A hobby to share

Several years back, I was a stay at home mum to two adorable baby boys. I felt like everything I did was about them and that my entire life, including my body, belonged to them.  I needed to do some exercise and I needed to find something for ME.  On a trip to the local library I noticed a flyer for bellydance classes. I had no idea what belly dance  was, but the times suited our family, so I gave it a shot.
Five minutes into the first class, I liked it. Half way through,  I loved it. By the end of that class I was obsessed! And so began my whirlwind journey into the world of  Middle Eastern Dance. 
Before a year was up, I had advanced to the top of my class, was relief teaching and did my first paid performance. After 18 months, our teacher left, and I took on the teaching of our class, also enrolling in online teacher training  courses.  Over the next few years, I became a qualified teacher with training in numerous genres; I started directing our professional troupe who perform regularly in restaurants and I expanded my classes from once a week up to 7 a week (at one stage). The  journey has been a mommoth one.  But throughout the journey, i have still been a wife, homemaker and mum.  So what do my family think?
Well first of all, I would like to say that from that very first lesson, there was nothing  but support. Stu has always stepped in to care for the kids if I've been out for dancing, and he does an amazing job.  The boys have  been awesome too - supportive and proud of their mum. 
But they took it further.  The boys loved dressing in my costumes and have very proudly had me dance and teach dancing at their kinder and school.  They have come to my classes and sat to watch and now are enrolled in my kids class.  Next week they'll be with me when I teach my first workshop at the Fun4Kids festival.
And Stu... My awesomely amazing husband..... He used his business knowledge and took on the busy role of treasurer for the group. He learnt how to make a website and created one for us. He takes photos, videos, helps with projects and more.  But the best thing? He has learnt to play the Egyptian drum, the darbuka, and can play music for me to dance to.
Next month we will be taking a 'grown-ups' weekend to go and perform together at a belly dance concert in Ballarat.  I'm enjoying rehearsing together and can't wait to be on stage with him.
It is great that I found something I love and am good at, but to be able to share it with the people I love the most is truly special.

12 months of Greening - January - Less waste part 2

Yesterday I talked about how we were working to reduce our household waste back in January.  We reduced a lot of the general waste and recycling, but also noticed a lot of single use products that we were using - mostly made of paper - and were also keen to reduce that waste.  Today I'm going to talk about that.

DISCLAIMER- In this post I'm going to be talking about replacing some personal hygiene products with cloth alternatives. Some of you might not want to know about this - if that's you, stop reading now and don't say you haven't been warned :-)

Cloth nappies

No, my 7 year olds don't wear nappies, so we don't use cloth nappies anymore, but we did.  We used lovely flat terry towelling nappies until the boys were 6 months old.  We then had a break from clothies as we moved house twice and were seriously sleep dperived, but picked them up again a few months later when we discovered modern cloth nappies.  We were big fans of fuzzibuns back then as the market for SAHM made nappies wasn't so big.  I loved the cloth nappies!  I didn't mind washing them, and except for the occasional leakage problem when the boys grew or changed (which would also happen with disposables) we had no problems with them.  Plus, how cute is a baby bum when clad in a cloth nappy?!

So we didn't bring in Cloth nappies this year, but I mention them here because I realised that if cloth was good enough for our precious babies' bums, then it was certainly good enough for some other uses..... here's what we've done.

Tissues

We used to have a box of tissues in every room. They'd be used for wiping noses, cleansing my face, mopping up and whatever else we could think of to do with them.  At times, you could look in our kitchen bin and find it piled up with scrunched up little white pieces of paper.  No more.  We have a single box of (100% recycled) tissues in the house in case a guest wants to blow their nose and that's it.  I found a collection of flanallette bunny rugs in the shed from when the boys were babies and cut them into two sizes with my pinking shears - small for my face cleansing, and larger to be our s'not paper tissues (yeah I know, we're hilarious!).  I made enough so that they don't need to be carried around like hankies often are, but are single use and then go in the wash.  Unless they are really dirty, they just get chucked in with the other washing, line dried (which kills any germs) and then folded back into their convenient basket. Simple, green and very cost effective!

S'not paper tissues drying in the sunshine

Dishcloths

I used to buy and use sponges and scourers for my dishes, use them for a couple of weeks and then toss them in the bin.  Not anymore.  My friend knitted me some dishcloths and I crocheted a few too, so now I have a lovely collection of washable dishcloths that do a much better job of cleaning than anything I could buy and then throw out anyway!

Paper towel

I never used much paper towel, but it was always there for the occasional spill/grill clean, and we had paper napkins on the table.  So, I replaced these with a set of homemade cloth napkins made from a vintage sheet.  With regards to the paper towel, we use rags to clean up most messes, but for some things, like cleaning the fat from the grill, we use a paper flour bag or similar that has already been used anyway.

Girly stuff

I bit the bullet and went cloth with my menstrual pads too.  I bought some made by a SAHM on ebay and then I made myself some using recycled fabrics.  I was a little dubious, but I LOVE them!  I used to have to buy a certain more expensive brand of pads as I reacted to something (don't want to think what) in most brands.  Now I don't have to worry about that because my pads are simple, clean fabric that has been washed in my homemade laundry powder!  They also fit well because I made them to fit well what could be better than that!?  I did find that they move around a bit when I'm excercising, so I also bought a menstrual cup.  My total cost outlay for my "kit" was about $60, which will have been well paid off in 6 months worth of savings.  And do I mind washing them?  Not at all, easier than nappies.

In the toilet

The only change we made in the toilet was to use strictly 100% recycled toilet paper.  I've hinted several times that we could try cloth, but am not being met with much enthusiasm from the rest of the family..... perhaps next year.

All in all, our changes here have saved an awful lot of landfill.  We might use a little more electricity and water in the washing, but the items slot in with normal washing, so it is negligible.  Plus we only wash in cold water and have water tanks that are nearly always full anyway, so the cost isn't worth considering. 


Have you made cloth changes?  Do you have any other suggestions? 
I'd love to hear your thoughts.

12 months of Greening - January - Less Waste Part 1

If you've seen any of my other 12 months of Greening posts, you'll know that we are giving ourselves little eco-challenges each month this year in an effort to make our home more environmentally friendly.  We have a calender in the loo with the monthly challenge written on it to remind us and I love that every time a visitor goes to powder their nose, they come back asking about the current month's challenge.  Sometimes they even stay a bit and read through the other months.  I feel like our personal challenge might have a carry on effect with our family and friends.  Maybe with the blog world too now.......

The challenge came about as a sort of New Year's Resolution after we cleaned up the Christmas mess.  We were all quite spoilt last year, but the amount of rubbish that we had to dispose of after all the celebrations made me feel physically ill.  Not only was there a pile of wrapping paper a mile high and a recycling bin full of the remains of Christmas party drinks, but the amount of packaging on the toys and other gifts and on the food was disgusting!  And then there were the cheap gift items that didn't last more than a few days and ended up in the rubbish bin too.  All in all, we contributed way too much to landfill for one small family - even after I meticulously removed all cardboard to recycle.

So the very first challenge of the year was to reduce the amount of household waste we produce on a regular basis (Christmas waste challenges are already set for this December!  Stay tuned!).  This turned out to be the catalyst for a vast number of changes we've made over the last 6 months - changing the way we shop, eat, give, dress and even renovate our home!  Because it was such a big month of change, I'm writing it up in two parts - this part will focus on general rubbish.

So, over the month of January, we paid close attention to each and every item that we went to throw in the rubbish bin.  We asked - could it, or any part of it be recycled instead - by us, or via the recycling bin?  And was there an alternative product that we could use that would produce less waste?

The first question was the best one for the children.  They would ask (and still do) whether an item should be recycled or was rubbish each time they went to the bin.  We got better at seperating items so that at least part of the packaging could be recycled, and I taped a list of normally disposable items that I could reuse to the inside of the bin cupboard so we could wash them and put them aside - tin cans, plastic bottles and jars in particular.

The second question was my big revelation.  I noticed that every single loaf of bread produced a bag and a tag; that the cat food we used produced a decent sized pile of packets; that fruit bought from some places came in ridiculous plastic containers and plastic bags; that tissues and paper hygiene products took up a large amount of bin space; and that sooooo many products that we buy (even the ones we called basics like pasta, plain biscuits and noodles) came with at least a plastic bag if not more rubbish.  This made me feel a bit silly that I hadn't noticed before, and a bit angry that even without meaning to, a family produces a huge amount of non-recyclable and non-organic waste.

And then I got creative.

I hunted the web for some ideas and I used the resources I already had and I started to reduce our waste by making better choices in the supermarket and also making nearly everything from scratch.  By making my own bread, pasta and biscuits, I not only reduced the waste that we created to a small pile of recyclable products like flour sacks, I was also able to give my family a better quality product for a smaller price.  I changed the way I shopped too, choosing to buy a weeks worth of fresh pet mince for the cats instead of the small packets and buying my fruit and veg where it was not packaged (and using my homemade produce bags instead of the plastic ones at the shop). 

Plastic bags got the total flick too.  We used to use green bags most of the time, but if we forgot and got plastic bags, that was OK as we used the bags as bin liners.  We learnt that you actually don't need a bin liner (duh!) and rubbish now goes straight into the household bin and then into the big bin for collection.  And if the bin gets a bit dirty?  We wash it!  So our green bags became essential items and we got much better at taking them with us (because if we don't, we still can't get a plastic bag and therefore have to carry the shopping with no bag which isn't fun!).  And as I mentioned, I made some produce bags for the fruit and veg.

We looked at every item we bought, and thought seriously about its packaging.  Sometimes we chose to buy with more packaging (money and quality still had to be considered), but often we decided to do without or buy an alternative with less waste.

Paper products got a big overhaul too, but I'm going to discuss those tomorrow.

As I said, it affected our dressing too.  We introduced a "one in-one out" policy for clothes which seriously makes you think twice about buying that "bargain" and we started fixing more items if they still had life in them, all in all, less waste from newly purchased products and also from us throwing things out.  And the renos?  When we decided to renovate the kitchen, we thought of as many ways as possible to avoid throwing things out - before we pulled out the cupboards, we allocated them new jobs in the shed and the greenhouse (which we haven't built yet.....) and before we pulled up the lino, it had new homes set up in the kids cubby and my mum's laundry.

Producing a certain amount of rubbish is, sadly, inevitable, but the amount that we produce is controllable.  By changing our ways, we find that most weeks we produce only one small kitchen bins worth of rubbish and a couple of boxes of recycling.  This is about 1/4 of what we used to produce.  Imagine if everyone in the world reduced their waste production by 75%..........

To be continued

A productive morning

Not every day goes according to plan, but today seems to be flowing along very nicely. It is just about lunchtime and I've achieved a lot. I've:

• Made lunches and breakfasts, listened to readers and gotten the kids out the door on time.
• Washed two loads of washing and hung them out to dry together with a woolen blanket that needed cleaning

The sun has made a rare appearance today to dry my washing!

• Cleaned the toilet and laundry
• Had a shower and gotten dressed (this doesn't always happen, sometimes I get so busy I forget!)
• Made all the beds and tidied the bedrooms
• Tidied and cleaned the kitchen
• Made some more chai tea blend as I'd run out in the pantry
• Cleaned out the recipe pile and found a sultana loaf recipe I had scribbled down but didn't remember what the result was
• Baked the sultana loaf, then threw out the recipe as the result was not great!
• Baked a loaf of bread and a batch of rolls
• Written the week's menu plan and tomorrow's shopping list
• Given the dogs and cats their worm treatments
• Made arrangements for dinner on Saturday with family
• Booked an appointment to give blood next week
• Booked accomodation for a belly dance weekend next month
• Made some chai tea from the new blend - its delicious!

And I have the whole afternoon stretching out in front of me to work on lesson plans and choreographies for next term.

Days like today make me feel warm and successful.
Days like today make me feel not only justified, but proud to be a stay at home mum and homemaker.

I hope you're having a productive day too.

Screen Free Saturdays

We've recently introduced "Screen Free Saturdays" in our home.  This means no TV, DVD, Wii, DS, Computer, internet, smartphones and more!  And this is a fairly big deal in our family.

Why did we do it?

We've always believed that our kids "screen time" should be limited.  We stopped just having the TV on all the time when they were babies as we didn't like what was on it entering their precious growing minds.  But TV crept in.  Videos and DVDs were a great entertainment and also a learning tool for our toddlers and later children.  The boys went through fazes of Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, Play School and Teletubbies, then later Ben 10 and similar bigger boy shows.  They also now love to play on the Wii and on their DSs, and also hop on the computer from time to time.  They are given a portion of screen time in the morning and the afternoon (unless we're busy) and sometimes we watch something as a family.  It seems like a lot, but our TV goes off at other times, and the boys have to ask permission to use their computer games. 

What our children watch has also always been monitored, with movies and games rated above their age definitely being out, and when they watch TV, they are restricted to the children's programs on ABC or some of the commercial channels. We watch a small amount of other TV together (such as a bit of Better Homes and Gardens once a week).  We only have one TV (which also has the Wii attached) and one computer.  But both kids have DSs and we both have smartphones.

I've noticed that some people's children can ignore a screen in a room -  getting bored with the program or just not being interested.  Ours aren't like that.  If a TV or computer screen is on, they are transfixed, taking in all of the information being given out by the screen. Why they are like this, I don't know, but they are.

Compared to many households, screens are limited in our home, but we still see obvious effects of too much screen time.  No, no-one has developed square eyes, but attention spans, imaginative play and tempers are quite clearly altered by long spans of screen time - in all of us.

My small children are not likely to become obese from sitting watching TV frequently, but we wanted to show them that a day doesn't have to work around the screens in our lives, and encourage them to find alternative activities.  We figured that this wasn't a bad thing for us either, so as a family, we decided to introduce screen free Saturdays.  A day with no screens (with the exception being answering our mobiles) at all for any of us or anyone else in our home on the day.

What do we do instead?

It should be easy right?  Its not!  Again, I'd like to point out that we don't just sit and watch TV or spend all day on the computer, but when you are used to hopping on Facebook, googling a recipe, watching a movie in the evening or chilling with a computer game for a bit, the day suddenly stretches in front of you - long and screenless.  So we created a list of screen free alternatives that we could turn to when we ran out of ordinary screen free activities - kind of a kick start so we didn't sit twiddling our thumbs waiting for Sunday.  Many of the items are things we do anyway, but for some reason, might need reminding that they are good things to do.  Here they are:

• Write a letter
• Read a book or magazine
• Enter a magazine competition (the kids have magazine subscriptions)
• Play a board game
• Do a puzzle
• Work in the garden
• Cook something
• Go for a bike ride of a walk
• Draw/Paint/Sketch
• Make something - craft
• Play on the trampoline or in the cubby
• Put on music and dance
• Listen to audiobooks or the radio
• Play with the pets
• Play and explore in the garden
• Tidy your room (my addition - don't think anyone will be doing it voluntarily!)

• And when the kids go to bed - pour a glass of wine and sit enjoy each others company.

And here's some more ideas.

Its working for us and I hope we'll keep doing it - Saturdays feel like our time now, without the outside world screaming at us through various screens.

12 months of Greening - February - Rubbish Free Lunches

I thought I'd better get back to my 12 months of greening posts before another month clicks over and before I forget what we did back then.

Today I thought I'd post about February.  In February, the boys went back to school, so it seemed sensible to make our challenge school oriented.  We decided to go with rubbish free lunches, but extend it beyond the children's school lunches and make it about Stu's work lunches and my lunches too.

The kids lunches turned out to be the easiest.  We were already using plastic sandwich boxes, small plastic "snack boxes" and reusable drink bottles for water.  The only tricky things here were that I had to make more items from scratch than I already was - no "lazy morning" chucking in of muesli bars any more.  And occasionally, I had to get creative with how to pack things - like muffins which were too big for the snack boxes (cut them in half and pack differently) and bread rolls the wrong shape for sandwich boxes (more about these in a minute).  We didn't worry about organic rubbish in lunches, so apple cores and banana peel wasn't a concern.  Our school also has a "heat up" day in which kids can take along something from home to be warmed in the pie oven or heated in the microwave.  Last year the boys took a LOT of cup noodles.  These got the flick this year to be replaced with homemade pies and leftovers.

I thought the adult lunches would be easy, but we learnt that we eat takeaway items more often than we thought!  Stu would often "not have time" or "forget" to make lunch in the past or I would be held up in town and then we would "have to" buy something - there is a lot of rubbish in a takeaway lunch (in more ways than one!).

So we got better with our remembering and always took at least a bottle of water and a snack, if not a whole lunch.  The other problem we came across was bread rolls. Stu and I, like lots of adults, like to have a bread roll stacked with salad, meat and cheese and we found that these wouldn't fit in a standard sandwich box, or if put into a larger box, would fall apart and be a mushy mess by lunchtime.  So I created roll wraps.  A washable fabric wrap for rolls that simply buttons around to hold it all together :)

Several months later..... we still don't use plastic wrap or other disposables in our lunches.  Although we will sometimes (maybe once a month) get a takeaway lunch, and when we have been really busy (like when we built the kitchen) the kids have had the odd muesli bar or similarly packaged snack.  But for the most part, we are still having rubbish free lunches - SUCCESS!  And, this green change, comes with bonus health and financial benefits :)

Celebrating Winter

Its no secret - Winter is my least favourite season.  I don't like that the cold makes my fingers and toes ache; that the washing needs to be dried on the verandah or in the house; that we have to run heaters; that things get wet and muddy; that my garden is less productive; and that I have to wear shoes.  I'd love to move somewhere warmer, but this is where we live, and I understand that each season has its place and that having winter makes spring and summer even more special.  So, this weekend, we celebrated winter.

We had intentions of celebrating Winter Solstice, but I was working, so we made it Friday night instead. 

We made ourselves some ice lanterns which we placed out on the verandah.



Ice lanterns - so simple and pretty

We all rugged up in boots, coats, hats, scarves, gloves and thermals (except me - I forgot them and hence I was the only one that was cold!) and equipped ourselves with a torch and some glow sticks.

Jamie and Lachie heading out into the cold wintery night

Then we headed out into the fast approaching night.  The sun dropped down quickly as we walked around our tiny country town.  The dogs loved the walk, but were feeling the cold.  We tried to avoid the slippery muddy puddles and the boys learnt what a silhouette was as we watched the sky change colour behind the trees.

We were watched by some cows (who thought we were crazy).  We paid an impromptu visit to the cemetary by torchlight (and weren't at all spooked) to look at graves, some of which were about 150 years old and beautiful. 

Heading out of town

The boys (I think they were being "winter ninjas")

me and the kids and the muddy puddly road

It rained on us as we approached home, so we arrived a bit damp to see our pretty little lanterns still glowing.  The house was warm as smelled deliciously of the casserole with herb dumplings that was cooking in the oven.  It was delicious and warmed us to the core!

Lachie loved his personal kid-sized casserole

Poor Jamie has a cold and a sore runny nose :(

Then we had hot chocolates, homemade marshmallows and a board game in front of the heater before the boys went off to bed with hot water bottles and a wintery story.

We enjoyed celebrating winter and are now looking ahead to longer, warmer days.

Guilt free shopping

Welcome Down to Earth-ers!

Hello!  Welcome to everyone popping over from Rhonda's blog!  I love Rhonda's "Weekend reading" posts, so feel very honoured to be a part of one.  I've filled up the tea-pot, so help yourself to a cup and have a look around.  Then come back often - I love visitors! :)

~~~

I have two big bad addictions - chocolate and shopping.  The first is fairly self explanatory, and we won't go into that, but shopping is a problem for someone who chooses to live on a tight budget and in a small home.  Not that I've ever been an extravagant shopper, but I am a sucker for the clearance racks and catalogues full of "bargains".  I'm reminded of this a lot this month as it is Toy Sale month.  Usually, in June, I've been around collecting all of the big shop toy catalogues and am busily browsing them with the kids and then buying "bargains" for birthdays and Christmas (that more often than not are not really wanted in 6 months....).  But not this year..... I have changed my ways!

image from http://theramblingsofamummy.blogspot.com.au/

Back in January, I made myself not buy anything for a month (other than groceries).  I didn't go to the shopping centres or down the street for a browse and I didn't go into opshops (thrift/charity stores) either.  I did really well and at the end of the month had a short list of 3 items that we needed to buy.  I think of all the things I probably would have bought and that I then saved on by not going, and I'm very pleased!

I'm allowed to shop again now, but I've gone right off the regular stores, and instead spend my shopping time (and dollars) in the local opshops.  Mum used to take us opshopping as kids, my best friend and I opshopped as teens, and as a mum of babies, I loved the opshop for toys and baby clothes.  Now I browse the opshop for craft items, household items, books and puzzles for the kids and clothes to wear or for repurposing/upcycling.  I still try to stick to the "needs" and less of the "wants", but at least with opshops, I don't feel so bad.

Opshops are great for so many reasons....

• By spending there you are usually helping a charity.
• You spend a very small amount of money to get your shopping fix items for your home
• You are recycling items that were no longer any use to someone else
• You never know what you'll find and the items are changing all the time
• You often find fabulous vintage/retro/antique items for a fraction of the price they are sold elsewhere.
• And if you buy to much (!) you can always donate the excess back and feel good for just making a financial donation :P

I wanted to share a few of my recently thrifted items with you now.

a sweet (and shiny - sorry) little teapot ($1)

no - not the dogs!  The sheets I used to crochet this rag rug for the kitchen (I used two at $2ea)
(but how cute are the dogs - Buddy and Hurley, they felt the need for some blog stardom)

In this photo you can see my roman blind, made from a vintage opshop sheet ($2), another sweet teapot hanging on the pot rack ($1) and my spice rack on the wall which I bought still in the 1970's box and complete with all the bottles and stickers ($5)

A beautiful and practical cast iron meat grinder ($8)

 

An antique sewing machine table/cupboard ($60).  It also came with a vintage sewing machine (not the original) but it wasn't in working order, so I have taken it out and will pass it on to my brother to "play" with.

There have been many more items lately, some not from opshops, but from vintage shops, garage sales and markets too.  I love buying second hand......

Do you opshop?  I'd love to see some of your favourite opshop purchases.  If you write a blog, perhaps you could write your own post on them (and link back here, I don't know how to do a proper bloggy party yet, but that'll work!)

Thanks so much for visiting! :D

Six months worth of homemade gifts

This year, I made the commitment to give ONLY homemade gifts for 12 months.  I've tried homemade gifts sporadically over the years with limited success, but this year I made it clear to everyone that I was making all the gifts and have made some really beautiful things and been really happy with the reactions so far.

I decided to make the gifts for a few reasons.  1. it is usually cheaper.  2. it is nearly always greener (particularly when you can use recycled materials) 3. I can get most of the gifts without a trip to the shops and 4. the gifts are more personal

I thought I would share with you what I've made - if you want to know how I made any particular item, let me know, I'm happy to share! :)

(I'll post each one individually as I make them in the future - this post is very pic heavy!)

Gift 1 - Personalised photo coasters for my Father in law

Gift/s 2 - a CD/DVD case and a funky vase for my sister's 14th birthday

Gift 3 - Cotton dishcloths as a housewarming present

Gift 4 - Upcycled woolen cap for my Stepdad's birthday

nice modelling Stu! xo

  

Gift 5 - Rosemary Cedar and Mandarin handscrub with a bamboo washcloth for a friend's birthday

love this photo taken on our rustic kitchen floor before it was polished!

Gift 6 - A cupcake pincushion for a friend (and a framed pincushion for me!)

Gifts 7 (there have been about 4 of these) - presents for boys who have invited my kids to their parties - juggling balls and trinket keepers

Gifts 8 (there's been about 3 of these) - presents for girls whose parties the boys have gone to - girly trinket keepers and crocheted hair clip and headband sets

(oops!  no photos!!)

Gift 9 - upcycled vintage pillowcase showing bags for mother's day

Gift 10 - a recycled magazine bowl for a friend's birthday

this isn't my bowl, but looks a lot like the one I made

Gift 11 - an upcycled tshirt bangle for a friends 16th birthday (delivered with a jar of homemade spicy nut mix)

Gift 12 - a roll up/wall pocket xbox game storage thingamy for my brother's 16th (also delivered with a jar of homemade spicy nut mix)

Gift 13 - a crocheted mohair cowl for my mother in law's birthday

Gift 14 - a sewn clutch/handbag for a friends birthday

Gift 15 - a nappy stacker (full of our hand me down pocket nappies) for my brother Sister in law's  unborn baby

(gah!  no pics for any of those!)

I think that is it so far!  My hubby and kids got in on the theme for my birthday too and put together a homemade foot spa for me - love 'em!

 

Do you make gifts?  What do you make?  Would love some new ideas!!

Tea in Granny's Garden

I love my tea pot.  It's so plump and sweet looking in its glosssy yellow paint and sweet white daisies.  Stu bought it for me (together with its matching sugar bowl and milk jug) for our first Christmas after we moved in together, so it has been travelling around with us or some time now.  I've just recently starting using it for tea again though - there is nothing like a pot of tea in winter, and I also love filling it with my homemade chai. 



Here's my teapot in action for our "high tea" on the weekend.

But my brews were not staying warm enough, so I needed a tea cosy.  I was going to buy one, but the only ones I could find were blah, so I started hunting for a pattern.  It had to be crochet (cos I'm not a knitter), reasonably easy, use yarn I already had and preferably be pretty too.  I found a pattern for a Granny stripe cosy, and started with some blue yarn I had lying around and made this......

Pretty cute huh?  And perfectly practical..... but I had an idea brewing (hehe - yep, I meant that pun) and the cold windy day today proved to be the perfect time to let my idea bloom (yep, that's another pun....)  And I created this -

Ta-da!!  Tea in Granny's Garden!  I love love love it!  It looks so sweet in my kitchen - like spring arrived early.  And with a bit of luck, it'll keep my tea warm too :)

No fat chocolate brownie - recipe!

I love to bake, as do most of the women in my family.  I was talking about baking to one of my sister in law's yesterday, the one who is 7 months pregnant, who said she was craving sweet sweet sweet (to which I thought "the only time I didn't crave sweet was when I was pregnant!"), and therefore baking a LOT!  This would be fine, but she is a little concerned that maybe she doesn't need all the fat that comes with sweet baking, and my brother doesn't either - and this reminded me of a great recipe I found years ago.

This recipe I found when I was working in admin at the hospital in Ballarat.  Each week a group of us secretaries would gather for a morning cuppa and we would take it in turns bringing in morning tea to share.  Now I've always been able to cook, but 10 years ago I did hardly any baking as it was just the two of us.  I was the youngest in the group and so I watched week after week as the others brought in perfect scones, slices, cakes, friands and biscuits baked by them (mostly).  And each week, they would all lament that these morsels of yumminess would do horrible things for their diets.  And then it was my turn.  I was a little daunted by the task, and wanted to be able to bake something yummy and also not too terrible for us and I found this recipe.... No Fat Chocolate Brownies.  And guess what?  they're easy peasy and DE-licious!  They are not truly low cal (about 85 cal per serve according to the original recipe), but with no butter or oil, they are at least better than many other options. 

Ready to try 'em?  Here you go!

Ingredients

2 medium cooking apples
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking/bicarb soda
2 egg whites (or if you don't mind "low fat" instead of "no fat", just chuck in the yolks too)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa

How to do it

Peel, core and chop your apples and cook them with a little water (microwave or stove top) until soft.  Smash them up a bit with your wooden spoon and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 20cm square pan with baking paper.

Mix together your cooked apples (it should be about 2/3 cup - no stress if its not exact, but try to get close) with all of your other ingredients.

Pour into the pan and spread out.

Bake for 20-30min until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before gently removing from the pan.

The original recipe said to cut into 8 squares, but I cut into 9 and use the 9th one as a taste test :P

YUM!!

New Boots!!

What is it with the female sex and shoes?  Why are so many girls obsessed with collecting shoes?  They just cover our feet!  I don't get it - that doesn't mean I don't like shoes though.  I don't have many pairs of heels , just the ones from my wedding and a pair of basic black ones, but here's my shoe love......

I love myself a new pair of $2 thongs (flip flops/jandals - whatever!) every summer.

I was very very pleased when I found a pair of bright orange Dunlop Volleys on clearance and in my size a few years back.

When my brother made me these I was over the moon, and only wore them inside so as not to wreck them for months!

Half decorated shoes - finished they were completely covered.

I love the look of thongs and bare feet so much that I had my foot decorated to make it work even more (artwork and inkwork again by my extraordinarily talented brother Mark Sender)

A good pair of socks is also worth noting here.... and I've just finished my first hand crocheted pair!!  YAY! (they're not as great as I'd hoped, now I'm trying to learn to knit socks....)

But this week, I bought the best pair of shoes I own.......

Perfect for splashing in puddles, feeding the chooks, digging in the garden or walking up to the shop to check the mail - and only $20!  Bargain!! :)

A visit to my home.....

I love it when people visit us. 

Sometimes its a friend who shows up unannounced.  These times they get to see my real home - the one that is a little shabby round the edges, with crumbs and pet hair; crochet projects, an empty wine glass and last nights earings on the coffee table; kids beds unmade and their toys and books strewn on the floor; and a basket of yet to be sorted washing or dishes on the kitchen bench.  I'm always a tad embarrased at first when this happens, but then I remember that if I was the unannounced guest, I wouldn't mind a mess in their home.  So I relax, wipe away the worst crumbs, put on the kettle and get out the biccie tin.  Work stops when a friend visits so we can chat and enjoy my home - warts and all.

Then there are the expected visitors.  These come with the bonus of prep time and anticipation.  They get a vacuumed floor; a tidy house; me in clean clothes with brushed hair; and food cooked just for them.  Everyone waits excitedly for them to arrive (my kids sit in the window watching for arrivals!).  Again, work stops, the kettle goes on (often more than once) and we chat and enjoy my home. 

We make a home for ourselves.  We put in it all the things we need for our immediate little family and decorate it the way we like it to be.  We cook the things we like to eat and live the way we like to live.  But when we get to share it, it makes it even more special.

If you've ever visited my home - thank you!  Know that your visit makes me feel special and that I loved having you here.  I hope you'll come again soon.

If you've never visited my home, but have stumbled across my blog some way or another - Welcome to my virtual home!  Thank you for visiting, it makes me really happy to share a bit of our life and home with you.  Please leave a little comment below so I know you popped by and by all means, help yourself to the virtual biccie tin! :)

One of the best things about ATS (AKA freaking out about dancing solo)

In the "spotlight"
(but the Alish right behind me)

I call myself a belly dancer.  I have studied and I teach a range of Middle Eastern Dance styles and think all of them are beautiful.  But if given the choice of what to dance, study or teach, tribal is my pick.  American Tribal Style dance (ATS) or Improvised Tribal Style (ITS) is a group improvised style of dance that incorporates a vocabulary of movements, each unique and (where needed) with its own cue.  A group of dancers has a leader who chooses the movements to perform based on the music she is dancing to, and the others follow.  It is a silent language and, when done well, the audience (unless educated) won't know that it is an improvised performance as the dance becomes seamless and stunningly beautiful.

At my dance school, Koroit Belly Dance, we call this style of dance MiTS (Meenkeel Improvised Tribal Style), and we study and incorporate movements from a range of teachers and troupes as well as adding some of my unique movements.  Most of the credit for our movements and education goes to Carolena of Fatchance Belly Dance and Devi of Ghawazi Caravan.

aaahhh.... reconnecting

Together with my troupe, the Meenkeel Gypsies, I perform MiTS more often than not.  It works fabulously in restaurants and parties as it fits into any space and, because it is improvised, we can work within the moment - include an audience member in the dance, move to a different space in the restaurant or (and this is the point I am coming to) duck out of the spotlight when we have a little moment of nerves or a mind blank.

Beauty in a small space

You see in all of these styles, there is a leader, but at any point in the dance, she can decide to change the lead, therefore allowing another dancer from the group to come forward and take over.  Leading the dance is the part of ITS that most beginner dancers hate - that moment of being in the spotlight and having to think of what to do, being responsible for the whole troupe!  But experienced dancers come to love the lead.  Being in the lead gives you a chance to play with the moves that you love the most, making the music work in the way that you think it should and therefore showcasing the dance how you believe it should be.  It also gives you a moment of "spotlight"!  Being up there in the lead, you can't really see the other dancers, so for a moment, you can imagine that you are dancing solo and being amazing doing so (OK, that sounds like showing off - but we're performers, we're meant to!).  So you're up there being awesome (at least you think so) and then you make eye contact with an audience member and suddenly your mind goes blank and you start to freak out...........  and here it is, the beauty of ITS .......  you turn that move around and there are your dance sisters, smiling at you, and it all feels OK again.  One of them takes the lead and you keep on dancing - seamless.

Dance sisters!  Love em!

I can dance solo.  I have done plenty of times, on stage and at restaurants and parties, and I've just signed myself up for another performance on my own.  I teach "solo" too - in all of my classes and workshops, I'm up the front of the room dancing and instructing on my own.  But I don't love it as much.  Without my sisters right there to help me out, the spotlight is a little brighter and scarier, my hands shake a little more and the butterflies in my tummy go crazy.  Solos are not my thing, but I'll keep doing them because there is a need for them, but also because they make me appreciate my dance sisters even more.