4th Resurrection...

It will be the ovens last too... Love having it back. Even got it a new light bulb to celebrate its last time alive... Looking for a new one...

Blessings,

Good Bye Old Friend...

We have known each other for sixteen years... We've been through so much. So many loads of washing. You worked like a horse... But now, it is time to say goodbye...

And say 'Hello' to your newer counterpart ;) Same company, same 7.5kg weight, less litres used each load, quieter, balances itself, uses less detergent and vinegar, etc etc etc...

I love it that I can save my favourite programs too :) And also it uses less water if not full! Heats the water if not warm enough. Love the motor and oh well... Just love the machine... Can't wait to find out what I'll learn... Some technology is just so amazingly wonderful. I'm glad it does it all for me and I don't need to do it by hand ;)

Went to The Good Guys today and it was discounted by $40, in store. Was told that the only other discounts they would give me would be if the machine was cheater online somewhere... So quick as a flash, I had Russell looking for the best deal in Australia... Ended up walking out with it $150 off the original price!!! Never mess with me and my phone, bahahaha! If there's a deal, Russell will find it hehe

Was going to wait till tomorrow to do my first load but couldn't help it had to try one... Just one... This machine really is incredibly quiet... New noises and sounds to get used but I'm sure I will... When finishing it literally sings a song to us, What the??? 

I hung onto the old one for as long as I could. More and more of the programs stopped working :( Onward and upward I say ;) 

Blessings,

Goodbye old friend...

Hello new friend...

Revamped Oven...

Today my Dad was back :)

The oven got the heater coil replaced. The oven seal also got replaced. The new deal just arrived today in the mail a hour before my Dad got here! 

Then my Dad also fixed the bottom of the oven. The fan sucks in the hot air and then it blows out downwards. That strip down the bottom had rusted through totally. So allot of heat was escaping and the rusting continued... Dad found a slat from an old aluminum garden table and he and Russell cut it to size. My Dad then screwed it in place with spare screws he found in his bucket of spares hehe

I have an oven that's on its third life!!! Woohoo, against thanks so much Dad for fixing it :) And thanks Russell for keeping the slats of the old garden table :)

Feeling so blessed!

Blessings,

Oven dilemma...

Last weekend I was to cook a roast. As the oven was heating up, sparks flew from the fan inside the oven... Smoke was inside too...

I'm so glad I have a top oven and was able to use it for the roast, though it is not fan forced.

My Dad was out visiting yesterday and he looked at it. Tim was a great help with holding it steady for my Dad.

End result... It needs a new heater coil, new backing plate, door seal and one of the screws has a little seal broken around it.

Will give it another lease on life and save us from buying a new one, for now...

Blessings,

I Am Macgyver!!!

Some clip thingy came off the hose end... Tim has devastated as he thought it was now a useless vacuum cleaner...

Told him not to worry... All would be ok. And it was! All it took was a shoelace. One that was too short and I had in the drawer for ages. Noice!

All back in working order once again. Gonna get loads more sucking sessions out of this baby ;)

Blessings,

Off to a new home...

This upright freezer was from my great friend, Adam... Tomorrow, it's off to my other great friend, Margaret :)

It has served us well while we had Sausage, the homegrown Dexter Steer, in there. We are now just down to half a dozen roasts, amongst other pieces...

Margaret's chest freezer died yesterday. Ours had been sitting empty and switched off for a few weeks...

So, we are off in the morning to bring her this one! It's just the right dimensions and she's after an upright freezer as they are much easier access :) Win, win both ways ;)

So glad I can help out :) I know I'd be lost without my tuckerbox freezer...

Cheers

Big step...

I don't like appliances that use allot of power... I like to use as little as possible... This appliance will do the trick nicely :)

For the longest time, I've really liked the smell of a coffee machine brewing away making yummy coffee...

Everyone in my family has them... I bit the bullet yesterday and spoilt myself early for my Birthday... I got mine from Aldi. I needed a really easily operated one. I also wanted to be able to control how much coffee goes in a cup as I like them weak, as in 'Latte-1/4 strength' hehe

Can't wait for Bible Study as next time it won't be instant coffee anymore :) It's Cappuccino time!!!

Gonna make a Hot Carob drink for my youngest on the weekend too :)

Had to get some new fancy mugs to go with the machine off course and found these for $2.50 each. Bargain!!! Hubby just rolled his eyes... Me and my large sized mug addiction ;) My friend Margaret wants them too! Lol

Now... Just have to learn how to use the machine...

Cheers

Oh not again...

Yep, I did it again... Was talking to hubby and put a spatula I was using, in the Thermomix... Forgot about it, put on the lid and started it up...

Think you know what happened next. Let's just say it was the longest two weeks without a new blade... Thank goodness it's back in working order... What did we ever do before we had it!

Cheers

20yrs and finally giving up...

I got this Tupperware Scales some 20 years ago. I had allot of Tupperware parties the year Russell and I were engaged... This was one of the prizes for having the right amount of sales. It has done so well all these years... Finally this month it started loosing 60grms... Amazing... After all these years. Unfortunately we can't change over the batteries... Hope my next scales are just as great :)

Cheers Damaris

Water... You say Water???

It is here :)

Yep, even though we are on tank water only, Russell likes to have it filtered just in case one of our many green and brown frogs poop into the water and he has to then drink that. What a wuss...

So anyway he order one with twin filters on eBay which came really quickly. Order two lots of more cartridges as well so that we had plenty of spares. So now we have our new under the sink water filter and all is hunky dory in this house lol

Cheers Damaris

A spaceship has landed...

In my kitchen that is... lol... Nah... It is our new convection oven... Russell has wanted one of these for a while and we also ended up getting the spacer for it so that we can put more in it... Works so well and does roasts really nicely... It is also really easy to clean...

Love it... And on top of that it uses half the power the oven uses. Win, Win I reckon. :)

Cheers Damaris

French Toast anyone...

Loving the new pan :)

The pan that I used to use has seen much better days. It was non stick that wasn't non stick anymore so out it went. I loved the size though so was after something around the same again. Found this also in Robbins during their huge sale and have fallen in love. It is sooooo easy to use and wash up... The white colour does take a while to get used to but is really easy to find in the draw now. lol

Cheers Damaris

One leaves, another enters...

My Grandmother, years ago, gave me my very first Kelomat, Pressure Cooker in German that is :) I had it for my whole married life up until a couple months ago. I used it often and loved it but it finally not only fell apart at the handle but the lid changed shape as well as the ring not fitting anymore... It was time to leave this house...

So I was on the lookout for a new one. I really wanted the same quality again and would have loved to get another one from Austria but it was just too expensive to have it shipped in the end. Robbins was having a fabulous sale and I ended up with one. Have used it once so far and is totally different in allot of ways. Have to get used to it first before I really pass judgement... With the instructions came a cookbook with 50 recipes so will try some of them out also... Hope I love it soon as much as I loved my old one...

Cheers Damaris

TV dies...

Our new TV...

We had our Sony TV for only 1.5 yrs. 1/2 year out of warranty off course. Found the receipt and was not impressed... It was a 65cm TV and had done us well but now all it did was play the sound and a black picture was all we got. This was due to some overheating in the machine... Not happy!

So we went and had a look for some other TV's. Russell did his research on the net off course... We found a new model LG and he was all ok for getting another 65cm TV again. We then made the mistake of going to the shops and looking at the actual TV...

One shelf above I saw another LG, same sort of LCD LED lighting etc etc... Long story short it is 20% more electricity efficient than our old Sony so we went for it... Just as well as from 1 July this year power has gone up 6.6%. Final size 110 cm. Wow does it show up movies sooooooo much better.

And this TV comes with a 3yr warranty. Another win, win situation...

Cheers Damaris

It's here :) :) :) :)

My new Solar Oven... :)

The Solar Rocket :)

Have wanted a Solar oven for many years and here it is :) We ended up getting the rocket as well as I wanted to be able to heat water for my coffee without using the kettle... I am sooo happy with it and will post photos when we start using it. At the moment we have had so many cloudy days and when the sun has been out I haven't been here... I have boiled water in it though to get rid of any fumes. :)

If you want the same large one let me know as if you mention our names you can get discounted postage. Comes from Europe and sent from Newcastle :) Heather is lovely to deal with and has lots of tips as well. Comes also with a cookbook as well as really easy to understand instructions. Very well made and is able to bake and cook which is what I really wanted. Most only cook... Can't wait to try it out. :)

Will keep you posted. :)

Cheers Damaris

Leaky Tap...

The tap in question... with the leak to prove it. :(

Must say have not had this problem before... A leaky tap. Not in any of our built houses have we ever had to change a washer or anything. Lucky I think...

This time around there are no more washers these days as we quickly discovered at Reece Plumbing when we went in there yesterday... These days you have to replace the cartridge. The washer would have been a couple of cents... A cartridge costs $27.90!!! Better work is all I can say...

Cheers Damaris

Back in Action :)

Just unwrapped and already used :)

Well I have been waiting and waiting and finally the parts for my Thermomix have arrived and we are back to using it daily. :) It was lost in transit for about two weeks but now it is finally here :)

As soon as it arrived I made Pear Jam and Cashew Butter for the boys' lunches... Had run out of those. Then came a huge Banana Milkshake where I even had leftovers for some icepoles that I froze.

Yesterday I ended up making more Anzac Biscuits and a wonderful White Sauce to go with dinner. I also made bread dough this morning... Love having my Thermomix back in action :) :) :)

Cheers Damaris

Silly me...

One of the three wrecked blades...

The dint visible from the outside...

A definite cut in the lid...

So there Russell and I were using up as much of our potatoes as possible as we had found some rotten ones in two of our bags... Was a great time to make a few pots of mashed potatoes... Great stuff to freeze... I make two lots in our wonderful Thermomix...

The third one was never finished. I don't know what I was thinking but I picked up a large knife and put it into the Thermomix to burst the air bubble in it... So needless to say I went down too far and busted up the blade, made a dint in the bowl and cut the lid. How silly can one be...

Glad I had the pocket money to replace it and should arrive soon in the post but wishing I didn't have to spend it on that... The lid and bowl is still usable so will have them as spares. Will be good backup... Have learnt my lesson, I can only hope... :(

Cheers Damaris

Look at what we got...

Solar iPhone, etc charger. :)

Recycled Cardboard Speakers...

Solar Speakers...

Our new LED Solar Lantern

I hate to brag but have to in this case... All things solar... Russell came across this wonderful site and bought up big. :)

When we go camping now or anytime for that matter we can charge our iPhones or iPods or iPad for that matter... All with the sun's help.

We can use the recycled paper speakers. They work great. They are made from old phonebooks, pizza boxes and cardboard...

The solar speakers work even with Bluetooth. They are fantastic.

Can't wait to use the solar lantern :) It is very bright and will be used not only for camping but also during the week instead of candles. :)

How cool is that??? No power needed for any of these things. :) Win, win I reckon. :) Can't wait to try them over the next few days. :)

Cheers Damaris

And they came for dinner...

Adam eating Sorbet with Joshua being smart. :)

The Beautiful Anthea, Joshua and Adam...

Boys and their iPhone4 toys...

Yesterday we had the utter pleasure of Adam and Anthea's company. You will know Anthea as Adam's mum from a previous post when I went to visit her place...

This time it was time for them to come here and what a lovely time we had... They arrived just after 5pm with Wine and Oysters... Yum is all I can say on both counts. :) :) :)

Dinner was rather simple. We had Russell's yummy chips with Fleischleiberl (that would be Rissoles in English lol) with Pear Ketchup. Yummm. I even had the pleasure of hiding Brussell Sprouts, Leek and Celery in the Rissoles that no one knew about till I spilled the beans. Thanks to the Thermomix I was able to hide them really well... Adam didn't even notice and from the sounds of it he is not too keen on the old Brussell Sprouts. Desert was Pear Sorbet which Bimby put together for us in less than two minutes off course. Love watching Bimby do her thing. hehe

Adam off course had his tummy tickled and wet willies were made as well. Joshua mainly, climbed all over his back and blew raspberries... Loved watching it...

After dinner Uno had to be played off course. No meal at our house would be the same without it. :)

After the kids went off for bed, the adults got a chance to talk which was wonderful. We were all getting rather tired and seeing poor Adam still had around two hours of driving to do we called it a night at about 9pm.

Twas a wonderful time we had though... I hope they had just as good a time as us... :) :) :)

Till next time :)

Cheers Damaris