Another bedroom upgrade

I'm playing catch-up here.  We were without a camera for a few months and some things need a picture. 

This was Beth's Mother's Day gift to me, but I finally saw it finished in October.

I love it!  It was worth the wait.  Thanks, Beth!

Not in the plans

Two of the girls were away at Guide Camp.  I thought that meant we could enjoy a quiet weekend with just our oldest daughter.  Maybe wake late, do a bit of shopping.  I don't know exactly. 

Sleep in?  For no known reason I woke fairly early.  Maybe because I could hear that our overnight guest was up and unlikely to help herself to coffee or breakfast.

So I got up.  We visited for a bit, had an unsatisfying breakfast and took a look at some furniture she had to donate to Goodwill. 

Did we have need of a solid wood dresser?  Yeah, maybe.  And a clean mattress (ie. not pee-stained from earlier years)?  Yeah, that might smell better than one we had. 

Once we cleared room for the dresser (which would give more drawer space and storage than our current setup), we were looking at this.

 I had to pile a bunch of stuff on the bed in order to vacuum the floor.  It doesn't always look quite this bad.  I could have swept and vacuumed, put everything back on the floor to put the new mattress down, but I saw this as an opportunity to fill garbage bags. 

This is unfortunately the normal state of her closet.  With her away at camp, this was our chance to get rid of junk. 

It's by no means a lovely, reorganized makeover, but it's way, way, WAY better!  The container on her dresser was all that we asked "permission" to discard.  Two garbage bags left the room, and I have a small pile of Goodwill items to donate. 

I know that I would have felt my space was invaded if my mother had ever done this to my room.  I don't think we were ever allowed to let it get so full of paper and half-finished crafts, school work and "precious" little things.  I couldn't bring myself to tidy up her artwork wall, and we'll look for new non-pink fabric together for new curtains. 

In the picture, I see that I should have swept under her bed.  We'll be keeping our eyes out for a proper wooden bed.  This one was supposed to be a captains bed, but the drawers were so cheaply built that they feel apart very quickly.  The bottom support stops us from using the valuable underbed space properly. 

This is the view of her desk area.  She needs to organize some of her own pretty things and the gerbil cage should go on the other side of the room, but that's a small detail. 

I still have work to do in her closet before I take an "after" picture there.  The biggest mess there are the linens that we store there.  I wish I had a good solution for storing stuffies.  Her reading chair is holding a big bag of them and they can't stay there. 

For now, Alice should have a place for almost everything, and a lot fewer things to find places for.   And I've gained six drawers for my use too.  I really have to work on the fabric situation.  Something for me to fill my time this week. 

And yes, Beth and I did actually get a bit of shopping in, coming home with drapes for our living room.  After only 12 years, I'm hoping for a bit of window insulation in our living room.  Yay!

Ruffly Girliness

It's not like me at all to have just a girly purse, but I am a girl after all.  I'm entitled to a few frills.

Made from soft suede, using all recycled materials, including the zippers and handle hardware.  It began life as a suede skirt and I think I took the hardware off a non-functioning backpack. 

Oh, the inside wasn't recycled, but it was donated by a friend and I love it.   I have a matching grocery bag.

I've already found a flaw in the purse though.  While girly and pretty and soft, it's not big enough for a book!  Oh no!  I always seem to have a book with me.  What to do, what to do....

Free buttermilk

Superstore was clearing out its whipping cream.  It wasn't near expiry, but they must have thought people will now be acting on resolutions to lose weight and whipping cream doesn't factor in well. 

$0.94 / 500 ml.  Not a great bargain, but good enough.

$3 gave me 1+ pounds of butter plus two pints of buttermilk.

It's like saying "If you run your mixer for 15 minutes, we'll give you two pints of free buttermilk". I'll take it!

Daily harvest

Finally.  After a month of providing light and heat, we are getting some happy feedback from the ladies.  Usually five a day.

All slightly different and we're just guessing at who is laying which colour.  It's tough to catch them in the act.

Condiments

I'm glad they prefer homemade, as I probably wouldn't be so good about providing it if it was battle to get them to eat it.  At least I generally know where the ingredients came from and how much is in there.

We made awesome fries in our new fryer last week (don't worry - the novelty I'm sure will wear off before we become statistics).  Problem - We ran out of both ketchup and mayonnaise.  

 First up:  Ketchup. Not hard.  I used Julie's recipe again.

It's definitely different than Heintz, but in a good way.  Would you ever consider using purchased ketchup as pizza topping?  No, I thought not.  This one you can, so if you make too much there are many uses for it.  

Next:  Mayo.  

I like to use our own eggs, and this recipe only uses one whole egg and one extra yolk.  It's a big egg though.

I didn't realize until this closeup shot of my jar that it has developed a crack!  I need some Aussie to send me a case of Vacola jars in different sizes.  Are there any readers out there?   Maybe I'll have to appeal to the Down to Earth forum and see I can make a friend or two.

There.  All stocked once again.  Fries for supper again?

How we spent our holidays

This is the Christmas present that has seen most of our time this season.  What a great game!

Settlers of Catan - Seafarers