bunks and some more organisation loving ..

Well the bunks turned up YAY and we turned these ..

.. into this!

Well done us I say. I even helped heft the stupid heavy top bunk, with mattress on it, on top. Lets just say I'm not the strongest lifter and Carl laughed at my grunts as I tried not to drop the whole thing! It must've looked pretty funny.

Also, we are on HOLIDAY!! That's one of the great things about homeschooling - you can holiday when YOU want! It's so nice to be on a break when there aren't a million kids in town on their breaks! What I love about the new term is having nice fresh calendars all ready.

Ahhh, organisation I DO heart you!!

Sima J

I heart organisation

I do like organisation.

You'd often have a hard time believing it if you ever saw my house in its natural state!

When on holiday at the bach at Pataua I noticed all the shelves were labelled according to sheet type etc. I loved this so much I thought I might have to do it in my house.

I really didn't have a reason. I'm the only one who puts linen away/gets linen out and I know where everything is. But it IS nice to have it labelled haha.

Sima J

Bunks ..

Well I don't really have much to write seeing as I still haven't edited any photos recently, but one exciting piece of news (for me anyway) is that we bought some bunks.

I love them! Brand Spanking new off TradeMe. I can't wait til they get here. This is what they look like ..

Now we just need some mattress' (anyone got a couple single mattress' they don't want anymore?)

Sima J

How to .. Make Tramp Safety Mats & a Ladder:

We inherited a tramp at Christmas time (see here).

It has been such a blessing - both the boys spend a LOT of time on it.

Unfortunately for Master K (2yr), carrying him out to the tramp was getting old REALLY fast (since he couldn't get on by himself).

Also I was getting sick of holding my breath every time he fell over, with images of split open heads and trips to A&E at the hospital flashing through my imagination.

SO first .. I priced up some safety mats. $230. OUCH. That is WAAAYY to pricey for cheap ol' me! (I mean come on, you can buy a brand new small tramp WITH safety pads for that price!)

So I decided to do a little DIY and make my own. Off to Arthurs Emporium. Now for those of you who don't know about this place it is AWESOME. Yes, in CAPITALS!! This place has EVERYTHING you could ever want for any DIY project!! Material, beads, chain, wood, STUFF .. lots and LOTS of STUFF!!

So it was the perfect place to get some marine carpet! Even better, when I hung around like a bad smell feeling every kind of fabric and wouldn't go away, the ladies fished out some marine carpet with some glue damage (totally fine for what I wanted it for!) and gave it to me half price *SCORE!*

So for $40 I had my material.

I chopped it into strips and attached it to the tramp. This may sound easy but it really wasn't. First I was going to sew it on. Then I decided that was too hard and hubby came up with some industrial velcro that we ended up stapling on. That didn't work so well so we stapled the strips of velcro round the bars to try hold it on. The staples did not hold on so well. So now I had spikey staples sticking out and marine carpet flying everywhere in the wind.

Bring in the cable ties. Cable ties are my friends :-)

They held it on SWEET - and are STILL holding it on more to the point!

One problem solved, now for the ladder. This was VERY easy for me. Probably because I had nothing to do with it. 1. Ask Carl if he will make one. 2. Say thank you when one arrives next to the tramp.

Easy :-) (Thanks babe!)

So now we have a super fun, safe tramp that the kids can get on themselves YAY! :-)

Sima J

Spring Cleaning (in summertime)

So since school started back on Tuesday I've been in a mad cleaning phase. I see mess EVERYWHERE in my house and can't stop the urge to clean clean clean!! Which is a good thing I guess because it needs it!

One of the things that happened was that a borrowed coffee table had to be returned to it's owner which was actually such a blessing because I scored a brand new beautiful table for $100 off Trade Me. This new table is longer so I thought it was a GREAT place to hide Kohen's toys when they're not in use!

The white sheet was originally to cover the borrowed coffee table from it getting wrecked by my kids and now I want to keep my new coffee table in mint condition so I'm reusing it for that. I'm torn because I want to SEE my lovely new table - but then I don't want it munted so I guess it will just have to be covered until the kids grow up and learn to not draw/scratch furniture?!?

Anyway this is the lounge before the toys were put away:

and this is the lovely new table under that cover:

This is the lounge after the toys have been cleaned up:

and this is where they went:

Easy to get out when needed, and tidy when the day is over YAY - I love tidiness :-)

All that's left where the toys were are his books (in a VERY expensive container.. NOT!)

I've cleaned out the chest in my room since the tv that was on it has also gone back to it's owner and it's looking super clean. I love it! (and we hardly ever used that TV anyway so it's no problem) :-)

ugh now the rest of the house to go (the office is looking particularly messy!)

Sima J

a recipe, a puppy and some waterblasting..

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed 2010 and are ready for 2011!!

I just looked over my blogs and put some tags on them and in doing so realised that a LOT of them are about food!!

So one guess what's in THIS post.. another recipe!!

I spotted this recipe in a book my Mum had out from the library and thought it looked fairly easy and a good thing to take for a snack to a BBQ.

I would change a few things about it but here it is..

Feta and Spinach Filo Triangles (for want of a better name)

Put together in a bowl:

1 Onion (chopped and softened in some oil in the pan)

Feta 100g, crumbled

Spinach 250g (I bought the frozen stuff and you have to make sure you squeeze out any excess water)

1/4 tsp Basil

1/4 tsp Thyme

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 tsp Salt

pepper to taste

one egg

Oil a sheet of filo pastry, cover it with another sheet. Cut into strips of 4 per sheet:

and put a blob of the mix on the pastry at the bottom.

Fold over and over into triangles.

Brush with oil and cook in 200degree oven for 8-10min.

(I used puff pastry instead and it was too thick and it took longer to cook. Also, I'd put something else in like pine nuts or some pesto.)

Finished Product: I served it with a dish of Sweet Chilli Sauce because they lacked a certain zing.

After the BBQ I took those to, we came home to make ourselves feijoa Margaritas and a cheese board to celebrate the end of 2010 and the start of 2011.

Also these holidays I got to use the water blaster. I LOVE water blasting!! This is the deck nearly finished. It's such a satisfying feeling!

And I shall leave you with a CUTE puppy!! You can own this little guy (if you live in NZ) for only $75. They are my in laws puppies and are adorable (this one's my favourite one).

I hope you've been having a great break and are refreshed and rearing to go for another year :-)

Sima J