CLOSED Need some help with the laundry? {giveaway}

Well Cold Power have come to the rescue with the Cold Power Smart Washer iPhone app!

Key benefits the Cold Power Smart Washer iPhone application offers:

·  A chance to save your clothes. Whether it’s red wine or baby formula that is ruining your new white top, the Cold Power guide to stain removal will give you a simple step by step process to save your clothes. 

·  Energy Saver Calculator. The in- built calculator can let you know how much your laundry is costing you each year and how much you could potentially save. How do you secure these savings? The Cold Power Smart Washer will give you tips for everyday washing habits that will make your laundry more efficient. 

The Cold Power Smart Washer can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store here: http://bit.ly/KUJJWg

Would you like to win a 6 month supply of Cold Power detergent and a $50 VISA gift card? Well simply follow the steps below!

To enter:

             I.            Download the Cold Power Wash Smarter iPhone app from the Apple App Store;

             II.            Review Colgate’s “Smart Tips” available at the ’Smart Laundry Tip’ tab on the app; 

             III.            Submit your answer to the following questions as a comment below:

a) What is your favourite Colgate Smart Laundry Tip from the Cold Power Wash Smarter app?

b) Describe In 100 words or less your biggest laundry disaster.

Limit applies of 1 entry per person during the Entry Period.


Employees of Cold Power (Colgate Palmolive) are not eligible to enter.
By entering this competition you accept these Terms and Conditions 

For the love of ironing...

Ironing, you either love it or hate it. And to tell you the truth my iron hardly ever gets used to iron clothes. Its main purpose it to press seams when I am sewing or quilting. Clothes are only ironed on a need to iron basis. And gasp, I don't even iron B's work clothes. But really as a Fitter and Turner by trade do I really need to do much more than transfer them from clothes line to coat hanger? I mean they are only going to get covered in grease, bauxite and whatever else pretty quickly.

Anyway, a little while ago I was sent Sunbeam's new Solus Digital Resilium Iron and whilst I still don't enjoy ironing, I have found that I am actually doing more off it. Mahli has been wearing more of here painful to iron clothing with ruffles and frills and the steam setting on this baby awesome! A burst of steam and the ruffles come back to life.

And when I am sewing, it is making my life so much easier. The settings are all able to be changed with a press of a button. And I can easily see what setting it is on by quickly checking out the LCD display.

 If you are a stickler for the details here is some more in-depth details on this nifty little iron:

• Digital thermostat for precise temperature control
• Push-button temperature adjustment
• Illuminated LCD displays the selected temperature setting
• Safety auto-off - turns the iron off automatically if you forget
• Ergonomic trigger-activated shot of steam
• 2400 watt element for fast heat up
• Scratch-resistant black Resilium® soleplate
• Vertical shot of steam for steaming curtains, suits and delicate fabrics
• Variable steam output up to 40g/min
• Drip-stop steam system to eliminate drips and water marks
• Anti-calc cartridge prevents scale biuld up to prolong the steam life of the iron
• Fine mist spray for dampening hard-to-iron fabrics
• Large 300ml water tank with easy-fill, anti-leak cap
• Extra long 3 metre cord
• Designed and engineered in Australia
• 2 year replacement guarantee

 It retails for $129 and honestly, I think it is money well spent. My last iron cost me just a tiny bit less than that, but the quality just doesn't even match the Sunbeam Solus Digital Resilium Iron.

Disclaimer: I was sent the Sunbeam Solus Digital Resilium Iron for the purpose of review. No money was offered or received for this post. All opinions are my own.

Frugal Living: Homemade Laundry Powder

Last year I was lucky enough to win a years supply of Radiant Laundry liquid. And yes, I did just express joy in winning laundry liquid. I think is was a pretty great prize to win!

But last week we used up our final bottle of our winnings, one month short of the 'years supply' timeline.

So it was time to make some more homemade laundry powder.

Below is the recipe I used. And so far, so good. We did a lot of washing over the weekend and all clothes have come up great.

You will need:

3 cups Borax
2 cups Baking Soda
2 cups Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate, it is pH increaser in the photo. I pick it up from the pool shop for about $6 for a bag)
2 cups Sunlight soap (grated)

• Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub or jar.
• Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load.
• Pop a label on it is you so desire.

I have a front loader and have been putting it in with the clothes as it doesn't seem to all dissolve when it is in the dispenser.

Oh, a few of you asked if I could convert the Best Coconut Butter Cake recipe for non-thermomix owners. I am planning on doing it soon and will update the post as soon as I do.

How To Get A Clean House.

Invite your grandparents over for afternoon tea... Then spend the following three hours before they arrive furiously cleaning. Alternatively you can replace grandparents with friends or other relatives.

This was the trick I used to ensure I actually stuck to the task at hand last week. And let me tell you it works.

Do you have any tips to keep your up your motivation when having to do boring jobs, like cleaning, folding clothes, ironing etc? Or are you goddess like in the house cleaning department and breeze through all tasks with ease??

Cleaning with kids

Alternate title- A New Form Of Torture...

image found here

Household tasks have been overwhelming me of late. We have Mount Washmore residing in our master bedroom, a never ending cycle of washing and hanging out clothes, a dishwasher that is always needing to be stacked or unstacked... You probably know all to well what I am talking about. Cleaning is the bane of my existence but throw kids into the mix and the level of torture goes up a notch, they either follow behind and make more mess as you are cleaning or they refuse to help as it is just to hard mummy and that is said in the whiniest voice imaginable too! So today I thought of a new plan of attack. I would write a to do list of jobs for myself, Caden and Mahli and once a job was done they got to cross it off. This worked for Caden he loved seeing how fast he could do his jobs and also finding them in the list and crossing them off. He did need some prompt to help find the words but he also got a sense of achievement when he found the job in the list.

To mix it up a bit we had some speed challenges, like who could pick up 10 toys the quickest. Prizes where given the the winners. No fancy prizes, just one square of chocolate etc. It was pretty successful... well Caden had a ball and played along, Mahli on the other hand tried to barter her list down to the fewest jobs possible and in the end did pretty much nothing..

What do you do to keep the kids interested when cleaning? Do you get them to help or do you set them up with activities so they stay out of your way??

image source: weheartit.com

I'm Hungry, Mum!

If your kids are anything like mine you will no doubt hear this several times a day. For the last week, this line has been used by my kids more than I care to remember. It is usually followed by there is nothing to eat, when in actual fact both the fridge and the pantry are full to the brim.

So on Monday I took the bull by the horns and baked with them for a few hours. In that time we made Anna's Choc Chip Slice (but substituted the choc chips for smarties as that is what I had on hand), Pear and Butter Cake and Vegemite scrolls.

My made up recipe for the Pear and Butter Cake is:

250g Butter
1cup caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
2/3 cup milk
2 pears- sliced

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees (If you remember, I always forget...) Grease and line a square cake tin (mine is about 8cm deep and 19cm wide... ) Using an electric mixer cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffyish (I know it's not a word). Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined. Add milk and flour gradually and stir to combine.
Add part of the batter to you tin then add pear to top of mixture, cover with remaining batter and again top with pears, sprinkle some sugar and bake for approx 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.

I am on the hunt for more quick and easy snacks that I can fill the fridge and freezer with. Next on my list are:

Mini Quiches
Mini Pizzas
Zucchini Slice
Brownies
Cinnamon Scrolls


Do you have any other suggestions for me???

They have also decided fruit is yuck! I have no idea where this has come from as a few weeks ago we were going through over 2kgs of apples and 1.5kgs of pears a week on top of half a watermelon, mandarins etc.

KitchenAid or Thermomix???

Sorry in advance for talking about kitchen appliances but I need some serious help here guys.

I have wanted a KitchenAid Stand Mixer for so so long, and B has finally come to the party, but we are also investigating a Thermomix and I really don't think he we ever let me own both...

OR

Now, for the finer details. I already own a Breville Ikon Breadmaker that I use to make bread, all our doughs and jam. My oven works fine and I do have a microwave steamer and a semi-decent food processor.
So given these circumstances what would you do. Would you purchase a KitchenAid and a selection of attachments or a Thermomix???

Being domesticated... kinda!

I did some baking last night. I try to do a big batch of baking every few weeks. Usually I make biscuits, slices/muesli bars and muffins. I only managed to fit in some biscuit baking last night and I wanted to share the recipe. It is super easy and makes a HUGE amount of biscuits. I freeze them and pull them out as needed.

Recipe-
500g Butter
1 cup sugar
4 cups self raising flour
1 cup coconut
1 cup sultanas
1 cup choc drops
1 tin of condensed milk.

Cream the butter and sugar and then simply add the remaining ingredients. Once combined just roll into small balls or scoop out with teaspoon and place on lined baking tray and cook in a pre-heated over @ 180 degrees for approx 10-15 minutes.

Be warned you will need a BIG bowl and a few baking trays lined up!

This isn't all the biscuits! I had two trays in the oven and on Tupperware slice container full already!

Happy baking housewives! :-P