Teapot spout stains

I do like my cups of tea and mainly use tea bags but every now and then I like to make a pot of tea, seems to turn having a cup of into something special.   Irish Breakfast is my favourite.

 One thing I find is that after a while the tea leaves stains in the cups and teapot too.  I usually turn to good old trusty bicarb soda to get rid of the tea stains which always works a treat.  Come to think of it bicarb soda is great for lots of things like deodorizing the carpet, cleaning the toilet and many more things I'm sure everyone knows about.

As I was cleaning the teapot the other day I was frustrated as I couldn't get the spout clean.  Light bulb moment...use a dampened cotton wool bud/tip dipped in bicarb, a little scrubbing and voila, a clean teapot spout.

It's gross isn't it?!

Nice clean teapot.

On to other things.  I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has left comments about hubby's French clock.  He was really chuffed.

Before I go I can't resist posting a photo of Sophie using hubby's feet as a head rest, SOOOO CUTE!

Notice the dog hair on hubby's work socks, no amount of vacuuming can remove it totally.  :(   Hubby is in outside work trousers as he has started working on the second side of the drystone wall down the front driveway.  A subject for another post.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read my blog.

Anne  xx

Cleaning out and visiting the "Curbside Boutique".

I've been bitten, bitten by the cleaning out bug.  Last week I cleaned out my laundry cupboards and chucked out a whole lot of unnecessary stuff.  Things like two bottles of wool wash, both half full.  I tipped one into the other and recycled the empty bottle.  It's amazing how much stuff gets accumulated in a few years.
I have two big tubs in my laundry and they take up a lot of room in the cupboards underneath.  Storage is tricky, I have to get down on my hands and knees to see what's in there.  I found way too many cleaning cloths, three fly swats and cleaning gloves, some without a pair.  The cat/dog food cupboard, shoe polishing and dog bathing stuff also got an overhaul.  I found dog treats including rawhide chews, biscuits and oinkers.  Sophie is going to be a very happy dog with the discovery of all those treats.

O.K., on to the kitchen sink cupboard.  Urgh, another horrible place to store things because, you guessed it, I have two big sinks taking up a lot of room.  When we were building our house, it was suggested that I should have a 1 1/2 sink combination installed.  No way, I need big sinks to wash and rinse in.  How can you rinse a dirty great big baking dish or dutch oven in a half sink?  Of course it was a man who suggested the 1 1/2 sink option.  It wasn't my hubby who suggested it either.  He knows what a kitchen sink full of dishes looks like.  :)  So I have two gorgeous big sinks but not much storage room. 

Cleaning out I found a number of spray cleaning products purchased in the past in the vain hope they would spur me into a cleaning frenzy.  Not successful I tell you.  Cleaning cloths were also in an abundance.  I found a nice tub of Gumption, my best friend for getting rid of the kitchen sink grime and other non identifiable stains that materialise on the bench overnight.  So I pulled everything out, discarded stuff, cleaned the shelves and reorganised things into what will hopefully be a workable system.  The rubbish bin stays put, the compost bin get moved to a lower shelf etc.

The next project is to clean out the linen cupboard and I've been dreading this forever.  How in the 12 years since we built our house did it get to look like this?

(Mum, see your crochet blanket there?   Now that I know how to crochet, I'm going to mend the holes so I can snuggle up in it come winter.)

Oh the shame of these photos.  Just look at this mess below.  At this point I had started putting some things back, in hopefully what will be some sort of order. 

See the vacuum cleaner on the floor level.  It's a VAX brand and is in two parts.

Some shelves are getting a little better now.

I've been labelling some of my blankets, 'cos I can never remember what size they are.  I'm doing the same thing with my sheets as I have an abundance and I can't tell what size they are.    I'm debating whether I will leave them rolled up or put a pair of sheets inside a pillowslip for storage.  Whatever takes up less room I suppose.  Out of this mess I have three huge bags to donate to charity.

I'm hoping to rehouse the vacuum cleaner in the space in the photo below which will be much easier on my back and I won't have to put it together every time I want to vacuum.  Maybe we can add a couple of shelves above the vacuum cleaner.

See that box there, that was full of baby and toddler clothes.  When Miss C. saw me sorting them out, she was very happy when I offered to sort through another box of baby things stored in the top of her wardrobe.  It was very nostalgic going through baby clothes.  I've kept really adored items and the others are going to charity after a good wash and freshen up.  I just had to keep the bunny rugs I made for the girls though.  Maybe I'll pass them on some day, but not just yet.  I found things I had made for my  babies like fleecy cot sheets which are currently soaking in one of my big laundry tubs,  :),  a baby bouncer cover I had forgotten I had made and a number of little dresses for little girls.  I've also cleaned out the rag box which was full of old face washers and bibs.  They are being donated to hubby's garage along with a dozen towelling nappies I still have.  Yep, I washed nappies and that was before I had the laundry with the two big tubs too!

It's a good feeling to be doing this clean out.  I've got heaps more to do, especially in my bedroom, in  my wardrobe.  Cringe.

On to other things.  Last week I visited the Curbside Boutique a.k.a. local council hard rubbish removal.  I found these cane chairs which I gave a good scrub to remove the dust, cobwebs and mold and will be painting them and making lovely cushions.
 

This piece I am going to use in the garden for decoration.  It's the screen from a flywire door.  I found this in my street so went down with my screwdriver, unscrewed it and walked home.  Must have looked funny.  The screen is propped up in our garage which is currently undergoing a renovation, so is rather messy.  Actually, it's always been messy but it is going through a renovation.

Do you think I should leave it black or paint it another colour?

Finally, (sorry it's been a long post), I also found this in my street. 

 In a former life it was used as a home for pot plants.  Now it's going to be used as a bench in my back garden.  Next summer, if we have a summer that is, I will be painting it a much nicer colour rather than leave it this horrible brown.  Just in case you were wondering, Miss G. was kind enough to help me carry this home.  It was awkward, heavy and as where we live is hilly, the process was filled with funny moments.  Isn't Miss G. wonderful?  There aren't too many 17 year olds who would be happy to assist their mother raid the Curbside Boutique.

Thank you for reading this rather long and messy post.  Wish me luck in maintaining the energy and zeal to keep cleaning out.

Have a wonderful week everyone,
Anne  xx

The Black Hole

Hello! This is my first post ever so thanks for taking the time to look in. Yet another day has gone by when I’ve avoided looking into the black hole. Does anyone else have a black hole in their home like I do? It scares me silly to even think about it. I contemplate different ways I might go about approaching it, but it never seems to get any easier. As each day goes by, the black hole gets blacker, nastier and I chastise myself about my avoidance tactics. I'd much rather be in my garden, dreaming about my garden and planning projects for my garden.

Oh yes, back to the black hole. Can it really be so bad to face one black hole? YES IT CAN, because this dark cavern of horror is my oven. I imagine those of you like me who have a tendency to avoid oven cleaning duties are grimacing in horror at the thought of oven cleaning time and those who don’t have a procrastinating bone in their body are saying to me, just get in and clean it girl!! Oh I will eventually, all in good time. But first I need to have a plan of attack.

Unfortunately for a girl who likes natural cleaners, I’ve yet to come up with one that doesn’t require mainly elbow grease. (Any great recipes out there for natural oven cleaners, I’d be grateful?!) I've tried all those nasty spray cans of oven cleaner that claim to be irritant free or non odorous but alas I still find one small whiff and the back of my throat and lungs feel like they are peeling away.

Now if I was really smart (and I’m obviously not), I would wipe out the oven every time I baked or roasted or whatever it is that happens in an oven. When I had my new oven in my brand new house 10 years ago, I was virtuous for about the first week and then sadly I fell back into my bad habits of oven cleaning avoidance. One of the problems of cleaning an oven is finding a time when it’s not in use. I mean who wants their prime roast leg of lamb or sponge cake infused with oven cleaning smells. And if you use those nasty cleaners that come in spray cans, the fumes hang around for days. Just another excuse I know but it is a real quandary for girls who use their ovens a lot.

I go through stages of loving baking and other stages of loathing it. I love cooking for special occasions but everyday fare and routine cooking can be rather boring. Just something that has to be done to keep the family from starving. So what to do? Perhaps I need a freezer so I can prepare meals and cakes in advance so that we could get by without needing the oven for a week. As a freezer is no where in sight I suppose the oven cleaning duties will keep for another year or two. :-)