Home Tip-Avoid Doing Housework

Today being Sunday and being a lazy Sunday and to boot,a beautiful clear blue sky Sunday,I was in no mood to do any housework,never the stupid garage that I still need to organize.Everyone deserves an off day and I took today.Me and my little boy rushed off to the shops and we bought a Winnie The Pooh bubble gun.I could not believe the size of the bubbles that came out.First the big ones and then lots of little ones.Unfortunately I had to press the gun trigger for the bubbles (it was a little too hard for my little one) and take the pictures as well.Look out on the top right to see the BIG bubbles.We had a really fun time.

My list of broken things in my house

I am making this list of broken things so I can have it all ready when I call the company Rent A Gent who sends someone to your home to do all the odd jobs and fix things up.

1-My washing machine broke down.Not completely it just doesnt discharge the water so what I have to do with each wash is wait until it gets to spin cycle then open the fron filter and let the water all out into my garage and then the machine will spin.I couldnt take a look at it as today si my wash day just before the housekeeper comes to do ironing tomorrow so I had to do ten loads like that.I will look at the washing machine tomorrow.

2-A week ago my one toilet started leaking so I had to close the access tap and inform the whole family not to use it.I will have to call a plumber early in April.

3-all the latches on my windows need to be fixed.They all have screws missing
4-my kitchen cupboard under the kitchen sink doesnt open properly
5-the kitchen sink is loose and water had made the surface swell up which is why the kitchen cupboard door below it does not open properly

6-some of the windows need to have the grouting re painted or painted anew in some cases.

7-I will just keep adding to this list as I think of them and have at least 20 more items before I phone Rent A Gent.And believe me there are easily 20 more items

Gadget to stop your dog from barking

As soon as I saw this gadget(and I saw it by mistake) I thought this must be a really cruel gadget and I clicked on the link to find out how it works.Being ever militant I thought I would check it out and then complain.What I did find out is as soon as your dog barks it gets sprayed with citronella.I assume dogs hate citronella?I did not know that.But the reason I am posting is for the entertaining reviews I found on this product.Here is one:

Unfortunately, the collar didn't do anything for our dog. I've tried the collar multiple times (went thru the refill can already), but she is very happy to just be barking away. The only effects I can figure out in our case is that we are out $80, and the dog smells like Citronella. On the positive side, the device has been pretty durable and sits on the dog well. Citronella just didn't work for us.

So if you feel like a good laugh please go see this product for yourself and right on top of the page is 348 reviews.You dont have to read the whole lot to be in a good mood for tomorrow the dreaded Monday morning blues

Tips For Kids On Holiday From School

The school holidays are coming up which for me means cooking the whole day and every day for these kids of mine. My daughter usually has all her friends staying over and if you have to start making a meal then by the time you are done with lunch it’s time to start over again with dinner. I am going to be organized this time by making quick easy meals so I have been searching the internet for nutritious quick easy meals and what I have come up with is crock pot meals. With one meal I can include vegetables, carbohydrates and proteins. I also found some some easy crock pot recipes which means I am all set up to go come the 27th March 2009.One meal should keep them going the whole day at least. Where do they get the appetite from? I suppose I should consider myself lucky that she does not have an eating disorder. In this day and age it seems to be the fashion to have one of those.

Another option for quick easy meals would be to make sandwiches but I am not too impressed with the nutritional value of these but again I found good recipes for making nutritious sandwiches. The good thing about these is you can prepare all the fillings and they will make the sandwiches themselves which at least will give me more time to myself considering I become a full time taxi during the holidays as opposed to an afternoon one when school is on.

And another tip for the holidays is to enroll your kids on holiday courses. I found an art course which she is going to attend the first week. Of course I had to speak to the other parents to get some of her friends on the same course which I succeeded in doing so all systems go for now. I just have to find other courses now. I am looking into a pottery one but have not received any dates from them yet and what I am really going to concentrate on is sending her on a cooking course. That’s going to take some convincing because she has already informed me that she is getting herself a rich husband so she does not need to know how to cook because he is going to be able to afford a cook in their home. So you will notice that you won’t see many tips from me on how to bring up your children responsibly because I seem to be missing out on that one.

Save Money Tip-Get a Furminator Deshedding Tool

In my bid to save money with this persistent global recession I was advised by an online guru (cannot remember who) (and I am a poet and did not know it).Anyway we are supposed to keep track of all our monthly expenses and then analyze which ones can be eliminated or decreased.Well one of my monthly things is my dog Sasha going to the dog parlor.She does come back beautiful with a pink bow and all but I have no problem with washing her it is the fur trimming that I have a problem with.So I went online and found this.The amazing Furminator Deshedding Tool.I assume the name comes from Fur Terminator,very clever...

This apparently removes the fur off your pet without any discomfort,in fact they appear to enjoy the buzzing sensation and it is easy to use.The blades do not have a sharp edge but it apparently works a charm if you read up on the reviews on this tool.Also you can watch videos which show you how its done and you will be amazed by how much fur gets taken off.

Only thing is dont use on a wet dog or a dog with tangles in the fur and you will eventually have to buy replacement blades but for me the overall cost versus the ongoing monthly cost means I can pay off the investment in about 12 months.Great idea if the globbal recession goes past that time which I think it will.Anyway it is always good to practice cost saving exercises regardless of any global economy.

FURminator deShedding Tool

Home Tip:Earn A Little Extra Money

This is going to seem off topic but really if we want to do home improvements,buy new gadgets and generally invest in our home we are going to need money.With this global recession everyone is trying to make some extra money on the side if possible.

Just bear with me here.If you have a blog of your own then you have to know the hard work that goes into SEO for your blog.First of all you make a lot of posts and in the beginning it seems as if no one is reading or visiting your site.If you have Google Analytics then you know exactly how many people are visiting your site and in the beginning it is very little.Then to get some search engine rankings you have to build backlinks and that is the most time consuming.In the meantime you are earning nothing.Of course this way any income you make from Adsense is yours but really you have to absolutely be committed and passionate and there are just too many demands....

I just discovered Today Com which is a blogging platform where you have to do none of the SEO involved above.You already have the link juice as supplied by Today Com and their Alexa ranking is about 8000.This is for free and you apply to blog for them.You get paid from day one for every traffic view you get and you can also use some of their affiliate links in your blogposts and you earn commission on that.It is very little but the way I see it is it is at least something.I applied for a normal blog but the topic I suggested must have been just what they were looking for because they ignored the name I chose and they gave me their own and also made it a VIP blog so I guess I was lucky.Or not,I will find out.If you get your own blog where you can post whatever you want you can obviously target celebrities which will get you loads of traffic and you can earn money from each viewer.I really think that if you are trying to make a little money on the side that this is the way to go as a first step.As you learn then you can venture off on your own but SEO is a real pain,take it from me..

Just go see for yourself and then decide.This is free and you have nothing to lose.They do ask for a sample of your writing but I only submitted about 10 lines and I was approved within 2 hours.So try it and Good Luck!!!

Ivy Plant as Ground Cover in Your Garden

This tip came unexpectedly.I took my little one year old in 2006 for his first visit to the plant nursery and this ivy was the one plant he chose.I placed it in a corner(with my toddler's help all in the interests of mom and son bonding)and did not expect much.This one ivy plant has proven itself to be an absolute treasure in that one ugly corner.I refuse to place another ivy plant there because I can see the progress of this one plant by just checking out the corner.Also everytime I look at this corner it takes me down memory lane as to my son's first visit and his first purchase.



By the way this is not a poisonous ivy at all and one more thing she just had 2 miserable looking leaves when we got her.

Lemon Tree in the Garden

I planted this lemon tree in 2006 and initially it lost all its leaves and after about 6 months started to grow but I have yet to pluck a single lemon.I also think it has not grown quick enough.Anyone have any ideas how to boost a lemon tree?



She does get enough sunlight and there is no way that I am going to move her somewhere else anyway because she has proven herself to be quite finicky.I just want one lemon!!!!

Planting With Seeds-My Garden Tips

About three months I ago I decided to be patient and chose a patch in my garden that I would spread a few seeds and see what happens.This patch is now looking much more beautiful than the areas where I placed grown plants.I used a mixed packet of seeds and was quite lucky that soon after that it rained quite a bit.I also mixed some compost before spreading the seeds but I am really pleased with the result.









Now I just have to fill up the blank spots with some pebbles and more just to round off and that spot is now done and complete.

Some Tips From My Flower Garden

We all know we cant plant a bunch of small plants really close together because those same plants are going to get bigger and then they are all going to be squashed up and look terrible.But in the meantime while we wait for them to grow,the problem is the garden does not look good with all the empty spaces.I deal with this problem by filling up with rocks making a design which is nice to look at and helps the garden still look nice until the plants have grown bigger.This is the task I dealt with today with an empty patch I have just under my clothes line area.
This is what the patch looked like yesterday.



These are the materials I used.Two bags of terracota coloured stones,two bags of white and grey stones,2 bags of compost,2 small ornate square paving stones,and 9 small plants.



And after 30 minutes of light gardening work I was finished.I mixed the compost with the soil,then placed the pavers,then dug the holes and placed the plants,laid the terracota stones around the pavers and laid the grey and white stones in a circle around the new plants.






The good thing about using these stones is that after the plants have grown you can remove them and use them somewhere else.I also completed another patch using these same materials and planted the remaining plants into some empty areas.

A new home tip:The Sponge Glove

I bought these this morning and you might be wondering what the big deal is.You will see later why these gloves are a big deal.First of all they are really pretty.See the part that goes over your arm with the nice kitsch design.But to be more practical they are really long so that helps with not getting water running down your arms.What I did was use two of my daughter's elesticated hair bands(the fluffy ones)and strapped them around the gloves on my upper forearms.This keeps the gloves from moving and slipping off and also the fluffy bands absorb any water which might run down the gloves.Clever,hey??

Now for the best part



From what I can see of this amazing kitchen gadget the sponge is glued onto the gloves and it looks really strong so far.I have washed my car and my front windows and the pictures show them as they look after I have used them for these chores.I will keep you updated as we progress along.The thing is I could not find any of these sponge gloves with a scouring sponge so I am going to make one of my own.Keep watching this space as I am going to post pictures of my new new invention and see if it works.

Also I was so excited about these sponge gloves that I cleaned and washed my car again even though it had been cleaned on Monday by the repair center.That's a whole other story but if you want to hear about my bid to conquer Monday morning stressors via car troubles then you know where to go.

Organize Your Pantry

Okay now you're confused.Bear with me here.Just imagine all these shoes are not in this organiser.Now place this at the back of your pantry door so it is on the inside of the pantry.Now just imagine how much stuff you could store in there.Just make sure it is the see through pockets otherwise that would defeat the objective.

So the aim of the story is buy a shoe organizer and organize your pantry with it.

Organizing My Garage or Not!!

I promised on an earlier post that I would have my garage organised by the end of February 2009.Well February has come and gone and I have done nothing.Nothing at all!!What I will do instead is post pictures of what the garage looks like,the adjoining laundry area and the courtyard close by.Please feel free to make any comments,nasty or not.I am going to get this done.
And yes my pics are as disorganised as my garage.Believe it or not this garage used to be so nice and clean and then I renovated my entire house so I got rid of a lot of stuff but I never took the stuff very far.I only took it as far as my garage.The good news is I have installed a big cupboard in my office and the plan is to organise this garage stuff into this cupboard.I even want my power tools in there because they just get dusty on the garage shelves.One day(in a perfect world) I will know where everything is and I will have an un-cluttered home.!!!!!!!!

Some More Home Tips

It is a lazy Sunday and I thought I would just post on some more home tips.

The first tip is that when you have a birthday party EVERY member of your home should take part and enjoy this birthday party



This is Sasha,a valued member of our family not only because we love her so but also because although there have been many housebreakings in our suburb the thieves have completely bypassed our house on multiple occasions because she looks so fierce.Maybe not in above picture but she was off duty then due to family commitments.And by the way the thieves enter our suburb via an empty piece of property bordering the highway which is just opposite our house.So we carry on thanking God for our good fortune and our wonderful home security guard.

Tip 2
Make sure you have a good guard dog

Tip 3
When planning a little one's birthday party consider having an ice cream cake.The kids love it and they come in all shapes and sizes with themes that you can choose from



Tip 4
Put concrete blocks on a frequently used path in the garden.You can these for a reasonable price at your local nursery and once the grass grows in between it looks really nice.







Watch this space because I will be adding some more as I think of more