This Week.....

.... we have enjoyed an early family Christmas celebration...

All very busy opening presents.

.... we have celebrated Eden's fifth birthday...

Please forgive me for the paper plates and cups - at least we could compost them afterwards!

Birthday Girl.

Enjoying the very talented face painting by a clever kindy mum.

Eden's tiara birthday cake.

.... we have done some Christmas crafting, by ourselves and with some local friends...

The spice angels we made with our friends.

Christmas cards the kids made with their Grandma.

.... we have coped with the current heatwave by going swimming and relaxing...

.... we have had Grandma over for a stay...

.... we have enjoyed cricket and homemade beer...

Even Brannen has taken his place on the couch to watch the 'kiyet' (cricket)

.... we have done some Christmas cooking...

Gingerbread Christmas tree decorations.

.... we have made some Christmas gifts...

Lined tote bags for the girls to carry their swimming gear to swimming lessons.

My first attempt at a reversible tote with box corners - happy!

 ....receiving my university results. One distinction, and two high distinctions. I am very happy with that. I am changing my course slightly for 2014 onwards, to a double major in Sustainable Development and Community Development. I am slowly hatching ideas and plans for my future 'career' (or not) direction and am very excited about what the next few years may bring.

.... the lead up to Christmas is so exciting! What have you and yours been up to?

Fabulous Friends, Frugal Living, Fruit Trees and a Recipe for Foaming Hand Soap.

 As I type this glorious Winter's day, it is 23 degrees and the sun is shining. After two late nights in a row, all three kids are sleeping and Nath is in the backyard finishing up planting out leeks, onions, beetroot, silverbeet, spinach, cauliflower, garlic, carrots and beans. We have put two new rosemary bushes in the ground and transplanted a third one from where the goats will be to one of the new food-producing beds. Dispersed through the vegie beds are some Sweet Alice seedlings, which attract helpful predators and bees to the garden, helping with pollination and keeping pests in control. We have also planted some pyrethrum, which will repel garden pests, and I can dry the flower heads and steep them in alcohol to make a personal insect repellant. Very useful around here in Summer.

I enjoyed spending a birthday voucher at the garden shop!

My girls are such pretty gardeners!

The garden shed is getting an overhaul today as well, which is just as well because for the almost twelve months that we have been here, it has become a dumping ground for things we aren't really sure what to do with. Time to make some decisions! We will be building a potting bench and setting up the mini-greenhouse so that as soon as the frosts disappear, we can begin propagating seeds for spring planting. I'm collecting all of our toilet rolls in readiness - the seeds grow nicely in them with some potting mix and the toilet roll can be planted directly into the ground when the time comes.

The embarrassingly messy garden shed pre-clean.

We are nearly done, just the shelves to build.

Our growing array of deciduous fruit trees will be planted this week, and the front yard will begin to take shape as the orchard. We will be planting nasturtiums all around the base of the fruit trees to deter common pests and bring in beneficial insects (also, it just looks pretty!) We will plant all the citrus trees in Spring. I can't wait for the apple and pear trees to begin blossoming.

Nasturtium flowers.

 Yesterday, after spending the morning in the garden, I went to a lovely friend's house to help her prepare cupcakes for a kitchen tea while Nath helped her husband change his brake pads and discs. Afterwards, we shared a meal together. A few weekends ago, the same friends came and helped us for a whole day build our fence around the vegie beds and lay out some of the beds. I am loving building great friendships with people who have similar goals to live more simply and make do with what we have, sharing skills and resources and encouraging each other along the way. It doesn't matter if our reasons are to save money, improve our health, reduce chemical load or be gentler on the environment. It's a little like a train; if you are pulling one of those carriages, the others will come along, too. It's exciting to share ideas and learn from each other, no matter which of those values is our 'main motivator'.

Given that Nath only has nine working days left (yay!), I have ramped up the money-saving activities around here. Yesterday I made a lavender foaming hand wash and put some citrus peels in to steep in white vinegar, which after two weeks will become a citrus spray-and-wipe-style cleaner. I was so pleased with how the hand cleaner turned out, I wanted to share the 'recipe' with you.

Using recycled jars - not as pretty but definitely cheap!

In a small saucepan half filled with water, I grated some Velvet soap. I used a leftover piece from making laundry liquid, it probably would have been about a quarter of a bar. I stirred it over medium heat until the soap was dissolved, then strained the mixture through a sieve into a bowl and left it to cool.

When it's cooled down, this liquid solidifies into a jelly-like substance. To this I added a splash of lavender oil (available in the cleaning aisle of the supermarket) and about a cup of water. I poured it all into a blender and 'jooshed' it for a minute or so, until all blended.

I poured mine into a foaming dispenser I have from a previous shop-bought hand soap, and had enough left over for three more refills. You could use any pump dispenser but the foaming ones use less than regular pump ones. All up, it would have cost me only a few cents and feels lovely on my hands.

I hope you are all having a lovely, productive weekend, and if you have any more frugal, DIY tips, I would love to hear them!

Live Simply....

Photo pinched from here.

Today, I closed my facebook account. I feel freer. I am happy with my decision to do this. Reading Rhonda's post at Down to Earth (and the comments that follow it) was what finally tipped me over the edge of that decision.... it is something I have thought a lot about, and even tried once, but never really committed to. Now I am more aware than ever that Facebook doesn't help me to live simply, it doesn't motivate me to love my children better, it doesn't help me get those daily tasks done and it doesn't give meaning to my life.

Today, also, we finish the final preparations for our trip to Broome. An ultimate exercise in living simply - living out of our car for a month. Simultaneously, we are packing the house ready for our house move, a few days after we return from Broome. Packing is a tedious, time consuming, thankless activity but it does allow me to thoughtfully consider every item that goes into each box - do I really need this? Does this enrich my life? I have sold a lot of unused/not needed possessions over the past few weeks, with even more going to one of the local opshops. Packing may be thankless, but decluttering, well, THAT I love!

We leave tomorrow (providing everything gets done!) and I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to do this trip. Our lives are truly blessed. We will thinking of many while we away, particularly loved ones who are getting married, and those who are having babies. I look forward to catching up with you all in real life.

Lazy Weekend To-Do Lists

I love weekends. They stretch out before me from my vantage point on Friday night like an unblemished landscape, a blank canvas waiting to be filled. I love the promise of lovely, lazy days; or busy days in the kitchen; or time spent with friends; time for sewing or reading; or trips to the park with the playground-obsessed kids in tow - all in between the week's washing, tidying and cleaning.

The problem is, I tend to want to do all of the above. I write imaginary lists in my head, not really accounting for how long each task will take. Unsurprisingly, I am usually slightly disappointed on a Sunday night when I realise my imaginary list has only half of its items imaginarily crossed off. I remember Mike once saying on a holiday we spent with them that Annette likes to 'suck the marrow out of each day'. Well, that's me every weekend.

So, now I make real lists. Not the rigid, 'I have to do absolutely everything on this list' kind. Just lists of things I'd like to do, this weekend or next, or even next month. It's kind of a collection of ideas. (Sometimes Nath has to remind me of this - slow down, Nicole, take a breath, hey, do something radical and have a nap even!)

Taken at 9:00am this morning - it was minus two overnight here.

This weekend? Well, it's been cold here, inspiring me to start that patchwork bedspread I've been meaning to make, backed with the purple woolen blanket that was my aunty's as a young girl in the 50s.

I'm also taking Mezz's idea of making a whiteboard from a framed piece of material - and making a matching framed pin-up board as well.

 We have dinner guests tomorrow night, a belated birthday celebration. I'm doing a curry feast, with dahl, poppadoms, raita, chutney, curried cabbage, saffron rice..... and, the star of the night, this lime and coconut goat curry. I've made it before, and I think it is now my favourite curry.

I bought a lovely cream tablecloth today at the Salvos, big enough for even our oversized feast-worthy table, and I plan to quickly make some placemats and serviettes to brighten it up.

So, what's happening in your world this weekend?

Love to you all.