September 2012

Garage Sale is ON! - September Sort It -

Well my September Sort it - turned into a garage sale - with a little prompting from Mel and Lisa- they both said just do it.

via pinterest.com

So we have.

Crazy next to nothing planning.

Two days of prep and our garage is all set ready for the first wave of people in a few hours. I went to bed some time back but I can't sleep. Unfortunately I have a few things health things niggling at me ----GRRRR but not going there right this minute - focusing on other stuff.

I'm writing signs and blogging - as you do :)

I read up about a cool way to organise regularly for a garage sale and after today when I know how its gone I'll share some of my thoughts on whether we will give it a go.

Apart from the usual household stuff of which I have been ruthless with cutting down we also have a large inventory from Tarisota so our garage sale is a crafters heaven.

If you read this and live close or know people who do please do send them our way. We are only an hour from Brisbane - just as you come into the coast past wet n wild. I promise its worth the drive.

I really want the craft stuff to go to people who love to craft. There are some fabulous things.

All papers - Basic Grey Pink Paisley 7 Gypsies Scenic Route Making Memories Websters Pages - the list goes on and on 20 c each
Bazzil Cardstock lots of colours 20 c
Alterable tins $1
Embellishment Packs $2
American Craft Thickers $3
American Craft Albums $5
Mini Albums $2
Rolls of Vandoras ribbon and lace $1
Stamps $1
Ink $1

and as well as that we have fabric, buttons, beads, metal embellishments, feathers,and books.

It's all laid out and organised for you to search to your hearts content. Let me know if you are a blog reader when you arrive and Richard will make you a cuppa so you can relax and shop happily. AND there are 4 garage sales happening in our street and neighbouring streets today - that's got to be good I think :)

I'll try to share some instagram photos later :)

Happy Garage Sale Day

September 29, 2012 in At Home | Permalink | Comments (2)

Garage Sale

For any locals on saturday we are having a garage sale - with the usual garage sale paraphernalia but also a LARGE inventory of stock from Tarisota - Ribbons, fabric, papers, embellishments, cardstocks. Please tell your crafty friends.

If you belong to an organization that requires craft supplies for charity work or a good cause and are able to pick up then please email me to arrange a time to collect any items that may help you in your endeavours.

SATURDAY 29th September 8.00am - 12.00pm Email me for details :)

PS Thank you to everyone who bought stamps in my little stamp sale :) We packed them and posted today so stay tuned to your mailboxes!

September 27, 2012 in At Home | Permalink | Comments (6)

Christmas Countdown - Charity

How quickly did those last ten days go ? I'm not sure I'm going to like this countdown idea!

Last post we asked you to write your list - how did you go? I am pretty pleased actually I am a little further along than I thought.

If you have some blanks next to people's names perhaps you might like to look at some charity ideas. I have one friend who every year says don't buy me anything make a donation in my name - so I always do. She quite enjoys what I find :)I really should do this for more people. A quick google for { charity gift catalogues } will reveal a whole slew of organizations and ideas.

Here are a few to have a look at

Child Fund Australia

Useful gifts

for just $5 ( really the price of a coffee or a card!) Useful gifts offers the following options

School Supplies - $5.00

As simple as A, B, C. Books, pencils and paper, or slate and chalk, that are part of a broader education program, gives the gift of learning to a child.

Fish Farming - $5.00

The one that didn't get away! Training in fish-pond construction, maintenance and fish farming will give a community their own source of nutritious fish to eat and sell.

Chickens - $5.00

Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck. Five bucks buys two chickens, which will help a family with additional food and income from the eggs they produce.

Seeds - $5.00

Help people reap what they sow! Provide someone with seeds to plant. They can watch the investment grow, and also learn how to save seeds for the next year's crop.

One of the nice things about these options is you can easily donate online and they all offer the option of an e card or a card you print yourself and if you like then you could add that to a more traditional gift.

This year the girls are going to decide on something to donate and then do enough "chores" to raise the money to make the donation.

When googling for these websites I also found this article by choice magazine cautioning about the best way to make donations.

If you aren't in a position to make a financial donation then perhaps consider donating some time. One of my favourite things to do around Christmas is gift wrapping for one of the many charities that run gift wrap stalls in the shopping centres.

via pinterest.com

I freely admit it's not all about the charity- I really enjoy it because I love to wrap presents. It's nice to chat to people the VAST majority are so lovely and you get to see all the cool things people are buying. I really missed doing this last year. I started wrapping for charity when I was about 15. In 2010 I wrapped for careflight at Robina and they raised $16,500. Many churches also run gift wrapping stalls. As the late night shopping kicks in there are so many shifts you'd be hard pressed not to find a time that suited you. I usually go with a girlfriend and we make a day of it with coffee and lunch before or after. Depending on how busy I am depends on how many shifts I volunteer for but I always do at least one - they usually are about 4 hours. A little closer to time the charity organisation will start calling for volunteers - when I sign up this year I'll pop the details up as a reminder. I can't wait till the girls are old enough to join me - they still don't quite have the neatness skills required.

Don't forget to pop over to Mel's blog she is sharing how her family gets involved with Operation shoebox each year.

Our next post will be on the 6/10 and we will get you organised for Gift Wrapping and Cards :)

Happy Christmas Countdown!

September 26, 2012 in Christmas Countdown, Create | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stamp Sale

As part of my September Sort it I am really scaling back some of my supplies and things I have collected around home. In my craft room I have some beautiful Papertrey Ink Stamp sets that have been rarely used and some not used at all. I have decided to pop them up for sale here so they can go to a home that will love them.

If you are not familiar with Papertrey Ink - they are an amazing stamp company based in the US with monthly releases of acrylic stamps. Their site is filled with great ideas on how to use them and the stamps are of excellent quality. Each set comes in its own Cd case.

I am only offering shipping in Australia - My apologies to my international readers. Shipping is free. Please make sure your paypal address is correct as I will use that for posting.

Bitty Baby Blessings Stamp Set SOLD

Bitty Baby Blessings Stamp Set

See the full details here

MEASUREMENT REFERENCE: The elephant measures 2 inches long and 1-3/8 inches tall. The onesie measures 2 inches tall and 1.75 inches tall. The “Good things” sentiment measures 2.25 inches wide and ½ inch tall.

___________________________________________________________________

Merry and Bright Stamp Set - SOLD

Merry & Bright Stamp Set

*****missing one small star ****

This unique patterned tree building set will be unlike anything else contained in your current holiday stamp collection! MEASUREMENT REFERENCE: A fully constructed tree measured approximately 2.5-inches tall and 1-inch wide. The largest snowflake measures 1/2-inch in diameter.

see full details here

September 25, 2012 in At Home | Permalink | Comments (11)

Eating Out

Todays post in our Heathy Eating Lunches is all about eating out.
One of the challenges about being out and about during school holidays is finding "eating out" treats and food that will not compromise your clean eating. It's not easy on too levels - firstly finding something and secondly the price!

It drives me crazy that a salad sandwich for example at a store like Healthy Habits can run up to $9.00 for just the sandwich when you can get a happy meal with burgers chips drink and a toy for under $5.00 depending on the franchise.

Anyhow with school holidays on us, we have to be out most days because of Richard's work commitments so we inevitably find ourselves having to eat out.

Our hands down favourite place to eat is Grill'd.

The girls have a Mini Moo or Chicken Licken Burger. ($7.50) The Buns are made fresh ( sadly from white flour - but contain no additives or preservatives ) The meat is all grass fed YAY and the salad veges are fresh and we share a chips.

I choose the Grill'd chicken salad - It's delicious and huge with rocket, chicken feta, grilled capsicum, red onion and balsamic ($12.50).

Another hang out is the sushi train places. - white rice boo but never the less fresh and reasonable prices. I tend to stick to the rice wrapper rolls and a bowl of miso and the girls will have sushi.

Boost Juice is our favourite snack place. They have the organic popcorn I have mentioned before. We buy it if we are going to a movie too and it's only $1 if you have it with a drink. While we can argue the sugar content in a fresh juice I much prefer them having that where I see the juice pouring out of the machine from fresh pieces of fruit than any of the bottle stuff that is filled with goodness knows what. We also love their protein balls - I've since found out they have some sugar in them ( even though its not listed on their ingredients at the counter grr ) but I can live with that over a chocolate bar.

Other than that we will head to a cafe that makes salads sandwiches/wraps or omelettes.

We always carry fruit, containers of nuts and bottles of water. Have you seen the new squish-ie bottles in Big W for just $1? They come with a combine too for easy attaching to bags. I can't find a picture on line but here is something very similar

Tomorrow we are heading to Wet n Wild for the day. We will take a picnic lunch of lots of fresh cut fruit and chopped up veges with home made pesto and guacamole. That way we can munch between rides :) No doubt by the end of the day the girls will talk me into an ice cream.

Holidays are for relaxing the rules somewhat I believe but we still work to our 80% clean rule and save the treat times.

So if you are eating clean or are challenged with dietary restraints where do you choose to eat out? I'd love some more ideas. dont; forget to pop over to Mel's blog she is sharing a recipe for a yummy granola bar that has her difficult to please son raving :)

September 25, 2012 in Happy Lunches | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rise of The Guardians

Today we headed to Robina to see the third installment of Whimpy - it was good - we had a real laugh in some spots.

But we were very excited to see a special trailer with Hugh Jackman for a movie called Rise of the Guardians. It looks fabulous and is definately on our to watch list.
Santa, The Easter Bunny ( Hugh Jackman) and The Tooth Bunny( Isla Fischer ) who are the guardians of children. They have to rope Jack Frost ( Chris Pine ) in to help them guard against Pitch ( Jude Law ) ( Pitch Black who is the baddy ).

That is about all I could gather from the trailer but it looks really good.

Here is the trailer :) Santa has the coolest sleigh ever. I love it when great kids movies are created :)

September 25, 2012 in Movies | Permalink | Comments (0)

School Holiday Activities

Can you believe that school hols have rolled around again in Queensland? It was a mad dash to the end with convict diaries, science experiments, speeches for a public speaking contest and a strings concert in this last week. But we made it :-)

I have been googling for activities to do getting us out and about while Richard works as he has no time off these hols and I want to make the most of them.

So here is a little round up of the things I have found that we will attend - if you are local and have any other fun things to do please do share :)

Tomorrow we are heading to Westfield Helensvale to watch the style workshops :) Always fun and if you register you get a free goodie bag - Fortunately the girls love fashion too so we are all looking forward to this. - Cost - $0

details here

Over the weekend we will hit the Swell Sculpture Festival held in Currumbin I have never been yet it's been running on the coast for 10 years I believe. Amazing sculptures and activities on the beach. Cost $0

details here

It's not holidays if we don't take a trip to GOMA. There are two exhibitions on at the moment which we are keen to see. Sculpture is Everything

The images look amazing. This is a free exhibition and if you book in at 11.00am you can go through with a guide which always adds so much more to the visit. As well we will visit Portait of Spain - This isn't free - $22 for adults but children under 12 are free. There is a kids program designed to complement it with multimedia interactives and drawing activities.

details here

The Gold Coast Arts Centre is celebrating 25 years and as part of that program has a special day on October 3rd for kids. There's a heap of different activities -arts, workshops, writers, illustrators - some are free and some ticketed, running all day. We will attend the free performance called Cents and Sensibility and hang out at the art stuff. I have booked the girls into the public speaking workshop in the morning which sounds really good.

details here

That's as far as I have planned. I'm not sure what movies are on these holidays no doubt there will be a movie visit. The girls and I will also make use of the nice weather and head to wet n wild with a picnic too. Hopefully we can invite some of their friends to join us. There will no doubt also be a trip to Vintage Expresso and quite possibly Madame Tojos :-)

YAY for holidays.

September 20, 2012 in At Home, Children's Craft, Create | Permalink | Comments (1)

Top 5 Clean Eating Treat Recipes

I'm not sure if you've ever noted but we are pretty partial to sweet treats and baking in our house. Now that we eat clean 80 - 90 % of the time it's no reason for us not to have treats but my rules are simple - no butter, no refined sugar, no sugar replacements other than honey or pure maple syrup ( or agave at a push ), no processed white flours.

At first it was pretty daunting but now I am well into the swing of it and have worked out what will come out well and what end up in the bin. There have been plenty of fails along the way. I began with stalking blogs and today I am going to share my top 5 favourite

"NO FAIL - tastes and looks great wouldn't know they were healthy treat recipes"

with you.

The looks good thing is important - at first when I started sending some stuff to school it kind of looked umm well brown and umm healthy and the girls were not impressed.

These 5 recipes will keep all tummys well and truly happy!

1. Choc Chip Cookies by Teresa Cutter

2. No Bake Oatmeal Bites by Jessica

3. Wholemeal Apricot and Coconut Cake by Kidspot

4. Apple, Orange and Pear Quick Pops by Zoku

5. Apple Cake by Teresa Cutter

( Just a note on the Zoku pops - if you don't have a zoku just make them as you would in a normal iceblock mould :-)

Don't forget to pop over to Mel's blog - today she is sharing her on the go lunch box ideas.

September 18, 2012 in Clean Eating Recipes, Happy Lunches | Permalink | Comments (2)

September Sort It - Check in No 2

Time is marching on through September - Today is the 18th and that means just 12 more days to get it sorted!

We had a hugely busy weekend so I didn't get much of a chance to work on my list this week but I have made up for it today. I even managed to throw in a huge bonus item which was driving me nuts - Richard's work desk:) There was so much paper I had to move it all to the lounge room table to sort it - AND it filled the whole table! When I was finished - everything was filed in a small file.

I have also watched Salmon fishing in The Yemen - which was really quite good - different form what I expected I enjoyed it.

Although it was was awesome to cross more off again, I am down to the pointy end of the sort it list. It's all stuff that I am not keen to do and will take some time. I must stay focused I know I will love it when I am done. Can I just say a thousand apologies to those of you who added your link to last week's post - I stupidly thought I would get an email notification so I was surprised to pop there today and see all the links - I will come and visit tonight. Ill keep the list linky thing the same so we can all see how you've progressed - the old links will appear here too.

I hope you are well on your way to sort it bliss :)

September 18, 2012 in September Sort It | Permalink | Comments (4)

Christmas Countdown - Gifts

The countdown is on and there are 100 days till Christmas. Mel and I have joined forces again to bring you a ten part blog series to cut through the clutter and stress of Christmas. We promise there will be no major list writing, folder making, printing or organising processes.There are some really wonderful websites that do those things brilliantly and if that's what you need a quick google will give you that and so much more.

Instead we are offering our no nonsense just do it approach.

Today we are looking at gifts. This will be the only time we say get pen and paper or grab your phone and write a list. But really there is no way out of it. You need to know where you are heading with your gifts.

So keep it simple - a cute little notebook you can keep in your bag ( away from prying eyes ) or you may like to download this app for your phone, or just a lined piece of paper and an envelope to keep it safe will suffice.

Name ---- Gift----Budget

You can do it much fancier but that's the basics, remember we are keeping it simple.

Write down everyone you are buying for, if you have already bought something or made something write it in or if you have an idea of what you'd like to get them write it in.

Pop it in your bag when you are done and you'll always have it on you.

Now what to do with the blanks on that list? You do still have 100 days. It's not too late to be planning some handmade gifts. Work out who you are making for and what you are making and a rough idea of how long it will take you and when you are going to get started.

Where to start? Pinterest of course :) Mel and I both have Pinboards with lots of lovely things pinned. You most likely do too. Check them out. Yes I really did just say go spend some quality time on pinterest with your list. Here are some goodies I have pinned on my boards.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5

Handmade is always lovely but realistically the vast majority of us don't have time or even skill to make everything we would like so etsy is the next best thing. With 100 days out you still have plenty of time to get some etsy orders in and delivered. Working to your budget, calculate how many gifts you can get each pay period -try and structure your purchases so that you are getting from the furtherest away first. I placed an etsy order on the 25th August from a seller in Europe and there is still no sign of my parcel.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5

Book depository for your bookoholics - you probably want your orders in by end of October at the latest - The delivery from there slows up from early November on. I really have to start thinking about some books for the girls.

Save time by planning your shopping online first. There are very few bricks and morter stores that don't have websites so you can check out ideas online before you even start to go into stores

Finally check the dates for your local handmade/art markets. As we head to Christmas they tend to have lots of goods geared specifically towards gift giving so it's well worth planning a visit.

I hope that gives you lots to think about - try not to think too long - You have ten days to write your list and do your research - oh and the rule is if you find something fabulous you have to come back here and tell me.

Don't forget to pop over to Mel's blog to see her lovely lists of gifts to make and things she would like to buy.

Good luck happy list writing and online planning ;)

Quick Recap

Write a list
Do some online research
Fill in all the blanks on your list
Get started on your homemade gifts
Plan your budget as to when you'll place your orders/go shopping/visit the markets

Next Scheduled Post - 26th September - Charity Planning

September 16, 2012 in Christmas Countdown, Create | Permalink | Comments (8)

A Collection of Thoughts

September 2012

Garage Sale is ON! - September Sort It -

Garage Sale

Christmas Countdown - Charity

School Supplies - $5.00

Fish Farming - $5.00

Chickens - $5.00

Seeds - $5.00

Stamp Sale

Bitty Baby Blessings Stamp Set SOLD

Everyday Blessings Stamp Set SOLD

Eating Out

Rise of The Guardians

School Holiday Activities

Top 5 Clean Eating Treat Recipes

September Sort It - Check in No 2

Christmas Countdown - Gifts

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