Snake Bean Community Garden Fundraiser

On Sunday I lifted my head a bit before 6:00am, chopped down 6 banana leaves, cut them and washed them in preparation for a Snake Bean Community Garden fundraiser where we would offer them as plates, instead of paper plates. The beauty with these is once someone has finished their cake they can just toss their "plate" in the garden.

Preparing Banana Leaves for Serving Cake

Quick Cut and Rinse

Then off to the Botanical Gardens to drop off tables and chairs and home again to get my family to the event. The Friends of the Botanical Gardens were having their huge yearly plant sale. So our garden group piggybacked their amazing day with a cake and tea stall right in the path of all their customers. Our group is made up of many talented and variously skilled people; some made cake, some made preserves, some potted plants and some harvested produce from the gardens. I'm not good at that stuff so I had found another way to contribute.

Some of Our Group Members Packing (and tasting) at the End of the Day.

The previous week I called Bunnings and spoke with the Community Activities Officer asking advice on how to apply for a donation for a raffle. The bubbly Janet explained how I had to apply and what type of stuff I could request. So my friend Tif made a gorgeous letterhead for our group and I was able to write up an official letter asking for garden donations for 1st prize. I was so thrilled when Janet from Bunnings called to say she gave us a wheelbarrow full of gardeners delights!!!

Donation from Bunnings!

Tif was able to get a 2nd prize of a Bokashi Composting Bucket from a local shop Eco Solutions (they also donated plates and cups to serve our goodies). And as a 3rd prize we have a box of fresh produce from the garden and a bottle of local honey that I was donated from a local bee keeper I know at Humpty Doo Apiaries.

Donation from Eco Solutions and Humpty Doo Apiaries.

I've never really asked for donations before and I started on an impulse with the honey, which built my courage up to ask Bunnings for a donation to. I'm so impressed and amazed with the goods we were donated and am very thankful. Our fundraiser brought our Snake Bean Community Garden more then $1000 in the 4 hours of selling raffle tickets, cake, tea, coffee, ice tea, plants, fresh produce and preserves. We will use the money for chicken feed (we have 5 chooks now!), a new sturdy ladder, maybe tools and other items to make our garden a happy educational and productive place for us and the general public.

Produce from the Garden on Sale.

As for Dolly, she spent roughly 4 hours with the chooks calling one Penny and nagging her to eat her spinach. The Rambling Expat went home early, did the dishes, did the laundry and cooked an amazing dinner in the slow cooker of locally hunted Magpie Geese from a fishing buddy.

Another happy frugal day, surrounded by happy people, jobs done at home and Dolly reveling in free play with her buddies outdoors. I plan on a quieter week this week and travel for work next week. How about you? Keeping up with the tightwads or competing with the Joneses?

Saturday Fun

Saturday I had my neighbours over to for a sniffy party to try a new Air Wick - Aqua Mist product that I was sent to test and review. I decided to splash out a little with our 10am nibbles as I've never had my neighbours over "officially" before. I offered lovely cheese Blue Castello and Goats), prosciutto, biscuits, wasabi peas and chips. I pulled out a bottle of bubbly (someone gave me in exchange for spinach and guppies that I had offered on Freecycle), a bottle of orange juice and lemonade. 4 neighbours couldn't make it due to; Bali, Flu, Early Shift and Yoga. But I went ahead with the other cool cats from my block and The Rambling Expat.

Delights on Offer

Some of The Gang

Dolly and I blindfolded everyone with some of my old scarves and Dolly sprayed the air. Dolly has sooooo excited to see them all blindfolded - nose in the air sniffing and commenting wrongly about the smells, it was hysterical. I was the only one who could see her jumping up and down in crazy excitement bursting to tell them what the scents were! But she's amazingly strong will-powered at keeping secrets. It was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours and I was able to treat each of them to their favourite scent to take home which was a bonus. It was a fun morning for me :-)   I would do it again.

Blindfolded, Sniffing and Trying to Determine the Scents.

After our sniffy party Dolly and I headed to Children's Week Activities for some FREE fun. Here is what she did:

• A Hip Hop Dance Lesson
• Rock Climbing
• Rock Crafting
• Got a sausage
• Got an apple

I kept saying "Don't go higher!!!" My very own adventure girl.

There was so much more to do but we were short on time. Other great activities on offer were; pottery, jumping castle, face painting and balloon art. I also talked to an organisation about foster caring as it's something I have always wanted to do since I was a teen. I'm too busy at this point in my life but it's good to arm myself with knowledge now.

Free Crafting

How was Saturday for you? Any friends over? Tried a new "product"? Created some crafty treasures?

Rubbish and Clutter Turned in Nifty Gifts

So here are the mystery gifts For World Teacher Day I blogged about yesterday.

Mystery Gifts

Earrings and Magnets. I used mainly recycled items except for the earring hooks and glue. Gifts are:

1. For female Teacher; dangly Jetsons Earrings. 
2. For the Teacher Assistant; dangly Sleeping Beauty Earrings. 
3. For the male Student Teacher; Flinstones Fridge Magnets.

Sweet Upcycled Gifts

This is what I used:

• Beer bottle tops - from a thirsty neighbour, 
• Images from old calenders - I purchased at the op shop for 50 cents in 2009
• Earring hooks (new) - purchased at Spotlight in 2009
• Flat fridge magnet - cluttering my fridge since forever, from junk mail.
• Craft glue - to stick image and waterproof it.

Groovy Magnets

For the cards and packaging I used scrap pieces of scrapbooking pages saved from Dolly's other crafty projects and the old calender pages.

Packaging to Match the Gifts

Sleeping Beauty Earrings in Sleeping Beauty Packet with Card.

Linking up to Recycled Fashions. Take time to click and get inspired.

So have you used up some of your clutter lately to save some of your money?

Busy And Quiet

Tonight I have spent 3 hours finding and creating items to create gifts for Dolly's teachers for Teachers Day on the 28 October 2011. If I was more organised this would have only taken 1 hour. The searching for stuff has used up my precious hours and frustrated me. And that is why I need to declutter and be better organised!

This is what I've been working on tonight. I'll let you see the finished gifts tomorrow, when they are dry, assembled and ready to go into their little gift bags. I think they are very cute.

Mystery Gifts

Tonight we also ate dinner with our neighbour Mr T. He has a BBQ and we had a barramundi that The Rambling Expat caught over the weekend in crocodile infested waters.

The Rambling Expat and Bara

It was a quiet night for us as our friend Franck passed away this afternoon. He was only 42 but had a heart condition. My mum and I, visited him last week in hospital and he was happy to be getting out this week but he had a turn for the worst. I'm now preparing Dolly for her 1st funeral. She has decided she wants to come and I believe in being gently honest with my daughter about death. Being a mum is not always easy with these decisions.

What did you do tonight?

A Subversive Plot: How to Grow a Revolution...

I saw this on Hazel Dene. It's complimented many of the books I have been reading lately. It's powerful and thought provoking so thought I should put it up to. Enjoy.

Chatting

Ms Dig was in our home town. So we caught up in a park that way Dolly could run around while we chatted. Ms Dig brought the Pizza and we brought the chocolate biscuits. She has made a super interesting career choice as she is an archeologist. I am envious of those who work in their area of passion. I'm now over 40 and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Do any of you have this problem too?

Ms Dig, The Rambling Expat and Dolly.

Not everything is my life is fun as on our return home I spent 30 minutes decluttering a huge pile of papers. I reduced it with this pile for the recycling bin.

Waste of Trees - Gone to the Recycling Bin.

The rest is in a folder with the aim of a nightly 5 minute "deal with it and file chore". Paper clutter is my constant battle. My aim if for a tidier home by Saturday as I was sent product to review by Soup and will be inviting all the people from my block to come and do some blind sniff testing. I can't wait - it should be fun. They don't read my blog, so this will be a nice surprise for them.

My Review Goodies - To Sniff and Gift to My Participants.

I have been sponsored by Soup and Air Wick to review the nice smelling product. So stay tuned to find out my real thoughts on the new Air Wick Aqua Mist. I will also have an amazing Giveaway for my Australian readers, so FOLLOW ME to not miss out my notification. (Many apologies to all my overseas readers this time around)

Have you ever been contacted to review a product? What did you think? Was it Fun or an Extra chore?

Decluttering

Dolly and I sorted through 2 tubs of toys in an attempt to declutter our home and make room for her and her friends to play in our small flat. Not fair on her as the last 4 purchases I made were not for her, but I had to find stuff to leave the house of the same size or bigger and it's been getting harder. Plus I'm so messy everything always looks worst then it is.

Clutter is a drain on time, mental space and money, as misplaced items cause money wasted on new purchases, late fees and so on and so on... One of my problem areas I have been tackling in my life and I think getting better at it in the past year. (I think blogging helps me.)

Anyway this is what left our home today.

• Dolly = 2 bags of toys and 1 toy trolley to op shop.
• Me = 1 small bag of stuff to op shop.
• Plus 1 bag of broken bits to rubbish bin.

Goodbye Stuff

Tomorrow night I plan to go through one of my boxes (not Dolly's), after we have had dinner with our friend Ms Dig who is buying us a picnic Pizza dinner. Looking forward to catching up with her and being entertained by her stories, chatting about our lives, chatting about blogging, asking filming and you tube uploading advice and taking some photos to load up here.

So are you a clutter bug and what do you do about it? Advice welcome here.

PS; I have a generous Giveaway for readers in Australia in the pipeline. I would love you to "Follow" me so I know who you are if your not already a follower.

Op Shop Finds

I needed a shopping fix during my lunch break - because... like many people it's a kind of addiction and pure entertainment. A Want - Not a Need. Frivolous fun. Once upon a time I used to say to myself; I worked hard for my money so I deserve all my treats. Except all my treats meant lots of treats and I spent all my money. I had no debt but I had no savings. The fridge was always getting bare by the time the next pay came in and white rice with a dab of butter was common for dinner for a few nights before payday.

Now I'm careful with my cash, but still have a craving for shopping fixes. It's a treat, but also a waste of money. So I always have that promise to myself, I will not spend more then $5, but I can never resist the goodies. So with my intense need to itch my addiction, I headed to a city op shop and spent $7.

Another Stash

• Prettiest dress; to reuse the floral linen fabric $2
• Book of Aboriginal Portraits (photography) - For The Rambling Expat $2
• The softest chenille knitting wool for a X-mas gift project $1
• New, Ben10 Packet of Tattoos for either gifting or Dolly's next Birthday Party Goodies Bags $2

Tomorrow night I will need to find some items of the same size or bigger to leave our house in our decluttering attempt.

Do you shop for pleasure, addiction or entertainment too?

Poverty Awareness Week

Dolly and One Mob.

We went to a Poverty Awareness Week Community Dinner hosted by My Sisters Kitchen. We placed our $10 donation in the bucket for the 3 of us. (The buckets seemed sadly empty for the number of people in the venue). I had also packed our own cups, plates and cutlery in my basket for the event to avoid having to use any wasteful plastic and paper items keeping to my eco ethos.

We queued to serve ourselves at the buffet loaded with Nepalese and African type dishes cooked by My Sisters Kitchen refugees and new migrants. We guessed what the dishes were and ate our spicy meal, (Dolly could only eat the non spicy salad and white rice). It was a bit overwhelming hot for me at times, so I had wished I had not served myself so much. Nevertheless I ate all of my meal with teary eyes and a burning mouth. LOL.

Dolly and My Plate (The Rambling Expat is Busy Eating His)

There were also community groups performing to entertain the crowd. The Tongan Youth Group sang, played music and danced to the sounds of their islands. We also really enjoyed One Mob, a group of Aboriginal men from the Arnhem region.

Demonstrating Traditional Dance.

It was an enjoyable and feel good night of food tasting from other cultures without the restaurant prices. We supported the important community project through our donation and our presence. And it allows us to dialogue with our daughter about poverty, the issues that surround it, what we can do about it and how lucky we are, to not be living in poverty.

Do you try and attend community events that support others and inspire you or your loved ones?

My Mini Market Stall

A couple of weeks ago I had a Market Stall at the Happy Yess selling my lovely preloved treasures. There were about 14 stalls on the day, lots of blankets, pillows, musicians playing good music and friends catching up. It was fun as usual and Dolly had a great time playing with children and hula hooping.

I brought home an extra $52 after all costs of stall and stock and spending from our profit tin on the local talent (cake, iced tea, balloon art, gift tags, badge, veggie burgers). We spent up because it was the 1st birthday of the market and I wanted to give back towards some of the stalls.

I've now placed this money in our travel jar, but Borneo may have to wait one more year for Dolly to be just a little bigger, as I don't have to carry her on a jungle trek.

Here are some picks of the day. Lovely quirky stalls and super friendly people. Feels like one big happy family.

My Stall - Vintage, Fashion, Quirky and Designer.

Multi skilled / Multi Tasking - Crafted Stickers

And, Ice Cold Herbal Tea

For The Sweet Toothed - Delish Cakes, Slices and Biscuits.

Buy Arts and Crafts to Support Creative Local Uni Students.

Funky, Kitchy and Eclectic Badges - Pick a Design, BYO or Choose a Ready Made.

Pat a Pet or Better Still Pull Out Some Cash and Take It Home to Love and Cherish.

If you live in the Darwin region, come to the Happy Yess Market at Darwin Visual Arts Centre on the 1st Sunday of every month and say hello. Bring your picnic and some blankets and enjoy the safe family friendly vibe.

Am I squeezing too much in my life (gardening, stall, blogging, frugal living) around my full time work? Yes definitely, but I don't want to give any of it up as they are enriching experiences, activities and skill building. I just need to find time to put my finances in order and clean my home. How about you? Are you doing too much too?

Dolly Made Dinner

Sunday afternoon was unpleasant as I have had a red puffed up irritated eye. I was hoping to just relax at the nice cool clean library while Dolly played and looked at books. But I had asked Dolly early on in the morning if she wanted to cook in the afternoon and she happily shouted "Yes!" So the library was ignored and cook she did!

I gave her the ingredients and talked her through the process. She rolled, cracked, grated, measured, stirred and poured. (The Brazilian Spinach from our garden was placed uncooked in the mix).

All Mixed and Ready to Bake.

Mmmmmm, Dolly on Her Way to Master Chefdom.

 2 hours from her commencing, we ate and it was delicious. The spinach leaves peeking out of the quiche were thin and crackly. Just divine.  The best part is she said to me "I don't like spinach". To which I replied "But you LOVE spinach quiche you make yourself" and to that, my influenceable daughter replied "Oh yes, that's right" and gobbled it all up :-)

It then rained, so to end our day we went puddle jumping and umbrella twirling. It was so much fun. Loving the simple things in life and the changes in weather. The library was not missed. My eye was irritated either way and my 4 year made our family the most yummy frugalicious dinner. I am living the good life on days like this and Dolly is skilling up for life.

Do you have tricks to get your family to eat their greens? Any skills your children are eager to learn? Have you been jumping in puddles lately?

Country Girl Please Email Me.

Hi Country Girl - I deleted your comment as you didn't want your email address published, but bad me forgot to note your email address before doing so. I tried leaving you a few comments on your blog for you to contact me and also in response to your comment asking when you would received your prize. But you must be busy as I haven't had any responses :-(

Please Please email me at: chaosgirltakescontrol (at) hotmail (dot) com   - because I really want to give you your prize as it's lots of fun.

As for my other readers, fellow Blogger African Aussie is also running the My Memories Suite "International" Giveaway so jump on over and leave a comment for a chance to win the fun program.

Good Luck!

Free Fridge From Freecycle

Our Snake Bean Community Garden group is looking at getting chickens very soon and also swapping produce with each other. As many of us garden at different times of the day and week some of us rarely (if ever), see each other. So we discussed trying to find an old fridge from somewhere - anywhere as to store eggs to buy, fresh produce to swap and stock fundraising sell-ables.

As all good things tend to come my way when I keep my mind and eyes open that is just what I did. Oooh Lucky Lucky me, I spotted a giveaway fridge on Freecycle within days of the group's discussions. So I emailed the lovely Lyell (Thank you) and was thrilled to be the lucky recipient. And even more lucky... The fridge was just a 3 minute drive from the garden so 2 of the staff headed out to collect it, as there is no way it would fit in my little city car.

Cleaning Racks and Compartments - Dolly Eating Malabar Spinach.

Today being Sunday, Dolly and I went to the garden with our eco cleaning products (bicarb, vinegar, eucalyptus oil, water and old rags). We cleaned it thoroughly and now have a gleaming working fridge waiting for it's 1st lot of goodies. Can't wait for the other gardeners to see it, another happy jiggy dance :-)

Will Be Loved By Many - Not Destined For Landfill.

Waiting to be Filled with fresh Produce.

I love Freecycle it keeps stuff out of landfill and allows you to take and give from like minded people. Tomorrow I'm giving away Dolly's porta-cot to a Freecycler. I've had an amazing week with lots of really good happenings, have a couple of Giveaways in the pipeline and have lots and lots to tell you. But for now I'm signing off and off to bed. Goodnight :-)

Did anything good happen to you this week?

Repurposed an Owl for 2yr Old

This morning we headed to a Birthday party for a 2 year old at the swimming pool so I made an Owl out of old clothes and Dolly helped me make a Birthday card. And then we wrapped it up in Dolly's art work.

Wrapped And Ready To Go.

I was notified only 3 days earlier of the Birthday Party so found myself crafting an owl in my lunch breaks at work, the midnight hour at home and I got up an 2 hours earlier this morning to finish off the job. It took me just over 5 hours to copy and cut my template, find and cut the fabrics and make it as I am not skilled in crafts/sewing (yet).

The wonderful thing is I only used items from home that were saved to have another life, making me Eco proud. The whole gift only cost me $1.45, which makes me Frugal proud.

Hoot Hoot

Cost to make the owl $1.25 (blue fabric, brown felt and cotton thread).
Body - 2nd hand trousers I've worn to tatters but was able to recoup some of the fabric.
Eyes - scrap pieces of felt I made from 2nd hand wool jumpers. 2 buttons from Freecycle.
Beak - Dolly's outgrown and stretched 2nd hand yellow dress destined for the rag bin.
Applique - Large 2nd hand top purchased for $1 for the cute blue fabric over a year ago. Plenty of it left!
Wings / ears - New brown felt we had at home.
Stuffing - from unneeded pillow that lost it's shape in the wash.

Vintage Card Image (1970 - Good Year).

Dolly's 1st ever sounding out spelling on her own was her friends name "Ila"

Cost to make the card 20 cents.
Green Paper - Scrapbooking block of paper purchased about 2 yrs ago. 10 cents a sheet.
Picture - Children's 1970s 2nd hand book for 50 cents, purchased to cut up. 8 images = 6 cents each.
Glue - From home and used some scrap paper.

I felt very satisfied and super proud at my achievement. Lots of people at the Party oohed and aahed at my homemade gift and The Rambling Expat beat my drum. This gift project ticked all my happy boxes: Frugal, Ecological, Perfect for the Recipient and it also Decluttered some of my old worn out clothing. (I've linked up to Erica at Recycled Fashions - my creation is not technically a fashion item but it was made from clothing I had previously purchased in op shops and we had worn to shreds.)

I know I could have a box of gifts waiting for those short notice events, however I have tried in the past with new stuff but the gifts I stashed were never suitable or were forgotten about. Now I have a very different set of ideas and I try to not purchase any new items if I can avoid doing so. I do purchase a few second hand gifts for a handful of people I feel sure about, but I also live in a small flat that is already chaotic and bursting at it's seams so don't want to go down that road too much.

Have you done anything lately to make you jig a happy dance? Even if it did take you forever...

Being Good and Frugal in October

I'm being really good so far. The only frivolous stuff has been a little junk food from the super market at my desk (chocolate and chips).

I menu planned for the week and my groceries were only $75 (including a $12 bottle of laundry liquid).

Layer of ratatouille, egg and topped with cheese. Mmmmm.

I have shopped at the garden plot 1st. One of my garden neighbours is off travelling Nepal for a few weeks and told me to help myself in exchange for me watering the garden. So this has allowed me a few more goodies then usual.

Shopping at my plot 1st. Dolly snacking on Snake Beans.

Dolly was on school holidays for 1 week and we went to lots of FREE activities including arts & crafts, out door Life Be In It activities, computer games at our local Officeworks and a movie under the stars (Rango).

Outdoor Life Be In It team encouraging kids to be active.

15 minutes on the Computer Games at Officeworks Kid Station.

Free Movie - we took our blanket, drinks, pop corn and lollies.

Our lastest couchsurfing couple included a qualified hairdresser so I received a hair cut & dye whilst Dolly had her hair done each day in exchange for the couch.

Ready for School Rapunzel style.

And tonight I commenced work on a 2 year old Birthday gift out of old clothes and scraps. Dolly was invited on very short notice to a party this Saturday morning at 9am. Not much time to create but pushing myself along. My mum picked up the Softies Magazine for only 30 cents at a local op shop, just for me :-) Of course the mags instructions are all with new fancy pantsy bits and bobs. But I'm repurposing old stuff that needs a second chance and hopefully it will turn out looking presentable.

Creating on a Tight Schedule - Yet Again.

How is October fairing for you?

National Ride to Work Day

Today I pulled out my bicycle and participated in the Australian National Ride to Work Day. I had previously put up a poster in a prominent section of my work division to encourage others to ride too and sent out a few emails. I was happy to see one of the bosses had seen my call to action and participated in the ride.

Bikes Taking a Well Deserved Rest

I would love to ride everyday as it's only a 15 minute - easy ride to work BUT, I like to drop off our daughter to school with my fishing addict partner the The Rambling Expat. And this means we are late for work everyday and stressfully rushing against time. It is also super hot at this time of year. The weather is between 26C and 33C with humidity at 79% and I was HOT HOT HOT. My face was flushed, my forehead perspiring, my glasses fogged up and my hair a mess. Not a pretty sight but boy does it feel good to be ALIVE.

So anyway I peddled to work and met up with a group being escorted by pedaling police on the way. I peddled with the group with a proud feeling of comradeship and joined everyone at the FREE celebratory inner city park breakfast of sweet or savoury buns, juice, water and bananas. Once done I headed to my buildings bike cage and shower room, then my desk.

Hot Sweaty Posing Before Heading Off To The Shower Room

I think I will try to make this a weekly event as Dolly does not go to school on Fridays this year. While she is driven to Grandma's I might try to ride to work if it's feasible in the hot weather and tropical monsoonal rains.

Biking has so many personal, financial and environmental benefits:

• Less road congestion.
• Less pollution.
• Preventative health issues.
• Exercise and fat buster
• Inexpensive (cheaper then fuel)
• Fun
• And a great mental health booster

Do you have a bike gathering rust that needs to be used or are you a keen biker? How do you feel about biking about?