I've finally added the "Search this Blog" Box

I've finally managed to put in a "search this blog" box on the right hand side so that you can search my blog posts.  To be totally honest, every time I wanted a recipe myself I had to go through the posts and find them so it took me all of one minute (thanks Martina) and it's done.  While I'm here I'll post a few pictures I took around the place yesterday afternoon.

Around Here

Here's some moments in our life recently.

So loving this Baked Beans recipe and quoting from the kids "Mum, the herbs and flavours are amazing, best baked beans ever" and I would have to agree.

Purchases from our new local Farmers Markets.

I have been having the healthy option of a hot lemon drink upon first waking up instead of the caffeine.

Sienna's home made bird feeder including a pole she put together with craft glue and sticky tape.  Nothing stops this girl's creativity.

A note from my beautiful daughter on the weekend.

I finally got around to going to the nursery and potting this lovely lavender.

Sienna doing some crochet work.

This is our Orchard...small but still fruitful with lemons and hopefully mandarins and oranges one day as they now have lots of flowers on them.  I need to re-pot the orange tree which is in the middle.  All these varieties are dwarf trees for our backyards.

And these lemons.

James playing the guitar after school.

Simple Living - Green Cleaning Shower Cleaner

Recently I came across a recipe for a "green" shower cleaner which I thought I would try.  It's called "Moo Super Strength Shower Cleaner" from the blog "Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing".  My shower was in a terrible state because I got lazy.  Over the past couple of years after my shower I have always used a window squeegee to get all the water and steam off the tiles and glass and then lastly I do the floor.  This process takes less than two minutes and really makes a huge difference in keeping your shower clean.  I can go for a few months with it still looking sparkly by doing this however I had stopped this process (note it requires a lot of bending and stretching from the top of the tiles to the bottom of the tiles near the floor).  By doing this there is no grime build up from shampoo or soap on the tiles and glass because each time it is wiped away and makes a huge difference to the build up that requires cleaning.

Over the past few months the kids have been having a shower in my shower because the other bathroom shower rose needs fixing and it won't stay upright so there are three of us using my en suite shower.  Along with more people, I've stopped doing my little one minute job of wiping and hence the shower was in a terrible state which is quite embarrassing however this is real life and life gets messy sometimes so I'm posting these photos to show you there's a great way to clean them.  

I sprayed the entire shower area walls first, then the floor and then I got out of there and left it for about 15 minutes.  If your shower is not as dirty as this was 5 minutes would be all you need however I wanted to leave mine on for longer.  Once I was ready I put a towel on the floor so I could stand in the shower because remember this cleaner is made up of 50% washing liquid which is extremely slippery so I stood on a towel so I could work my way around all the tiles on the wall and then the glass and then I backed out of the shower and keeled on the towel so I could work my way around the slippery floor.  I then turned on the shower to clean off what I could and where that didn't reach I used a jug of water to wash everything else down.  I was very happy and even though I did have to use some elbow grease this time, I know next time it will be a breeze.  I am happy with this cleaner and will be using it again and it takes about 2 minutes to make it up and put it in a pretty spray bottle.  I just want to say again that this cleaner is "slippery" and make sure you stand on an old towel in the shower and don't attempt to step on the floor tiles after you've sprayed because it's too dangerous and you could have a fall.  And with that word of caution I'm thrilled that I have found this cleaner and will continue to use it again.  Also I stayed in my pj's when I was doing this and after the shower was clean I then put them in the wash because you end up getting wet.

Here's what it looked like before I sprayed everything with the "Moo Super Strength Shower Cleaner"

Another before of the build up of dirt, soap and shampoo.

The tiles on the wall together with my grimy floor tiles.

Here's what it looked like when you walked into the shower.

This is the start of the cleaning and I was using a Bamboo Cloth which is textured.

Here's the clean shower tiles and shower screen....

And the clean floor tiles.

I still need to check out Rhonda's blog for cleaning mold so that will be the next step to give some of these areas the once over.

No build up on these tiles now.

And the floor is so much better as well.

What's being Planted in our Veggie Garden

Recently my little veggie boxes have been left empty and I know it's such a waste however I've had other things on my "to do list" but last Saturday we drove to our local nursery and bought some seedlings and Sienna helped plant them in the veggie garden with me.  Actually she did 90% of the work as she is doing "gardening club" at school where they get to plant out veggies and feed the chooks etc. and she told me that you had to built little mounds for the veggies so she did just that with our little 1.2m x 1.2m veggie box.

Sienna was still wearing her sandshoes (joggers/runners) from the 5km Charity Fun Run we did in the morning.  When I say "we" I mean James and Sienna ran the 5kms and I walked about 3kms with sandshoes that were too tight so it wast very uncomfortable.  Now back to gardening, Sienna and I had a lovely time together and she was planting and we were chatting, and I was taking photos.   She said "I love it when we do this together and I love spending time with you".

The boy of the house was inside on his iPod (his allowed 1 hr after he ran his 5km race in 25 mins which I was pretty impressed with) and Sienna said to me that she'd rather be outside than inside playing on the iPod to which I replied "oh well, that's his relaxation and that's alright" (and that's because he has limited time on it as ruled by me).  The girls of the house were outside and enjoying the fresh air and we were both so happy when the garden bed was planted out.

I can only dream of a veggie garden like this over at Ock Du Spock and how it all started here however for my little family these three little garden beds are fine.  Such lovely memories of our afternoon and this is really what makes me truly happy.  So what we planted was two types of lettuce (butterhead and something like an iceberg) lots of spring onions, celery, capsicum and thyme for our baked beans recipe.