Dog Walking

Did you get that hint of spring in the air this week?
The weather has lightend up a bit, and there has been a lot of snow melting.

This was really needed as we got so much snow that you couldn't even see over some of the snow banks, and our driveway was losing width to snow banks, which made it hard to park the cars.

Now, we are seeing bits of grass and temperatures as high as 10 degrees!  Yay!

This is our dog Skye.

Windgates is the name of the breeder she came from, in case you're wondering about the name on the photo.

She is also eagerly awaiting spring.  There isn't too much for a dog to sniff when the snow banks are 3 feet high in most places.  And it's too wet to play frisbee because she loves to do this dive-roll action.

I have been doing some reading on Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties) and they require quite a bit of exercise.  More than we have provided for this little one lately.  In the deep of winter I am guilty of the 10 min around the block because it's cold and dark out.  She would have to wait until Saturday for a proper walk.

My new goal for the spring is 30 minutes every morning and 30 - 60 minutes in the evenings.  This will also help me get back into better shape too.  Good for dog, and good for me.  So far she is enjoying more time outside that what she had in January and February on weeknights.

Do you have a dog?  Have you considered how many hours a day he/she needs walking?

Shelties also require lots of mental exercises.  They are the 6th smartest dog breed and they need a job to do, or else they make their own job of barking at everything in sight, or chasing things.

My next goal is to find some fun games that go beyond the frisbee fetching to figure out how to challenge this sweet friend of ours.

leave a comment if you have a dog and share with me how often you walk yours.

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

Veggie julienne

January 21, 2013
Below you will find a post that I had prepared in December, and for some reason I did not post it.
There is some great looking food and nice ideas for dinner.  Enjoy!
I have been exceptionally busy over the Christmas break and into the new year.  When my responsibilities are busy, I have no choice but to let the blog fall into the category that it really is...a hobby.  Much thanks to all of you who have been checking in and reading.

Going forward into the new year I want to explore more and more on whole foods eating, and also vegetable gardening.  Planning and organizing shopping and cooking to eat foods as natural as possible also.

Dec 6, 2013 
Here is some parts of an awesome dinner we made tonight.

Menu:
Kale salad served with julienned carrots, daikon radish, zucchini, and some red collards.
Purple Organic grown potatoes,
A bit of Chorizo sausage from a local butcher who only uses hormone free, local raised animals.

Purple Organic Potatoes

I should add that our family budget does not allow for organic grown  produce most times.  We found a local grower in Caledon, Ontario, who is supplying produce until December 23rd.  We have obtained purple potatoes, purple carrots, parsnips, red collards, brussel sprouts, 2 kinds of squash, etc.  So cool, and so healthy.  Check out what you can still buy local.  You just might be surprised.  We can buy from this  supplier until December 23rd.  You might find a local supplier that can provide awesome produce for you too!

Try to cook with reduced amounts of oil and substitute water or juice or vinegar appropriate to the dish when cooking/pan searing.    Keep your meat and dairy  to 3-4 oz per day as a total combined, and increase your fibre through whole grains and whole foods, and you'll be on your way to good healthy nutrition.

Plus, this stuff just tastes great, and increases your energy. 

Hopefully the pictures inspire you to get busy in your kitchen.

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

Christmas Tree time

Well,  It's December 1st, and we ALWAYS get our Christmas tree on the 1st Saturday of December, which, this year happens to be December 1st.

This year I think we out-did ourselves.

Every year I want the biggest, fattest, jolliest tree possible.
The record was about 6 ft wide.  This new one is about 7ft wide at the base.

(picture from daughter's facebook!)

Yes, I just HAD to have this tree.  Over the years I have become the family Matriarch of the Christmas Tree.  I seem to trump the opinion of all others.  (I guess my guy is still sweet on me!)  

So every year I walk through the tree lot where we cut down our own tree, and one by one I declare "too short, crooked trunk, there's holes in the branches, I don't want to be able to see through it, that one is skinny!, that one looks like a bulb!, and finally.....this one is jussssst right.!"

The perfect tree must consist of:

1. The classic Christmas tree shape

2. Have very dense branches that make it look thick, lush, and you can't see through the tree.

3. Have a straight trunk. (Crucial to the tree working in the tree stand.  If you've never seen a Christmas tree perform cartwheels a few times a week, just try out a tree with a crooked trunk and you'll know exactly what the cartwheeling tree is all about!)

4.  Must cause a certain delight in the Mom, the Matriarch of the Christmas tree that she is sure she has found the perfect tree.  LOL!

This year, the tree is the fattest, jolliest ever!  

We will decorate it tomorrow after church.  Today was too busy with shopping and a music concert.

What does your tree look like?  Do you like them fat and jolly too?

When we have decorated this beast of wonder I will post a new picture.

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

Tempeh Creole

Tempeh (Tofu) Creole

I recently made this Tempeh Creole for dinner.  It was super tasty and very nutritious too.

I served mine over a bed of rice.  If you are willing to experiment with ingredients you don't normally buy, you can add lots of nutritious options into the menu for your family. 

Try something new today!

 



 

For the Marinade:

• 8 Tbsp. shoyu (soy sauce)
  2 Tbsp. Creole seasoning
  8 slices fresh ginger
  2 1-inch pieces kombu (sea vegetable) ( I didn't have this so I skipped it)
  1/4 tsp. sea salt
  2 cloves garlic, sliced
  6 cups water  ( i only used about 1- 1/2 cup water)
  
  
  For the Tempeh:
  2 8-oz. pkgs. tempeh (tofu - firm brick)
  3 Tbsp. Creole seasoning (I added more of the seasoning to the cooking pot)
  1/2 cup unbleached flour
  4 Tbsp. canola oil
  2 cups chopped onions
  1 cup chopped bell peppers ( I used a red pepper and added it at the last 5 min of cooking)
  1 cup chopped celery
  2 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes (I used a can of diced tomatoes, salt free)
  1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
  5 bay leaves
  1/4 tsp. dried thyme
  1/4 tsp. dried oregano
  1/4 tsp. dried basil
  1/2 cup dry red wine ( i subtituted 1 tbs white wine vinegar instead)
  Salt, to taste
  Cayenne pepper, to taste
  Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  3 Tbsp. chopped green onions (I had no green onions to garnish, but it would have been great)
  2 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley
  
  
  • Combine all the ingredients for the marinade.
  • Cut each pack of tempeh into 12 thin slices on a bias and simmer in the marinade for minimum of 45 minutes. Remove the tempeh and reserve the marinade liquid.
  • In a mixing bowl, add the Creole seasoning and flour and mix well. Dredge the tempeh, coating completely.
  • Heat a large pan and add the canola oil. When the oil is hot, brown the tempeh on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside. (Might need to do this in two batches.)
  • Add the onions, bell peppers, and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are wilted. Add the tomatoes and garlic. Cook, for about 3 more minutes.
  • Add the tempeh back into the pan along with bay leaves, thyme, oregano, basil, marinade liquid, and wine. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Bring the liquid to a simmer, and cook for about 1/2 hour.
  • Remove the bay leaves before you serve. Garnish with green onions and parsley.
  
  Makes 6 to 8 servings
  

More Vegetables

I'm am still reviewing ways to improve both my family's and my own eating habits.
I am becoming increasingly aware that there is so many processed foods and drinks that we eat.  We can make simple choices to improve our health, and even our lives.

So, I'm on the search for whole food and plant based eating, without actually becoming a full out Vegetarian or Vegan.  I want to reduce the quantities of meats and dairy products for health, and increase plant foods and grains.  If you are Vegetarian or Vegan and my last sentence makes you immediately ask why not Vegetarian or Vegan, there's are variety of reasons, but to keep it simple, that's just not where I'm at right now.

My Grandfather is now 99 , still alive, and has been a Vegetarian/Vegan most of his life.  Between his diet and lots of walking, he has lived a long healthy life.  Makes me pay attention.  What factors were his lifestyle choices in his longevity and health?   My brother has gone Vegan in the last year or so, for health reasons.  My sister has been Vegetarian most of her life too.  Anyways, it just makes you check it out a bit when you have people in your life that pursue those food choices too.

Here is a thought, if you were to "BE IN THE HABIT OF ORGANIZING YOUR WEEKLY MEALS" (there's that heart for organizing...) and if you were to plan your meals pretending you were either Vegetarian or Vegan, how different would your plate look?

If you were trying to get your nutrients and sense of satiety from whole foods from plants, would there be a big shift in your quantity of vegetables?  Whole grains? Fruits?
Now if you add back in the meat or dairy you want in a very moderate amounts,  I suspect that you will find that the healthiness of your meals is greatly improved.  You would also need less of the meats and dairy because you would have a greater balance of the other whole foods on your plate.

There are multiple reasons for doing this, for your personal health, for the environment, and if you choose meats, poultry, pork, fish and diary from responsibly sourced places, you even help the welfare of animals.   The animal topic is much broader than this blog entry could cover.
It would cost more per pound of meat or per litre of dairy to shop like this, but if you and your family are eating much more moderate portions of these meats and dairy, your grocery budget would stay the same, and you'll be healthier for it, and voting with your wallet for the well being of animals and our environment.

That's what we're trying anyways.  We found a place near where we live called Howard the Butcher,  Caledon, Ont. and all their meats and dairy are from local farms (local eating is another important thing) and it's all hormone free and anti-biotic free.  Animals treated humanely.

So, where is the best source to find fresh ideas for eating whole foods and plant based?  From the Vegan cookbooks of course! And Vegan blogs.

Here is 2 really cool cook books I found.  I am in no way aligning myself with anyone's political stances, just to be clear, I have not thoroughly checked out these individuals, so if they have some real extreme views I don't necessarily know that.  I am not trying to endorse anything by showing you these books. Just check them out for their value as great cook books that seem nutritionally sound.

1. Bendan Brazier's - Whole Foods to Thrive

Nutrient-dense, Plant-based Recipes for Peak Health

This cook book even has recipes from Vegan restaurants.  I have eaten at Live Organic Food Bar.  Some of their recipes are in here.  Soooo exciting.

2. Alicia Silverstone's - The Kind Diet

A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet.

She has some really nice recipes in this book.  Great to check out.

She also has a website.  The Kind Life.  I haven't done a lot of exploring on her site, but I will with time.

I am challenged to eat better, and get rid of as much processed foods as possible from our diet.

If you are interested in doing the same, these books are probably at your local library, and are a great place to start.

Thanks for reading, and happy eating!

Cassie

Organic Milk

Ok, here is the new challenge for you all.

When is the last time you tasted really good milk?  I mean really good stuff!

2 weeks ago my family stumbled upon Certified Organic Milk. 

Here is a picture of Harmony Organic milk, and another supplier that is farm fresh pasturized Sheldon Milk.  The little one on the left is 10% cream for coffee.

You can even see some the the cream stuck to the side of one of the bottles.  We didn't remove it from the top of the milk properly first.  Oops!

I have been doing a lot of research into health and nutrition matters lately.  Part of this research has prompted me to start looking for ways to buy milk, eggs, meat, poultry etc. from sustainable and responsibly sourced stores.   I don't want my family purchases to support the large production industries that are so hard on animals, and reduces the nutritional value of our food as well.   I will be very open to say that we are still sorting out what our family budget can realistically afford.  It's a time of change in our budget and menu, but we are really trying to buy dairy, eggs and meats/poultry/fish/pork from sources that are local, and animals are treated well.

So, back to the milk.  I bought the milk because the glass jar looked really cool, and I was intrigued as to how a milk can be certified organic.  To be certified organic the animal must have access to outdoors daily and eat grass in the summer and hay in the winter.  Any feed supplements the cow recieves in addition to grass or hay must all be completely organic feed.  The cow can't have any steroids or anything that make her produce milk faster, etc.  After a cow has been living in these conditions for 3 years, the milk the cow produces would be considered certified organic.

I brought some of this milk home to my family and I have manged to produce a bunch of milk addicts!  LOL!

We lined up side by side a glass of milk that you buy in the plastic bags and then the organic milk.  There is NO COMPARISION!  The regular milk was watery and lacking flavour and texture compared to the organic.  Both milks were 2% milk, but the organic was much creamier in texture and the flavour was like milk I remember when I was a kid.

We have now experimented with whole milk 3% and the 2% milk.  No one in my family ever wants to go back to milk from plastic bags, but we all know we can't drink this stuff as freely because it costs more to buy.

So your challenge is to go find a supplier of fresh milk (glass jar is a good hint) and do your own test.  If you are like me, you will find yourself supporting your local dairy farmer, helping be part of the shoppers who choose milk from cows that have had a better life, and you will just be BLOWN AWAY BY THE AWESOME TASTE OF THE MILK!

Whole Foods is a supplier in USA and Canada that you can get organic milk from.  Whole Foods is a more expensive store, but if you can find one close to your home, it's worth popping in there for the milk.
In our area we also have The Apple Factory, which is right on the edge of Brampton - Georgetown.  Also Howard the Butcher in Caledon.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy some great milk.

Cassie

Assassins's Creed Costume

I have had a crazy busy week.  I wanted to do this post on Wednesday, and I am just completing it now, on Friday.

My daughter wanted a costume for Halloween from the video game Assassin's creed.
The character is Aveline de Grandpre.

This costume was very complex.  My daughter Samantha modified a vest pattern to give the jacket the length and the points on the ends.  We used a sleeve pattern from a blouse pattern for the sleeves that we attached to the vest.

I had to make the pattern from scratch and add all seam allowances, etc to make the shoulder covering.

The hat was made with 2 different hats from the dollar store cut apart and covered with fabric and re-assembled to the hat you see.

This costume was many, many hours of work.  The project was too complex to show pictures of the step by step process.

In any event, the costume was completed and below you will see the work.   Ta-dah!

Doesn't she look fantastic!

The scarf and belt ties made too.  Samantha made the Assassin's Creed belt buckle.

The pictures are slightly fuzzy because I used my cell phone and my hand is not that steady.  Sorry about that. 

Well, that's it until the next sewing project!

I look forward to sharing some more posts with you on meal planning and great food to eat.

Have a great weekend!

Cassie

Veggie bake

I have been contemplating our family diet recently, and looking for ways to improve something that is already pretty decent.  We cook everything from scratch that we can. (okay, we do buy oven fries and the occasional ready made pizza)  For the most part, if it's for dinner, it will be home made and from scratch. Our breakfasts and lunches are quite nutritious and non-processed foods too.

A whole food, plant based diet will promote optimal health.  The thing is, most people who follow a whole food, plant based diet are Vegetarian, or Vegan.  I don't think I can do that, and I guarantee my family won't. There are a few reasons that at this time we won't decide to go completely Vegetarian or Vegan, but I will save that for another entry.
If we were all to prepare meals with the focus first on whole foods, vegetables, grains, fruits, and just leave the meats and cheeses to be used more like a garnish, our diets would become so much more rich in the things our bodies need so much, such as fibre, vitamins and minerals.

I plan to do some entries on how to organize your pantry and shopping towards an "almost Vegetarian" style of eating.  In there we will discuss processed foods and their risks etc.  For now, let's just get those veggies and whole grains and legumes, etc, out of the fridge and freezer and cupboards, and onto our plates!

Here is a Veggie Bake I made last night:

Ingredients:
8 medium sized potatoes                          1/2 sweet potato
1 medium onion chopped                         2 sticks celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped                      8 Cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 medium red pepper chopped                  approx 1 cup snap peas
Olive Oil                                                   Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp ground cumin                                1-2 tsp thyme
1-2  tsp oregano                                         Zest of half a lemon
1 cup water                                                1 tsp boullion broth

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
First wash and chop your potatoes and add to a baking dish

 

Next add the sweet potato, celery and and carrots

 

Take your mushrooms and chop them into quarters.  I sometimes prefer this over slicing because you get to enjoy the texture of the mushroom.  If you have mushroom shy family members, slice finely instead.

 

 Add the remaining ingredients except for the red pepper and snap peas, and about 1 cup of water in the bottom of the baking dish.

This includes using a micro-plane  grater to grate lemon rind, the herbs and spices, oil (for added flavor and to prevent sticking) water, boullion, etc.

Stir this thoroughly until you have the vegetables evenly coated with the spices and oil and water. The water is for the boullion to absorb into, and it also helps to "steam" the veggies as they cook.

You should have a pan that looks like this, ready to go into the oven:

 

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 40 min.  Stir every 10-15 minutes to ensure they cook evenly and that they don't stick.  I cover my baking dish with an upside down cookie sheet to serve as a baking dish lid for the first half of the cooking.  This helps to "steam" the veggies a bit.

For the second half of the cooking I uncover the dish, stir and keep baking.

In the last 8-10 minutes of baking, stir in the red pepper and snap peas.  This will help them keep their bright colour and crunchy texture.

Your finished baking dish should look something like this:

 

Last night I served this to the family with a home made Barely Risotto.  

We ate some Kale chips as an appetizer.  That was dinner!  Just right for the rainy Sunday night we had.  Lots of nutritious comfort food.

Try adding some more vegetables to you family dinner today!

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

MMMMM.....COOKIES!

Sometimes you just have to make some cookies!
When I was a girl, I think home baked cookies were my indulgence of choice.  This outweighed any desire for ice cream or cake...I just loved cookies.

I even had a t-shirt with one of those decals that you have to go to a t-shirt shop and get by choosing the decal from a book.  The t-shirt said "This shirt stops at all cookie jars"

So, in honour of the cookie t-shirt and fond memories of childhood baked cookies, here is my go-to recipe.  It is from the Mrs. Fields Cookie book.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies 

1 Cup Butter or Margarine             2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Brown Sugar                       1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup White Sugar                     1/4 Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs                                  2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Method:
- Pre-heat Oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients and set aside.
- Mix together using an electric mixer the butter, brown sugar and white sugar.
- add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
- gradually stir in dry ingredients.  Be careful not to overmix, you'll toughen the flour.
- Add chocolate chips.

Distribute evenly onto baking sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes.
Cool and remove from tray.
ENJOY!

Your ingredients will look something like this:

Use an electric mixer.  Either a hand held mixer, or a stand mixer like this:

Cookies on the tray before baking:

Baked cookies look like this, time to enjoy!

Enjoy baking, and blessing your family or co-workers and friends with cookies!

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

The air in our homes

Have you ever given much thought to the air you breathe?

The air in our homes can become very stale.  This is not good for our health, nor that of the family and pets we dwell with.

In the work place, the quality of air and its temperature remains one of the comforts that employees complain about most frequently.   People often complain that it's too cold or too hot.  They will also complain with great passion that someone's perfume is too strong and will give them a headache, or that there are fumes from work being done that will make them sick.

Now consider the place we call our own castle.  Our homes.  What do you do to improve the air quality there?

I have an e-reader, and I enjoy exploring very old books free of cost, as you can download these for free.  I am pretty sure you can go to google books and download any old book to your computer too.  I have several books on housekeeping and faith issues.  My curiosity of how people approached life in the past has provided me several hours of fascinating discovery.

In some respects, people have not changed much in terms of our struggles and temptations in life.  People were trying to keep up with the proverbial Joneses 150 years ago, just like they do today.
Life styles and cultural expressions have most certainly changed though.

I discovered in several of my old books that the quality of air was as great a concern in the past as it is today.  In fact, it was probably even a greater concern.  Due to the fact that people burned fires in their homes, they were constantly fighting the soot from fires and the toxins released from burning fires.
Here is a quote from Progressive Housekeeping, written by: Catherine Owen - Copyright 1889.

"Space did not allow me, in speaking of the Monday routine to give details of the bed-room work.  It is perhaps needless to say that, on leaving the room in the morning, the windows should be thrown open, top and bottom, the pillows put on the sill to air, and the sheets also.  The mattress should be half turned over and left so until the bed is made up.  In some very, very neat houses, especially in the country, the beds are made up very early.  I have known the girls of a family to be brought up to make their beds before they leave the room.  It looks neat and nice to leave a chamber in perfect order, but it is not a healthy custom.  A bed requires at least an hour to air it.  During the night exhalations from the skin pass into the bedclothes (I am afraid to say how much of these exhalations weigh, according to science, but it is something much larger than the unscientific mind can easily take in).  If these bedclothes are thoroughly aired in the hot sun or  wind, they pass out, but this cannot happen if the bed is made up again a few minutes after occupation, the mattress, in fact, still warm from it.  This so-called very neat and tidy habit of anti-breakfast bed-making is, therefore, an unclean one.  For myself, in warm weather I think the bed of an adult should be left a couple of hours before being made up."


Here also is some mention of air quality in The Young Mother, written by: William Andrus Alcott   Copyright 1838  (4 quotes below from the chapter on ventilation of the nursery)

"Few people take sufficient pains to preserve the air in any of their apartments pure; for few know what the constitution of our atmosphere is, and in how many ways and with what ease it is rendered impure."

"In a nursery there is the mother and child, and perhaps the nurse, to render the air impure by breathing, the fire and the lamp or candle to contribute to the same result, besides several other causes not yet mentioned.  One of these is nearly related to the former.  I allude to the fact that our skins, by perspiration and by other means, are a source of much impurity to the atmosphere; a fact which will be more fully explained and illustrated in the chapter on Bathing and Cleanliness.  It is only necessary to say, in this place, that it is not the matter of perspiration alone which, issuing from the skin, render the air impure; there are other exhalations more or less constantly going off from every living body; especially from the lungs; and carbonic acid gas is even formed all over the surface of the skin, as well as by means of the lungs.
One needs no better proof that carbonic acid is formed on the surface of the body, than the fact that after the body has been closely covered all night, if you introduce a candle under the bedclothes into this confined air, it will be quickly extinguished, because there is too much carbonic acid gas there, and too little oxygen. "

"Whatever  may be the structure of the room the circumstances of the occupants, or the state of the weather, every nursery ought to be most thoroughly ventilated, once a day, at least; and when the weather is tolerable, twice a day."

and finally..."Fumigations with camphor, vinegar and other similar substances, have long been in reputation as a means of purifying the air in sick-rooms and nurseries: but they are of very little consequence.  Fresh air, if it can be had, is always better." 

Here is my musings on the matter.  I think that because we heat our homes by means of either gas, propane or electricity, and we don't burn fires all the time, and for the most part we don't use dangerous chemicals in our homes, I suspect that most of us don't give much thought to the notion of airing our homes. 

I had a co-worker who told me that his mother would once every month or so, even in the winter, turn off the heat and open EVERY WINDOW IN THE HOUSE to thoroughly air out the house for about 1 hour.  An hour would significantly cool the house.  She felt the small increase in the heating bill was far outweighed by the benefit of the fresh air in the home.

Since doing all of this reading, I must say that I now open windows every chance I get.

Between people and pets, I am sure there is lots of fresh air being used up all the time at home and at work or school, even before we add activities such as cooking or cleaning products or burning a candle because it's pretty.  The more you allow yourself the freshest air possible, the more you will quickly notice when the air is stale.

Practical steps to cleaner air: 

1. Check your furnace filter and make sure it is fresh.
2. Get your air ducts cleaned ( every 3-5 years.  depends how busy your household is)
3. Open those windows every day and let some fresh air in.  Open the kitchen window just a bit.  Enough to allow some fresh air to pass through without quickly cooling the room and causing the furnace to click on.
4. Open your bedroom windows every morning for about 15-20 min.  During this time, leave your bedding folded back in half so the mattress and pillows are exposed and can air out.  By the time you have gotten dressed and done other parts of your morning routine, you can close up the windows and make the bed.
5. Keep up with your  sweeping, dusting and vacuuming.
6. If possible, once a week open several windows on each floor of the house or in your apartment to allow as much fresh air to circulate through as possible. 

Enjoy the gift of fresh air, it can be found in any part of the world!  
Thanks for reading, and I wish you all good health.

Cassie

Rustic Fall Bouquet

We had company from Australia this weekend.
My Mother is Australian, and we have LOTS of family in Melbourne and it's surrounding area.  I have never had the priveledge to go to Australia, but maybe one day I will.

We hosted a dinner for my Mom's cousin, and I knew I wanted to make a fall table centre piece.  I wanted to do it for free, and I was prepared for something a bit rustic.  It was fun to do.

First I walked the dog on Saturday morning, and I started to gather interesting pieces along the way.  Everything I gathered was on public property along the green belt that follows a creek in our neighborhood. 
I managed to get a pretty good selection by the time I was heading home.
It looks like this:

 

Next I found 2 glass vases in the cupboard and I started to trim the foilage and stuff them into the container a bit at a time.  I was careful to leave the flowers until last as they were quite delicate.

Here is the work part way through.

From this point I continued to stuff pieces into the vases, this way and that, and moved them around until I managed to achieve something that resembled a bouquet.

I am not a flower arranger, and I have never held myself out to be one, that is my Mother's area of skill, but she was busy and honestly, it was just plain old fun to do this.

Here is what my bouquets looked like when finished.

Here is the first one, up close:

 

And here is the second one.  Not as even and pretty as the first, but still unique and fresh all the same.

The last thing I did was add water to the vases.

 

Contents of my Rustic Fall Bouquets:

1. Red Maple Leafs (from trees along the creek)

2. Yellow Leafs (from trees along the creek)

3. Green leafs (from a bush along the creek)

4. Dried old burrs (In honour of our dog who gathers these without even trying. LOL!  I found some really cool dried bunches of burrs and took some home)

5. Purple wild flowers (creek area)

6. White wild flowers (creek area)

7. Silver dollar plant (on city property at the back of someone's house that backs onto the green belt)

8. Yellow Flowers (on city property at the back of someone's house that backs onto the green belt)  

Everything I gathered was 100% free, honest and for real and would qualify as wild or naturally growing, as I gathered it all along the greenbelt and creek area.

If you wanted to do one of these, you could have done it into a taller vase and not cut the flowers down, but i wanted mine for a dinner table, so I made mine into shorter vases.

So, if you are a Canadian, Thanksgiving is coming this weekend, you can plan for a morning walk, and a simple assembly of  wild flowers and foilage into a vase for a beautiful rustic style fall bouquet.   If you aren't Canadian but it's fall where you live, you can still do an awesome bouquet, you just don't have to worry if it will fit on your dinner table or not!  

Happy gathering and arranging!

Cassie

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Clean Freak

 It's Friday!  Time to prepare for your weekend!

First, lets do the check list for Friday:

 1. Write menu for the next week to prepare for shopping.

 2. Write grocery list and any other items you must buy at a store.



3.  Print out bank statements and update budget.

4.  It's the last business day of the month.  Do you have month end bills to pay?  Time to do that too.

5.  Plan when you will do tasks for the weekend including wash/clean out car, groceries, laundry, housework.  (yeah, for those of us who work full time and run a business on the side, most of these activities have to be done on a weekend.  Some of you are able to do this during the week and keep your weekends free.  In our house, it just isn't working that way right now.)

And besides that I just thought I'd share some musings on cleaning and tidying.

Are you a Clean Freak?  

 I mean really?  Think about it?  It's a very interesting subject and I am guilty of doing a lot of google searches on being a neat freak or a clean freak.

I am not. (a clean freak)

I wish I was to the healthy extent, but not in the OCD way that you find in so many articles.  I don't think anyone really wants to be so obsessive that they loose much needed sleep on a week night when they have to work in the morning, because they got upset about the pantry or a drawer and stayed up to the wee hours making it perfect.  That is a an effort to control things on the outside to make yourself feel calm on the inside.

I think the balance is in the truth that, making your life organized and orderly DOES in fact bring inner peace and it really does free you up to do the things you value, but it can become unbalanced if you let it become obsessive and then it's controlling you.

I think those of us who struggle to be orderly and tidy can learn great lessons by studying the ways of the super neat.  Such as:

1. They are highly visual people.  So much of what they do is a result of what they see in their world around them.  It comes from them saying "When I see the paper on the floor, I go pick it up."  "When I see the garbage can is full, I empty it and put a new bag in place"   or "When I see the tuft of cat hair on the carpet, I don't wait until the next time to vacuum, I just bend over and pick it up".

You see, the very orderly people in our lives have developed a habit of responding to the things they see around them.  The naturally messy types would see the cat hair and inwardly say "It's time to vacuum.  Now I have to vacuum this room.  It will have to wait until it's time to vacuum, I can't do it right now."   We can sabatoge our own efforts to get things in order by viewing things we see as large tasks to do, when a small task such as bending over to pick up the hair might suffice for now.

2. They allow time to organize and clean.  Have you ever invited someone out on a Friday night, or offered to hang out for a while after work and they just said something like "Thanks, but I'll pass, I have some things I want to get done at home and if I stay and visit, I won't accomplish what I need to."  I have had exactly that experience.  The clean types of people don't even realize sometimes that they mentally plan times when they will get certain things done.

3. Self Respect.  I know a few naturally clean people and it's part of their inner values.  They value being a good steward of the resources given to them by God.  Did God bless them with a house? a job? Clothes, books, media items, etc?  The clean types want to take care of what they own and make it nice for themselves and their family.  It is a healthy measure of self respect.

I fall in the middle.  I am hopelessly average.  I am not a slob, but I am not really a clean freak either.  I have some quirks.  I get very fussy over my linen closet being straightened "just so", and I am the type that can't leave a picture crooked.   I go to my friends house and start polishing their kitchen tap because I hate the soap splashes.  (Okay, maybe that soap splash thing is a bit OCD.  LOL!) 

 But I am guilty of continually fighting the stacks on my desk.  I am still getting my "in flow, out flow" of our home desk where it needs to be.  I get busy and distracted and I can fall away from our daily routines and next thing you know, the desk is a mess and someone forgot to sweep the floor, or the laundry is forgotten, and sometimes (GASP!) I even go to bed with the kitchen left in a mess!  

( I know, the kitchen one is beyond terrible and just shouldn't happen, but when you work a day job, and a business part-time, and try to keep up with family and friends, sometimes the routines slip and fatigue takes over. The punishment for that choice is there in full when your messy kitchen greets you first thing in the morning and you have to clean it before you can even start your day.)

It is a passion and life-long goal of mine to re-write these parts of my character into a person who values being organized enough to get things done. A person who won't let fatigue cause her to leave a mess where cleanliness and peacefulness should be.   I don't want to become an uptight, inflexible person, and I NEVER want to bully my family around about the housework.  I NEVER want to be remembered as the nagging Mom and Wife.  That's not worth it.

I find that when I think of myself as the person I idealize myself to be, I get more done.  If you tell yourself  "I'm a tidy person.  I don't leave my workspace a mess, and I leave the staff lunchroom spotless after I use it.", you will find yourself doing those very behaviours.

If you tell yourself "I am a clean, tidy, organized person.  I wouldn't go to bed with my clothes dumped on the floor, or I wouldn't go to bed without straightening up the house first." you just might find yourself doing more of those things.  

This is true because when there is things we would not want to be known for, we somehow shift our priorities and make it happen.  Such as looking good before you leave the house.   If you are a female reader, I am sure you can relate to a healthy sense of female pride that you don't want to go to the store in messy, stained clothes, no make-up and wild hair!  LOL!  Somehow, you just find clean clothes, a hair brush, toothpaste and all those things before going out.  It is the same with becoming a clean, tidy, organized person.  If you get on the positive side of things and tell yourself you value those things, I think you will find you get more accomplished than if you had not. 

So, as you go into your weekend, plan a few things that you want to see happen, and then affirm yourself on a job well done when you realize some of those goals.

If you are really overwhelmed and just starting out, try a website such as:

http://flylady.net/

or http://www.messies.com/

These sorts of websites have great step by step processes to help you get some wins.

We have a dinner to host on Saturday, so tonight is shopping and cleaning!

Have a fantastic weekend, and thanks for reading.

Cassie

Make your own Disenfectant Spray

Today I am going to show you how easy and inexpensive it is to make your own disenfectant spray.

The primary use of this is for kitchen counters and sinks in my house, but I often grab a j-cloth and wander into the bathrooms at night and spray down the sinks and give the toilets a quick wipe too.

The beauty of this homemade spray is that its just water with bleach and soap.  It is completely food safe.  When washing dishes by hand, the health departments recommends a wash in hot soapy water, a primary rinse in a bleach and water solution and a secondary rinse in plain hot water.
I have also read that bleach when left to air dry basically breaks down into a salt.  This is why this solution is so very safe to use on your kitchen preparation surfaces.

Supplies:

You will need a spray bottle (Dollar Store), water, common household bleach and some liquid dish soap.
**Note: since this solution contains bleach, it can stain your clothes with bleach spots.  Use your disinfectant spray with caution.**
(I apologize some of these pictures turned out blurry.  Due to the quick pace of life in September I did not have time to re-do the photos)

First Add 1-2 Tablespoons of bleach to the bottle.  I like it close to 2 TBS, but if you find that too strong you can just add 1.

Your bottle should be about this full: 

Next add 1 tsp of liquid dish detergent.  Any brand will do.

Now that you have the bleach and soap in there, add water the rest of the way until the bottle is full.

 

Once you have filled the bottle, the soap will have foamed up a bit at the top like this.  It's ok, it will settle down.

Put the spray nozzle back in place and Voila!  You have a nice spray bottle of disinfectant spray you can use to make your counter tops clean as possible for each use.

Remember, you can get a separate cloth and use this same solution as part of your evening routine to wipe down your bathrooms between the regular cleanings.

Happy Cleaning,

Cassie

Feeling sick

There won't be huge breakthroughs in the world of blogging for me this week.

I seem to have caught a sinus infection.  It came over me Monday night and I was quite concerned that I was getting sick.  By Tuesday morning I woke up with that distinct sore throat the occurs from post nasal drip.  ewww!

I went to work and suffered through, my nose actually filling more as the day wore on, not less.  By last night I was good for only lounging on the sofa and trying to feel better.  My husband even reports that last night in my sleep my nose was making terrible sounds!  LOL!

As a rule, colds are a virus, and they must pass on their own.   There are a few things we can do to help our body fight the virus and make ourselves more comfortable in the process.

1. Liquids

You must be sure to keep your liquids up.  Get clear water or clear tea, a good 5 glasses a day if you can.

2. Cold FX and/or Vitamin C

If you are concerned about a cold take Cold FX or Airborne to fight off the virus before it takes hold of you.  Vitamin C during a cold and year round is great for you.  Vitamin C is also a water soluble vitamin, so it is almost not possible to overdose on this.  You can take elevated amounts during a cold very safely.

3. Nasal Spray / cold Medicines

                                 

Over the counter medicine will ease the symptoms.  It won't really make the cold go away faster, but it can provide a bit of relief.

4. Chicken Soup

The magic of the soup is that it further hydrates you and serves as an anti-inflamatory.  Cream based soups will not serve this purpose as well as a clear broth soup, but whatever form you like it....get your soup on!

5. Add some personal comfort.

Snuggle up in bed or on the sofa with a blanket and your soup and tea, and some tissues.  Respect the time your body needs to re-coup.  Take it easy at home and make sure you get some good night's sleep.  In a little while you'll be back to your old self.

Now, in light of all that.....I am plugged up in the head, and it brings on a certain level of fatigue.  I will check in with all my friends in the blog world this week, but between my job and recovery from a cold, all the other projects will just have to wait.

Thanks for reading,

Cassie