the adventures of ...

Freezer-girl

and her not-so-trustworthy sidekick cake-stealer

...who doesn't even have the decency to look remorseful.

The adventure begins with the decision to defrost the very frosted up freezer. 

My contribution was to remove the last few items from the freezer and place most of them into the esky.  There was one double sponge cake bought on clearance which had made its way to the back of the freezer where it had been forgotten.  Upon discovering the cake, I decided that it was now only suitable to be served with icecream, jelly and custard (aka trifle) so left it to thaw on the outside table while I went inside to make jelly...  

Along comes cake stealer, aka Buddy the dog and discovers that I have left a gift for him (why else would it be on the table unguarded.  So he helps himself to the cake off the table (might I add the middle of the table).  When I went out to retrieve said cake only a short while later all that remained was the base of the cake container, no crumbs and no lid - still haven't found the lid despite a search of the back yard...  which makes the mind boggle!
I was greeted by a very happy, tail wagging, licky dog. 
The sad part is it not his first cake-stealing offense.  how could I have forgotten???

A short while later, our girl-wonder heads out armed with old towels, scrapers, trays, squirt bottle of hot water and goggles.  yes goggles.  " 'casue when ya spray hot water and it hits da ice it mists back in ya face, ma... 'n' dat feels yucky."  Who can argue with such logic?

Baby Hair

This last year has been quite stressful.  So when my hair started to fall out by the handful a while ago I was somewhat concerned.  A medical check ruled out all the 'nasty' possibilities and the doc asked me about a major stress even of about six weeks earlier.  !!! In a life of stress how does one remember back six weeks to a major stress event?

As it happened i was able to flicck back through my dieary six weeks nad I had actually recoverded the major stress event.  The doc informed me that it would certainly have been significant enoough to casue such a sudden loss of hair.

why am I telling you all of this now? 
'cause now I have lots and lots of new hair growing - baby hair.

Ignore the greys - I really need to colour my hair again.  Lots and lots of new hair growing all over my head.  It is really only obvious around the edges.  i am amused by it, I hope it gives you a smile too.

See how my garden grows.

We had a busy couple of hours on Sunday morning out in the garden.


Our yard is full of gardens and plants.  As I have mentioned in the past, we aren't really gardeners.  I love gardens and plants but am not really a gardener and my family are even less garden minded.  Yet we are in the process of creating annother garden... why?  There is a 'dead' patch in the back corner of our yard where grass doesn't grow due to not enough light and surrounding trees, but the weeds grow very well.  We planted a baby Royal Poinciana tree in December just before Christmas and are gradually preparing this corner for a shade garden where shade loving plants will reside under the shade of our Poinciana.

 teen 2 and our Poinciana, Sunday morning whilst gardening. 

Same tree when teen 2 helped hubby to plant it in december! 

You have to look closely to see that it is even there at all.  It was about 15cm tall when we planted it.  It is now about 90cm at the trunk and 100cm at its branches.  WOW! That is some growth.  It has only been in for four months and has grown to six tiimes its size at planting out!  Yes these trees grow very big and it has a big corner to fill.  It seems to be doing its best to fulfil that goal.  

I am gradually mulching this corner and look forward to being able to under plant the tree next spring.

Room Re-do

Since teen 3 has changed schools, she now has a laptop as part of her school requirements.  It is a very fancy piece of computing machinery and the old desk-top has been sidelined, neglected and unloved.  Her desk was piling up - even more than usual - with all kinds of papers, clothing, stuff etc.  Teen 3 declared that she really didn't need a desk any more but could really use a high shelf in its place for all her school work as she mostly sits of her bed with her lap top on the nifty lap desk I bought her for christmas.

We decided to leave it for a while to see if the pattern changed.  It didn't.  Eventually we bit the bullet and I turned to my old friend eBay to find her a book shelf.  sigh. yes that is after I got rid of three no longer needed shelves, one of which would have been perfect for her needs.  I ended up giving away my old white180cm x120cm   (6'  x 4') shelf at our 'garage sale' and had to again part with cash to replace it - we will never be rich I tell ya, as long as we have kids who keep changing their minds on what it is they need.  Now I have a desk which is surplus to requirements and have no where to store it either, so I hope I can make a few dollars selling it on eBay.

Of course we also had a desktop that was about four years old that was no longer needed.  That worked out rather well though as a friend's much older computer died an untimely death so it went to her. 

Teen 3 at her 'desk', on her bed, cuddling charlie cat - note unmade bed (she used to make it soooo nicely when she was younger)

The new shelf beside her bed where the desk used to be.  It isn't pretty but it works, stuff is off the floor and can be found so that makes teen 3 and mum happy.

Her room, taken from the door way.  It is a small room (all the rooms are small), the robe is on the right side of the shelf. Note the unmade bed - "what is the point, I am just gonna get back in/on it?" sigh.

The other shelf.

Note that it is neat and tidy.  The only person to see this one is teen 3 as it is at the end of her bed, on the same wall as the door.  Did I mention her room is small? 

Also note, the orange and purple doona at the end of her bed, in front of the shelf.  It really is a nice doona and if it was pulled up, the bed would look neat and the doona could be appreciated - such innane things are lost on teenagers.  (I am sorry mum, I am sure I must have been painful too.)

Now We have solved another dimema - yeay.
teen three is happy - yeay.
mum is happy - yeay.

I still have a surplus desk to unload that is now cluttering up my alfresco area...

stranger things have happened...

On Saturday hubby and I, along with teens 2 & 3, went out for coffee and to do the grocery shopping.  We had our budget and our shopping list.  While we were finishing up our coffee the teens decided that they wanted to do the shopping.  So armed with the list, a calculator and a strict budget we set them to it. 

We enjoyed the chance to sit and talk and even saw some friends who were coming for coffee before doing their shopping so sat and chatted to them for a bit.

The teens called us, we went and paid with the fantastic plastic and off we went home.
 
The girls were very pleased with themselves as they had managed to get everything on the list and come in under budget.

With me no longer working outside home the budget has been tighter than it used to be.  We had told the girls that if they were getting to the top of the budgeted shopping amount, then they would have to make some decisions about which items they went without.  Over the last few months they have experienced a fair bit of this.

Imagine my surprise when we unpacked at home and they had chosen homebrand cordial.  We buy many homebrand items but there are some things which if I dare to purchase the homebrand I don't hear the end of the whinging about inferior quality and taste for longer than I care to say. (I don't think I am forgiven yet for buying the "American style peanut butter" at Aldi some 7-8 months ago - it is very sweet and is full of sugar!) I have been a well-trained mummy and so just NEVER buy homebrand cordial.  If money is tight then I just don't buy it at all, 'cause nothing is as good as Cottees cordial...

My two teens were excited about saving money. They happily told me that the homebrand cordial was less than half the price of the Cottee's cordial (like I didn't know???) and that even if they have to use a little more, it still works out cheaper.  Well blow me down!
  
I think I need to send this pair to do the shopping more often.

School Holidays

You can tell it has been school holidays here just by looking near our front door.

Yep.
Who would have thought that we could still clear out so much stuff inthe holidays?
See the small box in the left ofthe pic?  that box has been sitting by my door for the last few months.  Each time I find somehting to re-home it goies into the box.  Eventually the contents ofthe box get out in a bag and off to charity.  Last month we didn't even fill the box.   We made up for it thiss month.

To be totally fair, it is mostly clothing AND the garbage bag came into our house with donated clothing.  Hubby's young (20-something) cousin was having a wardrobe clear out.  My daughters love it when she clears out her wardrobe as she "has more money than sense" and spends a LOT of money on clothing, most of which is barely worn before her robe is overflowing and she does her big cull. 

Our deal is, when new clothing comes in, something has to go out.  So a big bag of clothes comeing in means wardrobe sorts.  It is also change of season here.  Without any prompting, my girls went through their wardrobes and pulled out anything they hadn't really worn this season, analysed why they hadn't worn it and culled.  I was out at the time and got quite a surprise when I came home! They culled more than they received hence we added a second bag. 


Holiday clothing culls aren't new, but unprompted?  Seems like something is working...

Flat pack fun

We had fun today.  We helped friends unpack at their new home.  Those two sentences really don't belong together.
Perhaps it was because it wasn't our house and life in chaos?  yep that is good fun material - work hard and go home to our ordered house where we know where the toothpaste is and don't have to hunt for the breakfast cereal.

Perhaps it was because these friends have practiced decluttering for years and so didn't have much unnecessary or excess stuff.  In fact this friend has been a huge inspiration to me to begin  decluttering.  My friend has been ruthless with decluttering for quite a few years.  Her motivation was buying a small unit and moving in with her hubby and three kids (the same ages as ours) so they could get into the home owners market.  They had NO SPACE and got rid of everything - some they regretted but mostly not.  I was and still am amazed at how they did it.  Now they have just moved into their brand new lovely home.  Woohoo that is sooooo cool!  : ) 

Perhaps our great day was because everything was new and hubby and teens had fun assembling lots of flat-pack furniture.

It was really all of the above, plus they are good friends who have helped us move twice in the last twelve months.

two teens (who are the same age) doing a great job of a tricky flat-pack assembly. 

and the result of all the allen-key action...
well apart from lots of assembled furniture...

Man that is a LOT of packaging!

While they were having fun with the allen keys I was busily finding the bottom of all the boxes marked "kitchen" - all 7-8 of them.  Now my friend won't be able to find anything for a few weeks and will have to rearrange three or four times before finding a way for it to work but at least she has a functioning kitchen.. well mostly functioning.  : )
I wonder how many times she will call me to find something?

Long weekend Lazies

We were going to go camping this Easter weekend but it didn't work out for us and we had to pull out at the last moment.  I feel mixed about this as I was looking forward to camping and relaxing but had other tings which needed attention and it was all just too hard in the end.

 These pics are from the last time we camped at easter - 3 years ago

Instead we have stayed at home and done nothing. 

The weather has been perfect - this  really is my favourite time of year.  We have bee soooooo tired.  Sleeping around 12 hours each night!

I hired some movies and caught up on a few movies - great way to be lazy.  I finally got to see Julie and Julia - I really liked it.  I discovered just how behind i am.  It was set in 2002 when Julie was writing her blog.  I didn't even know blogs existed in 2002!  Hubby first told me about them in 2006 when he was setting one up for the organisation where I worked. I thought it intrigueing but paid little attention to it.  It was another few years before I caught up withthe rest of the world. 

After three days of doing absolutely nothing I am feeling ready to begin to tackle the LOOOOONG list of things to do around home, most of which are outdoor stuffs - gardening, sort and deeclutter  shed, tackle carport...

on blogging

I have been re--thinking my blog and blogging in the last little while. 

Recently I received a comment from a visitor and it gave me quite a giggle - Janet commented on the irony of having two blogs one of which is about de-cluttering.  She does have a good point.

I started with one blog - dee-cluttering and as those of you who have been following know it has been documenting my journey and life in my de-cluttering adventures.  I wanted to also document my embroidery adventure and have been doing so.
Here comes the BUT...
It is tricky.
There is overlap between the two, do I blog about something twice - with a different spin for each blog? Or do I chose the one to which it better fits? I have tried both with mixed results.

When I was first blogging, only a few short months ago, I read on an advice column that a blog is more 'successful' if it centres around a theme.  I thought I had two distinct themes... they don't seem quite so distinct any more. 

Janet's comment came at just the moment when i was already contemplating the subject.  I have been considering combining the two and perhap re-naming my blog. No idea what to re-name it though.  I have also been looking at layouts - man there are a LOT of options out there. 

Now it is your turn to tell me what you think.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday. I consider myself blessed.

Over the last couple of weeks many of my nearest and dearest have asked me what I would like for my birthday.  My answers have varied between, "take me out for coffee" to "pick anything from my non-clutter gift list that I wrote at Christmas" (which included take me out for coffee).  I am amused and curious at how this news had been received.  

At Christmas time, one person said that my gift wishes were not really gifts because most of them weren't things.  This can be tricky to get your head around.  I guess some people don't feel like they are giving a gift if they don't give an item.  I have been giving quite some thought to the whole subject.

Why do we give gifts?  What is a gift?

I have concluded that we give gifts as tokens of how we feel about a person.  It is a way of showing our care and love.  At least it is for me.  We give  gifts to celebrate and sometimes just because one feelss obligated to give a gift - this always seems to show.

How we give a gift and what we give comunicate a lot about giver, the receiver and the relationship between giver and receiver. 

I think this is why gift giving is such a big deal for me.  I like giving gifts.  I want the receiver to be delighted with the gift (yep I have tended to put myself through all kinds of mental knots over this one).

Of course I do also give gifts to folks at all kinds of times, just 'casue I love to give.  it makes me feel good to bless them - so really it says quite a lot about me, including the silly mental gymnastics I put myself through trying to make sure the gift will be 'special'. 

The newest member of our family, my daughter's fiancee, has been a good measure / reality check for me.  He isn't used to lots of gifts and whilst delighted has been a little embarrased at times.  Last year, aluminium water bottles were on special and I bought one for each of us including him.  I gave them with a kiss and a love note.  My family were all delighted and put them to use.  "the Man" was delighted, but puzzled - he said, "but it's not my birthday or anything"  He isn't used to gifts "just 'cause I saw it and thought of you".  For me it was an extension of my love for them.

But I certainly have gone overboard way too many times.

...ooo...

Many of the wishes on my wish list are for treats that I rarely, if ever give to myself; like a manicure or pedicure or massage or go to the movies.  To receive such things as a gift is special and all the more so if I get to share that time with soomeone special. 

Since I have been trying to change my way of seeing it, I have been discovering  just how difficult gift giving is for many others (and i thought it was only me).  I seem to end up having conversations with folks about gift giving occasions.  I actually found it very freeing at Christmas when wanting to give a gift to the person who has everything or who needs so little.  What do you give to an elderly relative? or your parents/parents-in-law?  Taking someone out for coffee or spending time with them, going to the movies, etc these things are great gifts and don't have to be locked into one day.  To receive a piece of decorated paper telling me that I will be taken somewhere or get to experience something makes my day and makes the celebraton last even longer.

Am I alone in my thinking here?  

Another thought that I have had is that perhaps it is easier for some folk to just buy a something and hand it over?  It may require less of the person, which to me somehow defeats the whole purpose. 

I used to have a close friend but sadly we drifted apart as our lives went in different directions.  One Christmas she sent a large box of fruit which I thought was a wonderful idea (except that we were going away and couldn't eat it or take it with us so had to give it to other folks)  The but comes in that I would have been way more delighted if she had just given me an hour or two of her valuable time for a coffee out together instead of an expensive, impersonal delivery which took her five minutes to arrange over the phone with her credit card.  It felt like a gift of obligation not love. 

The saddest thing was that I really missed this friend and wanted nothing more than to just be with her and talk to her.  I did tell her this, she didn't get it; I think I may have offended her.  To her an expensive gift was it and a shared cuppa was a non-gift (even if accompainied by cake).  In no way was I rejecting her gift, i just wanted the one thing she couldn't/wouldn't give - her self.  That was a few years ago and I still miss her but know that she has moved on.


You have heard my musings, now I will indulge a little more and tell you about the lovely gifts I received.

Darling hubby left an envelope on my bedside table and a cup of tea as he left for work very early.  I woke and was delighted to discvoer a lovely hot cuppa (he does this most days and I still delight in it).  The envelope contained a card he had made with a sweet glass nail file (I lost my last one :( ) and a hand made voucher for a pedicure - oooow I have been so wanting to get one of these.  

I can highly recommend a good quality glass nail file - don't waste your money on the cheap and nasty ones.
My mum gave me money and took me to a craft shop whilst I was visiting her and I chose this...

skeins of lovely hand-dyed silk thread.  We had a great time looking inthe craft shop  together and then going to lunch afterwards.
A friend made and send me this armchair caddy...

One daughter is taking me to the movies and for a picnic - I think we will see "How to train your dragon" in 3D.
Another daughter gave me this voucher with a book tag for "A-Z of Smocking" - the book is on order.

Her creativity gave me a giggle and I look forward to cashing in my voucher for her company.

I was smiling all day as each text came in and getting to chat to a few special folk who called too. 

All in all I am had a wonderful day and I don't have a pile of things for which I have little need to have to find a way to store.