Goodbuy nasty bugs

I don't know about you - but I hate it when I pull a favourite item of clothing out of the wardrobe, to find it full of holes. Last Summer we had our first infestation of nasty, clothing eating bugs. Grrr. So today when I was snipping some cuttings off the new lavender bush, I also decided to harvest some of the blooms, and put them to good use!

The first one I made I tied a long loop (to hang over the coat hanger) and then tied it around the bunch of lavender and finished with a bow.

The second I just tied it in the usual way. I also left lots of foliage on it since it also has quite a pungent smell. Gotta keep those nasties off!!!

Other things I have implemented are little drawstring bags with either cloves or cinnamon in them. Mmmm. Pulling out a sweater never smelt so good!

Linking up here today.

Cable Bangle and a Quick Way to Hang Pictures

The other day Jellyfish got out his crayons and started adding colour to a page out of my art book. When he was done he brought it to me and told me that he had created it for me. Being the kind of mum who loves it when her kids make her gifts I wanted to hang it up right away - but without damaging the paper too much (blu-tack like substances can make oily circles on the paper if you leave it on there too long).
Here is what I thought would work as a quick fix.

Mini pegs! I just put a little blob of blu-tack behind the peg, attached the peg to the paper, and stuck the blu-tack on the wall! :) EASY!!! I am so happy having his picture hanging beside my bed, it's one of the first things I see when I wake up and it just makes me smile. :)

Another thing that I found was kind of a fluke... Mr. Kelp had some left over cable tidy kicking around the other day, and wanted to put it in his pocket, so he started winding it around itself. It goes exactly around itself twice. When I clapped eyes on it, it was sitting on the bench in the kitchen, and I thought it was cool in a quirky kind of way, so I just popped it on my wrist and it fit perfectly! How neat is that?

And lastly, I just had to show you one more picture of the booties I made before I ship them off to their owners. Sorry. I know. I just can't help myself! lol

Hope your weekend was a lovely sunny one - it was here, and we took the boys for an amazing walk through the bush. I might even get around to uploading some pictures for you later in the week.
Ciao for now!

S xox

Vintage bottles - new use

A few years ago I dug up some old bottles on my Step-dad's property. Some of them got cleaned and put to immediate use, while others sat in a box under the stairwell for about, um... well, about 6 years. The other day I was having a rummage when I came across them and decided that it was high time I cleaned them up - AND I had the perfect use for them!!!

Here is how it all turned out...

This one I actually got from my Grandmother when I was about 11. It's a Pecks jar. Makes a brilliant vase for shorter stemmed flowers (like the ones that Jellyfish or Little Clam sometimes pick for me :) How could I refuse such sweetness!), or even collections of things that are too small to put elsewhere. It has a flat panel that I assume used to have the label on it - which now looks rather like a window.

Cost: $0 Just a little time in the sun picking flowers (More like a reward than a cost), a trip up the road with the kids to pick the french lavender (also lots of fun), and then poking them into the bottles and having Jellyfish help me arrange them and take their photos. Bliss :)

So do you have good uses for vintage bottles?


Linking up today.... 
                                                              

Slighty frugal but fabulous

You can tell a little about the economic climate at the moment by the way people shop when there are sales on. The other day while out shopping with the boys, I noticed people rummaging through sales racks, but even if it was good stuff, they would leave it there unless it was really something that they were after. I'm a little that way myself. There were a lot of things I looked at... but since I had no use for them I just left them there.

While out and about, I did pop into one of my fave stores at the moment that was having a sale... Kikki K, and picked up a couple of things from their new range for a niece who is about to have a birthday, and while I was at it I got some fab ribbon and a new little zippered pouch for myself.

Short term plan is to use it instead of my wallet (which I have had since 1997!!! Go Billabong!),  after that, I plan to keep my little camera in it as it doesn't have a lens cap, and I am always getting the fingerprints of small people on it.

Check out the cute lining. :) Just looking at it makes me smile. It's a little bit tween-ish, but hey, let your inner child play occasionally! lol

Have a great day!
S&R  xo

Eat a little bit gourmet at home.

During the week I felt inspired to do something a little bit creative with our salads instead of the same-old, same-old style of serving up the ingredients. Since we had been to the Farmer's Market last Sunday, and I had purchased a whole lot of great fresh produce (at great prices!) I really wanted to do something with them while it was still fresh.

While the photos are far from worthy of the taste (Oh, I know, I can never wait to be bothered with a GOOD photo when dinner is staring me in the face and two small children are pleading to eat it!) I had to share it with you anyway!

First up is a Warm Green Salad.

1 medium head of broccoli, chopped into small florets
1 Lebanese cucumber (or any other type) sliced into thick circles and then halved
* 250g Spinach and Ricotta Agnolotti
2 Fresh tomatoes - cut into wedges
Pine nuts
Drizzle of olive oil
Ground salt and pepper to taste

I added the tomatoes as an after thought, and it made it SO much better! Cook the Agnolotti as per instructions. as they start to puff up, add the broccoli. They should then be ready at the same time.
Add to all other ingredients and toss.  Bon Appetit!

* I got a 500g packet on sale - being thrifty you know! ;)


The second is Mediterranean Roast Chicken Salad that  Mr. Kelp found the recipe here.

He scored a large container of Bulgarian sheep feta (rather like a cross between Danish and Australian in texture - and tasted wonderful!) on sale, so we went looking for recipes. :) We also used rocket the first time (Which looked SO much better), but I ran out and had to substitute lettuce this time around... and yes, those are grapes - not olives. We also skipped the chicken and the sugar snap peas (because we didn't have the latter on hand).

Linking up with Nifty Thrifty Sundays.