Get ready... Im putting on my ranty pants on!

I don't often have a rant on here. Dad'n usually cops the brunt of it and then I seem to move on.

However... for some reason, this issue here seems to have reved me up a little more than I like and what better way to get some relief than share it with the world ;)

What is this issue your thinking?

Well.

At what point are you seen to be "wasting" an estate agents time?

We have been dealing with a real estate agent that had a block of land we were very interested in. We were very close to making an offer on this block but at the end of the day decided it wasn't the block for us.

As a lovely and helpful real estate agent... he continued calling each week, offering alternative addresses to look at, expressing which vendor's NEED to sell. I have actually not made any phone calls but the initial enquiry on the first block of land. He has been doing all the chasing!

Moving on.

Over the weekend, an established property caught our eye. To our surprise, it was our original agent that had the listing. I was actually really pleased as he was so lovely, I knew he would help us with any enquiries we had on the property.

Wasn't I wrong there.

I explained to him that although we were originally looking to buy land... maybe this property would be ideal and then we wouldn't have to go through the building process... That it couldn't hurt to look right?

He was less than helpful. He was cold. I felt like I was putting him out even mentioning it to him. He was negative. He was presumptuous in some of the things he said. He annoyed me. A LOT!

Where had my lovely, friendly and helpful estate agent gone?

Then it came to me. Did he feel we were wasting his time?

Yes, he had been putting a lot of effort in with us. Offering us lots of blocks of land that were on the market. We didn't like any. That's not our fault. And then I did a 180 degree turn and asked about an established home.

But really, how dare we explore our options!

So now I have a bitter taste in my mouth regarding that beautiful home all due to one grumpy phone call. Yes, I can be high maintenance sometimes but really... If its our so many hundreds of thousands of dollars we are spending, I really don't appreciate getting the vibe that I am putting someone out.

*un-buttons ranty pants and chucks them in the corner*

Ahhhh that feels better :)

Cookie cutter kinda day.

Boo decided that she wanted to use cookie cutters today! Filled in our morning fabulously.

A simple, not to sweet, plain biscuit recipe that was just perfect for us to cookie cut the morning away.

Ingredients:

250g butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 cups of plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Cream your butter and sugar

Add eggs in one at a time and mix between each egg

Add flour and baking powder

Mix well and then turn dough mixture out on to some glad wrap

Wrap it up and pop it in the fridge until nice and firm

Roll it out and start cutting your cookies

Bake cookies at 180c until golden brown (approx 10 minutes)

Spend afternoon keeping the toddler away from the biscuit tin!

I showed those water marks and stains who's boss!

With little kids and forever leaking sippy cups... you are bound to get water marks / stains in your car.

We had a heap of ugly marks on our grey upholstery in our car.

There is also heaps on the micro suede couch... I haven't attacked them yet, but is on this weeks "to do"list. Hopefully it will clean them up too!

I found an easy tip to get rid of them. To tell you the truth I didn't think it would work so I didn't bother to take before and after pictures but now I kind of wish I did.

All I used... glass cleaner. You know your "Windex" or similar type sprays... I think mine was the Aldi version. Bless Aldi ;)

All you do... Spray over the whole area (in my case, the whole seat) until it looks completely wet. Leave it for a few minutes, blot dry with paper towel. Then you let it dry naturally. As it dried... the water marks disappeared!

Fabulous. Saved myself some $$$ as I was about to book it in at one of those car cleaner places and god knows how much they would have charged me!

xx

Apple slice.

I had some apples that weren't getting eaten in a hurry so decided to use them up in something scrummy. Scrummy is definitely what it was!

Apple Slice

This recipe is using a Thermomix, but could easily be adapted without one.

- Preheat your oven to 180degrees
- Grease and line your baking / slice tin

Apple filling

6 x apples (They always say use Granny Smith when cooking, I just used what I had...)
1/2 cup of water
2 Tbs of sugar
1 Tbs of cinnamon

- Peel and slice apples into chunks, add them into your bowl with the water, sugar and cinnamon.
- Cook for 10 mins / 100 degrees / reverse Speed 1 or until your apples are nice and soft.
- Then just give them a quick blitz (4 seconds / speed 5) to chop them up ready for your slice
- Set aside

Slice
185g of butter
2 eggs
1 cup of castor sugar
1 cup of plain flour
1/2 cup of self raising flour

- Soften your butter ( 1 minute / 60 degrees / speed 1)
- Add castor sugar or blitz until combined
- Add eggs and blitz again
- Add the plain and self raising flour and combine it all to make a batter

- Pour half of your slice mixture into your tin

- Cover mixture with a layer of your apples

- Finish with the other half of your slice mixture to cover your apples

- Put it into the oven and bake for approx 45 minutes or until golden brown

- When its out of the oven, sprinkle with some sugar while its nice and hot

Serve warm with some custard or icecream. Its pretty devine.

When in a crisis... Always ask Google!

Today's crisis... My exfoliating scrub ran out!

You can add over exfoliating to my list of "OCD habits".

I . love . it

There is no better feeling that a nicely scrubbed face :) Well maybe there is...

How about we just add it to my "feel good" list? Right next to clean sheets, washed hair, painted toe nails, clean kitchens...

Lists lists lists. Mmmm. Love lists too!

Back to the story.

I'm all for natural alternatives for cleaning at home so figured why not google a DIY scrub to get me through until I can restock at the shops. I wanted something super simple. I didn't feeling life mixing up some huge elaborate scrub.

Sure it would have been lovely with some fragrances. Something nice and moisturizing. But somehow I don't think ABC2 was willing to babysit for that long this morning. I needed something with a couple of ingredients that I could use to get the job done.

 I found it! It was a huge success!

It was called a "blackhead clearing scrub".

1 x Tbs of granulated sugar
1 x Tbs of baking powder
2 x Tbs of water

Mix it up... Scrub away... Leave it on for a few minutes... Rinse.

It cost me $0 and actually felt better than what I pay $30+ on.

Will definitely be doing it again. Face feels FAB!

Moral to the story... No need to stress when your exfoliator runs out. Just ask Google :)

xx

The update on our move.

Our move.

Before my break, we had not long made our "sea change" and we were adjusting to our brand new life.

That was about four months ago now.

Am I still happy with our decision? Absolutely. It was the best decision ever.

Do I miss our old home and life? Sometimes.

It is easy to sit here and marvel at how awesome our new life is, because it is. But I also remember that I left a place a called home. It was home for a very long time and sometimes I just miss that feeling of everything being familiar.

Slowly, things here are feeling like home, but it is taking time.

Each visit back to our old home town is feeling better... I'm not getting so much of that feeling that I am saying good bye to an old friend each time I leave.

Really though, it is hard to compare the feeling of my whole life verses four months of our new start.

Each week, we continue to build our new life here.... and hopefully soon, our new home!

That's a whole other story that I'm excited to start filling you in about.

xx

Clear the cobwebs! I'm back....

It seems as though my blog got lost not long after we made our big move! Maybe I left my motivation in those last few boxes that I didnt bother to unpack ;)

Making my way back here was like saying hello to an old friend again! Im excited to start sharing again.

So what now? I need to clear the cobwebs... maybe I even need a new look? We will see, cant get to far ahead now.

Time to play catch up.

Stay tuned....