cooktop.

Sometimes the smallest thing can make the biggest difference.

I wrote this post a long time ago and am only publishing it now... I still think it's good to share :)

We got a new cooktop in our kitchen. Our kitchen is fine but this has made it so much nicer! I'm so happy about it.





It's amazing how much the old cooktop affected me. I think seeing it, and my inability to clean it, made me feel embarrassed and imagined what people thought of us. I'm sure no one cared, but I did. The new one allows me to enjoy being in the kitchen.

While we were installing it, we had to take the oven out. As it was out, I saw the original brick wall and immediately fell in love with it. I love the industrial look - dreaming of buying an old warehouse - and am hoping we can pull down our splashback and have bricks instead. I wrote about this look in my post about The Block.

Now I can only imagine the difference this change would make to our kitchen.

Do little things, they can make big changes! You mightn't be able to change your cooktop but go and smile at someone, throw out that thing you bought to please someone else, go for a walk, buy some new pyjamas, call an old friend... You never know the impact a small thing might have.

aleida pullar.

Aleida Pullar is a lovely lady who sells the most beautiful ceramics. I met her at Avoca Beachside Markets (a long time ago) where my mum and I immediately fell in love and bought each other pieces for Christmas and birthdays. There's something special about buying products directly from the makers.

I am in love with what she creates: their originality and uniqueness. Each piece is handmade and so every piece is different.

Not only does she work with ceramics but also linen. I am in love! I love linen in itself but what she creates is amazing! Hand drawn linen inspired by nature: fish, flowers, shells, spots, landscapes.

Follow her on facebook: Aleida Pullar: Studio Latitude 33 and instagram @aleidapullar. You'll see me there – I 'like' almost everything she puts up!

Images taken from aleidapullar.com and her Instagram page.

Frocktober 2015.

 

For half of October, I participated in Frocktober. It's a month of wearing dresses, I mean frocks, to raise money and awareness for Ovarian Cancer. I partnered up, and by 'partnered up' I mean I sent my followers her way with their cash, with Lexi from PottyMouthMama. She raised an incredible $8,860.63 (it's not too late to donate).

Above you can see my dresses from the 15 days I participated. Check out my Instagram feed to see the dresses more closely and read the stories from each day (as well as some devastating facts about ovarian cancer). It was fun participating, I got to wear lots of dresses and it built my self-confidence being photographed each day.

Looking forward to sharing my frocks with you again in 2016.

Lentil, lemon and garlic soup.

Throughout November I am sharing what I eat for dinner most nights on social media (click the links above to view my pages). The purpose of this is definitely not to share how good a cook I am, how amazing my food looks, or what a good photographer I am... as none of these are true. I am sharing these, and letting you peek into my life, to show that healthy cooking and eating can be simple, cheap and delicious. I am sharing some ideas so that hopefully you'll be inspired to create these recipes yourself or realise that it's not so hard to make some small changes to eat better.

When requested, I will share recipes here for the meals I make. Last night it was Lentil, Lemon and Garlic Soup from the cookbook I Am Food by Anthia Koullouros. You can buy the cookbook here (this is not a sponsored post, just meals I enjoy making). I love this cookbook as Anthia uses 'food as medicine' as the basis for all her recipes, ensuring we get the best from what the food has to offer. This soup strengthens and restores immunity.

L E N T I L ,  L E M O N  A N D  G A R L I C  S O U P
serves 4-6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
100g butter
1 onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 carrot, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
150g green lentils, washed, soaked overnight and rinsed
1 litre chicken bone stock
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
juice of 2 lemons
natural salt and freshly cracked pepper

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan or stockpot over medium heat. Add the vegetables and garlic and saute for 3 minutes or until the onion is soft and transparent. Add the lentils and cook for 1 minute.

2. Add the stocks and 2 cups (500ml) water and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Stir in the parsley and lemon juice just before serving and season to taste with salt and pepper.

I hope you enjoy as much as we do! Please share and tag me on social media if you recreate. I'd love to see what you make.

rainy baby shower.

Earlier this year I threw a baby shower for two of my great friends. The brief, "we're both inviting our friends so we don't want it to feel like a baby shower." So we planned a picnic in the park with footy and food, but of course that week there was torrential rain so they quickly found a bowling club and we had a fun, and relaxed, afternoon.

The day was interspersed with lots of rain and beautiful blue skies. The bowlers enjoyed the blue sky and we enjoyed watching them.

They agreed to have a baby shower feel to the party, so we had a "guess the gender" game which created a polaroid photo book, with a note to the baby. It is a beautiful keepsake for the baby and was fun seeing everyone with their lips or moustaches.

Mum and Dad in the front of the book

I provided some of the food, with lots of help from family, which included some delicious healthy cupcakes...

Orange with cacao nibs (gf, df, sugar free), chocolate with chocolate icing (gf, df, sugar free) and not-so-healthy but oh-so-delicious vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing

And some healthy homemade dips... with cheese, veggie sticks, olives, nuts and dried fruit.

Homemade hummus, carrot dip and pumpkin dip (all gf, df, sugar free) and activated nuts... of course ;)

 And some delicious punch...

I even tried my hand at flower arranging...

And on the morning made some gender neutral bunting. Note to self: do not make 10 metres of bunting on the morning of an event you're organising. Thankfully I got it done!

It was a fun afternoon and a great celebration of their beautiful baby boy.
Kate and Dave, thanks for allowing me to have some fun and honour you guys. You're great parents... George is a lucky boy!

I scream for ice cream.

I love ice cream! There's nothing better than having a paddle pop on a stinking hot day. So many good options, so much deliciousness. But as I've paid more attention to my body, I've noticed the not-so-nice sugar crash and the way that makes me feel, and the bloating from the dairy. Not to mention the price you have to pay!

So I have created a few VERY easy paddle pops to make yourself and enjoy whenever you want. No sugar, no dairy, no weird stuff, just real food and plain deliciousness.


MANGO MACADAMIA WEIS BAR

So I went to the shops yesterday and looked at the ingredients of a Mango Weis Bar:

The mango part: mango (40%), water, sugar, glucose syrup, milk solids, natural colour (160b), food acid (330).
The ice cream part: cream (46%), water, sugar, glucose syrup, milk solids.

Why the heck is "natural" colour a number? Surely the natural colour of the mango makes it orange!!

And you could buy a box of 4 for $6.79.


I made 6 from 2 mangoes, a tin of coconut cream, a teaspoon of honey and a small handful of crushed and toasted macadamias.

What to do:
1. toast some crushed macadamias in a fry pan until golden
2. fill bottom of ice cream moulds with coconut cream (you could add a touch of honey or vanilla if you wanted, but not necessary) and macadamias and place in freezer
3. scoop flesh from mangoes into bowl then mash with a fork (you could use a food processor if you wanted to). (I added a tiny bit of honey because my mangoes were bruised and not super sweet).
4. once coconut cream has started to set, add mango on top, put stick in, then return to freezer to set completely. Then try not to eat them all at once.

The hardest part is waiting for them to set!!

If you can't wait between the layers, you could not layer them and create a swirl of the flavours instead. In the future, I would probably do a bit more mango (just cause I love mango) but these were great the way they are.

RASPBERRY COCONUT PADDLE POP

This was the easiest ever! I just stuck some raspberries in to the leftover coconut cream.

What to do:
Pour coconut cream into moulds then push frozen raspberries into the coconut cream. Put stick in then freeze. If you wanted to do a similar thing to the mango one, you could puree the raspberries and layer but this worked well for me!

I hope you enjoy creating these beauties. So easy, so cheap, and so good for you compared to what you can get in the shops.

Please, if you create them, share them on social media and tag @thearlegirl on Instagram or Facebook. I'd love to see your creations!

plastic free july.

At the beginning of July, I committed to doing Plastic Free July. It's an Australian initiative that aims to "raise awareness of the amount of single-use disposable plastic in our lives and challenges people to do something about it." It's been an encouraging and a hard month so far. Encouraging because I already do many plastic free things and they're things that I don't find hard anymore, they're just part of life now. However, it's hard because there are lots of things that I don't do and would like to. I like to do things well and completely, and this is a difficult battle.


So I'm going to try to share how it's been hard and how it's been easy to encourage you to start doing something, to take one step, and also to share what I've been struggling with and maybe together we can work out ways for this to develop.

EASY:

• toilet paper. You might remember this post where I shared about 'who gives a crap' toilet paper. I won't re-share all the details but the summary is: they're great and plastic free. 48 rolls of toilet paper gets delivered to my door in a cardboard box and each roll is wrapped in paper.

• plastic shopping bags. My grocery shopping is pretty irregular but when I do, I always take my bags. I have a pile of green bags (they're actually black), but if I'm ever out and need to pick up something quickly, I have a small foldable bag which lives in my handbag. My husband has a couple of bags in his car. And on the hooks at our front door, we have a collection of calico bags we can take if we think we might need to pick something up. Otherwise, I'm more than happy to carry whatever I've bought. Or you can always ask for a cardboard box.
• toothbrush. About six months ago we bought bamboo toothbrushes. They are completely biodegradable. And they're great. I'm no dentist so I'm not sure if they're doing everything those other highly marketed ones are, but I have visited my dentist since using it and there were no complaints. 
• drink bottle. Who wants to pay for a bottle of water anyway? We have a filter tap in our kitchen and I fill up my drink bottle when I go out. Sometimes I take two (if I'm going in the car). Mine are glass and metal, and I do have a plastic one – but it's not a single-use one.

These Freedom 1 litre bottles are fun! Great to have on your desk, hard to drink when you're driving. I have one in yellow!

My custom designed KeepCup

• straws. It's pretty easy to say 'no straw' when you're out and just drink it, and it's even easier at home, but sometimes the novelty is nice. I have metal straws at home (which I could take out if I wanted) which I use if I've made a smoothie or my nephews want a milkshake. They were super cheap and even came with a straw cleaner!
• dry food. I buy my dry food (flour, nuts, beans, etc) in bulk and store them in glass containers. Sure, some of the 10kg bags are plastic, but this is cutting down a lot of the plastic. 
• KeepCup. I bought a glass KeepCup this July, for my occasional takeaway coffee or when I want to take a hot drink out. When I haven't had it with me it's helped me to go without or appreciate the moment and sit down to have the coffee.
• stock/bone broth. Not only for the plastic use but also for the massive financial and health reasons, I make our own stock. I then freeze it in glass jars and I have it on hand.
• snacks. I make most (if not all) of our snacks and meals from scratch. This reduces the amount of plastic e.g. a packet of biscuits are in a plastic tray and wrapped in plastic, trail mix comes in a little plastic bag – instead make your own without the gross bits and store it in a jar, homemade muesli bars which are usually individually wrapped (wrap in baking paper). It is also much healthier and cheaper.
• tomato sauce. I make the best tomato sauce. And it's so much better than yours, Mr Masterfoods. It doesn't come in a squeezy bottle, it actually comes from tomatoes (shock, horror). I store it in a glass bottle in my fridge. Try it – there will be no turning back.
• leftovers. We ALWAYS eat our leftovers (reducing waste, saving money) and 99% of the time store them in containers in the fridge (rather than being cling wrapped). This also means they're ready to take to work. It's the little things.
• eggs. Yes, everyone buys their eggs in cardboard (well, at least I hope you do!) but when I can, I purchase 30 eggs from a farmers market and return his packaging to him. Reusing is so much better than recycling and he's always so happy!
• fruit and veg. We buy our fruit and veg in bulk. It's awesome. You get so much, for so cheap, and there is very little plastic. If I ever need to buy anything additional from the shops, I just get it and put it in my basket, I don't put it in a plastic bag first. Why do bananas need an extra plastic bag? If you think they do, use calico bags – I have a collection that shoes and sheets have come in, or make your own.

Image from @myresolve_rebecca Instagram page. She shares in our bulk fruit and veg.

"THINK ABOUT IT... WHY WOULD YOU MAKE SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO USE FOR A FEW MINUTES OUT OF A MATERIAL THAT'S BASICALLY GOING TO LAST FOREVER. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?" - JEB BERRIER, BAGIT MOVIE 

HARD:

• packaging. It's hard to tell other people what to do, especially businesses. They have processes and products. I would like to start asking people to consider better options. But I did decide the other week to buy a book from a shop rather than Book Depository because I know they ship in plastic envelopes. I have received products from TOM and KeepCup and was very happy that they used plastic free shipping materials.
• meat. In general, we buy our meat by what's on special in the supermarket. This allows us to actually eat meat. It doesn't really follow all of my principles of buying the best quality meat from the best treatment of animals or plastic free but I really struggle with this. In an ideal world, I would purchase my meat from a butcher/deli and get them to package it in my plastic containers. Every couple of months, however, my family purchases grass-fed beef in bulk from a farmer. I LOVE this however my difficulty is freezing it in plastic-free portions for what we usually need. Same goes with mince or chicken when we get it from the supermarket... 
• other people. Ok, I know I need to stop judging other people, and this isn't what you think. This is about people who you say 'no plastic' to and then they waste it anyway. For example, I was at Woolworths the other week WITH my green bags and the lady put something in a plastic bag. I said I'd prefer if it was in a green bag. She didn't take it out so I asked my husband if he could just put it in a green bag for me. He did and then the lady scrunched up the perfectly good bag which she could have used for someone else and threw it in the bin. I was so mad. Sometimes things work me up and I'm annoyed for ages after, this was one of them!
• milk. I do make almond milk sometimes but my husband loves regular dairy milk (and it doesn't curdle in your tea!). It's difficult to find it in glass, especially at a good price point.

• cleaning products and the cleaning myself products. I'm not really into using a bar of shampoo and have never got around to making my own cleaning products (I will when they run out) but I do buy in bulk as much as possible. My shampoo, conditioner and body wash are all 1L bottles. Every bit counts.
• fruit and veg. I have talked about fruit and veg being easy but storing some of it is difficult. Because we only buy it once a fortnight, we need it to last, and it lasts much better in the fridge when it's in a bag or container. Lots of things are in containers but in order for it all to fit (and with the number of containers we own) some things need to go in bags. I'd like to make some fabric bags to store them in instead of plastic. Also, for my health I have a very specific requirement to eat stewed organic apples. All of our fruit and veg isn't organic, so I need to buy these specifically from the shops. Our local green grocer doesn't sell anything organic so Woolworths it is, who only sells organic apples in plastic boxes and plastic wrap. Annoying!
• rubbish bags. Plastic Free July suggest lining your bin with newspaper as a plastic-free alternative. We produce way too much bin juice for that! Currently we are using plastic bin bags bought from Costco over a year ago (they seem to last forever!). I'm glad to see that there are compostable and degradable garbage bags, so when the Costco ones run out, I'll have to invest in them. Many people say they use plastic shopping bags for their bin but mine always have holes in them, and as I've mentioned, we have an issue with bin juice and holey bags don't work too well.

I'm encouraged because I'm doing my part and I'm also so much more aware of what I'm using. I'm thinking about it a lot more and often going without. Awareness is key. Which thing are you going to start doing? How are you going to beat your current best? Please share below or on social media. It would be great to support one another.

Burton Health Tea Club.

Last week I gave you a sneak peak into the Burton Health Tea Club through my interview with Laura. The experience of receiving the package is hard to put into words. The Tea Club is an experience. Sure, it's just tea, but it's so much more than that.

Receiving mail at your door is exciting when you've sent it to yourself but receiving it from someone else, when you're not exactly sure when it will arrive and not exactly sure what's inside, is joyous. I love presents and so this gets me all excited. Even writing about it, a couple of weeks later, I am all jittery – in a good way!

I opened the regular Australia Post box to find a beautifully wrapped gift inside. After stopping to take some photos and not wanting to open it too quickly so the excitement didn't pass too quickly, I carefully unwrapped this gift. I came across tea (as expected) but the surprise was this month's custom blend, aptly named Winter Warmer. The tea was a large bag as well as a small one-serve bag, a beautifully designed postcard with the ingredients and pictures and what they were good for, and a gift. I'd heard it was a good gift this month, and that rumour was true: a Natural Tranquility aromatherapy candle in White Tea and Berries. A candle housed in a beautiful glass jar with a wooden lid (I will definitely be using the jar when I'm done with the candle).

Image from @burtonhealth Instagram

If I could experience this, as well as receive these amazing goodies, every month, I'd be a very happy girl. I love the anticipation and the joy and the presents. I'm sure that even if I'd paid for it myself, it would still feel like a special present, because of the love and care that Laura puts into it.

I think the Tea Club is a great idea, and these are the top 3 reasons why:
1. Self-care isn't big enough. It's often seen as extravagant, but I think it's necessary. Always giving to others and not doing some things to look after yourself is dangerous. Go on, treat yoself!
2. Tea is good, herbal tea is better. Organic herbal tea created by a naturopath is best as you get the goodness of the herbs (without the pesticides) and nothing nasty added, in specific blends to help you. And if the blends have punny names, that's even better – you must be on to a good thing! Burton Health tea is delicious – that should be enough to get you to join the tea club – and even better, you get to try a new blend every month!
3. You can never have too much tea, but if you can, this is a perfect gift to pass on. The tea club doesn't only have to be a gift to yourself, but it can be a gift to someone special in your life (for one month or many). The brilliance of the tea club includes a sample tea – this means you can try the tea and if you don't like it, you can pass it on, or you can choose to pass it on and still get to try it. Win-win I say!

Now run, don't walk (or just click HERE) to check out the punny names and get free shipping and wish the online shop a Happy Birthday (until 12 midday 23 July 2015). Just enter 'welovetea' at the checkout. You won't regret it! Or sign up to the Burton Health Tea Club for three, six or twelve months, and it could be your birthday every month! I wonder what punny names she'll think of next.

pinterest picks: sew sew sew.

I'm a Pinterest fanatic. I really love it. I've been on the Pinterest bandwagon for many years now and have accumulated many and a wide variety of boards and pins. I always find it fascinating to see which pins get the most interaction.

Because some of you don't need Pinterest in your lives, I thought I'd share some "pinterest picks" from time-to-time. I'll either share some of my favourite finds or what my Pinterest followers are loving. Today is all about sewing, because that's what my followers are telling me they like.


This cute fish cushion (from here) is created from a child's drawing. A great way of keeping a child's (or your own) masterpiece. Make your own, or send it my way – hand embroidery is so therapeutic!

Or if you don't want to make your own, check out these by Ava and Yves from The Gathered Store.

This simple heart (from here) has gone cray-cray. It has a full tutorial attached to it and is pretty simple for beginner sewers. These were made for her wedding.

I made a whole bunch of them for my niece's 5th birthday party last year. All of her friends found one in a treasure hunt and got to take them home. The rest of them ended up on my sister's Christmas tree and are still hanging around her kids bedrooms (and my mum's living room).

A work in progress

My niece collecting her hearts from the treasure hunt

Keeping the heart theme, this heart garland (from here) is super simple, especially because it's made from felt. Felt is great because it doesn't fray so you can cut it up into whatever shape you like and you don't have to overlock or anything... The link to the tutorial doesn't go anywhere but I bet it says something like this: cut out hearts, sew vertically through the middle with the sewing machine, then keep sewing for a few centimetres, then repeat until it's your desired height (to cover your window or wall). Repeat until all hearts are used up or you have enough strings of hearts. Hang! See? Easy!

And finally, the sweetest softies (from here) are on my board 'sewing' but to be honest, I think I'd just buy one. They are too cute, and I may also buy many other things too (to justify the shipping from England, of course!).

And some of her other work:

To check out the rest of my pins (not my legs), click here.

a beautiful banner for a beautiful wedding.

This year is a year full of weddings for me. Lucky I love weddings. I love seeing how different people express themselves and celebrate.

In March, our special friends Fi and Mike got married. Their wedding was beautiful because it expressed who they were and included lots of contributions from so many of their friends and family. They (ok, maybe she) knew what they wanted and what they wanted people to do. I was asked to create a banner for the entrance of their wedding and to live in their home. I was honoured.

Photography: Mr Glen Edwards

I was honoured because Fi is incredibly creative. And she has many incredibly creative friends. I don't see myself as creative around them. I don't let myself shine. But Fi believed in me, trusted me, and gave me confidence to design and create a banner for them. It was a privilege.

In asking me to do this, she has given me great confidence in other things. It's amazing how her small act of asking me to do something for her wedding has empowered me to do more and given me confidence in myself and my abilities. So I want to say thank you. Thank you Fifi for trusting and empowering me, for seeing things in me and for allowing me to grow through that.

A couple of the MANY shots from my living room floor, showing a little bit of the handsewn detail.

My trusty helper (I couldn't do it without him) and the finished product before the guests arrived.

Me with my banner.

Their wedding was beautiful, in so many ways, however the most special part for me were the name placecards. On each and every person's name card (all 126 of them), Fi handwrote three things that she loves about that person or sees in them. I have written about how I am a 'words of affirmation kind of girl' here, and this spoke to me. The words were clear and prophetic. I was honoured to receive the card. And they are incredibly designed (with all of the other wedding stationery) but the incredible Lauren Langley. My friends are pretty great.

This post is to honour my friends but also recognise the creativity in me and show off my banner. I'm pretty proud of it – I put my heart and soul (and many hours and handsewing nights) into it – and I'm looking forward to revealing more creative endeavours soon.