52 Blooms Project Update

#37

#38

#39

#40

Triple Choc Brownies

It was Mr Fixit's birthday this week, and for our birthday, we are allowed to pick our favourite foods.

Mr Fixit is also 'required' to bring treats to work for his birthday and the resounding request was for Chocolate Fudge Brownies - otherwise known as Jazzs Triple Choc Brownies (from Challenge #8 of the Cooks Club)  see full Challenge #8 HERE

This is my favourite part - mixing in the choc chips at the end


Separated into "Gooey" and "Edges" - I love the gooey bits, Mr Fixit prefers the crunchy edges


A close up of the 'Gooey Goodness'



Tonight we will be having Fillet Mignon for tea - can't wait for my birthday in October ;-)

I will not be cooking for my birthday ;-)

Days 6-10 - 20 days to organise and clean

I am participating in The Organised Housewife's 20 days to organise and clean your home challenge ;-)

This is what we got up to during the week ;-)

Day 6 we are in the bathroom - we have two bathrooms - our ensuite and the main bathroom.

The main bathroom was easy enough - it is mostly used by visitors and since we have not had that many visitors of late, it was just a bit dusty ;-)

Day 7 we are cleaning the fridge - it doesn't help if you have just done the grocery shopping ;-)
so the fridge is kinda full ;-)

Extra task - organise cookbooks

Day 8 we are in the craft room.  This particular room will take several attempts.  

  

Extra steps more decluttering.

Day 9 we are cleaning drawers - as my drawers are OK, I have elected to spend the time continuing in the craft room.

there are all sorts of magazines in this pile - cardmaking, quilting, beading, cooking ;-)

The end result of various stages of decluttering - Now I need to set aside some time, with a cuppa, and sort through these.

Day 10 we are cleaning the oven.  Decluttering cupboards - yes, we will even tackle the Tupperware cupboard!  These tasks for me will be caught up next week ;-)

But for me, as it is Mr Fixit's RDO, full blown housework is not being done.  When he is home, I really prefer to spend some nice quiet time with him, even if it is just hanging out and watching a bit of TV catching up on our shows on the TIVO.

How was your week?

#toh20day challenge - did your family notice?

I am ready for week #2 in The Organised Housewife's 20 days to clean and organise your home challenge ;-)

On Sunday, Mr Fixit noticed I was doing something with my 20 Days Journal and asked what I was doing.  I showed him that I was making up the dividers for the A5 folder I was using for this project.  He then commented that he thought it was so funny that I would spend so much time on the organising of the journal and would probably spend less time on the organising of the home.  Don't get me wrong, he said it nicely ..... seeing it written down here makes it sound really bad, but in his defence, I have been known to 'organise the life out of' a lot of things as a form of procrastination rather than do housework.  ;-)

At this point, I put my pen down and asked if he had noticed anything different over the last week:  his answer was "nooooooooo ............. that's the wrong answer, isn't it?".  I had to laugh ;-)  

So, he had not noticed that:

• the bedroom was the cleanest it has been in 6 months (last Christmas was the last BIG clean because we were hosting);
• the kitchen was the neatest and tidiest it had been in such a long time - in that the dishwasher was stacked every night, and only a few hand washing items were left on the sink overnight, only to be washed the very next day;
• the pantry was a little better oganised;  or 
• we weren't tripping over the magazine rack

But, what he DID notice was that:

• I had changed the quilt cover and sheets and cleaned the TV screen in the bedroom
• there was actually less loads of laundry to do over the weekend as I had made a start during the week.

I must say that Mr Fixit has never been one to complain or even notice if the dishes weren't washed straight away, or if the ironing was not done immediately, or if tea was a little late or a 'throw together' at the last minute, or that there was dust everywhere (except on the TV, if he thought there was too much dust on the screen, he would grab a cleaning cloth and clean it ............. nothing else, just the screen  ;-).  

What is important to him, is that the clothes get washed on the weekend, so that he has clean clothes to wear to work.  Mr Fixit will regularly pop into the laundry on the weekends to check on the progress of the washing - if there was a fresh load finished in the washing machine, he would pop it in the dryer, and put the next load in for washing - but leaving me to hang up my 'girly stuff' ;-)

The general run of the household has been left up to me and now that I am not in paid work any more, I find I am almost enjoying it ;-)  This 20 Days challenge has given me the impetus to 'pull my finger out' and get some of the jobs I have been procrastinating about for the last 6 months or more done and dusted!

I had tried following the US FlyLady system in the past, and whilst it worked for me in the Decluttering Tasks, I didn't really follow it for the general housecleaning.

So, a big thank you to The Organised Housewife  for doing this in an Australian Time Zone ;-)

Day 4 & 5 - 20 days to clean & organise

I am participating in The Organised Housewife's 20 days to clean & organise your home challenge ;-)

Day 4 we are in the Lounge - Day 5 we do our floors

I didn't get to do the lounge as planned, but did do the floors on Friday - won't show pics of the floors ;-)

I will show pics of other tasks that were on Day 4 and Day 5

I noticed in these photos - I really have to clean that

wall - maybe even repaint - actually....... get Mr Fixit to repaint ;-)

I prided myself on my organised pantry, 

Obviously it wasn't as organised as it could have been ......... had to throw out all these ;-(

Looking forward to next week.

Day 3 - 20 days to clean & organise

I am participating in The Organised Housewife's 20 days to clean & organise your home challenge ;-)

Day 3 we are in the Laundry

The Laundry wasn't that bad really - we had recently fixed the dryer (well, not 'we' but hubby Mr Fixit did) and when it was off the wall, I cleaned the walls and the dryer vents)

All I had to do really was to clean off the shelf and wipe up the spills, give the laundry trough a good clean and throw out a few empty containers.

There is only the two of us to wash for, but I still manage to put off the sheets and towels until I absolutely HAVE TO wash them ;-)

I still need to get inside the cupboard to sort that one out - hopefully, will tackle it today.

Day 2 - 20 days to clean & organise

I am participating in The Organised Housewife's 20 days to clean & organise your home challenge ;-)

Day 2 we are in the main bedroom

The Main bedroom wasn't in too bad a state 

but it was good to get all the dust off the bedhead 

and the dressing table and TV

I am desperately wanting to update our bedroom furniture - we have been married for 30 years and we got this within the first year we were married.
It does the job, but I am just soooo sick of looking at it ;-) 

It will be nice when we update the TV to a new wall mounted one, we will get back the use of the top drawer in the Tall Boy.  In the Before photo you can see some Blue Tack Dots high on the wall near the ceiling cornice - this is where we placed a cardboard cut-out to see what the new TV would look like ;-)

Are you doing the 20 day challenge?

Let me know how you are going ;-)

Day 1 - 20 days to clean and organise

I am participating in The Organised Housewife's 20 days to clean & organise your home challenge ;-)

Day 1 we are in the kitchen

The extra task of organising a shelf on a bookcase - I chose the bookcases in my Craft Room, as they are in dire need of organisation ;-)

I decided to organise the whole bookcase since they were so small

my 52 Projects

Time for some new pics in my own personal 52 Blooms Project

#34 - Spring Buds


#35 - Delirius Diosmas


#36 - Delicious Diosmas


We have several Diosmas around the garden, but only one is in full bloom ;-)