Bread and Milk

Today I went to the shop for bread and milk.  I told myself I was just going to walk out with bread and milk.  Nothing extra.  Not a thing.

But then the bakery had run out of multigrain bread and I don't like supermarket bread so I grabbed crumpets.  And then as I walked to the milk I passed the fruit and saw a guava so grabbed that too.  On the way to the checkout I passed maltesers on sale and my chocolate stash has diminished a bit lately so I grabbed a pack of them as well.  

I walked out of the shop cursing myself for lack of will power.  Seriously, I do this every time I go shopping.  I know I am terrible at this so when I do a normal sized shop I tell myself, just one thing extra and 99% of the time I fail.  

Of course, as I write this post, I have just finished my guava and am enjoying a little bag of maltesers so they haven't gone to waste so that's good.  On the other hand, MR has won a trip to Europe for us because his business has well and truly met and surpassed their sales targets and reached the level needed to qualify for the trip.  It's all expenses paid (apart from shopping) from what I understand although I haven't really got any information yet so it all seems a bit surreal and unlikely.  But if MR is correct and we are going to Europe (health and doctors permitting in my case) then I need to save some spending money!! The trip is ten days and it falls during the school holidays which is perfect.  I will probably also try to get another week of leave without pay or something, providing we can add on to the trip and visit an adjacent country (so no extra flights) or stay in Germany or The Netherlands (the planned countries for the trip) and do more exploring, all of which will require extra money for accommodation, food and sight seeing (and more shopping!).

My budget is a little bit strapped for spontaneous European holidays however as we've just bought a car and it is using way more petrol than my previous one, something I didn't factor into the planning stage of car buying budget analysis.  But, I do have an extremely big shopping budget, $250 a fortnight for two people, one of which isn't there much.  I've been told this is a bit extravagant but I really like my fruit and pastries.  And I am a bit of a food waster as well.  So the challenge is on.  Stick to the shopping list (with one extra treat), use what I've got in the fridge and start using up stuff out of my overflowing pantry filled with things I might maybe one day need.  I'm going to put my $250 in a separate coin purse and whatever is left at the end of each fortnight goes to the holiday fund. 

Wish me luck! And please, send me any tips you have for cutting your food bill and any things-you have-in-the-pantry recipes.    I started it off last night with my favourite pumpkin soup recipe made with two small $1 roadside veggie stand butternut pumpkins plus a punnet of slightly squishy cherry tomatoes, half a red capsicum which I roasted first and three sticks of celery all thrown in so as not to waste them.  Yum! 6 serves for $2 for the pumpkins, another $2something for sour cream (which I also used in fajitas on Friday) homemade chicken stock which cost nothing and old veggies from the fridge.

Walking past those pastries at the bakery is going to be tough though...

 

Home regrets

Back when we were looking for a house to buy for the very first time, I did a bit of research about what to keep in mind while looking. You know, check faucets, mould, reticulation etc. We already knew we wanted a quiet street or cul de sac, a garage and a shed, space for a veggie garden and at least 3 bedrooms. 

What we didn't know to look for, and I didn't come across anything about this in my research, was north facing houses. 

Our house is west facing, and obviously, you can't always have north facing but the house could be designed to fit the block. In our house the master bedroom is on the south west corner so gets a bit of afternoon sun. The main living area and kitchen are on the east side, and the east and south sides of the house have a big verandah running around them so they get absolutely no sunlight and are always quite dark, even though there are a lot of windows. The main bathroom, one spare room and the laundry are on the north side and get beautiful natural light and warm sunshine. Totally useless! 

It really is my biggest regret about buying this place. It's like we live in a igloo all Winter. 

Thankfully, MR pruned the big bush outside our bedroom window yesterday so the afternoon sun can get in and warm it up and I'm lying on my bed typing this at 4pm without the need to be in pyjamas, uggies and a dressing gown, my usual household attire. 

Luckily, at the end of the year I'll (hopefully) be moving to a house that is filled with beautiful natural light and warmth and is a big long north facing rectangle. Thank goodness!

What's your biggest regret about your home purchase? 

Homegrown soup

Back in February, I posted about a surprise vegetable sprouting in my garden after burying some veggie scraps in an effort to improve my sandy soil.

It grew happily without much attention from me and it turned out that it was a pumpkin vine.  Unfortunately I only got one pumpkin off it, and only a small one but I turned it into the most delicious soup!

Just a baby pumpkin

Which strangely didn't have any seeds!

I used this recipe from taste.  Surprisingly, I actually followed the recipe too.  Fairly rare for me.  The only thing I changed was  just a smidgen less cumin than suggested so it wasn't too strong and using sour cream to stir through instead of natural yoghurt.  I also used my own homemade chicken stock.  I get such pleasure out of making and using my own stock.  It makes everything taste awesome and I feel so organised by have it in the freezer all ready to go.

I hadn't used this recipe before but to be honest, it's the best pumpkin soup recipe I've ever tried and I've already used it again since.  That's a pretty good referral from a not-really-a-soup-person. 




What's your favourite soup?  I'd love a recipe recommendation to try out.
 

Garden growth

While I was having lunch with Mum last week, she mentioned that the weekend was the best time (according the the planting moon calendar) to plant Spring bulbs.  Mum is quite a good gardener and she does all of her planting according to this calendar so I thought I would give it a try.  I am a middling gardener at best.  About half the things I plant either die or never seem to grow.  Plus, it was the day before Term 2 started and gardening seemed like some good productive procrastination.

Autumn has finally arrived in my part of the country with the weekend also bringing our first really good proper rain for the year.  The mornings are crisp and cool, the days are mostly sunny - the type of sun that is best for basking in - and the nights are best spent with slippers, jumpers and rugs.  I haven't turned on the heater yet but I've been a bit tempted.

I spent an hour outside, clearing a few weeds, removing old agapanthus leaves and flower spikes, planting the bulbs - some tulips, snowdrops and bluebells - pulling up the dead part of the pumpkin vine and burying it over in the right hand corner to compost.  There's still a few bits of it growing, it seems to have taken root again?  I'll just leave it to do its thing.  We only ended up getting one pumpkin off it (so far?) and that's reminded me to post about it next time.

After I had finished, I stood back and thought about how much our garden has grown in the three years it has been since we bought the place.  Certainly not all of it, but this part of the garden looks so good with the frangipani trees really taking off in height now, shading the plants below in Summer and letting the sun in when the leaves drop closer towards Winter.  I've planted the bulbs in under the frangipani trees.  I'm hoping the leaves will create some shade for the flowers in our very short Spring and help them to flower better and last longer.

The photo below was taken when we moved in.  It's a bit of a different angle but look at the change.  

So many differences.  I'm reasonably happy with this part of the garden at the moment.  I wish I could say the same for the rest of it.  Since working out we would not be in this place for much longer, the urge to plant new things has decreased a bit.  I'll be sad to say goodbye to my fruit trees though, and before I've even gotten an apricot from our apricot tree.  I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for an early crop this year.  Last years crop was a grand total of one single apricot which somehow disappeared entirely while still green.  I think a bird must have flown off with it.

How is your garden going?  Autumn is such a lovely time of the year to spend outside isn't it?  And do you plant new plants via the moon planting calendar?

 

Goodbye old car...

 

You've treated me well over the past eight years.  I've loved you well and washed you little.  I'm sorry.  You've never broken down on me in 218,000 km.  You may have hit three kangaroos on separate occasions and left me stranded with a rather stoved in front half in the middle of nowhere at about 8pm one night but it wasn't your fault you were a roo magnet.

Note to self, when you hit a kangaroo and notice that your car temperature level is increasing dramatically, make sure you take note of approximately where you are so that when you call friends to come and rescue you and they ask that all important question, your answer is not a high pitched "On the side of the road next to a really big tree."  So helpful.

And hello new (to me) shiny sporty car!

 

Happily, mine and MR's idea of a good car for me matched up perfectly, right down to the colour.  Working three days a week does not create a budget allowing for sports car purchases so we bought it together.  Our first joint big joint purchase/loan! 

It's been a bit of an exciting week hooning driving this baby around.  It's a 2011 Subaru WRX.  It has leather seats and sat nav and cruise control and bluetooth phone hands free things.  I thought the air con was on crack because it kept stopping being cold but MR informs me it is actually just rather clever and has climate control so when it thinks the car has reached that temperature it stops cooling it.  

It's been on one trip out to country town home and it has got some quite powerful acceleration happening.  Overtaking is very easy and quick.  There wasn't really any speeding because of the double demerits I'm a responsible driver but I did have fun slowing right down and then speeding up to the speed limit on some straight empty country roads.  I took my sister for a drive and there may have been some mad cackling from both of us while on those straight country roads.  Mum declined a test drive...   

 

Get fit

As you might have read a few posts ago, I've entered in the HBF Run for a Reason again this year, my third year of participation.  My sister is once again doing it with me and this year we haven't entered the walker's category as last year we were fast enough with mostly walking and a few 100m of jogging to reach a time that is in the next category.  This year we want to beat our time from last year.  So to motivate ourselves, we both got a fitbit.

That constant New Year's resolution of getting fit has finally reached a point where I really need to do something about it.  Not lose weight per se, although two or three kilos could be lost quite happily, but more get fit.  Fit enough to climb a flight or two of stairs without finding myself a bit puffed at the end of it.  Fit enough to go for a brisk walk with a friend and be able to talk fairly normally through it.  Fit enough to make it to the end of the 4km walk without falling in a heap.

I've done okay so far (for me).  My first week of owning it, I spent half of the time in hospital so we're not counting that one.  They say the average person should do 10 000 step a day.  My goal is 6000 but I've only met it twice.  Last weeks step total was 28512.  It definitely has motivated me to get out there and walk a bit more.  I've gone for three walks in the last week and a bit.  Not much, but that's three walks more than I would do in a regular week!  The only problem so far is, the day after going for a walk, I end up being that tired that I sleep in until 11am (it's school holidays) and then need a fairly quiet day to recover.  Ridiculous!  What happened to that theory that the more exercise you do the easier it gets and the more energy you have?  I haven't spotted that yet.  But I'm determined to keep going.  There's just over four weeks until the run and I have a fair way to go if I'm planning on jogging part of the way.


Do you own a fitbit?  Have you found it useful? 

And if you do, do you want another friend, one whose step total will be very easy to beat? Just leave your email below and I'll add you.

  

Buns in the oven

Happy Easter everyone!

This Easter I had my first two attempts at making hot cross buns.  The first lot I baked as a test run on Thursday and they were rather rock-ish so I ate (the inside of) one and threw the rest in the bin.  I think I just cooked them a bit too long.  The recipe did 30-35 minutes and I cooked mine for 30 but I think 20 would have done it to be honest.

My second attempt was on Sunday when MR was down to help me eat them.  I used a different recipe, this one from The Bookery Cook, after a recommendation from Nicole on IG except I just used powdered cinnamon and all spice, not all that lovely fresh stuff and I didn't have time to steep them in the milk so I just heated it up a bit and then let it cool off.  We had a bit of a time limit, we were due for afternoon tea with MR's parents who have retired and moved to Yanchep, a 40 minute drive from our house in Perth.

This time I watched my hot cross buns baking like a hawk and as soon as they looked like they might be browned enough I pulled them out and did the tap-tap-do-they-sound-hollow test and they did - cooked enough for me!  This recipe said 20 - 30 minutes and I pulled mine out at 17 minutes. 

Hot cross rocks in the top six and nice soft crumb filled hot cross buns in the bottom six

The recipe made twenty which really is a bit of an overkill, so we took some over to our next door neighbour (and returned with a slab on homegrown watermelon), some to MR's parents and ate the rest ourselves this morning for breakfast.

While up in Yanchep, we went for a little walk along the beach just as the sun was beginning to set.  After living in the country for 35 or so years, MR's Mum is so happy to be back by the coast (she grew up near the coast in New Zealand) and was excited to show off their little beach.  Their house is across the road and over a sand dune from the beach and there are lots of ocean views from their house.

After getting back from our visit we headed out for dinner and to see the new Captain America movie.  We went Gold Class and when we were given our tickets we were told we would be receiving a complimentary Easter sundae for dessert during the movie to celebrate Easter Sunday.  How lovely is that? 



I hope your Easter weekend was just as lovely as mine :)

 

The Next New Beginning

At the end of the year / beginning of next year (all things going to plan health-wise) I will be moving back out to the country.  Three hours east of Perth. 

MR's parents have retired and moved to the coast and he is currently back at home running the business with his brothers.  And we are renting his parent's house from them until I move back at which point we will buy the place off them.  Yes, that means we are currently running two households and yes it is a terrible, terrible idea.

Our new home is such a well thought out building.  MR's dad built it 20 years or so ago and they designed it themselves.  It is north facing so lots of beautiful natural light (unlike our current home which has the north side featuring the laundry, bathroom and one of the spare rooms and has verandahs on all the other sides of the house so is so dark inside) and it has an elevation in the ceiling with windows all along it into the kitchen and dining area which is on the south side so that it has just as much natural light as the north side.  It has a super huge kitchen with a walk in pantry.  It is very open throughout the kitchen, informal dining area and living room.  They were very ahead of their time.  It really is a beautiful home.

And home is the key word.  This house we are in currently was never going to be home.  I knew we would be moving back to the country eventually, although it is sooner than I imagined, and I just didn't know enough about house choosing to be aware of high on the list of importance natural light is to me.  I like bright, airy spaces. And they are in abundance in our new place.

Even though we're renting, we have the green light to start changing things we want.  MR's parents haven't really updated anything from the original style so there is a lot of 80's style bathroom things happening and the kitchen could use a new oven and new benchtops.  Bathrooms and kitchen renos are a  bit out of our price range at the moment though so we need to start small.  A lick of paint throughout the house and some new curtains in the master bedroom (which is currently featuring some lovely peachy floral numbers, eek).

Ideally, I would love to paint the master bedroom or a feature wall in the living room this Easter long weekend but we have left it a bit late I think.  I'm in Perth and have just got some paint cards to look through.  MR is not in Perth, is actually in the middle of driving a truck back from Port Hedland with his Dad and then will be out bush and I don't know that me emailing paint colour ideas to him and him choosing them online and me not seeing how they look in the natural light of the home is really going to work.  So I'm thinking maybe we I just need to ease back a bit from this full throttle urge to do all of the things right now and maybe just get MR to pick a couple of colours and get some sample pots to take up and explore with.  A little bit more sensible, right?

And while we are deciding there are an awful lot of wallpaper border strips on the bedroom walls that need removing...



 
What are your tips for painting and freshening up a room on a small budget?

Run for a Reason 2014

This will be my third year entering the HBF Run for a Reason.  My sister and I have got ourselves fitbits and are trying to be inspired to get out there, get training and get a bit fitter and hopefully knock a big chunk of time off last year's effort of 37 minutes 21 seconds (for 4kms).

If you have a few spare gold coins lying around and can see your way to sending them my way, I would be ever so very appreciative! 

https://hbfrun2014.everydayhero.com/au/megan

Things that happen when you watch too many movies

MR and I are often found of a weekend on the couch watching a movie. We have 4 drawers full and overflowing of movies and 2 shelves of TV shows on DVD.  MR likes to watch movies to unwind after a busy week working way too many hours and I like to feel like I am efficiently and productively multitasking by watching TV and crafting at the same time.*

While we may or may not be as bad as some when it comes to movie quotes making up a part of your everyday conversation, we do have a few we use on a regular occurrence.

I'm not going to tell you what they are right away, but I will put them down the bottom.  It's always nice to have a guess and feel excited if you know what movies they are from.  Well, I think so anyhow.

"Aziz, light!" or just "Aziz!" (mainly when I don't turn the bedside light off because I'm not ready to sleep but MR is.  And it is ALWAYS me who is never ready to sleep.)

"Llama face"

"ChickUN"

"Uno mas"

"Iiiice" - this one originated whilst in New Zealand and was shouted by the first person to spot the latest ice capped mountains of the day/hour. Needless to say, it got a lot of use in the South Island during our October holiday and caused much hilarity. 

I don't actually use this one but it is my all time favourite movie quote: "I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!"

And MR, his brothers and friends have a habit of quoting Team America sayings to each other as greetings on the phone. I haven't seen it though so it loses a bit in translation.

So how did you go?  Did you recognise any of the movies?  Are any of them your favourite movies as well?

"Aziz, light" - The Fifth Element

"Llama face" - The Emperor's New Groove

"ChickUN" - The Fifth Element
"Uno mas"  - Shangai Noon

"Iiiice" - Cool Runnings

"I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!" - Ever After

What movie quotes make it into your everyday conversation?

  

 

* I've somehow almost completely fooled myself that TV watching and craft doing simultaneously does equal efficient productiveness so please don't tell me otherwise.