Household Routines - Getting my ducks in a row

Since becoming a stay at home mum last year I have struggled to find a routine that works for me (us). I have always worked outside the home and so cleaned madly in the evenings and on weekends and days off and it was working OK for us (not great but not too bad either). But now I have too much time on my hands and I get very little done. And to top it all off I am a procrastinator!

There is so much information out there but I find most of the books deal with getting rid of clutter and fortunately clutter isn't my problem. Oh sure, there's some around here but not to the point that it makes me want to tear my hair out, it's just the general run-of-the-mill stuff that can quickly turn a clean home into a huge mess in the space of 5 minutes (they're call kids LOL).

And these past 6 weeks I have had one more thing that throws any routine that I did have completely out of the window. School holidays. Enough said.

But today Miss 8 goes back to school. And tomorrow Miss 12 will too.

So I'm starting afresh. I know what was working for me (very little) and what wasn't (almost all of it). So over the coming weeks I will be posting about my progress and what's working for me and hopefully things around here will start to get a little more organised. I will make time for going to the gym, and for the home improvement projects that I desperately want to do as well as for the more mundane, like washing the floors and the like.

So pop in when you can and check out how I am going, and if you have any tips please comment.

Cheers

Tutorials

Wow, there are some great tutorials out there, and here are a few I'm loving right now and may even be tempted into making some of them (damn I'm funny!).

Some lovely tea towels (Sew, Mama, Sew)

Lovely crocheted headbands (Tangled Happy)

This great stashbusting crocheted shopping bag (Attic 24)

A rag rug (Sugar Bee Crafts)

and finally...

A different take on a rag rug (Craft Passion)

All in all a lot of lovely things to inspire a crafting girl like me. I will definitely be making the headbands, they look so easy and quick to make!

What's inspiring you at the moment?

Cheers

Recipe - Eggplant Parmigiana

Well the school holidays are almost over and it has been fairly frantic around here. I have been working on a couple of projects for a friend's baby shower at the end on the month and some quick wins around the house (new curtains, measuring for new blinds, retouching some painting). More on all of those later.

I have also been working a little in the garden as some of the summer crops are starting to die off and there is still a little time left to get a couple of new crops in before the cooler weather arrives.

Last week I made this Eggplant Parmigiana as part of last week's Meatless Monday and it was delicious! It started off as this recipe, however as I was out of some of the ingredients it quickly turned into a slight variation.

Ingredients
2 medium eggplants, cut into 1cm thick slices
Olive Oil
Medium onion, finely chopped
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 jar pasta sauce
Grated cheese
Bambini bocconcini

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C, Salt eggplant for 10 minutes then rinse under cold water and pat dry with paper towel.
2. Whilst eggplant is salting, heat a little oil in a medium saucepan, add onion and garlic and saute until soft, add tomatoes and pasta sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, giving it a stir when needed.
3. Add a little oil to frypan and cook eggplant in batches, drain on paper towel.
4. Layer tomato mixture with eggplant and grated cheese, finishing with tomato, bocconcini and grated cheese, bake for approx 20 minutes. Delicious!

Cheers

Pinterest deliciousness

I am more than a little inspired by some of these lovelies...

I have a long hallway with one unbroken wall and I am looking to do this on it. (Sorry I couldn't find the credit for this photo so if it is yours let me know).

Courtesy of PeelAndStickDecals Etsy store

Our back bathroom toilet is broken and is constantly running and wasting water (it has the runs as we like to joke around here, sorry horrid taste in jokes I know!), so we have been shopping all over the place looking for replacements (that don't cost over $600!!!) and I would love to put one of these decals on it!

purlbee.com

How lovely are these! There is even a great tutorial found here, watch out for mine soon.

housetohome.co.uk

And finally this one, it makes my heart swoon and is the inspiration for my loungeroom makeover, I'll keep you posted on how that is going over the coming weeks and no doubt months.

Cheers

Cookbook of the month - January

The cookbook for January is 'Grow It, Cook It' by Sally Cameron. I picked this book because the garden is going a little crazy and I desperately needed some new ways with zucchinis! We almost have them up to our ears with the plants going crazy (although they look like they might soon start dying back) and now the eggplant is cropping nicely so I need some recipes for that too.

Last month's cookbook of the month (to be found here) turned out to be a bit of a fizzer as I used the current edition of Australian Good Taste for most of my recipes as well as a few of old favourites. I did however make these shortbread biscuits from the book and the girls had a great time using the Xmas cookie cutters.

Cheers

2012 - A Year of Home and Health

They will be my focus this year, home and health.

Home because we have been in this (almost) lovely house for over 13 years and it still looks like we moved in last week!  So many unfinished projects, argh!

And health because last year I turned the big 4-0 and I have noticed everything is starting to slow down (let's not even mention the metabolism!) and, if I'm honest, I have never been the fittest girl on the block (is it OK to still call myself a girl? everything else sounds weird). So I joined the gyn in December, and Santa bought me a bike, which I (very) promptly fell off.

So there it is folks, what's your focus for the year? Do you even have one? I like the idea of having an overall plan for the year, especially now that I am a stay at home mum and it is so easy to not focus on something and before you know it 7 months have gone past and I still haven't achieved much. I know some in blogland have a word of the year and I tried it out but couldn't find anything to fit (they were all more than one word - stop procrastinating; get off your butt; just do it dammit, etc).

So stay tuned, I will be posting some of my projects, and maybe some of my very honest before shots as I work my way around this home. I think first up will be the enormous piles of paper in my office area, good grief I could be here for days!

Cheers