Creative cleaning part Two

I've been trying to continue to get the chemicals out of my cleaning around my place. I've had some victories and some troubles with it all. My dishwasher powder was a bit of a problem - leaving the dishes dirty and a white film all over things, so back to stuff that works.

Bicarb and vinegar has been such a great and versatile cleaner. I've used it to clean my oven, get mold off my shower and sink, and have now replaced my toothpaste with bicarb. It has been great.
To clean the oven I just sprinkled the bicarb on the oven door then sprayed it with vinegar then wiped it off, no scrubbing. The shower I made a bicarb mixture of bicarb and vinegar in a paste put it on the tiles and then sprayed it with vinegar, a bit of scrubbing with an old toothbrush and then it was clean.
I now have a bicarb in a dish in my bathroom to clean my teeth - just dip my toothbrush in and brush.

dirty oven door

sprinkle with bicarb and spray with vinegar

wipe it off

clean door

basin plug before

after bicarb and vinegar 

mould

bicarb and vinegar paste

much cleaner

clean teeth with bicarb

creative recycling - carry bag take 2

I had a pair of jeans that had started to wear out and I thought how can I reuse and recycle them. I had previous made a pair of shorts into a bag ( a brown one) and thought Denim would go with lots more of my stuff so decided to do the same with the jeans. I cut them off and sewed the legs; attached an old silk rope from an old robe to the belt loops for a strap and then tied a piece of string onto another belt loop at the back to put over the front button to help keep it a bit closed. I like how it has turned out and have already had a compliment from a lady who served me in a shop the other day when I was using it.
I love being able to have things that I have created that are useful.

Creative Kitchen Organisation

I have taken time on my holidays to sort out my kitchen. I saw an idea for storage labels so I decided to make my own. I like the idea of dictionary definitions so I used them as part of the labels. It is amazing how these added to the cheap glass jars makes a difference to my kitchen. 

creative window covering

Well today was my first official day of easter break holidays. I love getting into DIY jobs on holidays so I have time to work on things. My blinds that I had bought when I first moved in over 4 years ago had broken and were dust collectors. I have been trying to reduce things I might be allergic to so I pulled the blinds down and replaced them with curtains. As my room was already going with a black and red theme I thought I would continue this with my curtains. I love being able to express my creativity through so many things including my home.

Blinds - broken table to put them up. 

other blind also broken

New Curtains - with a black and white day curtain and red curtains 

Red smaller curtain over higher window

culinary creativity

Been a while since I blogged and was reflecting on what creative things I had been up to and mainly it has been cooking. I've been trying to eat less packaged food and make more things just like my grandmother would have done.  Here are are few of my creative culinary experiments.

Nectarine Moscatto frozen blend

Blueberry yogurt ice blocks

Burger and sweet potato fries

mint and watermelon with mineral water

almond milk, homemade yoghurt and berry smoothy

Chai Porridge

grilled Hollumi cheese and peppered figs

crackers

burger and zucchini chips

Abstract attempt

I went to my art group this morning, it was so nice to get back there and actually play with some paint. One of the other girls had some old school art magazines, and there was one from the 80's that had some cool retro abstract art. I found one abstract painting that inspired me. I had fun playing with shapes and colour once I got the still life centre sketched. It was so nice just to play and experiment.

creative counting

Being  back at work (aka school) has meant a new class, and new challenges. One of these was that I had several students struggling with counting in 5's. I had found some square cards that counted in 5's but I thought it was a bit boring. Then I got this idea, we have 5 fingers on our hands (well technically 4 and thumb - as one of my students told me) but you get the idea; so I got them to make hand prints, then I cut them out and glued them on a black backing. Then I wrote the numbers counting in 5's on them, I then plan to laminate them so they keep longer. I hope these will help students understand they are counting groups of 5 when they are counting in 5's. They also look really fun and bright.