... and on Day Seven, she spent

Don't panic, 'cause here's what I bought:

From the supermarket:

* Toilet paper

* Milk (organic - hell that's some expensive milk but I figured as part of this fiscal detox I may as well go all the way)

* Yoghurt (plain, biodynamic)

Total: $11.36

I found the supermarket to be large, colourful and very very overwhelming. Maybe next week I'll walk the 15-20 minutes to the local IGA instead.Later in the morning I was in town for work and remembered it was Thursday, which means the markets were on down in City Walk, right next to Matthew Harding’s newly replaced pods, one of my favorite bits of public art in Canberra (after the pears, of course!)I checked - everything was grown within 100 km of Canberra except the citrus fruit.

From the markets:

* 2 kilos potatoes (with dirt on them! Amazing!)

* 1 kilo onions

* 1 small butternut pumpkin

* 500g tomatoes

* 1 red pepper

* 1 Lebanese cucumber

* 1 kilo apples (with leaves attached. But no stickers. Curiouser and curiouser... Do you think there's a leaf-attaching machine they've bought?)

Total: $15.50I still need eggs and garlic, but it looks like I'll be able to get away with spending $30 on groceries for the week.

Breakfast: Cup of tea (a little late), berry Oat Temptations (to celebrate the arrival of milk supplies)

Lunch: Wholegrain toast with hummus and slices of very yummy fresh tomato (have been craving this for days)

Afternoon tea: Hot chocolate (at this rate the milk will be gone by tomorrow...) and popcorn

Dinner: Often on Thursdays I'll either go across and get a Thai lunchbox from The Thai Garden or a box of noodles from Noodle Choice.

Today I got clever and at lunchtime popped the remaining tofu from Tuesday into a modified marinade recipe from Alison Holst (minus the garlic and oregano, as I was out of both) and tonight stir fried it with red pepper, carrot, frozen corn, the last of the broccoli and threw in some udon noodles at the end. And wondered why I'd not done it before as it was super delicimo!

Finished today:

* Sesame oil (Replacing it'll have to wait - pity as when I poured it into the marinade a little voice said "Hey! would that work in homemade hummus instead of tahini?" Damn. Too late!)

* Tofu (I think buying tofu is justifiable. Although I could just follow the Whip Up tutorial and make my own...)

* Brocolli (On the list for next week's shop)

Total spent since June 1: $26.86

Spotted today...

Silly me... I thought it was day 7 of winter!

Day Six: Sew far so good...*

As you can see, the shoe bags are not complete, but not far off. Unfortunately the spool of brown thread I bought for the project is looking very very empty - I'm worried that I'll run out before I finish the last few bits of sewing I need to do. And then what? Do I break fast by trying to say it's an essential purchase? Do I put them aside to finish in another 24 days (not that I'm counting, no siree) or do I just use some black thread and figure no one's really going to notice anyway?

Actually, I should just stop thinking about it until it actually happens. Who knows, there might be just enough thread left after all...

Anyway, Day Six draws to a close. Sudden realisation hit me around mid afternoon (as I decided a hot chocolate would hit the spot and then remembered I'd used the last of the milk in my tea this morning) that unlike last time, this madness doesn't all end tomorrow but carries on for another three weeks (and three days but who's... oh, sorry, been there already!)

And it doesn't help that I discover this blog, full of black and white gorgeousness, over lunch. I have a kindred spirit in blogland...

Ah, yes, lunch... This brings me to the "What did I eat today part of the proceedings:

Breakfast: Cup of tea. Fruit toast with apricot spreadable fruit. Mango passion yoghurt (As I eat I toy with the idea of theming today around orange to match yesterday but decide that's just plain silly.) It's the last of the milk and the last pottle of yoghurt.

Morning tea: Crackers and cheese plus the last apple.

Lunch: A freezer special: Mediterranean pasta bean soup and toast made of Turkish bread (my last piece) with basil pesto on top.

Afternoon tea: A banana and a couple of triple chocolate biscuits (which aren't as exciting as they sound, honest)

Dinner: More freezer fare in the form of Pumpkin & spinach risotto

Finished today:
* Milk (you think I can live 24 days without tea? Definitely replaceable!)
* Yoghurt (discussed previously)
* Apples (replaceable)
* Turkish bread (the jury's still out on this one...)

(*Sorry, couldn't resist...)

Day Five: Browned off

Brown seems to be the (unintentional) theme for today. Probably because I'm in the middle of plotting a swap parcel using existing stuff for someone who likes brown and orange and has made me an offer I can't refuse and so it has slipped into my subconscious...

Breakfast is a cup to tea and Date Delicious flavoured Oat Temptations.

For morning tea I have more crackers and hummus.

Lunchtime rolls around and I make Satay baked tofu with udon noodles and vegetables (a great store cupboard standby) even though I have no garlic to add and am having major olive oil spray issues as the weather gets colder. I do a double batch so half can go into the freezer for later.

As I sit on my (brown) sofa eating lunch I spy a fluffy brown visitor with eight legs scuttling across the wall. We have a discussion, which results in him (her?) being relocated outside.

By afternoon tea time I've twigged to the day's theme and thus make a pot of plunger coffee which I drink with *whimper* the last of the Lindt.

Dinner is an Indian ready meal from the freezer (brown, of course!) with rice.

And I might, just maybe, actually finish the second (brown and black) set of shoe bags tonight... But don't hold your breath!

Finished today:

* Frozen stir fry vegetables (definitely not replaceable!)

* Chocolate (WAAAAAAAAH!)

Daily Outfit: 4 June 2007

Some blogs I read have a tradition of posting pictures of the writer's daily outfits. I always find myself fascinated by what people chose to (and are able to) wear each day.

Yesterday afternoon, as the temperature in my (home) office plummeted and my (fairly random) layers multiplied, I thought it was time I joined in:

Oh my God, you mean I have to pay for the heating in the office through winter?

And, yes, somewhere under there there is a perfectly presentable corporate outfit. Honest!

Just in case you thought I'd forgotten: The Day Four Report

After the box of deliciousness in the mail, how could it be anything other than a good day?

I wake up super early (the sort of super early where you lie in bed telling yourself 4:25 am is the middle of the night but the minute the clock hits 5:00 am you're up and off to put the kettle on as 5:00 am can definitely be classed as morning). This is actually quite good as I manage to read a six week backlog of Panorama magazines (the Saturday arts section of the Canberra Times - and the only bit I read except for the junk mail) and start yet another pair of wristlets before breakfast.

Unfortunately the Panoramas throw up a number of books I'd like to read and two exhibitions I'd like to see: one free, the other "free after entry" . Hmmm.... guess the second one will have to wait til next month (even though the entry is a mere $2)

Breakfast is the ubiquitous cup of tea and toasted crumpets with marmalade (it's an almost full jar, I'm relieved to notice) and my second to last yoghurt.

For morning tea I have a banana and a couple of triple chocolate biscuits. I need to eat more bananas or buy some eggs and bake with them because they're not going to last too much longer.

At lunchtime there's another trip to the compost bucket - this time a (very slimy) Lebanese cucumber. I'm guessing I bought all my salad stuff at the same time.

I make "nachos" as I want to use up as much of the bag of spinach as possible. The quotes are because I make nachos thus:

1. Break up two taco shells into an ovenproof dish
2. In a frypan, fry mushrooms in a spray of olive oil. Add spinach and leave to wilt. Add Mexican chili beans and then thawed drained frozen corn.
3. When the mixture is heated through, add to the dish with the tacos.
4. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Grill until cheese is browned.

Work supplies me with a latte a little later.

For afternoon tea I eat my second to last apple with crackers and hummus (an unopened container! Yay!)

Checking my emails after work I delete both the Brown Sugar and Target emails without opening them. I feel brave and strong, especially as this morning I studiously ignored the advertisements telling me that Angus & Robertson is offering 20% off all DK travel guides and The National Library Bookshop 20% off sale ends today...

Dinner will be penne pasta with mushrooms (I cut up the last of them at lunchtime and split them evenly between lunch and dinner), zucchini and sun dried tomatoes. And a glass of wine.

So far, not too hard!

Finished today:

* Lebanese cucumber (see previous ruminations: re salad vegetables and autumn plus attached comments from Taph re: sprouting
* Mushrooms (replaceable!)
* Zucchini (also replaceable!)
* Mexican chili beans (definitely not on this month's shopping list - I'll have to make them from scratch if I feel the urge for Mexican again)

Day Four - and what a score!

Woohoo! My care parcel from Pink Trees arrived, just in time to assuage the first twinges of frugalling withdrawal.

I knew it would be a doozy when she emailed me in April telling me she'd sent it surface mail as it was going to cost some ridiculous amount to post air. And it is.

I contemplated (for oh, 10 seconds) the concept of rationing it and taking one thing out of it each day but in the end it was bum up and in head first to check out the goodies...First out was a fine selection of black and white stationery items. A matching concertina file and in tray! Swoon. And look at that psychedelic notebook! Eek! And the pencil holder with enough pencils to last me for the rest of my (very long) life!! A wire basket (I love storage stuff about as much as I love stationery. ie: a lot), a memo cube and some vintage stick-on numbers.

Pretty impressive, huh?

That's not all! There was also:three knitting magazines I snaffled from her back in Marchtwo sweater wheels (copyright date, 1969). An intriguing concept which I'm dying to play with almost as much as I'm perplexed as to how she could bear to give them away...More crafty goodness in the form of a range of wooden pegs which I shall tuck away until inspiration hits,and a huge array of vintage buttons still on their cards, long zips which I want to try making bags out of, iron-on Velcro and a vintage bag of large black pom poms... ...plus a pack of black and white playing cards. I'm itching to cut them up but will (probably) keep them intact.

And after I finished photographing everything and loaded my pictures I realised I'd missed out taking pictures of the funky retro black and white thermometer and miniature kettle she'd also included. Oops!

Thanks, PT, once again you've overwhelmed me with just perfect wonderfulness!

So it's got to be about time for another video...

I saw this last night on Loop Select 8 and it reminds me of Wellington (oddly enough).

All you Kiwi expats out there, this is for you...

Fiscal Fast, Day Three

And still straight sailing. For breakfast I eat wholegrain toast with honey and a banana on top and spend the morning out of the way of temptation, tucked in bed knitting the second pair of wristwarmers and reading issue 37 of Urbis in a bid to lessen my pile of unread magazines.

There's an "Uh oh" moment when a subscription offer card drops out of the middle specifically targeted at Australian readers and offering a good discount. But it would seem I'm too late to take up the offer as it closed at the end of last month (really must catch up on the magazine reading...)

At lunchtime I realise the bag of salad mix in the fridge (with a best before date the same as the tomatoes I used yesterday) is definitely departed from this world and give it a decent burial (in the compost bucket).

Damn! There goes my plan to have a lovely healthy salad with lunch, which is smoked salmon and blue brie pizza, chosen as my packet of smoked salmon has been open almost too long and the spinach is best before tomorrow (and I don't want it turning to slime along with the Salad Mix.)

I scrape the last of the salsa out of the jar for the pizza. I doubt I can justify replacing it this month but I'm not too concerned as I still have tomato paste, Dolmio and at least one can of tomatoes in the house.

The afternoon is spend at home pottering - catching up on the bits and pieces I've not got to over the past few weekends. The pile of junk mail I pulled from the letter box stares balefully at me from the corner where I placed it when I came back inside. To read or not to read, that is the question...

I decide that since I enjoy reading junk mail I can flick through it as long as I'm strong enough to resist its siren call. Big W has cute shoes but I decide they're probably plastic and I don't need them anyway. Aldi have their Tevion digital photo frames back in stock for $119. I rip both pages out, put them aside and pretend I might just decide to buy either but knowing full well I'll forget about them within 24 hours and both bits of paper will end up in the recycling bin.

For dinner I'm having vegetable soup and toast from the freezer. I'm pasta-d out after yesterday (the usual quick and easy option) and really can't be shagged thinking about what to cook. It's Sunday night, after all!

Finished today:

* Bag of salad mix (not replacable. Must buy a head of lettuce or decide that autumn is not the right season for lettuce and stop with the salad stuff already)
* Jar of Salsa (see discussion above)

Wristwarmers, take two

Voila, the new and improved version of yesterday's wristwarmers! I'm much happier with these after a few changes to the original pattern.

Here's what I did differently:

1. Used 5mm needles instead of the suggested 5.5mm (and 6mm for cast on and cast off).
2. Ribbed the whole thing - which caused a little bit of consternation as I approached the thumb gusset as to how to keep the ribbing going but I sailed through with nary a flicker of doubt. The smaller needles and the ribbing give this pair a much better fit.
3. Increased the length of the arm cover to 20 rows from the end of the edging (as shown in the pattern photo but not mentioned in the pattern)
4. Moved the thumb gusset over slightly - instead of 13 stitches then M1 I did 15 on one wristwarmer and 11 on the other. The side seam now sits along the side of the hand much better.

Now what am I going to do with them? Who do they remind me of??

Bendy celery bake

(Direct for the TNSS kitchen!)

Serves 2 hungry people or maybe 4 not so hungry people with a salad.

Take:

3 stalks very bendy celery, about to crawl its way to the compost bucket
2-3 carrots, peeled (hopefully in slightly better condition than the celery)

Wash and chop into smallish pieces. Place in microwave safe dish, cover and nuke for about 3 minutes (please note, I bought my microwave in 1989 so yours is probably more powerful - please check during cooking as you want the carrots al dente not mush-like)

Turn your oven on to 200.

Meanwhile, boil a largish pot of water and cook 120g shell pasta until al dente.

At the same time, make a cheese sauce as follows:

Melt 2 Tbspn butter in a pot. Add 2 Tbspn flour and stir until thick. Add 1/2 cup milk. Stir until thick. Do this twice more (1 1/2 cups milk in total).

Add a pinch of curry powder, lots of ground pepper (or to taste) and turn off heat. Add 2 cups grated tasty cheese and stir until melted.

Combine pasta and celery/ carrot mix in greased oven dish/ casserole thingy.

Pour the cheese sauce over the top. Make sure it spreads to all the corners. Whack it a couple o f times just to make sure.

Sprinkle with dried breadcrumbs (if you have them - also try crunched up chips if you're so lucky as to have any spare) and paprika.

Shove in the oven and bake for around 15 minutes.

Serve and be astounded yet again how lashings of cheese sauce can make anything taste good!

You can't stop an addict*

(*Between June 1st and June 5th Blogger, in its wisdom, decided I was a spamming robot and so locked my blog. I sent up a temporary blog while I waited for their verdict as to my state of humaness and am now transferring the posts from there back to their rightful homes. I'll also try to transfer the comments over the next day or so) Welcome to my temporary abode while Blogger decides I'm a real person and not a robot spammer. Once I'm allowed back "home" I'll probably move these posts back over to The Not Shopping Sherpa (as I am this month!)

Today's theme was eggs. And garage sales.

Eggs because I'm out of them. Which (of course) meant I woke up to a little voice inside my head saying "Hey! Remember that recipe you have for Apple Hotcakes (officially called "Apple Drop Biscuits" - must be an American recipe book) which you'd completely forgotten about? That's what I want for breakfast as I know we have apples..."

Now I could have gone and bought eggs. Yes, just because I'm on a Fiscal Fast doesn't mean I can't buy anything at all. That would be just silly for a whole month. My view is I can buy essential groceries, locally sourced if possible.

So far that means I'll have no problems at all buying the following that I'm out of:

• Eggs
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Garlic
• Toilet paper (thank God!)

These can be bought with changes:

• Tomatoes (if I can get them locally, and I'm guessing not the grape tomatoes I usually buy)
• Yoghurt (no Ski Delite 12 pack fruity flavours. Plain (and locally sourced) is OK)

The jury is still out on the chickpea/ kidney bean dilemma. I usually buy cans but suspect I should be buying dried this month and cooking them from scratch. Your input would be much appreciated.

These are definitely on the no-go list:

• Feta cheese
• Couscous

(Feel free to produce a fine argument against this decision!)

So what did I eat today?

Brunch: A cup of tea and toasted crumpets with grilled cheese and smoked salmon

Lunch: I decided the priority today was the package of grape tomatoes with a best before date of 26 May. So I made couscous with spinach, feta, tomatoes and olives, thus using up not only the tomatoes but also the last of my couscous and feta (see above). I drank Bunderim Lime Refresher (which I had a full bottle of) but with tap water as I'm out of sparkling.

Afternoon tea: Chocolate. I still have some and it's the weekend. So shut up :-)

Dinner: I still have some (ever more bendy) celery which I'd like to use up. A journey into my microwave cupboard (and recipe collection) brings up Digby Law who tells me I could make a Waldorf Salad (pity I only have the apple and celery component. Oh - and I think I have some coleslaw dressing and maybe I could use hazelnuts instead of walnuts?) or some carroty/ celery thingy with cheese sauce. Or I could use a tin on lentils I have and the celery and some other veg (with some tomatoey stuff) and make a lentil stew thingy.

As you can tell, the jury is still out. Maybe I should just smear some peanut butter onto the celery, eat it and be done with it....

"OK OK" I hear you saying "Enough about food, what's with the garage sales?!"

To test my resolve, Vinnies Mitchell is having their first ever garage sale this weekend, the very same weekend the YMCA is holding their regular garage sale.

I'm ignoring both.

Instead I finished my Cosmic Mix Swap-Bot CDs. (Don't panic - I already have stamps to post them)

I finished knitting cupcake number 12. Now I just have to sew them up, finish them off, and find new homes for them...

I also finished volume one of the Phaidon Design Classics Series. Only 666 entries to go (and they're due back on the 8th!)

I finished the first set of shoe bags for Nick and Dermuid who put me up in Melbourne for Eurovision weekend. I'm getting very grumpy at how long these are hanging round and hope to get them in the mail tomorrow...

And I also made a set of wristwarmers (see top of this post), just because and out of my stash. I used this pattern. I think I need to do some fiddling with it. Oddly, one of my complaints is that it doesn't come far enough down my arm but now I look more closely at the photo, there are more rows in the photo than listed in the pattern.

Duh! Luckily they took me about an hour to knit (while reading English Vogue) so I suspect I'll be trying again with a slightly modified version..

Oh - and the rest of tonight? Just take a guess...

(Listening to: Cafe del Mar: Vol Dos)

So How'd I Go?: Day One

Like this is no surprise, Day One went pretty well.

For breakfast I had a cup of tea and a packet of Oat Temptations (Apricot flavour)

Morning tea was crackers and cheese plus an apple.

I realised I had celery which was starting to look a little past it so lunch was penne pasta with chickpeas, celery and Dolmio. Two serves of Dolmio and one of the completed meal went into the freezer for later....

No afternoon tea as I was out and about.

For dinner I planned to have fish and wedges but I forgot to buy potatoes with my last shop so it became fish and rice with (frozen) peas and corn. I'm also out of eggs and the chickpea penne used the last tin of chickpeas. Decisions to be made already re: grocery shopping this month...

Life wasn't too hard today. Work paid for a latte (a very very bad one) and a glass of wine. I got good mail. At home I still have supplies of chocolate and wine.

Had an interesting discussion with Aunty A about friends helping you out. I feel that if I decide to put myself into Purdah it's not up to other people to buy my wine/ chocolate/ dinner/ whatever during the month as then I'd feel like I was sponging off people. Which is certainly not my intent.

We decide it's permissible for me to cook dinner and have someone bring wine but not OK to swap a cooked dinner for a ticket to the movies. Looks like I won't be going to the cinema this month, then...

I'm secretly relieved when a friend I was planning to meet for drinks tonight (date made before Fiscal Fast was decided) calls and cries off because she is too tired. I'd planned to invite her over for lunch instead but she has visitors all weekend. I breathe a sigh of relief.

Then I got an email from Stripy Sock Studio alerting me about the Hallensteins limited edition Music Month collection.... Birthday is over... Christmas is months away... What to do?! Can I bribe Kiwi bloggers with promises of goodies to come? Knitted cupcakes, perchance? What to do? What to do???

Oh - and then Gemma decides to join in and I realise I probably need a webring. Or something. Good thing tomorrow is the weekend, hey?

A lovely apron with a sad sad story...

Taph gave me this lovely apron last night to add to my black and white apron collection.

But every time I use it I will feel sad. Why? Because she bought it at Curtin Vinnies. Which closed it's doors yesterday after 40 years.

That's two Vinnies gone in Canberra in less than 6 months. Sigh...

On a more cheerful note I also received this package of goodies yesterday from Nancy, Queen of Everything who has recently returned from a trip to Paris and (another) cruise adventure in Europe. I have a scarf, earrings and lots and lots of postcards from places I won't be going to until at least 2009.

Uh oh. I think that makes me sad as well....

(Listening to: Bloc Party, Silent Alarm)

Blergh

OK, so the whole "change the banner for a clever one" thing didn't work for those of us on Bloglines.

Let me put my thinking cap on....

The Not Shopping Sherpa

Since May was such an overdose of activity and spending around here I figure June is a good excuse to do another Fiscal Fast - this time for a whole month.

I've even renamed myself for the occasion (see above and thanks to my Banner Angel once again)

Can I do it? Will you join me for the month?

(Listening to: Anthems of Trance)

Be frugal - eat Lindt chocolate!

For my Aussie readers:

If it isn't enough for you that the Lindt bars are down to $1.99 a block at Woolies this week, we also have the return of the Free Lindt chocolate offer. Come on, what's better in life than free chocolate, especially when it's Lindt?

(Listening to: Angel Beach, The Third Wave)

Loop de Loop

My birthday present from The Parental Units arrived this morning - Loop Select 8. (*Insert happy dance here*)

I love love LOVE the Loop compilations and consider them the Kinder Surprise of the CD world as they contain:

a CD! (full of excellent Kiwi music)
a DVD! (chockers with interesting Kiwi short films and music videos and stuff)
and (often, but not always) a Book! (bursting with Kiwi art, which I have, on occasion, framed thus stretching the giving power of the package even further)

Even better, this year they've set this year's design theme with me in mind. Bless...

(Listening to: Loop select 8, oddly enough)

Cheers!

Two swaps and one not...Not is this copy of Get Ready to be Boyzvoiced which Feli sent me along with a bookmark.Swaps (both from Singapore, how weird is that?!) is the April Swap-bot Black, White and one colour Swap I arranged. Loving the black and white checked box and the shark notebook. And the new friends for Trudy...And the very next day I received the May Black and White Swap package! How cool is the pencil case at the bottom right??

(Listening to: Air, 10,000 Hz Legend)

The weekend in pictures

Saturday morning: coffee and errands in Batemans BaySaturday afternoon: walking along LongbeachSunday morning: Kangaroosand a Kookaburra (who shat on M's car seconds after this was taken. We all laughed hysterically and it looked at us as if we were mad)All weekend: Reading and relaxing!

(Listening to: The Killers, Read my Mind (go on, pretend to be surprised!))