Salvos haul

Time for a Salvo's haul! It's been a while since I have had a decent amount of stuff from a retail opshop store. I tend to stick to the little country town ones and the few little parish ones/ small ones around Perth that are still left because I love their cheap prices and digging through everything looking for the treasures. 

WELL we struck gold at the Salvos in Ellenbrook today. All of this for $92. AND the best bit is, I sold something on marketplace last night for $80 so I am counting it as only spending $12. That's allowed right? In my world it is. All my marketplace money goes straight into a jar to fund my opshopping.

I am obsessed with more than half of this stuff.

That giant wooden bowl is going straight onto my kitchen table full of lemons for our home listing photographs. Doug got a pair of super new red Nike runners for $10. That speckled terracotta tureen was only $7. I couldn't believe my luck, I am starting to love pottery, but I am very particular and only like what I like. There was three pieces that I "needed" to take home. A brand new music stand for Madeline that I'll put with her birthday presents... a brand new Star Wars cooling lunch bag for a little dude who lives here who goes to kindy next year (WHAT?!). That can go with his birthday haul. But my favourite thing we picked up was absolutely a little velvet lined wooden wooden box with a 1953 half penny which my old man will be getting for his birthday. It is absolutely perfect and was an absolute steal at $4. Lucky he has no interest whatsoever in reading my diary.

An excellent haul. Best day.

180 Years of Relief Society: A Stake Relief Society Activity

As a young woman, I never thought I would love Relief Society. To be honest, I never thought I would even like it. An almost 3 year stint as Relief Society President made quick work of changing that and here we are, with me serving in Primary, desperately missing the comfort and other adults provided by Relief Society. I know it's not forever, but I'd love to be back there sometime! For this reason, any time there is a ward or stake RS activity, I am there with bells on!

Today we had a stake RS activity that had been delayed from earlier in the year when covid had decided to make a scene here in WA. I am so glad that they were still able to make it happen though as it was a cool day. The lovely Debra (who used to be my secretary when I was RSP) was in charge of the day and it showed, she is so amazing, always going above and beyond to make things perfect. They had put together a display from each ward/branch in our stake and they were awesome. My Ellenbrook ward RSP mug shot made an appearance yet again.

There was an old fashioned fabric tie dolly making workshop, a game of Relief Society Bingo (so competitive ladies! haha) and plenty of things to look at on the displays.

I loved looking through all the history of the Relief Society and women throughout the world over the years.

The Northam Branch one was especially cute - I remember this quilt being made by the sisters - one patch each and being sewn together by my mother. It is still proudly displayed on the wall in the Northam Branch RS room. The wheat and farming items made it so lovely.

Another awesome activity for us ladies to mix and mingle. I am forever grateful to be a member of the largest womens association in the world.

Empty pantry

My pantry is finally painted and looking flash. It was the very last thing that had to be painted and we were avoiding it like the plague cause I couldn't empty it until I had space to do so.

Here's why. Who the heck knew I could fit so much into a pantry. I am constantly amazed at pictures on Instagram and Pinterest of these "perfect" pantries... where the heck is their food?! Mine is packed in and in very mismatched containers. Who can afford to outlay that much money to make them all match? Seems like a waste of money to me... I use all Dougs old supplement canisters.

My only matching ones are the sistema cereal dispensers that I have collected from opshops over time.

So yeah. It was a pain taking it all out and I can't imagine putting it back in will be any more fun. I'll be taking out a stack of stuff we don't use regularly and taking it up to the new house, that's for sure.

One thing that has completely blown me away, is what a bad job of painting the previous owners did. The pantry wasn't even the same colour as the rest of the house - it was a purply colour similar to the colour the front strip used to be - and the frames hadn't even been finished. Thank goodness for our very OCD painters as it now all looks wonderful!

Here's a before shot - so glad it's done!

Feijoa crunch muffins

Feijoas are a fruit loved by New Zealanders and very misunderstood by the rest of the world. They are described by some as a pineapple guava, which makes sense once you've had one. I have never decided if I'm actually a fan or not, I think they are an acquired taste. However our kiwi friends had their baby blessed today and I managed to get some cheap feijoas on clearance at a local fruit and veg shop (still no idea why, there was nothing wrong with them) so I baked with them! I love Just a Mum, who is a New Zealand baking pro. She always has the best recipes and is my go to when I need something. She of course had a recipe for Feijoa muffins, which I got to work with.

FEIJOA CRUNCH MUFFINS

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups White Sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

3 Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Bi-carb Soda

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

3 Cups Feijoa flesh (scooped out of overripe feijoas)

Topping:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

Instructions:

Preheat Oven to 175C

Prepare muffin trays with liners. Scoop the Feijoa flesh out of overripe Feijoas until you have approx 3 cups (lightly mash with a fork leaving some larger chunks.) Set aside.

In a mixer add the sugar and oil and cream the mixture until smooth and creamy, approx 3 minutes, add the eggs and vanilla and incorporate well for a further 2 minutes.

Add to this the Flour, Salt, Bi-carb Soda and Cinnamon and mix until just combined.

Add the lightly mashed Feijoa and stir well, this is a very thick mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins to 3/4 full

Sprinkle with brown sugar over the tops of the muffins, approximately 1 teaspoon per muffin

Bake for 18-23 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes then transfer the muffins to a tray to cool. These are delicious warm from the oven!

They were good, that's for sure. I was a little worried that they didn't take feijoa-y enough, but my husband who ate them all the time as a child assured me they were great. Good news! The only thing I wasn't 100% keen on was the topping. It was good, but I feel like it could have been better! Next time I make them, I will use the crumble from the tops of the blueberry muffins I made on the regular. I feel like that would make them next level!

My new kitchen!

Oh my goodness. What a difference a new kitchen has made to our new house. I have to admit, I hated the kitchen... the setup was perfect but the colour was hideous. I wanted the whole thing gone, but knew I was going to have to wait, until Doug told me to do it before we moved in, as he couldn't stand the thought of me having to live without a kitchen at a later date. Originally I had asked the bloke who did our wardrobe fitout (Luke from Defined Cabinetry) if he could strengthen the drawers as they were sagging and that was not ideal for me haha. He suggested politely that the kitchen could be upgraded without demolishing it, which both Doug and I were thrilled with. Next minute, we've got a quote and are going ahead - and I got to have my GREEN kitchen I have always wanted! Woo!

Originally I wanted to get rid of the lot, I hated the marble. But my smart husband pointed out that he was sure it wasn't the marble I hated, that it was the colour with the marble. What do you know... he was right. I LOVE it with the green and I am so glad he made me look at that as an option.

I am in love with my new kitchen and cannot wait to use it. We raised the cabinetry all the way to the ceiling for more storage and to make it look sleek and finished (100% for the extra storage!).

Brushed gold handles complete the look perfectly and even better, one of the only things that was left in the house was a wall clock that matches perfectly! Crazy. 

One of my only problems was going from a 900mm oven to a 600mm, but Doug solved that too - we got a second oven! We couldn't get a second one the same, but I was actually so thrilled about a stuff up that happened when we ordered two new ones. They were on clearance and had to be transferred to Perth for collection from Bunbury. We had paid and hadn't heard anything after a few weeks so I followed up. Turns out the paperwork wasn't done - and someone had sold the ovens - the last two in the state. I was then upgraded to a better model, which were almost a thousand dollars each - and I had paid just under $1400 for both. Winning. PLUS, the Outlander came to the rescue yet again, when they both fit in the back along with my toddler when they were ready for collection.

I LOVE it. So much.

SO much storage room!

We also managed to find a $999 top of the range dishwasher on marketplace, unused and still packaged, from a display home - the person who had bought it had a personal preference for a different brand, so sold it to us for $600. Winning!

As you can see, the before was absolutely nothing to write home about...

While the after is flawless. I love the integrated rangehood too. So flash!

A few days after it was finished we got the loveliest gift delivered too. Our new neighbours had been over to see the new kitchen and when they were shopping the next day, bought me a casserole dish that matched the kitchen perfectly. So sweet of them. The only thing that has upset me about the move so far is moving away from our current neighbours as I love them so much - so it's lovely to know our new ones are just as nice! ❤

Chocolate chip banana muffins

After my baking spree at Jen's over the weekend, I also inherited a bag of giant dark chocolate chunks that she wasn't going to use... so I found another random recipe online from inspired taste and got to work with some more manky bananas from my fruit bowl. I swear there is no in between with my kids. It's either eat them all, or eat none of them. It's fine with me if I keep getting to bake with them all the time!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

70 grams butter - melted

1 ½ cups plain flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bi-carb soda

¼ tsp sea salt

3 ripe bananas mashed

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup chocolate chips

 

Heat oven to 160°C (fan forced). Line muffin cups with paper liners. Makes 12.

Whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, bi-carb soda, and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the melted butter, mashed banana, egg, and vanilla until blended.

Add the banana mixture to the bowl with dry ingredients, then combine. Do not overmix.

Stir in choc chips. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 20 - 25 mins.

 

Can confirm, they were delicious! Especially the chunks. Another recipe for the banks.

 

Painting out the front

There are a few things about our house that have annoyed from the very beginning, of course I didn't fix them while we were living here to enjoy them. Now that we are selling, I'll fix them for someone else hahaha. 

This purple strip around our house has annoyed me from day one. I always thought it should be a dark blue to match in with the gutters and general feel of the house and to make the roof look like it wasn't pink! With the blue, they genuinely look more like a terracotta colour than pink. Thank goodness.

We are almost there! Painters are coming through to paint around us and finish over the next few weeks... so we should be able to list soon. Can't wait! They are the absolute best. Although they didn't paint that section for us, they totally turned up one day with a can of paint, an old paintbrush and a mini roller so we could DIY it. Champions. 

She's looking like a million bucks. ❤