School Outing

Tonight, Grandma, The Rambling Expat, myself and our Dolly headed to her school for 2 hours of fun and feasting. The teachers and teacher assistants organised a evening of active games for kids and parents alike. Fun was to be had.

Each family was asked to bring a plate to share and everything was spread on 2 large tables. (Delicious, there were many talented cooks.) Being time poor, as the event started at 5:30pm and I didn't get home from work until 5:30pm, I made these in a jiffy - they only took me 20 minutes.

Shaped Up - Ham and Cheese Sandwiches.

I had purchased the freshest bread I could find in the supermarket just a few minutes earlier. I filled them with sliced cheese and champagne ham. One side was white bread the other wholemeal bread. I cut a few triangles but mainly stars and hearts for the littlies enjoyment. The ham was expensive as I wanted good quality - this plate of sandwiches came to roughly $12. Just a little over my aim of $10 but super quick to make and my plate came home empty, which is always a relief.

The best bit of the Evening. Dolly and I entered a Piggy Back Obstacle Course Race. I being the loud show off I am, yelled out a few times, as I ran "We are the Crazy Cowgirls". Dolly laughed in loud giddy excitement all the way. That makes my heart very Happy. I wasn't a dainty pretty sight (all that weight piled on in my office job and non stop grazing) but I'm soooooo happy I've got the guts to let loose and be silly with my favourite girl.

We Are The Crazy Cow Girls.

Do you still have the guts to do silly stuff too? Sometimes I forget to just let go and have childish fun :-(

My Dolly Has Caviar Taste

This week 4 year old Dolly asked me for caviar sushi for her morning tea lunchbox. So I obliged. I calculated it cost roughly $7 to make 3 full nori rolls. One for each of our lunch boxes. A special treat and much cheaper then a take away shop.

A Life Of Luxuries on the Cheap

Mmmmmm.

I know sushi is not really a morning tea item - but it's healthy and Dolly loves it - so why not... Her lunch box never comes back home with sushi left overs. They also don't take me long to make. Once the rice is cooked and cooled, they only take me a couple of minutes to fill and roll.

I have also discovered that I don't need the extras such as the bamboo mat. I just place my seaweed sheet on a chopping board. Press the rice down with a wide plastic spoon. Top with filling and roll. Easy Peasy.

In the next couple of weeks I will post photographs of me making sushi. I will also try and attempt a You Tube video! Now that is a Super Big Aim.  :-)

Any Scary Big Aims in Your life?

My Mouth Dropped Open at the Cinema

Hey Lovely Readers, Don't forget to enter My Memories Suite Digital Software Giveaway if your interested in digital scrap booking, card and calender making. It's easy to use and fun too. The Giveaway ends this Sunday.

Anyway back to me and my life :-)  On Saturday I decided we should go to the cinema as a family to see the new Smurfs movie. As I haven't won tickets in ages I had to fork out my hard earned cash. The other curve ball is Dolly has reached paying age.

So armed with our own food and drinks (no signs or policies stating you can't). And our own 3D glasses to save $3, we went and paid for our tickets. When I was told the price my mouth dropped open. $58 for 2 adults and 1 child!!!! How can families afford going to the movies??? It's crazy expensive and a total rip off.

I was not impressed, but we had waited in line for 20 minutes and Dolly was super excited and I wasn't prepared to crush her excitement. However it would have been cheaper to purchase the DVD, a quality pizza and some drinks. I could have then resold the DVD at half price and really be ahead.

So I paid and allowed my daughter to have a special time with her Maman and Papa, but we will not be heading to the movies at that price again soon - that's for sure. If I went at that price on a regular basis, I can kiss my cutting back on work hours and early retirement goodbye.

What country / state do you live in? Is the cinema affordable where you live?

Gift for Under $10

An ex-CouchSurfer of ours still lives in our hometown with with his partner, 6 months on. People often come to town as a pass through but end staying for years. It can be a great place to find work and live if you can stand the tropical balmy heat.

Anyway... lovely Stephen turned 40 last weekend and this is what we gave him for his big day.

Our Booty to Gift.

2 eggplants from our garden as he is vegetarian and loves all things veggie. The 80 hour lead free candle I purchased last weekend. (He burns candles most nights). And an interesting book on Aboriginal Healing in the Arnhem Region of Australia, which is not far from us. A great score as books like this are hard to come by in op shops. And this one is out of print.

Our gifts were eco secondhand of course, in the aim to reduce the demand for production of more stuff. Stephen is environmentally forward thinking and an activist. He cares about global warming and is careful about how he lives. He also LOVES books about plants and is interested in Aboriginal issues. This book talks about pointing the bone, resting when a snake bites and also the use of plants for healing. So I had no hesitation in giving him this secondhand book as I think he will really enjoy it.

Dolly and I made the card with half a sheet of A4 card paper purchased from the op shop last Saturday and a piece of white paper from junk mail. The brown wrapping paper came from the wrapping of some local art we purchased. The string Dolly found in the garden. And all decorated with shapes cut from Dolly's school art work.

Frugal and within budget? - Yes, candle was $4.00 and book was $4.00 = Total $8.00.
Eco? - Yes, all second hand or reused items. Preventing landfill this time around and the production of more stuff. (Except for the eggplant which came from my garden).

Do you gift second hand? I find it a bit hard still as the norm is to purchase someone something new and fancy. And I worry about what people think still but I only buy second hand for us so had to push myself to do the same for others. This blogger has been a great influence.

My Memories Suite Giveaway

Today I'm starting the My Memories Suite Giveaway. The people at My Memories sponsored this Giveaway in exchange for a product review. So lucky me, because I received my very own downloadable My Memories Suite 2 digital scrapbooking software, valued at $39.97US and I had enjoyable playtime.

My Memories Suite is a digital scrapbooking software which you download to your computer (PC or Mac). So there's no packaging, no thousands of miles to get to you, no need for craft materials. The best bit is I found out it's more then just scrapbooking, in that you can create your scrapbook pages and send them to Grandma as a cute PowerPoint. No fiddling with PowerPoint for hours and no printing necessary if you don't want to. However if you do want to print, you have the choice of setting up your work as a book, card or even calender. Very cool indeed. I will definitely use this to create a calender for 2012. And wait there's more...  :-)  You can also save your work to a DVD or CD.

I found My Memories Suite very easy to use as you can select a template and then just auto fill them with your selected photographs. The software does the hard work for you within minutes. That means I can get my 4 year old Dolly to sit down, select a template, select her photos and auto fill a small booklet for her friends when they have a fun day together. Imagine at her next birthday, each child could go home with a little souvenir booklet of the party.

I have only touched the tip of the iceberg of My Memories Suite and will definitely play with it much much more as there are many features I haven't looked at yet and my printer is on the blink. Here is a sample of what I created in just a few minutes with a couple of old photographs of Dolly.

So ENTER MY GIVEAWAY to win your very own My Memories Suite. I like things uncomplicated, so all you have to do is visit www.mymemories.com and have a browse. Then come back to This Post and leave 1 comment telling me which of the digital packs or layouts is your favourite. Your comment is your entry. I will them use random.org to select ONE lucky winner at 9:00pm Sunday Night October 2, 2001, Darwin Australia Time. 


Good luck :-)

Saturday Op Shop Finds

Of course being the op shopper addict I am, I went for a quick 15 minute look in my local today for some quick thrifting. I'm searching for something in particular but have had no luck so far. Today is still one of those unlucky days. However I did find these other goodies.

This is what I got:

• Blue with Butterflies High Neck Sleeveless Dress (for Dolly) - $2.00
• 1 new packet of A4 brown card paper (12 sheets) (for crafting) - .50 cents
• 1 new packet of A4 blue card paper (12 sheets) (for a gift project) - 50 cents.
• 1 new packet of 5 sheets of pink tissue paper (was for a gift project but Dolly really wanted it) - 50 cents.
• 1 new packet of 3 handmade butterflies for crafts (for a gift project)- .50 cents
• Brand new cotton baby shoes - very sweet, (for gifting) - $2.00
• Beautifully illustrated book about roses (couldn't leave it - for crafting, gifting or enjoying) - .50 cents
• Fiction book for my bedtime relaxation - .50 cents
• Super fun and interesting book on Shoes (for gifting - I have my own copy) - $2.00

Mixed Lot Of Lovely Finds And Useful Find.

Total spent $9.00

And of course I followed with my new rule any new stuff means old stuff of the same quantity or bigger has to go. So this is what is leaving our home tomorrow.

• Some of Dolly's outgrown playing clothes for a toddler we love.
• 2 University readings on Conflict Resolution for a friend who is studying to be a mediator.
• 3 books for people at our garden plots working bee tomorrow and if no takers they will go to the free bookshelf at work or maybe Bookcrossed.

Mixed Lot To Go.

It's been a busy week and I have lots to talk about, so I'm going to try and post regularly this coming week. Plus I have My Memories Suite Software Giveaway starting tomorrow, so please pop back.

Did you buy any random second hand goodies this week? Or did you get anything off the side of the road? It's the yearly hard rubbish collection here tomorrow and there is some amazing stuff thrown out. I just don't get why people don't give to the op shop. One of my neighbours found a broken Burmese Teak chair he is going to restore. The amazing and expensive wood was just there, waiting to be placed into landfill. Why why why why why....

My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software

Hi Everyone.

This is the product I was offered to review and have as a Giveaway on my blog. I've been playing with it and hope to have some fun samples of things I've done to show you in the next few days.

It's come at a great time as photos were piling up on the computer and nothing was being done with them (Even thought the Rambling Expat is a full time professional photographer). I wanted our beautiful photos presented in a nice way for Dolly and her favourite people to flick through. So this may be my opportunity to make some nice frugal photo booklets as gifts for Grandma and Dolly's friends.

Keep an eye out on my Blog as I will Review and start the Giveaway on Sunday.

Jerusalem Artichoke

I harvested my 1st lot ever of jerusalem artichoke yesterday. They came from 1 plant which I bought in a hardware-gardening shop (Bunnings) about 4 months ago for about $6 if I remember correctly. I dug in deep in the soil with my hands and found 2 large and 4 small tubers in my garden plot in the botanical gardens.

1st harvest.

It's just after 10pm and I thought to myself I don't want to purchase any more plants if I can help it so I googled information on how to grow more from the tubers I have. I gathered enough information and found out tubers don't last long out of the ground. So within 5 minutes I was in the small garden plot (2 meters by 1 meter) that I created 2 weeks ago in our block of flats backyard, planting 4 pieces of tuber under the large black sky. And now 15 minutes latter I'm writing about it to you.

What a great source of information the internet can be when we use it to our positive and resourceful advantage. Have you found any great info on the net lately that was useful to your simple frugal eco living?

(By the way I decluttered a short but large (doorsize) table that was Dolly's craft/play table when she was a toddler. I gave it away on Freecycle so I'm ahead of my game.)

Buttons and Books

I was posting give-away Guppie Fish and Brazilian Spinach Cuttings on Freecycle. As we needed a few more variety of coloured buttons for Dolly's crafting and new year gift projects, I also posted a request for buttons.

A lady came by to pick up Guppies and Spinach and dropped off these lovely buttons for us.

Beautiful Lolly and Jewel Like Buttons.

They're a great collection of just what we were looking for. Dolly spent a good hour playing, sorting and admiring them. It was a win win all round. I love days like these. Someone also gave us a bottle of champers in exchange for Guppies, I tried to say no but she refused to take it back, so I'll just have to enjoy it :-)

Freecycle is a wonderful way to obtain stuff in a cashless manner that cares for the environment. I've had 8 people come by my home in the past 24 hours to collect guppies and spinach and it's interesting to note they were all women. Is it women who count the pennies and take the opportunities for fabulous frugalness more then men? Or are fish and gardening a gendered domain full of women?

As for my rule of: Whatever new stuff comes into our home the equivalent size - plus some, must leave our home... I followed through by selling a book (bigger then the whole lot of buttons) on Fishpond and posting it. I'm doing well so far with my rule. Lets hope it's not another one of my crazy rules I break off.

Sold a Book - made back the money I had spent to purchase it.

Did you find anything you wanted recently for free and with a good environmental outcome?

My Saturday Op Shop Finds

Hi I'm back after a very busy 2 weeks. I've spent money on a little junk food, a big purchase (new mobile iphone G3) and some local art for Dolly. I haven't fully restrained myself but I've been good-ish. I had a little splurge at the op shops and purchased $9.50 of goodies.

I'm easing back into blogging by showing you what I purchased second hand today at my two local op shops.

A Lovely Babushka (4 Nesting Dolls) for Dolly's collection: $3.00

3 Home styling magazines for me .50 cents each: $1.50 - Out of date, but magazines I enjoy when I need a bit of mindless relaxation.

A candle stand (?) which we will revamp as a bangles stand: $2.00

A large Marta Mikey Lead Free candle (80hrs burning time) for a Birthday gift: $4.00 - I've no idea how much these cost new - hope I got a bargain. It's looks nice and smells nice, it's my poor photo quality that makes the candle look worn out.

And because I've made a New Decluttering rule for myself; these university readings will leave my home on Monday.

My new rule is: Whatever new stuff comes into our home the equivalent size - plus some must leave our home. So I listed my old Community Development university readings on Freecycle and a lady studying Community Development is coming on Monday to pick them up, which I'm thrilled about as I think she will enjoy them and find them useful. Since we have been cleaning most nights for 30/40 minutes I'm becoming a little more house proud and ready to rid of more and more stuff.

Do you make any rules for yourself about how you manage your stuff or declutter?

Junk Food Dinner & Great Homemade Lunch

Hello everyone. Thanks for popping in and reading about my highs and lows in my frugal eco quest. I love comments and questions so feel free to click on the comment link. I enjoy Blogging, its a fun creative outlet and as for reading blogs - It's bordering on an addiction!!! But I learn so much from everyone and take on some peoples tips into my own life. So thanks for being readers and thanks also to those who have blogs, this is a very cool community to be part of.

Tonight we ate rubbish. We had McDonald's. We wasted our money and health. But we don't do this weekly as we used to. It's roughly a once a month affair now. I should put it on the calendar to keep real tabs on it and make sure I'm not tricking myself. Since we started the 40 minute clean up every night, better calendars and organisation are becoming possible and achievable.

Even though our dinner was rubbish we did have nice lunches to take to work and school. I make quick easy simple sushi in just a few minutes. I simplified the recipe and made it super basic. I just filled the Nori Rolls with rice (sprinkle of vinegar), tinned tuna and mayonnaise (with a dash of chilli for the adults). Dolly was so thrilled she said "No ones ever taken sushi to school in their lunch box! I'm going to be the first one ever!!!" I also added a snake bean and some berries from the Botanical Gardens for vitamin and colour in her sweet 2 tiered lunch box from Grandma.

Child size portion for Dolly.

Pleasing my family makes me happy. And pleasing myself with some inexpensive sushi for lunch is an extra bonus.

Any quick simplified exotic delights in your lunch boxes or dinner table?

Long Lost Finds.

Once Dolly is in bed and asleep The Rambling Expat and I have been cleaning and sorting every night for 40 minutes. It's making a huge difference in my life. I feel much happier and motivated as the messy clutter slowly finds a place and the dust is swept away. I am also finding long lost documents and feeling much more in control. I also feel that the housework is now becoming more evenly distributed between our gendered divide.

We started this when our Parisian visitors were going to have a sleep over at our place. Once they left for France we pushed ourselves to continue with the nightly routine and it's paying off and saves some more of our hard earned cash. For example I found a pair of sneakers I had forgotten I own. So I don't have to do the big sell on Ebay to pay for them.

Long Lost Sneakers.

Six years ago I had a pair of sneakers for a job serving ice-creams at a market. I wore them only 8 hours a week for roughly 5 months while serving customers. As I didn't wear them much, there was barely any wear or tear. They got caught up in some muddy water when our home was flooded 2 years ago and placed in a  box with other grubby shoes to be forgotten about. With this cleaning and sorting action I stumbled upon them and washed them in the washing machine to see how they would turn out. They look fabulous and now I no longer have to fork out money for new sneakers to go on walks with my neighbour Mr T.

Have you ever found any long lost treasures?

Did you click on the Book link above and read the blurb on Found? - It looks really interesting, unfortunately it's not in my public library so I will hold off buying it until it comes my way in an op shop.

Gift Giving and Gift Making

Dolly was invited to a 5 year old Birthday Party. Now that she is involved in preschool and many out of school activities, the invitations are becoming more regular. And that means more gift giving. I decided on a $10 gift giving budget per person and that items need to be of quality and preferably not plastic toys.

Todays Birthday Girl gift package was a mixture of purchased and home made. Dolly started her home made gift project on Tuesday night and I completed it at 1 am this morning (Sunday). At one stage even The Rambling Expat was in on the action cutting a couple of fabric pieces for us. The gift took many hours but was well worth the time and effort as I think it turned our super cute.

Using a Great Sewing Book, Preloved Clothing and a Few Vintage Scraps.

Dolly Commences Her First Of YoYo Sewing.

Gaining Control As She Tells Me To Let Her Try Alone.

Selecting Buttons From Our Button Jar We Were Gifted.

Sewing In the Vintage Button Selection (We still have this YoYo for another project).

2 Nights Latter, 2nd YoYo Near Completion.

Independence.

Finished Product - Necklace Ribbon From An Old Top.

Modelling.

Gift Pack - Sketch Book, Metallic Pencils, Bag of Clips/Rubbers/Elastic Bands.

The total Gift Package came to $9. The biggest cost was time: 1 hour of gift shopping and roughly 5 hours of hand sewing.

My small eco steps were:

• the Happy Birthday is from an old card I cut up, 
• Light Pink Ribbon for the Happy Birthday Card and Knick Knack Bag is from the inside of a top (to hang on a clothes hanger), 
• Fabric and Ribbon on necklace are all from second hand items which we have worn and outgrown or damaged and now repurposed. 
• Buttons were from an op shop jar which we were gifted as a Thank you by backpackers staying with us. The op shop staff cut off buttons from clothing which is too damaged to sell on their racks, but sell as rags to tradies who don't need the buttons.
• Plastic knick knack bag is from packaging on another item which I saved and reused. 
• And lastly the ribbon holding it all together is also from a preloved top.

I've linked up my repurposed necklace to Erica at Recycled Fashion:

What do you do for Gift Giving for children? Buy, Make or Cash?