Happy Dancing

Honestly, I can't recommend this stuff highly enough.

ekoWorx is my new best friend and I am obsessed!

I walk around the house with my atomiser bottle and a cloth, thinking to myself ... "I wonder if it will work on this?!"

Today, I had a massive win!

In our hallway, ever since we moved in, there has been a splash mark low on the wall. I think the builders or some kind of tradie in the house splashed something on the wall and didn't clean it off. Whatever is was, set hard and fast on the wall. It was the colour of treacle and it set like shiny concrete.

We have tried every cleaner known to mankind on that mysterious splash, we've tried steam cleaning, we've even tried to scrape it off with a paint scraper to no avail. I figured that when it was time to repaint the house, we would have to sand it off before applying the new paint.

Today, while I was wandering around the house spot cleaning the walls, I stopped at this hideous and annoying splash and thought "I doubt if it will work, but I'm going to try ekoWorx on it".

I had to apply and rub the ekoWorx three times to get it off, BUT IT CAME OFF!!

I tell you, I did a little happy dance up and down the hallway feeling very pleased with myself. Even Adoring Husband was amazed because he too had tried many different ways to remove it!

Even though I climbed out of bed with every intention of going immediately to my workspace and spending the day absorbed in my studies and adding to the website, I was very quickly distracted and ended up spending my entire day cleaning!

I made some breakfast - tomato and onion on a GF bread roll - the new Helga rolls - delicious.

I dragged out the slow cooker and put a big batch of chicken broth on for 22 hours.

I put a very large load of washing in the machine, then stripped the bed and put my new Doona cover on the Doona using this method ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFOhjljieqs

... it was SOOOOO easy, I can't believe how much time I've wasted over the years wrestling with my Doona when I change covers!

Even if I do say so myself, it looks fabulous!

From there, I cleaned the main bathroom and toilet with ekoWorx and then lay out my new teal bath mats, which look great.

Another load of washing in the machine, hung out the big load, took other washing off the line.

Swept the floors. Mopped (with my new ekoWorx mop) the little black doggy footprints off the floors. This morning, Colli went running in the wet grass, then across the black sand and then straight inside onto the tiles! Bloody hell!

I walked around the house spot cleaning walls and skirting boards until the Blonde Bombshell popped in to have a look at the ekoWorx bundle and while she was here, she even did some shopping!!

After all of that, super Saturday football started, so I had to sit down to watch the footy.

So far, I'm doing well with my footy tipping, although I'm not confident about this last game between Roosters and Storm. I've tipped Roosters, but the Storm are winning by 6 points at half time.

I feel it might be an early night for me tonight.

Part of my studies for working an online business includes a section in decluttering your house - which I totally understand, because some days I struggle to focus, knowing that there are chores to be done in the house.

My 'declutter' list includes:

• Clearing out the linen cupboard.
• Pulling out the washing machine, cleaning behind it and cleaning the big glass sliding door.
• Pulling out the bed and the side tables and giving it all a good dusting and a clean.
• Both the spare bedrooms need to be cleared.
• Windows need to be washed.
• Bathroom drawers need to be cleaned out.
• Kitchen cupboards need to be emptied, crockery culled and shelving washed. 
• Spare wardrobes need to be cleared and the clothes need to go to charity.
• Ceiling fans need to be cleaned.
• Dressing table needs to be cleared and I need to cull a LOT of jewellery that I haven't worn in years.

I'm sure that I have other stuff on the list on my desk. It's time to write the jobs on cards, pin them to the cork board again and work through them like we did last year.

Gawd, I'm exhausted just thinking about it!! Small steps.

What I really need to do, is earn enough money with my website to hire a cleaner!! I'll put that on my wish list :)

I'm off to watch the last half of footy.

Nite all.

 

Date Day with AH

We had an early start to get into The Bay by 9.15am for the morning showing of this movie ...



It was great. I'm not sure about Chris Pine for the lead male role, because I'm so used to him playing Captain James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek!

There was one disappointing moment in the movie, but it was very brief.

I thought Gal Gadot was perfect for the role of Diana (aka Wonder Woman) and all of the other characters and the actors who played the roles, were great too.

Oh and the bad guy sported a moustache that was all kinds of wrong!

After the movie, I braved Bunnings!! Yes, you heard that correctly ... I voluntarily entered Bunnings!

This is where I stocked up on silicone, the squeezie gun thingo to get the silicone out, grout, tools and few tiles so that I can practice mosaic-ing during our art break. Creative Cath is having us over to her house for some creative, artistic, arty farty time.

With no art tomorrow, I hope to spend the day at my desk. I have a few things on my 'to do' list and if I can get a few hours on a run, I might just be able to achieve something!

On that note, it is rapidly approaching midnight, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

It's here!!

I've waited, very impatiently I might add, for the delivery of my ekoWorx pack which arrived today!!

You know that I'm all about the easiest way to get housework done with the least toxic products that are available.

I found this fabulous company on a Facebook advertisement. I did my research and found so many positive reviews everywhere ... including their Facebook page, which is full of rave reviews. Every time I see a new ad, I look at the comments attached and they are always positive.

So, I bit the bullet and put in an order during their end of financial year sale.  I got my pack for 60% less than the usual price.

This is what arrived ...

6 litres of ekoWorx cleaning liquid
1 Spray mop with 7 pads
3 Atomiser spray bottles
24 Cleaning clothes with different weaves
7 Diamond sponges

As soon as I got it home, I unpacked it, changed into my cleaning clothes and started cleaning!

I started in the ensuite bathroom. I didn't take a 'before' photo because, quite frankly, I was embarrassed by the state of it and couldn't bear the the thought of anyone seeing it.

The only tine I use our ensuite shower, is when we have visitors staying with us. The reason being, it is a tiny, poky little room with minimal storage space and hardly any room to move. When they built our house, they made a mistake in this bathroom and made the shower recess too big, so there is little room to move in the space that's left.

Anyway, Adoring Husband is in charge of the ensuite, and you know what men are like. Need I say more?

It took me over an hour to clean it from top to bottom, but it is seriously sparkling clean and the only mould that I couldn't remove, is that which is under the silicone. We don't use bleach ever. I've tried so many different products, without success, but this one is fantastic.

The cloths are great. The diamond sponges excellent. The atomiser sprayers are fabulous.

It easily removed the soap scum from the glass and the tiles (and there was a LOT!)

I finished the ensuite and after standing there admiring my handiwork for about ten minutes, I returned to the kitchen and decided to test out the new mop.

I swept the floors first and then put the mop together, which was easy peasy. I filled the attached spray bottle with the ekoWorx cleaning fluid, stuck the pad to the bottom and off I went. Far out! So quick. So easy. So clean. Quick drying. Very very happy.

Fancy ME enjoying housework! Who'da thunk?! If you want to check it out go here.

I have to say that my body is not happy with all the stretching and bending and using muscles that haven't been used for a long time. I'm seizing up big time tonight!

After my cleaning fix, I headed into my office and rebounded while I watched some video lessons from the Academy - may as well completely overdo the exercising for the day!!

I created a survey that I hope will get sent out tomorrow some time.

I returned that phone call about Govt funding and now I need to draw up a business plan to go with my application - no rush for that lol - I'm not going to stress about it and will take my time.

Best get some sleep. Movie date with AH tomorrow morning.

Nite all.

State of Origin Number Two

Here I sit on my couch, wearing my State of Origin shirt and my silver Queensland charm necklace, tasting the promise of victory - it's a do or die game tonight for we Queenslanders!

Kick off is any minute, so this is a quick post so that I can watch the game from Go to Woe.

Today, I posted a recipe onto my website and wrote another post about decluttering, which I'll add to the site early next week.

I returned a phone call about the funding that I applied for on the weekend, but the girl with whom I need to speak, was not available. We'll try again tomorrow.

We had a big lunch of Honey Roasted Vegetables with roast chicken and gravy for lunch, so our dinner was a light chicken and gravy roll.

I did plenty of rebounding while I worked and feel quite energised for it! But I haven't been drinking enough water, so I've been trying to make up for it this afternoon and this evening. I knew that I needed to drink because I started to get a headache and I don't usually get headaches.

Oh my goodness that game has started. It's hard and fast. Gotta go!!

Nite all.

Kitchen Love

It was a beautiful Winter's day ... not that anyone would guess that it's Winter!

Here are the temperature ranges in other places around Australia ...

Melbourne   4 - 13C
Canberra.    -4 - 12C
Griffith         1 - 18C
Adelaide       5 - 18C
Brisbane       9 - 21C
Sydney         8 - 18C

Here            13 - 24C

Clear skies and sunshine all day long and sometimes even too hot to sit in the direct sunlight. There was a stiff breeze today, which kept it quite cool.

So it all started at coffee with Lady Lynn, The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip) and Beauty. Tweedle Dee was home with a cold and feeling under the weather, while everybody else is away travelling.

After another pleasant morning with the girls, I did some grocery shopping and exited the shop to be greeted by the smiling faces of the The Pom and The Crazy Publican. For the past 8 months, TCP has  endured some very heavy treatment for cancer and I must say, all things considered, is looking incredibly well! Her last results were good and she's hoping the next tests will show continued improvement.

After about an hour with these two lovelies, I pedalled home with my groceries and headed straight to the kitchen.

I had three very large punnets of strawberries, so I topped them all and brought them to a simmer in a saucepan with vinegar, maple syrup and salt to make a tangy strawberry sauce.

I had some leftover pureed cauliflower from last night, so I made a Shepherds Pie with lots of zucchini, carrot, celery, onion, spinach and garlic and then sprinkled it with Cayenne pepper which gave it a delicious bite.

Instead of making the usual Hainan Chicken with my regular order of chicken thighs from the butcher, I chopped each thigh into three equal sized pieces, then lined the baking tray with onion slices. I lay the chicken over the top, sprinkled generous amounts of (Himalayan) salt and pepper over the top, drizzled my favourite maple syrup over the chicken skin and then lay slices of lemon over the top of that.

Popped it in the oven for 25 minutes, removed the lemon, turned up the heat and gave it a further 10 minutes until the skin browned.

That was served to Adoring Husband with a salad for lunch.

Finally, I slid some butter and fresh coriander under the skin of a whole organic chicken, pierced the skin and sprinkled salt and pepper over the top. I stuffed the cavity with chunks of lemon, heaps of garlic cloves and some more butter and baked it in the oven for an hour, turned off the heat and let it continue cooking in the residual heat.

By this time, it was mid afternoon, so I only got about two hours at my desk, where I watched a seminar on 'GSD' which, depending on whether you're naughty or nice, means either Getting Stuff Done OR Getting Shit Done.

I probably need to find a year long course on this subject, because I feel that my biggest downfall is the old favourite 'procrastination' which causes me to NOT get shit done.

There is still more than two hours of this seminar remaining to watch, so hopefully, I'll take on some important motivating information which will help me get stuff done. Haha.

My plan for tomorrow is to work Work WORK!!! I'm going to Get Stuff Done!!! When I'm finished here, I am writing a 'to do' list and then I'm off to bed for an early night.

GO ME!!! *raises fist in the air*

Nite all.

Another One Bites the Dust

I'm referring to the day.

Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay today.

I bought a couple of small round tables on which I plan to practise mosaics.

I bought some make up from Big W.

I replaced my stock of coconut ice cream.

I checked the local Art/Craft store for mosaic materials. Zilch.

Adoring Husband renewed his licence.

We were home by lunch time.

Lady Lynn came for a quick visit.

I opened my holiday money tin and was disappointed to see that it was only half full! It felt almost full to the top! There was more than $1000 in it, so AH and I packed all the gold coins into the little plastic bags and took them to the Post Office to deposit that lovely money into my safe bank account.

There were two packages at the Post Office today. One for me, which was a top I ordered a while ago, and a BIG box sealed in plastic that had "Smithurst and Griffin Retirement" as the header line on the address.

Inside the box was a wine cooler, a set of barbecue tools presented in a hard silver box with clip locks, a barbecue apron, two hats, a pen, a stubby holder and a couple of fridge magnets ... from our financial advisor.

I wonder what the really rich customers received in their retirement box????

I'm looking forward to receiving a couple more packages this week.

That was it for my day!

No work!

My Monday, which is usually my most productive day of the week, because it's the only day that I have wholly and completely to myself, was frivolously wasted. Now I have to find a way to make up for it.

Still, it was nice to spend time with Adoring Husband and it was a beautiful day, so it wasn't really wasted was it?

It's almost midnight.  I'd best get some sleep so that I can be up bright and early for coffee with the girls.

Nite all.

More Madness

Yesterday afternoon, I sent Adoring Husband to the local shops to buy some eggs (!) because our chookies have suddenly gone off the lay and they have not produced anything for over 2 weeks.

While he was gone, I made the decision to bake him some of those delicious flourless chocolate cookies that he loves so much. I printed out the recipe and checked that I had everything I needed from the ingredient list.

He walked into the house with the eggs and said to me "Sweetheart, what are the chances of you making some of those chocolate cookies that you made before I went away the other week?"

*look of genuine shock*

It's not often that we are in sync, so when it happens, it's a funny feeling!

Before I even started on dinner, I whizzed up a double batch of cookies. Instead of the usual ten cookies, the double mix multiplied into 22 cookies. I took them out of the oven at 6pm and they were cool enough to munch on for 'dessert'.

I enjoyed two of them, but at 1.39AM, I woke up buzzing! My cookies are full of raw cacao, which contains a stimulant very similar to caffeine, called Theobromine. It's (apparently) not as strong as caffeine, but it sure knocked me around last night!

I had been asleep for less than two hours, when I woke up with a start and try as I might, could NOT get back to sleep. I stayed in bed and tried for an hour to force sleep, to no avail. I decided to read and it was almost 4am when I felt tired enough to fall back into dreamland.

While I was trying to force sleep, the image going over and over in my mind, was patterns and colours and styles of mosaic-ing the bathroom bench top! Weird.

So the first thing I did this morning, was grab my leftover mosaic tiles and took them straight to the bathroom. It took me 45 minutes to create this ...

They are only placed (not glued) and it's not exactly what I want, but the colours are very close and a swirly or wavy pattern is what I want to achieve.

After I was done in the bathroom, I prepared myself a very early lunch, and in the process, discovered that there were only ten cookies remaining!!! I gave AH a rap over the knuckles and banned him from the cookie jar!! Ten cookies in 15 hours, and for nine of those hours he was sleeping!

From there, I escaped to my workspace where I made a very brave move and completed an online application for government funding to support my business website.

I know right!?

There was an initial questionnaire, the results of which gave me a total figure of what I MAY be eligible for. Surprisingly, the figures totalled a LOT!!

There were a number of different initiatives and I certainly don't expect to qualify for every one of them, but any assistance would be helpful for business education, website improvements and assistance to gain some traction in the business community.

You never know until you try. They can only say no ... and that's not going to kill me.

I printed out some more exercise sheets and booklets from one of the courses that I'm doing and listened to one of the webinars. Then I completed two more of the courses from the Academy.

I received a phone call from a customer who wanted to come buy some jewellery, which was a pleasant surprise and then I phoned Vegan Chickie and spent an hour chatting with her and Chicklet.

It's been nice to have contact with both of my girls this weekend. I must phone Number One Son this week and catch up with his news too.

Well, it looks like a reasonably early night for me. I'll try to catch up from last night.

Nite all.