Place in microwave and cook on high for 20 mins.

Walk away. Mum takes it out of the microwave.

Steamed Brocolli

In the steamer pot, place 1 little cup (aka the 1/4 cup) of water then brocolli. Turn on the right stove top and place dial on the biggest flame

Set mum's mobile phone to 10 mins.

Walk away. Mum will take it out of the steamer.

Tonight's result:



And yes, both my children know how to operate the oven, stove, microwave and timer. :) Both of them have learned that these are not toys but are essential tools. They do not touch them any other time except when cooking or reheating.

Do your children cook? What do they cook?

Fabric box tutorial :)

Hello everyone,

How is everyone going with the school holidays? Here at the ONC*, we are at our second week of the holidays.

I am loving my time off with the kids. For some reason I always enjoy the school breaks between Terms 1 to 3... its the end of year break that I find hard...but then again that might have something to do with the stresses associated with the end of year. :P

Don't get me wrong, we do spend some of our days bickering - we are definitely a long way away from the Brady Bunch - but overall, I have enjoyed the slower days and being able to play and craft together.

Speaking of craft, Jess of Button Beauty asked me for a tutorial re: the fabric boxes I made for the kids' room.



Step 1: Draw your box template.



Now I used DOUBLE the seam allowance I normally use. (Reasons for which will be revealed below).

Step 2: Cut TWO pieces of fabric - one for the inside and the other for the outside using your template.



Step 3: This step is important if you are making a big box (like the ones I made for the kids' room). Iron on interfacing on both the outher and inner fabric. As the box I'm making for this tutorial is quite small, and the inner fabric is actually uholstery fabric, I left this step out.

Step 4: With right sides together, sew around the fabric, making sure you leave a small gap so you can turn it inside out.



Step 5: After you've turned the fabric inside out, pinch the box corner sides together with the lining on the outside.



Sew each corner side together. :)

Step 6: Now turn the box inside out again so the outer fabric is on the outside and ...ta da!



This fabric box is just big enough to hold my children's UNO cards and their matching Winnie the Pooh Tape. :)

Hope you are all having a good day. :) If you want me to elaborate further on the tutorial please let me know!

*ONC - Our Nation's Capital

The PR messages of chocolate companies...

Perhaps one of the most viewed posts here on my blog is my list of slave-free chocolates available in Australia. That list I have compiled slowly over several months. I have received wonderful support from readers here and in "real life" in compiling that list - many people sought to undertake research of their own and then informed me of what they have found. There were times when readers here have disagreed and corrected me on my information and I have amended the post accordingly.

I have also received many queries regarding the source of my list and how I have compiled it. In response, I wrote my sources in the comments section of that post and again as a proper post.

Today, I decided to expand on how I have written the third ("Use slaves, but...") and
and fourth ("Use slaves and they don't care") categories. As a reminder to everyone, I have openly said before that I wrote those last two categories are based on *my* reaction to responses (or non-responses) from chocolate companies and my knowledge from more reputable sources. By that I mean, those two categories were written from *my own* deconstruction of messages churned out by those chocolate compaines. Feel free to disagree with me. (I only ask that you disagree in a way that is constructive and accountable.)

So on to the messages...

I have found that for those companies in the fourth category (and some in the third category), there were similar messages in their response to queries regarding their cocoa sources. I will list those messages now. If you have received different messages, please post here.

Claim 1: They do not get their cocoa from the Ivory Coast

This claim seems to play on popular notions that child-slavery in cocoa farms are limited to the Ivory Coast. Child slavery is *not* limited to the Ivory Coast alone. On 15 June 2001, The International Labour Organisation(ILO) published a report that concludes that child-slavery and trafficking is rampant throughout West Africa. The countries mentioned in the report include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.



All the responses I received from the companies I listed in category four stated that they got their cocoa from Ghana. This statement is often made without reference to the slavery issue in Ghana, but rather as a comparison to slavery issue in the Ivory Coast.

On 31 October 2007, the Payson Centre at Tulane University (funded by the US Department of Labor) reported on the cocoa industry and the slavery issue in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The report concludes that child-slavery (termed "forced labour" in the report) still exists and that both Ghana and the Ivory Coast have moved very slowly in reporting back as per previous international agreements to do so. For the full report see: http://www.childlabor-payson.org/FirstAnnualReport.pdf

In addition, the Government of Ghana have been quite open that slavery is part of their culture. (See: http://www.modernghana.com/news/24677/1/child-slavery-in-ghana.html) While the Goverment of Ghana are working towards addressing child-slavery, many welfare organisations do state that they have a very limited capacity to do so and hampered by the efforts of the Ghanian Government to try and minimise publicity over the issue (see: http://www.freetheslaves.net/Document.Doc?id=20)

Therefore I question the claim by these chocolate companies and their motives for even stating this fact. In all of my correspondence to them, I never once mention the Ivory Coast (I just question whether they do, indeed, source their cocoa from farms who use child-slaves). Instead I get a paragraph diverting my attention to Ghana instead of the Ivory Coast.

Claim 2: They participate in the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) and the World Cocoa Foundation(WCF).

The WCF is one of the organisations that were a key feature of the Harken Engel Protocol. This is the protocol that had an original life as a certification system where chocolate can be labelled "slave-free". They then set up the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) to oversee this project. The WCF sits under the ICI.

Unfortunately, that protocol has now been reduced to a survey instrument rather than a certification system. (See my blog post: http://consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com/2008/07/jamie-oliver-chickens-but-what-about.html)

While the WCF and the ICI have tried to address the problem, I think it has failed miserably. See the Tulane University Report again and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cocoa_Initiative.

It is my opinion that for a problem of this magnitude, self-regulation (which is essentially what happened when membership to the ICI and WCF was opened to the chocolate companies) was *not* a good policy call because instead of exercising the powers given to these organisations, there has been effort instead to change the policy so it no longer had any "teeth". Many of the funds given to the ICI and WCF have been redirected to research projects on how to grow cocoa more efficiently.

While I support research, I do not believe so much of the ICI's resources should have gone to research and should have gone instead of addressing the immediate problem - which is that there are children being locked up every night in over crowded cells and being forced to work in isolation from their community.

Having said that, I do acknowledge that the ICI and the WCF have at least helped *some* farms through the provision of education (though the details and results of that education are very very unclear).

Claim 3: Buying from Fairtrade accredited sources would compromise the quality of their chocolates.

This one would have to be one of the most puzzling claims to me and it was made by Lindt in two of their emails to me. According to Lindt, under the rules of Fairtrade, they would not be able to reject low quality beans from suppliers.

I searched the Fairtrade Labelling Standards for Cocoa and I can not see anything in the rules that say that buyers *have* to buy low quality beans. There are rules in there regarding labour standards, logistical, administrative and technical requirements for exporting products etc. In fact, the standards seem to me to ensure the delivery of quality products rather than forcing buyers to buy low quality products. If I have read the standards wrong, then please let me know!

Further, Cadbury UK's recent decision to move to Fairtrade accreditation for their Dairy Milk line seems to be in direct contradiction with Lindt's claim. This post from Cadbury UK's blog seems to be very confident that the taste of their dairy milk chocolate will remain the same after they have gained fairtrade accreditation.

And now my other thoughts...

Finally, why did I have 2 separate categories in the first place?? As I have stated previously, I decided to separate the companies because in my opinion, some (like Cadbury and Cocoa Farm) are making a concerted effort to change cultural problems and systems inherent in the Cocoa Industry. So yes, I also do admit that this is a value judgement on my part.

In talking to chocolate companies that *are* fairtrade certified or organic certified, I have noticed one MAJOR difference. These companies are always willing to name their sources. In short, they are TRANSPARENT in their dealings. They do *not* make vague statements like: "we pay our suppliers premium price to ensure that their workers are paid fairly..." or "we only use reputable suppliers for our cocoa".

The other thing about these ethical companies is that they conduct regular (and usually independent) audits to ensure people are not being exploited and they were more than happy to tell me the company who does their audit and most offered to release the executive summary of their latest audit report to me.

When I compare the way the companies in categories 1 to 3 have informed me and the way companies in category 4 have acted, there is a distinct difference.

Categories 1 to 3 companies have acted more openly. Category 4 fed me a whole heap of "facts" that were only half the story and did not correlate in anyway with information given to me by an overwhelmingly large number of other companies in Categories 1 to 3.

Finally, I have received one anonymous comment telling me that I need to "prove" that those companies in Category 4 use child-slavery. Given that so many independent reports have already indicated that child-slavery is widespread in the cocoa industry, I think the "proof" should go the other way...that these companies need to prove that are NOT using child-slavery. Therefore, if anyone can produce for me correspondence from the chocolate companies I have named bluntly stating that they do *not* use cocoa harvested by child-slaves, then I'd love to see it!

For further reading, see also: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/background.html

Other lists of chocolate companies and their "rankings":

http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/main.html
http://www.betterworldshopper.com/r-chocolate.html

Frugal Decor: The children's bedroom!

Hello all!

My no spending weekend went well. I have to admit Sunday in particular was pretty hard for me. I was right in the thick of decorating my kids' bedroom (they share a room) and there were many times when I felt like I "needed" to go out and buy stuff for it. BUT I resisted the urge (having a broken car helped 'cause I had even more of an excuse not to just hop in my car and drive to all my usual second-hand decor supply haunts.

Just a bit of a background to new readers. I recently moved house and I needed to furnish it top to bottom - including down to little things like cutlery, kitchenware, whitegoods etc. I had resolved to furnish my entire house with as low a carbon footprint that I can get and with that, as frugally as possible.

So here is what I hope to be the second last installment of my frugal decor series:

Feature Wall. Total Cost = $10

The letters are cut out of cardboard (I store most cardboard boxes I come across) and painted. The canvases are spare from my craft supplies. A long time ago, I found 4 blank canvases at $5 each in an op shop - they were a bit dusty but nothing that a good clean that didn't fix. I painted over the marks left behind by my cleaning efforts anyway. My children designed them and I carried out their instructions and put the letters over the top.

The coat rack I made out of a plank of wood I found underneath the house. I painted it and just put nails on it for the hooks. The nails looked ugly as hooks though, then I remembered what the knitta please mob do with ugly things and so my daughter french knitted over the top of the nails to make the "hooks" a bit prettier. Getting it attached to the wall was a bit of a hassle 'cause I don't have a drill but eventually got it there by nailing 4 nails at the bottom, using that as the "shelf" and then nailing 2 nails at the top to hook over the top of the plank. It seems to hold up alright. Well, its holding their school bags which are currently full of heavy books 'cause its the school holidays so that's as good a test as any.

The pictures are from a book that Button Beauty gave me when she got a motherload that PMM would love. The book was pretty tattered so I saved some of the save-able pages and put the rest in the recycling bin. I stuck them up there using contact as contact doesn't mark walls.

The problem with my kids' room is that while there are plenty of hanging space in their wardrobes the shelves are too high for them to reach themselves. There is, however, an inbuilt bookshelf in their room. I decided to use this space to store some of their clothes. Their pyjamas at the top shelf so its easy to get to.

Storage area. Total cost = $0

For the bottom shelf, I didn't want the clothes there to be visible so I made fabric boxes using some of my fabric offcuts. The fabric boxes use up a lot of material (need big lots) and I really only had enough for two boxes. I suppose I could've pieced together fabric ala patchwork style but...well, I really wanted their room done by today and patchwork takes me a long time to do. To cover up the rest of the shelf, I nailed a couple of old placemats to act like curtains. It rolls up for the kids to access their clothes:



The kids really love this feature. And surprisingly insist on having both "curtains" down when they have finished gettng the clothes they want out of the shelf.

Now as I said before, their wardrobe is really more about hanging space, so I did this:

Daughter's "side"

Son's "side"

Wardrobe "Reno". Total Cost = $20

I didn't spend the $20 last weekend! I spent it back in November specifically for this purpose. The little cane side tables were from Salvos at $10 each. The "dirty clothes" box at the side were actually just cardboard boxes I had lying around the house and I just covered it in fabric.

As for beds? They have a bunk bed. My dad bought it 'cause he couldn't get his head around me buying 2nd hand beds for the kids (I would've bought the mattress brand new)...but THANK YOU DAD!

Incidentally, the bed and the contact paper has been the only truly brand new items that have been bought for this house.

Total cost of children's bedroom (to me) = $40

Total cost of house decor to date (including some gardening tools) = $567

As you can see, my no-spending weekend really did affect my choices for bedroom decor but it was good because it forced me to think laterally to achieve what I wanted. I think if I was spending this weekend, I would've bought wooden/cane boxes and the coat rack (instead of making my own) but I'm actually happy with what I chose in the end.

Now I only have one room to go! Its the spare room - not sure what "type" of room I should make the spare room. I want a room that would be used and not sit empty except for the rare occassions I actually get guests staying. So if you have any ideas on what sort of room it should be, then let me know!

Thank You! Also, Featuring Kylie's comment :)

Hey all!

Well, so far, day 1 of the no-spending weekend has gone pretty well. I just pottered around the house and concentrated on starting the decorating in my kid's bedroom. There have been a couple of times when I almost went out and bought something for the decor but ended up making do with what I had instead. So there you go, even my decluttered home contains "spares" for me to use instead of buying (even if I am buying second-hand).

Anyway, I thought I'd spend some time today just acknowledging everyone's comments here. I love reading what everyone has to say about the stuff I write here. Your comments have made me laugh, made me think, made me re-think :P, and made me change the way I do things. Most of all your comments really do encourage me to keep picking my way through leading a more simpler life.

Snapshot of some of the comments under my "Being Neighbourly" Post

I thought I might share with you a comment made recently by Kylie on an old post of mine :):

...last year I gave up chocolate for six months to draw attention to the issue of lack of sanitation (toilets) for many people in the world. (Sounds silly but is really important and can affect people's health, education, work) There isn't an obvious link between chocolate and sanitation but the idea was that my friends would know it must be something important to make me give up chocolate. I put aside the (considerable) money that I would normally spend on chocolate and also asked friends to sponsor me. At the end of the 6 months I put all of the money towards financing toilets in developing countries (through an NGO). Enough for 50 toilets - not a huge amount but I figured it was better than doing nothing and a lot of my friends now know a lot more than they used to about sanitation.

Thank you so much Kylie for sharing your story! That is so inspiring! Kylie's comment caught me because I recently wrote on SGF about access to water and sanitation in developing countries. There are now several local communities who are much better off because of Kylie's efforts.

Another thing is that a couple of people have written some very nice emails to me complementing my reconstructed clothing efforts. Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me too! Long time readers here will know though that I'm actually very new to sewing. I sewed my very first item (a button on a coat) only 2 and a half years ago! I have always had so many excuses to never learn how to sew or craft. Those excuses ranging from: "I don't have enough time" to "But I'm not creative at all." The funny thing is that I now get so much out of sewing and crafting. And its definitely cheaper than therapy! (hehe)

For those who are interested in taking up sewing and crafting, I wrote my story at SGF:

Learning how to sew (and while you're there check out the sewing suggestions other SGF authors have written!)

"But I'm not creative!"

Anyway, I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. I hope to finish my children's bedroom this weekend so pics hopefully I'll have pics soon!

Rebuilding my nest egg

So, regular readers will know that my nest egg is gone. Ah well, it could've been worse. Honestly, I think I would be even more stressed if I didn't have the nest egg in the first place.

So now I'm starting to focus on rebuilding my nest egg. I've already talked about my budget strategy, but obviously I need to do a little more now. There have been some great tips over at Simple Green Frugal Co-op (the other blog I write in). In particular I'm really liking the concept of consciously having "no-spending days". Now I pretty much already have done this now and then but its not been a conscious choice. So I've decided that I really need to set a no-spending challenge.

So this weekend will be my NO SPENDING WEEKEND. I'm not going to plan to spend stuff tomorrow either. My menu planning is holding up so technically I should have enough food for the weekend. I am also not expecting any bills to come up this weekend either (and bills don't arrive on weekends). The only temptations my way are:

1. The deceased estate auction being held this Sunday. I guess this is easy to avoid. I just won't go. I *did* have my eye on some pretty glassware and some bowls but I don't *need* them so I'll just let it go. (For other ONC'ers - that's one less competition for those glasses! If you do go and get those glasses, then please let me know here! I'd love to ooh and aah with you!)

2. Replenishing my craft supplies for my children's bedroom decor project. Okay this one is a toughie. Usually its when I'm in the middle of crafting that I suddenly decide I *need* a particular type of paint/glue/bit. So I normally go out and buy it. I'll be doing the kids bedroom decor tomorrow and over the weekend. So let's hope that I'm sufficiently organised by tomorrow to not need to spend anything by the weekend.

And that's it!

Now the other thing I've been thinking of has been to actually sell some of my crafts. Nothing huge. Maybe just selling some vinyl record bowls and record cover boxes and book wallets and book bags (note links take you to crafts I had made for myself), but I'll have to research which markets I should organise having a stall. It would be a one off thing. (If you have any ideas about which markets I should go to, let me know!) I'm not planning on selling regularly because to be honest I really suck at selling. Its bad enough when I have to "sell myself" when I'm applying for jobs let alone selling an item I actually crafted!

And finally, after much umming and aahming I've decided to sell this board game, "Called to Arms" that I have. I had originally planned to cut it up for crafting until I saw it at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney (but the game is in pieces, while mine is still intact)! Its over 100 years old (printed between 1899 to 1901) and distributed by National Games which were based in Ballarat, Victoria. The game was based on Australia's (then current) engagement in the Boer War.

I also considered donating it to the Australian War Memorial but then as my neighbour told me - I should be thinking of rebuilding my nest egg.

Just so I can remember it (sob), here are some pics:

Front Cover

Actual board - check out the flag! Australia didn't have its own flag until 1903 so prior to that we used the British flag to represent Australian troops.

I asked around and it seems that Ebay is the way to go to sell my board game. What do you think?

Anyway, so those are my plans to rebuild my nest egg. Yep, the plans are not complicated and no doubt there are better ways to do it, but for now those plans suit me so I'll stick with them for now.

Wish me luck for this weekend! Hopefully I'll be consciously having no-spending days more regularly from now on!

My pirate boy and I...

This morning, my son came up to me with a piece of fabric and said: "Can you make me into a pirate, mum?"

Now pretty much every fabric piece I own are remnants or last-chance scraps. The piece he was holding happens to be this one:



Not big enough to really do anything except for...



BRACES!

I attached the straps on to his black tracksuit pants with buttons. I also attached buttons on his shirt so the straps stayed on:



The bandana is actually a rag..don't worry its clean :) And the sash another fabric remnant.

Ah its so cool that my kids are still small!!

Anyway, it was also COLD this morning. And I really need a winter hat/beanie. I have been really jealous of Button Beauty's knitted beret, scarf and gloves ensemble. They look so great and so warm! Anyway, generous as always, BB gave me the pattern to knit it...but um knitting and me just don't mix. I couldn't get past the 5th row without making a mistake. And after the 5th time I had to frog two rows (and still not past the 5th row), I threw a tanty and decided to leave it for another time.

Well, patience and me get on even worse than knitting and me. So today, I couldn't stand it and I decided to cut up this old (and slightly out of shape) jumper:



And turned it to this:



Um...okay, did I mention that my 4 year old son was the only person around who could take a pic of me? I tried to teach him the concept of giving warning when about to take a shot and..



Um...okay. I give up. These are the best shots I can get out of him (there are heaps of my tummy and his knees for some reason). Ah well, you guys get the drift of what it looks like.

I sewed each piece using the faux overlock stitch on my sewing machine, then hand-sewed the frayed ends using blanket stitch. It seems to be holding up. I'm thinking of trying to make some gloves out of it too...but ran out of time (and patience).

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent with me and my boy playing pirates (he was the pirate and I alternated between his first mate and his um...island ("lie still MUM!! Islands don't move!!" - yes my son's imagination leans towards the psychedelic side).

Hope you all had a wonderful day too.

My big frugalling mistake

Have you ever wondered if it was worth insuring? I have. Especially car insurance. See, I've been on the road for 16 years now and I've never had to claim against my insurance. For 16 years, I drove and paid for comprehensive car insurance and wondered...what if I just put money aside instead of paying insurance?

Then in recent months, with so much going on in my personal and work life, I just let it...lapse. I set aside the money for car insurance in my "nest egg" account and forgot all about it, fully expecting that nothing would happen (as nothing happened in 16 years).

And of course, it did. Sigh. Last week, I hit another car. It was dark and rainy. Three cars ahead of us, one of the cars suddenly braked (not sure why). I was behind another car and didn't really see it happening. All I know is that suddenly the car in front of me touched his brakes then swerved wildly on to the large median strip in the middle of the road. I panicked and hit my brakes *hard*. Bad move. This just 'caused my car to lock up in the wet weather and I slid out of control and into another car. (Thank goodness my kids were not in the car with me).



The damage to my car (above) is $2,600. I am still waiting for the other person to come back to me with his cost. (Hopefully not as much as there didn't seem to be as much damage to his car than mine.)

Now I look back and recalculated my car insurance. If I had continued to pay car insurance - to date, I would have paid the insurance company $8,000. So *if* I had not paid the insurance company, and saved the money I would have $8,000 in the bank. But of course, I don't. I only stopped paying car insurance this year...

What I did was that I played the odds... I gambled (without thinking of it as gambling). As with most gambling, I lost.

Luckily (?), I have my nest egg account and hopefully that will cover his costs as well as mine. I just feel a bit sad that I have to spend my nest egg on this rather than something special for me and the kids.

So the lesson for me:

1. Take advanced driving courses. Me braking that hard in the rain was definitely not the thing to do.

2. Being frugal and gambling does not mix.

I'm now just waiting for the other person to present me his bill and I'll get my car fixed then too. And straight after I've put the car in, I'll DEFINITELY be taking out insurance. If it happens again, I won't even have my nest egg to help me out of this fix.

No I haven't lost the blogging mojo...

have just been extremely busy at work so that I can go on leave! Today is my first day of my 3 week holiday (yay!).

Unfortunately, my son has now caught the same virus as my daughter...he didn't catch it off her...he caught it from his school :(. So we're going through round 2 of the "pox virus"-but-its-not-chicken-pox illness.

He doesn't seem to have it so bad though, so that's a bonus.

So my plans for the next 3 weeks?

1. Have fun with my one on one time with my son!!

2. Finish home decorating! I still have my children's room and the spare room to go. I also have some large pieces of furniture that I need to upcycle :).

3. Get my car fixed. (long story that I will blog about later - I made a huge frugalling error!)

4. Apply for other jobs.... I need to really sort out my work/life fusion (thanks Paul for the term because the term work/life balance certainly doesn't fit for me!)

5. Make sure I get some days to just read and nap!

So hopefully you guys will see frequent blog posts from me over the next 3 weeks! (In the meantime, please send "get a great job" vibes to me please! I think I'm due for some good luck!!