Homemade Pizza

Come Friday night, everyone is tired and I am counting down the minutes before we can get the kids to bed, I can pop on my PJ’s and settle in with a cup of tea and Better Homes and Gardens, followed by The Living Room (you do know I am a 62 year old trapped in a 32 year olds body, don’t you…😉).

I am the main “dinner cookerer” in this house and come Friday night I don’t wanna anymore!  Instead of takeaway, I plan something really easy. Quite often homemade pizza, in front of the TV (we eat at the table for all other meals) and a kid friendly movie. 

Many years ago, BC (before children), we stayed in the Blue Mountains for the weekend and dined at an Italian restaurant in Blackheath (sorry, don’t remember the name). We shared a pizza and it was so delicious, we tried to replicate it at home. We went back a few years later, ordered the pizza and it turned out we preferred our version. 

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast
• 1 packet Leggo’s pizza sauce
• 1/2 jar of Masterfoods Red Wine and Garlic marinade
• 2 slices Lebanese bread
• Avocado
• Small handful of semi-dried tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic
• Light sour cream
• Mozzarella cheese

Method:

1. Cut chicken into small cubes, place in bowl and cover with marinade.  Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge to marinade. 
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. 
3. Cook chicken in frypan until cooked through. 
4. In a bowl mash avocado, add garlic and sour cream. Mix well. 
5. Place Lebanese bread onto pizza baking tray. Spread pizza sauce over bread. 
6. Add cooked chicken, sundried tomatoes, avocado mix and cheese.
7. Place in the oven for 1o minutes or until cheese has melted. 
8. Slice and serve!

We absolutely love this pizza. We go through phases of remembering it and including it in our menu plan, and then forgetting it again for a while. 

What’s your go to recipe on a Friday night?

Do you have a favourite pizza recipe?

Do you love BH&G and The Living Room?

My KonMari Journey • Wardrobe

We’re going in!

I first did my wardrobe on 25 June 2015. Marie asks you to gather all your clothing from around the house.  Some homes have coat closets so you would need to empty them out as well.  This was what was amassed on my bed when I emptied out my wardrobe and all my drawers.

This is what I discarded:

Some of it was very easy.  I don’t generally spend a lot on my clothes.  My weight has fluctuated greatly over the last 5 years, so I don’t like to spend too much on each item. Some of it was hard.  There was a leather jacket I bought in Melbourne.  A mistake really, at the time of purchase and only worn once, but the cost of it was ringing in my ears.

So many left over coat hangers.  I donated a bulk of these to Lifeline with my clothes.

The finished product:

As I said on Saturday, with the recent release of the KonMari App, I thought I would go over each area again and see if I could improve some more.  

Step 1:  Make your bed. It will make it so much easier to begin with a flat, tidy surface. 

Step 2: Get EVERYTHING out. All tops, bottoms, dresses, outerwear, socks/stockings, underwear, seasonal wear, bags, hats and belts, shoes and jewellery. 

Step 3: Commence looking at, feeling and assessing each item of clothing. 

As I had already done the clothing category last year, and I have honed my skill in assessing weather something brings me joy or provides a purpose or not, I completed the entire category in 1.5 hours. 

This was what I achieved on the weekend:

Before:

After:

Bags:

I didn’t get rid of any handbags. I like to change my handbag depending on the outfit that I’m wearing. I have used all these bags in the last 12 months. I gave them all a wipe over and returned them to their dust bags.

Shoes:

I have plantar fasciitis and I’m in the process of moving over from the Kmart/Target cheap flats to shoes with better support in them. I have discarded shoes that no longer bring me joy aesthetically and as I replace current shoes with shoes that have orthotic support I will discard my current ones. This will need to be a gradual process due to finance.

Winter shoes:

Summer shoes:

Scarves:

I have a few scarves and I love adding them to my outfits. I only got rid of 2!  This is how I like to store them with this hanger from IKEA:

Jewellery:

I didn’t get rid of any jewellery. It all brings me joy. This is how I like to store my costume jewellery using a key hook from Office Works and 3m hooks:

I can now say that everything in my wardrobe brings me joy.  There are clothes that are too small for me at the moment. I am hopeful that by the summer time they will be fitting me again. If not, I will reassess those clothes in the summer. 

So, one bag of clothing and one bag of shoes have been discarded. There is a small shopping bag of clothes for the rubbish.

You might think that I have too many clothes. You might think I have enough. I am content with the quantity. Certainly, before I commenced this journey I would have to swap my wardrobe around seasonally. I used to have a large storage container where I would put my off-season clothing and place up in the roof cavity.  So pleased I don’t need to do that anymore!

If you have gone through your wardrobe and don’t have anything left, consider reading Unlock Your Style by Nikki Parkinson. Her book is fantastic for teaching you how to build your wardrobe. 

Are you embarking on your own KonMari journey?  

Where are you up to?  

Are you pleased with your progress?

I’d love to see your pics too! Tag #simplyorganisedsimplybeautiful on Instagram, post in the comments on Facebook or message me!

My KonMari Journey • Vision

You can read about my Konfession here.

With the recent release of the KonMari app, I decided to download it, re-read the book and go over the completed sections, see if there is anything I’ve missed, and complete sentimental.

I just want to clarify, the KonMari method isn’t about being a minimalist. This is a common misconception I have read on different blogs/articles. It’s about only keeping the things around you that bring you joy, that make you happy. To some, that is a minimalist house. To others, it’s having lots of keepsakes around them that trigger memories.

The next most common thing that I read is “well my toilet brush doesn’t make me happy or bring me joy”. My answer to that is that a clean toilet sure does and unless you want to stick your hand in there to clean it, then the toilet brush stays.

It’s all about common sense really, without the excuses.

Marie Kondo asks you to create your vision.

My vision is a home where everything sparks joy or has a purpose, has a home and is easy to maintain so that cleaning my home is more efficient, thereby creating more time to be with my family and pursue activities that bring me joy.

Have you read the book?

What is your vision?

Have you started?

How are you finding it?

Where are you up to?

I’ll bring you updates with before and after photos as I go along! I’d love to see your pics too! Tag #simplyorganisedsimplybeautiful on Instagram, post in the comments on Facebook or message me!

Little Girls Room • Inspiration

Hi there!  It’s been lovely trawling through Pinterest, pulling together some design inspiration for you! 

Let’s get into it!

A great pop of colour with the feature wall and pillow cases. Such fun!

I like the use of the narrow shelves for children’s books. 

I’m not a fan of bedding with characters blazoned across them. If you are, go for it. Each to there own. I love the use of pink and blue together above and below. 

A slightly darker look, but well balanced with the white wainscoting and bedding. 

Fit for a Princess!  I love looking at Pottery Barn Kids!

Another ‘Princessy’ room. 

I love this!  Making the bed would be so hard, but a great use of space and lots of fun for the little lady in the room. 

Can you see a common theme through most of those pictures above?  I love using pink and blue together, which I did in Miss 5’s room. 

Some other colour themes to consider:

As I said Monday, I feel that little girls rooms (and really, all bedrooms) should feel calm, relaxing and inviting and I think less is more. I like white furniture, just enough storage and a small amount of toys (not always possible – we are lucky and have a playroom). 

And you know how I mentioned that I wanted to frame the mobile from Kmart as the art above Miss 5’s bed?  Turns out it wasn’t an original idea, I found someone else had already done it when I came across this picture on Pinterest. 

So there you have it!  Hopefully something there has inspired you if you’re looking to update your little girls room. 

Tell me, what did you love about your bedroom growing up?  Fave colour combo?

Miss 5’s Bedroom Makeover

2016 has been a big year for Miss 5 with the commencement of her schooling career.  I thought we should celebrate her turning 5 with a bedroom makeover.

This was how her room looked prior to the makeover:

Bedding was from Treehouse as were the accessories on the wall.  We purchased her a single bed at the end of 2013, when her brother needed the cot.  The quilt cover was a single cover that I used in the cot, so she continued using that until her birthday this year.

I knew I was going to be changing her room up since Christmas time and started collecting bits and bobs as I came across them.

I found the bedspread on Ebay.  I initially found it on Pinterest and hunted for ages to locate it.  I searched high and low through all our bedding shops, in the UK and US and even searched “pink paisley bedding” on Google.  Finally located it through Ebay and then commenced purchasing everything else.

I think that is the key to interior design.  Find the piece that you want to be “hero” of the room, your starting/jumping off point and go from there.

I purchased the bedside table lamp, 4 cube shelf and 4 baskets from Ikea, the rug, peg board, bean bag, fox cushion, box, wall stickers (polkadots) from Kmart, the “K” from Typo and the curtains were in the room before, from Spotlight.

Art ideas

I found this mobile some time ago at Kmart.-

I had intended to frame it in a large white frame. Unfortunately, I procrastinated in buying it and it was no longer in stock when I was putting the room together.  I decided to be “creative mummy” and make an art work myself. Miss five loves ballet so I drew my inspiration from that for the art above her bed. On the wall next to her bed I located some free printables on Pinterest and framed them in cheap white frames. I also located some free printables for the words on Pinterest. Both pins you can find here.

I got the wall dots from Kmart. I don’t know what it is about our walls, they haven’t been painted for at least 3 years, they were cleaned and allowed to dry before application, but they all fell off! They looked good whilst they lasted!  I will probably try some more expensive ones as it really does make a big difference to the wall.

You will have noticed from the before and after shot that they used to be a desk in Miss 5’s room. I made the decision to remove the desk from the room as it was purely a clutter magnet and I wanted the room to feel more restful, less cluttered and I also can’t see her doing any homework or study in there for many years to come.  I am so happy with that decision!  In its place is the bean bag and peg board shelf.  Miss 5 is able to store her breakables there as Mr 3 is unable to reach them.

My parents bought Miss 5 this dollhouse a few years back (from Aldi) and she loves playing with it.  It used to live on her dressing table but I wanted to declutter the dressing table so moved it to the top of the cube shelf.  The cube shelf provides storage for the doll house furniture and other toys, like her Barbies.

So, there you go! Miss 5’s room.

Are you thinking of re-vamping your little girls room?  I will be putting together some inspirational images for you on Thursday.  If there is a particular style you’re interested in, let me know!

Canberra long weekend getaway

As I said on Monday, I work 3 days a week and Hubby works full-time. These school holidays we both decided to work through and arrange care for Miss 5 so that we could save up our annual leave for the summer school holidays.

We also wanted to get away for a few days so we decided to head down the Hume Highway/Federal Highway to Canberra, a 3 hour drive for us.

We only made the decision to do this trip on the Monday prior to going. We had thought of it earlier but with car rego due the same week and the need for two new tyres, we thought we should be responsible with our finances. And then we decided not to be!

The main purpose of our visit was to go to Corin Forest. You can read my post on that here. That took care of Friday. We went from Corin Forest to our accommodation, Forrest Lodge in Forrest.

Forrest Hotel:

Forrest Hotel is a 3 star hotel. Because we left the booking so late, the only room option available to us was the Forrest Queen Room. We booked a single foldaway bed for Miss 5 and took the portacot for Mr 3. We only spent from 6pm til 9am in our room on both days as we were out and about so the cramped quarters were completely fine for us.

The hotel was very clean, beds were very comfortable and the room very warm. We would only have the air conditioning on for about 30 minutes and I would have to turn it off.

The hotel is also in a fantastic location. A few streets back from Parliament House and a few streets from Manuka and all the eateries it has to offer.

Saturday:

We stopped by Parliament House for a couple of photos then headed over to Gold Creek to visit Cockington Green. I haven’t been there since I was in year 6 on a school excursion. The area has changed a lot in those 20 years and there are now shops and real estate all around it. We took a little drive around and then parked. I thought we should get the kids some morning tea before starting Cockington Green and I saw this…

AdoreTea:

I am a major tea lover. I don’t drink coffee at all. I love the smell but hate the taste. I gave my hubby the look of “Please! Let’s go there!” and he agreed. He likes coffee.

When we walked in we were greeted by lovely staff members and shown to a table right by the play area. As we walked by I noticed the detail on the chairs.

So cute!

We were presented with the menu and there are well over 50 different tea options available! I chose a black tea called Lovers Leap.

I also chose the chocolate tart caramel sauce macaron. Hubby has the mortal sin choc cheesecake with chocolate milkshake. Miss 5 had the banana bread bites and Mr 3 chose the gingerbread man.

It was all very yummy! With our tummies full, we headed to Cockington Green.

Cockington Green:

Whilst the suburb of Gold Creek has changed, Cockington Green certainly hasn’t, and I think that is a good thing!

Still the charming old British inspired scenes and buildings representing many of the Countries of the world.  Miss 5 and Mr 3 dubbed Ukraine’s St Andrij’s Church, as being Anna and Elsa’s castle!

We enjoyed a trip around on the train and I grabbed some sandwiches from the café to enjoy out in the playground.

Entry cost us:

• Adults – $19.50
• Children (4 to 16 years) – $11.50
• Train ride – $3.00

National Dinosaur Museum:

Hubby took the kids over to the National Dinosaur Museum whilst I had a (very) quick look around the shops. With so many dinosaurs to look at/climb on/play on we just did that and looked in the gift shop and didn’t pay the admission fee. My understanding is that it is a great exhibition but far to detailed for a 3 year old who just wants to roar!  Although, at the time of taking the below photo, Mr 3 was not in the mood!

It was time to get back in the car and make our way to the Arboretum.

National Arboretum:

My mother-in-law brought Miss 5 here recently and we knew we had to visit too! The playground is amazing!

Miss 5 and Master 3 were in there so fast I couldn’t keep my eyes on them. Although a little scared at first, the kids loved going through the acorn pods and netting and finally down the slide. We had to drag them away so we could go an have a look at this beautiful view!

There are some food options available at the National Aboretum. You can either grab a quick bite at the Sprout Café or a sit down meal at the Conservatory Restaurant.  It would be lovely to go back sometime with hubby and enjoy a meal with that view!

From the Aboretum we headed to Manuka for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Le Rendezvous.

Le Rendezvous:

I googled “kid friendly restaurants Canberra” and came across a page called Her Canberra. It listed 75 restaurants around Canberra. I tried a few but being a Saturday night, in the school holidays and 4.30pm, no luck. We managed to get a table at Le Rendezvous in Manuka – very close to our accommodation.

The food was delicious! Kids meals are $15 each and come with a bowl of pasta and a bowl of chips, a drink and icecream. I only wish they’d brought out the pasta first, and not the chips. Her Canberra advised that colouring in was on offer so we didn’t pop back at the hotel to gather supplies. When Miss 5 went to ask they said they didn’t offer it anymore. The kids were tired and restless so Hubby ducked back to go and get it whilst I ordered dinner and tried to remain calm, cool and collected in public with two very tired kids! Technology won out and Ben and Holly came on my phone to keep the piece. I am not perfect!

Hubby and I enjoyed Garlic Prawns and Caesar Salad for our entree and Pumpkin and Ricotta Gnocci with Burnt Butter, Sage and Bacon and Mushroom, Chicken & Crispy Pancetta Risotto. All of it delicious. All of it very filling. We couldn’t eat dessert!

Sunday:

Old Bus Depot Markets:

It had been a few years since we had been and I was excited to have another walk around. I bought a gift for a friend at the first stall I saw! There was lots of fresh produce on offer, timber goods, fashion, jewellery and art. It seemed like there were less stalls available but that was also a good thing as it meant there was more room to walk around. We sat down and enjoyed some poffertjes and tea and coffee and then made our way to a playground for the kids to burn of some energy and make our way home.

It was a lovely weekend away!

Corin Forest

I work 3 days a week and Hubby works full-time. These school holidays we both decided to work through and arrange care for Miss 5 so that we could save up our annual leave for the summer school holidays. The constant balancing act, hey?

We also wanted to get away for a few days so we decided to head down the Hume Highway/Federal Highway to Canberra, a 3 hour drive for us.

The main purpose of our visit was to go to Corin Forest for the kids to experience snow. We decided to do this on the Friday in the hope it would be less busy than on the weekend.

As this was the first time for Mr 3 and Miss 5 was 18 months old for her first time, we decided to just do the snow play. Tickets are a very affordable $15 each and we knew the kids would love having a ride on a toboggan and build Olaf from Frozen.

There are 3 sessions daily:

• 8:30am – 11am
• 11am – 1:30pm
• 
2pm – 4:30pm

We also needed to hire gear as we didn’t want the experience ruined by being cold and wet.

We hired:

• 2 x Toboggans – $5 each
• 3 x Snow boots $10 each
• 4 x Jacket and pants $15 each

Total = $100.00

To avoid disappointment we booked our tickets in advance online for the 2.00pm session as this was the main reason for our visit to Canberra. So glad we did, our session, and every session Friday, Saturday and Sunday was booked out.

We had a blast! The ever cautious Miss 5 surprised us with her enthusiasm to go on her own down the slope many times. Mr 3 attempted a solo trip but stacked it and was too scared to go alone again. We attempted building Olaf but Mr 3 was deconstructing it as we were building it!

Many trips up and down and then it was time to head back, return the hire gear and get warm with hot chocolates and marshmallows.  We sat by the fire and toasted the marshmallows. Delicious. 4 hot chocolates and 4 large marshmallows cost $25.

Pros:

• Close location to Sydney
• Cheaper than going to the Snowy Mountains
• The two hour brackets are good blocks of times for kids
• Not as crowded as the Snowy Mountains.Even with the session being fully booked there was plenty of room for everyone to have a great time.
• There were staff on standby in case of injury.

Cons:

• With being in the last session, at least two people had already worn our snow gear that we had hired and everything was wet as we put it on.
• A larger area for check-in and collection of hire gear would be better.  It took a long time to get sorted.  Keep in mind there were two adults and two kids to get sorted.
• Kids hire clothes started at size 4.  If your kids are smaller than this, look to get gear elsewhere – like the Aldi snow sale in May/June each year.

Tips:

• Take plastic bags for wet clothes and muddy shoes.  The carpark has a dirt surface and it had rained.  Muddy puddles everywhere!
• Book online beforehand to avoid disappointment.
• Keep on eye on the Corin Forest web page/Facebook page/twitter feed for updates on the road conditions.
• Get there early to check-in/organise hire gear.

Overall:

We had a great time!  Would we do it again?  Definitely!  It’s such an easy drive and so affordable for entry prices.  Yes, when you add on the hire fees for the clothing it makes it more expensive but we would plan ahead a bit better and I would keep an eye out on Gumtree or Buy, Sell, Swap groups or at Aldi for gear in advance.  My kids would also love to learn how to ski/snowboard to we’ll be back for them to have those experiences.

It’s not as flashy as the ski fields in the Snowy Mountains etc, but it provides you with everything you need to have a great time!

Check back in on Thursday, when I’ll share with you what we got up to for the rest of our time in our Nation’s capital.

 

Banana Bread

Last week was Federal Election time which brings with it P&C sausage sizzles and cake stalls at polling booths.

I had 18 bananas in the freezer and made 6 batches of banana bread. 5 for school and 1 for us. It was so delicious, I thought I’d share the recipe with you:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 125 grams butter, melted, cooled
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base inside of an 11 x 20 x 6cm deep loaf pan.
2. Combine flours, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. 
3. Whisk butter and eggs together, stir in the banana.
4. Combine the dry and wet ingredients and pour into the prepared pan. 
5. Place mixture into the oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm, spread with butter.

Such a simple recipe, but the result is a delicious banana bread!
Today I have served it with honey, strawberries and cream for a visit from my brother and his kids!

My Konfession

For those of you that know me well, you’ll know what this means. For those of you not in the know, this is it…

I’m a Konvert! I’m following the Kon Mari method by Marie Kondo. You can find out all about Marie and her method here.

Why did I choose to do this method?

I felt like the house was closing in from all the stuff. I think we go through different stages in our lives of collecting and shedding.

My husband and I moved out of our respective family homes when I turned 21, into the home we are living in today. We only had the stuff from our bedrooms so we needed to build the supplies you need for a whole house. With my 21st came traditional 21st birthday gifts, all of which, very well received. Dinner sets, serving bowls and plates, sheets, vases and cutlery. Our mothers then started going through their cupboards and kindly passed on all manner of objects that they thought we needed. I thought so too seeing as they’d had them. We carried on accumulating things for probably seven years.

Our daughter was born in 2011 and we undertook a relatively large renovation. I’ll go into that renovation in another post. The renovation was such that we had to completely empty the house and store all our belongings in a storage pod and house-sit at my sister-in-law’s for three weeks. At this time my tastes started to change. I no longer wanted the beech coloured furniture. I was sick of the hand me down couches that didn’t match and having to constantly fix the blue covers we purchased from Spotlight.

It was around this time that I started to get rid of little bits and pieces. In around August 2012 I came across a spring cleaning/organising group on Facebook which started in September. The checklists on offer for each area of the house were fantastic for going through each cupboard and advising the best way of cleaning the different appliances etc.

I found it hard to keep up with the weekly challenge. Even though it was only one room week, I had upped my days at work from two days per week to four days per week and had recently fallen pregnant with our son. I persevered though, and as I had time, I started cleaning out cupboards with gusto. But some things kept me back from getting rid of as much as I wanted to.

• I might need that someday.
• My mum bought that for me.
• My mother-in-law bought that for me.
• My husband bought that for me.
• Someone bought it for me.
• That cost me $???.

Great excuses, aren’t they?

So whilst a lot of things did leave the home, with two young children the rate of accumulation exceeded the rate of what we were getting rid off.

Now I don’t want you to think that we were hoarders. That is actually a very serious issue, usually needing some form of counselling and the assistance of a specially trained professional organiser to assist them with decluttering the stuff. There was just more stuff in this house than I could handle.

Then followed the usual haze of night feeds, two children under 2 1/2 and everyday life and things stalled again.

It’s probably about a year ago now that I purchased The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo. I bought the iBook version so that I could read it on my phone anywhere I went. Namely on the train on my commute each day. Little did I know, I was helping myself out by not purchasing another physical item that would clutter up my home. I devoured the book. Simply, it just made sense.

The very basic premise of the book is to consider whether the items in your home bring you joy.

Now for those of you that have read it, I don’t empty my handbag out every day. I don’t talk to my clothes. But the act of really thinking about each item and whether or not it sparks joy, really helped in making decisions on whether an item should stay or go.

Remember those excuses? It felt like the book gave me permission to let go of things that other people may have bought me or our family, that didn’t bring me/ my family joy.

The other thing that I like about Marie Kondo’s method, is that you gather all like items from around the home before you commence culling and sorting. Until you see the quantity of clothing amassed together, the ridiculous amount of pens and other stationary items, you don’t really have an understanding of how much stuff you’ve got.

For anyone that has read the book, you know that attending to your own belongings first is the key and commencing with your wardrobe is the first activity. Over the next little while I will show you the results from my KonMari’ing, with my wardrobe up first.

If you press snooze one more…

Argh!!!!

Do you sleep next to a snoozer?  Are you a snoozer?

Happy Saturday morning folks!  

It’s been a restless night here in the Simply Organised.  Simply Beautiful household. 

Mr 3 is toilet trained, but still likes to wake us up in the middle of the night when he needs to go to the bathroom. For some reason he got up at least three times last night to go to the bathroom. I’ve gotten quite good at sleeping through his callouts and hubby is getting up most of the time now. But not last night, we were each up three times for various reasons. 

On Saturday mornings hubby takes Mr 3 to Junior Kickers and they need to leave at 7.20am. Hubby obviously needs to set an alarm. Fine. What’s not fine is the snoozing!  

With each snooze he takes, the clearer I’m hearing each alarm. And then he presses snooze for the “last time”. Except he doesn’t move, people!  He lays there and I’m thinking “has he fallen back asleep?” And because I don’t want them to be late, I’m waiting for another alarm to go off and am now completely awake!  He of course has dosed back off and wonders why I’m a little hostile when I nudge him and say “shouldn’t you be moving?”

This is of course my weekend sleep-in. He’ll get his tomorrow, till 8.30/9am 😐. 

So, do you sleep next to a snoozer? Are you a snoozer? Is this what your sleep-in looks like too?