Almost done one side of the Irish dancing studio that Catherine attends. Was alot more enjoyable with my friend Linda helping me out!

And goodbye flat sweet flat! We are moving out on the 10th of Feb! Temporarily back to mums, then onto the waiting list for a state house which will be waaaay cheaper rent. We had a great time! We survived on $20 a week groceries for 6 months... yet I recon we still ate well! We made friends with the neighbours and had alot of fun! But the best thing about moving out (don't get me wrong, I would have LOVED to have stayed), is that with the stricter benifit laws I decided Im going to cancel my benifit, I'll finally be off the dole. OMG I hate being on the dole. But my expenses were too high. But being in the flat forced me to cut them right down and now I've learnt to live on peanuts I think I can live off what I earn. Well I hope so. I 'm just excited to find out anyhow... which isn't usually like me but I just feel like this is gonna be a good year... it has been so far!

Christmas is upon us, and I won't bore you with pictures of my christmas tree. I will however show you how I imbued our little flat with the spirit of Christmas cheer.

  I have christian neighbors so I'm sure they won't mind. Had something a bit more classy in my mind, but with an hour to spare, this is what you get.

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And I write lists and lists and lists for things. I have a perpetual to-do list I keep adding to. (The Love Faith Hope stickers have been on it since last Christmas) and another thing on the list for at least a year has been to recover the inners of my pillows.

To gross you out, here are the remnants of before...

they actually look worse in real life.

And last night, since we are going to bed on time now, Friday night has became stay-up-late and do fun stuff night. For me fun is making stuff, so I spontaneously did something from 'the list' that's been waiting quite a while.

Now we have yummy white pillow inners that cost no more than $3 to recover.

I woke up at 7.30 this morning and I feel great!...

Is something I never would have said a month ago!
In fact I'd wake up groggily at 8.15 and not fully wake up untill, say, 10 am.

So... I've had to put some new boundaries in place. Catherines new friend starting arriving at our house at around 7.30 in the morning and because I couldn't wake up, they'd go hard out baking in my kitchen, using all my ingredients, leaving out all the packets and leaving me a big mess for when I got up. And helping themselves to breakfast, half eating stuff and waisting it.
At first I didn't want to be a big meany, so I let them. But I would get angrier and angrier every morning until I realised, It's MY house dammit. I pay the damn rent and I don't have to put up with this!

But even to get up early enough to supervise them took a big change.

I've been going to church study groups, youth group, craft group sometimes 3 or 4 times a week and getting home at sometimes 9.30 at night and not falling asleep till sometimes 11 or 12. No wonder I couldn't get up.
So all of a sudden I decided, ok, Catherines bedtime is going back to a strict 8pm, and mine is a strict 9pm.
(I went to bed regually at 9pm pre-2001 and my life was great! And I was relatively successful in life. Ahhh... those were the days.)
So basically no more mid-week church activities for me any more! I can't handle it. Let alone the petrol! On $20 a week food alone, I have a right to say no and just look after me and Catherine for now. Especially while shes so young.

Cheap Lip Balm Recipe

So I totally made lip balm today!

I use it all the time, but I'm totally skint for money. Unfortunately I've developed a taste for homemade lipbalm and I used to buy lipbalm off Etsy, but not having the cash I've been using $1 lip balm from the Asian stores. Although the balm itself does ok I spose, the packaging sux, which is half the fun of home made lip balm for me.

So it was a really basic recipe. I just made do.

Cheap Lip Balm Recipe:

20 grams Bees Wax

20 grams Cocoa Butter

20 grams Olive Oil.

Heat in a double boiler (A mug in a pot of water)

Once melted use an eye dropper to put into containers.

For the containers I just reused some old ones I had.

These are ones from an Etsy shop called Flourish.

The packaging was so nice I kept them for some reason.... and then it occurred to me to use them for this!

All set to go, the whole process only took about 10 minutes

And as you can see, by the time I filled the last container the first ones were already starting to set.

I also had half left over! So I just kept the mug fill, put some glad wrap on it and put it away to reheat again once I need it!

I can see these lasting me around 4 months and the ingredients only cost $16 including postage and I only used a fraction of it!

child's Singlet (Vest) Free Pattern

This is a singlet I made for my eight year old daughter. I think this pattern would do for anyone between age 7 - 10.

I made7 of these this winter and I actually made her wear 3 of them at time! Overkill? Well, this is the first winter she didn't get a bad cough so I think it did the trick. I managed to make these out of merino blend which made them extra snuggly.

The free pattern can be found here.

The pattern DOES NOT include the ribbing. For the ribbing (edging around the neck and sleeves) just cut some lengths of fabric 3 cm wide for this.

Making this singlet is pretty straight forward, but I will put a few instructions up just incase.

Cut out the back and front pieces from the pattern.

Sew along where I have marked with the pink dotted lines.

If you havn't overlocked the edges of your fabric you can do a French Seam.

Since it's knit fabric don't worry about ironing it.

 Basically what you do is sew the edges together, turn it inside out and sew down the side again, catching the raw edges inside the seam. 

It's quite bulky this way, so you might just want to overlock / zig zag or just leave the edges raw.

The neck and sleeve edging is NOT in the pattern. Just cut a length of fabric 3 cm wide for this and cut off what you need as you go.

There are better ways to put ribbing on than the way I did it.

(I have given a link below for a good tutorial)

The way I did it was to place the right side of the fabric to the inside of the singlet then sew it to the neck opening,

Then I flipped it over and tucked in the bottom and sewed it down around the neck edge.

Sorry, not too detailed , but there are already great tutorials on ribbing.

There's a great one here, with a cool free baby onsie pattern from Shwin&Shwin

Guy Fawks... on the roof!

Bought some more beautiful 70s pottery today at the Op shop for a couple of bucks a pop. It's making me really want to try out my potters wheel!

BTW, check out some lovely pottery pieces here from someone whos just started!

And a friend went to Bali recently and brought back that purple lava lava, so I put it on the wall. Slightly tacky? Doesn't really matter. I scored a 1 out of 20 for hospitality in a spiritual gifts text recently, so obviously I don't set my flat up to please people!

And oh my goodness. I think I've created a new tradition. Because I decided to save money and spend Guy Fawks night with friends (which they had on Saturday instead), when the actual night came along, last night (Tuesday), I told Catherine we would climb onto our roof to watch them! It was really just to add a bit of excitement so she wouldn't ask me to buy fireworks, and WOW! it WAS exciting and the view is amazing from our roof. Who knew? The pictures couldn't do it justice. Pitch black with lights and fireworks all over the horizon. And although it bucketed down with rain and we had to get down so we didn't slip on the tin (!) I definitely want to give it a go next year and if it doesn't rain try and get some decent pictures. 

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PS. When I say "our house" I tend to alternate between meaning my Mum's house which I grew up in ), or my little flat which is just across the road from Mums.Just to confuse things!

Guy Fawks 2013

So I thought for a while there that if God wasn't providing for starving Africans, then he wouldn't provide for me. I mean, I not more important than them, am I?

So every time my self-appointed shopping day (Monday) came around, and I didn't have my self-appointed ammount I thought I needed, I self righteously pointed my finger at God with a big "SEE?".

Although, the thing is, I didn't really get to, even though I almost looked forward to it, because quite often the night before Monday, money would turn up, with a big "Humph! you win this round!" from me.

It stopped happening so dramatically when I realised that although I might not have my self appointed ammount on my self appointed day, I still had food in the cupboard, which still kinda qualifies as "provision".

Anyway long story short... I found out God's gonna provide. Well He does for me anyway. Still not sure why He doesn't for the starving Africans but that's another story.

So it finally occurred to me to write down each week all the ways that God turns up each week, so I can look back on it with a good story to tell.

For example, here's last weeks list of the things that turned up:

Catherines Dad gave me: $10 petrol. $10 cash. A whole roast lamb, rubbish bags, washing powder, tuna and mouth wash.

Nana gave me $20 for chopping wood. (which doesn't always happen, she just decided to this week and I don't ask for money or tell her we need it)

Nana also gave us some weetbix and tuna.

On Saturday we had Guy Fawks with friends (see pictures!) instead of buying our own which can cost at least $40, and also had a pot luck tea including a yummy BBQ, salads and desert!

On Sunday I helped out a friend a she bought me a sausage roll. (It all counts)

And this happens week after week!

Bohemia!

Like my new skinnies? They were $5 jeans I got from the Op shop which were bootlegs I sewed down the side. Instant skinny jeans. And you see my pointed foot? I always do that to show I did Irish dancing for 10 years, like, yeah-boi, I still got it... but really, I got cramp just taking that photo.

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And spring is here in NZ, and our garden is bushy and beautiful. Some would say "overgrown"... I'm choosing to see the glass half full today and admire the daisies growing up in the middle of our vege patch.

And I just saw the weirdest thing before I came here. You can't really see it but there's a guy on the footpath jogging along... with a beer in his hand! I guess he's not jogging for health reasons then?

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And after crooning over the Moon to Moon blog I went to the Op shop and got myself some beautiful 70s pottery. It's my favourite type of decor and reminds me of smokey folk gatherings from my childhood. 

Maybe I should have put some kind of photoshop effect on these to make them more Moon to Moonish..

and what about this one?

Does it look like that photo I showed you? I went to Mums and picked up an old sheet I bought from Trade Aid years ago and pinned to my wall above my headrest.

Well, maybe if I had made my bed first!

Live below the line

Well, I thought me and Catherine could do live below the line... spending no more than $2.25 each a day for 5 days to see how the poor live... then I realised I can't afford to spend $22.50 in a week lol. So, apparently me and Catherine are living in dire poverty! We've survived on $20 a week grocery money for the last 3 months, but I actually love the challenge. And on that I managed to put a few pennys away ( in an actual jar) and by me some net curtains! Plus I've started writing a little list of all the ways God has been providing so I can look back on it. Like when we get invited to dinner and have a feast somewhere! or just a cuppa and a bikkie ... or even get given money or food.

Here's the New Zealand link:

www.livebelowtheline.com/nz

I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, got a big peppermint that lasts all day...

um... that's from an old tv ad...but check this out! This is how much wood I've chopped with an axe in 3 weeks. I've been doing it at the end of the day for no more than half an hour. (And probably no more than 3 times a week)...

And this is how much I've got to go...

And why am I bragging? Because it's a bit like a lumberjack finding out he could tapdance. I never thought I could chop such big pieces. I'm not done with the pile, and it will probably take me about 3 months to get through at this rate, but my hopes are high.

I'd like to add, at first I felt a twinge of self pity, untill I realised that other people spend $700 a year on gym memberships and this is free. I may even get to sell the wood, although the hippie in me wants to give it all away and make the world a better place.

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And on an equally self indulgent note... I have nets!!! I've wanted these since I moved in a year and half ago!

I took down the bubble wrap we used for insulation. I can't tell you if it was effective because we had the mildest winter here since 1908! buy I can tell you it stopped the condensation, which was a bonus. And now I have nets and don't have to wave awkwardly at people as they walk past my window hehe!

(And I saved up my pennys. Literally. In a jar!!) I love thrifty living!!

One Pottery Wheel, moved and in place. It took about half an hour to move it the 4 metres from the car to the garage and I have yet to replace the seat.

I think I'm pretty happy with it... can't really complain at $1.50 can you?

Oh my goodness me! Look at this manky old thing I just won on Trade Me literally a minute ago.

I don't know if I have buyers remorse or not!

I had an auto bid of $11.50... in the end I got it for $1.50!!

It looks massive... and heavy. And definitely needs a scrub and a coat of paint.

I wasn't sure all week if I'd done the right thing in bidding since I thought I'd have to keep it outside and cover it with plastic, untill I was gardening today and realised I have the perfect place for it... my old playhouse! Just need to clear out the old capok mattresses that are still in there and I'll have my own little space. Was even contemplating making a little sign... "Potters Corner" or something.

Finished making 12 Toiletry Bags for the Women's Refuge. Now I just need stuff to put in them! Put it up on facebook with a request for donations. Already have shampoo... other things could be soap, combs, lip balm, emery boards.

I was having a conversation with the lady from the refuge last time, and she said that sometimes the women don't get these kinds of things in there day to day lives! She told me story after story of women, like the ones who were forced into marriages (often Indian women in this case) who are told before they get married..."ok, I'll marry her, so she can look after my children while I work". Then get all this abuse stuff said to them/ done to them. The sad thing is they often go back to the men because they still feel they love them and have been with them so long.

Last night I just had a thought about how lucky I was. I mean, although I barely have 2 pennys to rub together at the mo, I have a garage full of stuff I collected for my 'future'. Well, this is the future. I'm grown up, paying my own bills, and because I always bought stuff with an eye to the future, I have big collection of 'toys' I can play with.

And check this out! This is a wood lathe my grandfather MADE, in around 1940 according to my uncle.

So I got it set up again with the help of a friend, and I'm planning to give it a go.

I took nightclasses years ago, and my Dad went out and bought me the tools... and of course there's Youtube for further guidance. I also found a South Auckland Word turners Guild on the internet too... but their stuff is so amazing I think I'll just tinker.

I would have started today but I decided the wood we had was too hard, so I'm scrounging around for offcuts people might have lying around.

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Ps. I decided although I'm broke I'm not going to let it ruin my weekends anymore!! I've told Catherine that I'm allowed a weekend too...and guess what.. along with this lathe, I've found an old manual potters wheel on Trade Me! Ok, bare with me... I know woodturning AND pottery are both time consuming art forms in themselvs, but I don't care! I want my weekends back and that's it! I'm gonna have fun! Badly made pots and goblets... here we come!

My Pad

So I did a little tidy and took some pictures of my lounge. I'm not really putting myself in danger coz we've got nothing to steal anyway! And everything was given to us, or scrounged off the side of the road!!

It's not the most amazing piece of interior design. Mainly I'm just happy to have a space to myself that is relatively easy to cleen and a place where I can be alone when I need it!

But some things of note are:

The stripey yellow couch actually belonged to my Great-grandparents. (Catherines Great-great-grandparents!!)

The ironing board belonged to my grandmother

All the chairs scrounged out of the hard-rubbish and done up.

Charcoal art by me.

Peacock feathers from my friends family's farm!

New from Old

Two blog posts in one day. Is that allowed?

Here's a chair I've been slowly working on since last year. It had no seat and was varnished and the leg joint was broken. I had to chip off the old glue and carefully put new nails in then bog the cracks. I pretty much sanded down all the varnish off by hand which is why it took me so long, then undercoat and a top coat of black which I have basically used for all the furniture in my flat.

I should really give my flat a good tidy and take a picture of how I've decorated it so far. Almost everything was salvaged or given to me.

Yay! I made it a whole week without any processed white sugar... except when I realised too late the peaches I ate had sugar syrup in them, and I was too frugally minded to chuck them out. I entred the Biggest Loser at church too. I hope I do well.

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And this is a picture I took in  a moment of self pity, planning to blog about how much work I have to do on my own (as if I'm the only one!). Now, in the cold light of day I realise... talk about first world problems!!

"Poor me!! I have too many kitchen appliances to wash!!!"

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In regards to the cot we got in the hard rubbish... I thought Catherine would be sick of it after one night,but nope! shes still happy as larry, sleeping in there every night!

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And speaking of things we picked up in the hard rubbish... I needed a broom for our carport.

I found this...

which I'm planning to tape to the handle of this...

(the worn out rakes you can see ) and make a new broom!

This makes me happy. :)

It's that time again!

We are totally the biggest scroungers around! Yes it's hard rubbish time again. I don't know how it works overseas, but in New Zealand, once a year we put out all our junk that can't normally put out, and the council comes and picks it all up for us. Last year was like christmas for us, especially since I'd just moved into a new flat and we didn't have much, and since I'm still doing up the chairs from then, I didn't think we needed anything this year. Untill I got a call from Catherines dad who asked me to bring the van so we could pick up a cot that Catherine wanted. A COT? are you serious. I tried to say no but went out to see it anyway... and this is what we came back with.

As you can see, there's no cot in there.

We got that later.

Yes. Catherine, eight years old, slept in a cot last night. I'm consoling myself with the fact that when she gets sick of it I can always put it back in the hard rubbish collection.

I'm quite happy about my drawers find though. When I saw it I was like "I can fix that!!!"

Drawer runners 89 cents each, some squares of ply to pack the back of the knobs... which I got from another set of drawers from the rubbish collection and viola!

Also managed to take this....

to this....

with 4 screws and a bit of elbow grease.

And finally we picked up this.

It's taken awhile, but our little flat is starting to feel more like a home.