Making the paperwork....... work!

Time to get back to the organising.  I spent most of Jan & a good part of Feb bottling up tomato relish, & jams etc..... which meant other things had to be placed on hold.  It's a time management thing, what can I say, but when the garden has ripe produce ....... well, that becomes the priority.  Meantime the incoming paperwork keeps piling on up.  Being in a relatively new place (ok, well, its been close to 1 yr here, but things are still trying to find permanent homes to live in), I've tried a few different ways of making the paperwork - work efficiently.  So after much debate & trial & error, I've moved a few things around.  I find that the mail holder I made (pictured) was not working well beside my roll top desk.  It just was not in the right place, so I've moved it closer to the kitchen and where I tend to open mail & sort various stuff that comes in the mail box.  It has various pockets on it and I can now pop things into the pockets that need to be taken with me when I head out to town.  Incoming letters go into one pocket, where they sit until they've been replied to.  Another pocket holds all outgoing mail.  A large pocket holds other items that might need to be taken with me when I head out.  As I sort through the daily incoming paperwork, (I try to do this while I'm cooking dinner) - it goes into various places.  All incoming bills go into a folder that is kept in the top drawer of cupboard.  The files you see sitting on the small cabinet hold specific stuff - things that are needing follow up work done on before they can be filed away.  I try to have a different coloured file/envelope for each "catagory", which then eliminates the need to sort through a pile to find what you want each time.  It's out the way, yet easy to see & get to & keeps things organized & time effective.  The biggest plus, is that I don't have that horrible "pile of paperwork" sitting on the kitchen bench piling up waiting for "something" to be done with it all.

Oh, and in case you are wondering..... yes, I did have to find a home for all the preserving - it now lives in the bottom of the kitchen dresser - and as you can see, I now have to find a way of fitting in all the other "little bits & pieces" hmmm.  It's a work in progress  and as Pete keeps telling me "Rome was not built in a day" - even though I might wish it were LOL

Thankyou Sara

Quite a little while back, I hosted a dishcloth swap on here where we knitted or crocheted some dishclothes in order to help eachother build up a little supply of dishclothes - with variety. It was heaps of fun & I love being able to remember all of this as I pull one out of the drawer!  Well imagine my surprise when these arrived in my mail box earlier in the week. 
 Thankyou so much Sara, they are wonderful.  I will get my crochet hook out & have 2 underway to you very shortly.  Actually the timing is rather great, as I have a couple here that are becoming rather worn, so now I'll be able to move those to the laundry & have the lovely new ones on my kitchen sink :)

What's Happening?

Today is a "home day", as opposed to heading out the door to work, or taking off to town to work my way through a list of errands, items & jobs.  Having said that however, the day is still busy and filled......... already its 2.30 in the afternoon when I'd be so thankful if it were say 10am :)  Making the house smell nice ............... rose petals from the garden are always topped up into this handmade pottery bowl I made way back when the children were small & we lived in Kinglake.  Nice to see that my design doesn't seem to have dated............. anyhow, a few drops of essential oil help to keep those rose petals (which turn into a type of poupourri) smelling lovely & waft throughout the house.  Moving on it was time to get to the washing.......... hmmm, ever noticed how that's one thing that tends to grow no matter what you do?  The other day I used a slightly different receipe for my liquid laundry soap - you may have seen the one at Down to Earth , well I made up a half batch pouring it into my plastic milk containers........... if must be alot thicker than what I've done before, because it was pretty solid!  So after sticking it in the microwave to help get it out of the containers & back into a large pot on top of the stove, I added another 2 litres of water to the mix. 

 It has still gelled (as it should), but at least it now comes out of the bottles a little better.  I think I still prefer the original receipe, but really there is not that much difference & I find the homemade type works just as well as the expensive supermarket varieties for which I had been paying close to $6.00 a box.  Making your own laundry liquid is sooooooo much cheaper & really is very simple.  The main trick is just make sure the soap is fully dissolved in the water before you add the other ingredients. I'll pop both the recipe I usually use + the one  I've just added more water to onto a recipe page so its easy for everyone to find.

On another note, we received some good news.......... it seems the insurance agency have agreed that they will be paying for the damage caused to the ceiling (just outside the back door which fell down during the heavy rainfalls before christmas) and also to redo the 3 verandah areas that have

part of the back verandah area

 continued to wash apart with each further heavy lot of rain we have. Our 3 entrances (front, back & side) are now all quite hazzardous due to pavers that are "disappearing" when the sand beneath them comes away. 

Part of the front verandah area

We now await for extra quotes that have been requested & then for the insurance agency to determine who is going to take on the work.............. and then the wait to have it all done! 

And the side - this forms part of the stairs going up..... "watch your step"!

Anyone with Any Ideas?

It seems our son Jaron & his partner Renee have set a new date for their wedding - 3rd September this year.  Now I'm wondering just what to do for them.  I'd love to give them some sort of keepsake (keeping in mind we have 2 other children yet to get married, so we are setting a kind of benchmark - if you know what I mean).  They live in Townsville - hot & humid most of the year.  I keep jumping from one idea to another, so I thought that maybe some of you might come up with an idea that would work just right.  Remember that I work part time & I'm not the best quilter on the block. Simple & quick would be awsome - it would be best to have it actually completed for the wedding & not their 25th anniversary LOL!   I do love embroidery & applique, so wondering about applique for a queensize bed?  Maybe a wall hanging??  Hmmmmm, really, I have no idea!  Can anyone help?
Hugs Sharm