day ninety eight: emergency preparedness kit

the start of the emergency kit with a 52 week plan to
complete :) such a great idea

day ninety eight and embarrassingly i must admit to the fact we do not have an emergency survival kit.  i have thought about doing one many times, especially after christchurch's terrible earthquakes and realising that no matter how well organised your country is for a major disaster you need to be able to survive on your own for 72 hours. the major reasons for not doing it have always been the overwhelming amount of things to organise for it and the cost that goes along with that.

fear not any more as the very sweet stefanie from the blog lovely little snippets has given you a week by week guide to putting one together over a year .... for me this alleviates that sense of overwhelming i get every time i see a disaster on the news and realise my family is not prepared.  so today's p365 creation is the start of our own emergency disaster survival kit.  i knew i would get a lot out of doing 365 days of pinterest creations but this is one of those days when you realise its also having a really positive effect on your life!

i started with stefanie's list and then adapted it according to the information i found here on parents.com and then also made some small adjustments to the list with the information i found here for new zealand emergency preparedness.  my final week-by-week guide for putting together my emergency survival kit is pictured below.  if you would like me to email you the word document just drop me a note here.

my 52 week plan of attack to complete
the emergency kit

i then found a storage container to house the kit and laminated a refresh list and stuck it to the top.  this refresh list is such a great idea as it makes sure your emergency kit things get renewed according to expiry dates of items in the box ... how organised is that! i also laminated a list of all the important phone numbers and stuck that inside the box.

the refresh list glued to the top

some of the items we did have so i could start adding
straight away ... a seven week head start!

some of the items (not many) we did have around the house so i added those things to the container ... with  seven 'bonus' items in the container, i'm only 45 weeks from completing the kit ... COOL!

i am SO excited to have this weight lifting off my shoulders
and to have a positive plan to solve the problem :)

outcome: pending ... we will see if i am ready in 365 days time! while it might not be completely ready for a year i now know each week i will be getting closer to being prepared for a disaster and that is better to me than not being ready at all!  i hope never to activate this emergency kit but i will rest easier knowing i am on my way to being organised if one did occur and that is awesome!

i can't thank stefanie at lovely little snippets enough for putting this post up on her blog, it has given me the ability to prepare my family in case of emergency without being overwhelmed by it ... thank you so much stefanie from the bottom of my heart :)

day ninety seven: chunky twix cookies

the chunky twix cookies ... honestly so very very good :)

day ninety seven and the cupboards are bare mother hubbard so its time to get baking.  just as well i have the best recipe book on hand thanks to the fine pinning that goes on pinterest ...  today's recipe from sprinkled with flour for chunky twix cookies is another winner.  this recipe was pinned to my recipe must do's board and was featured on the lovin the oven blog.

the star ingredient

as this recipe calls for two cups of diced up twix bars, i'm not even going to try and defend this recipe as healthy ... this recipe just looks far too delicious!  you will need the heavy machinery out for the creaming of sugar and butter but apart from that, the recipe looks fairly straight forward :)

my chopped up twix bars

these smell as good as they taste .... mmmmm

outcome:  go MAKE them today ... these are SO good, better than chocolate chip cookies and really easy to make.  they are my favourite cookie so far, absolutely delicious.  i can't tell you whether its the chewy caramel bits or the actual cookie recipe that does it, it's just a scrummo combination :)

big thanks to sprinkled with flour for trying new combinations and then sharing them with us, these cookies made my day and it was a day when i needed something sweet to happen and these were it!  it's no wonder your partner thought these were worth more than just a grunt!

day ninety six: chore clipboards for the peeps

the chore clipboards ready for tomorrow :)

day ninety six and we need some organisation for the kids re: pocket money and jobs to be done.

 i am incredibly lucky because i home school i don't have to deal with the chaos involved in rushing out the door first thing in the morning but the kids still have jobs to do (make bed, tidy room, clean teeth etc) and these jobs get done every morning because of the dangling carrot at the end of them!  in our house that carrot is computer time and the kids get computer time before our schooling starts but only if their jobs are completed ... this has revolutionised my mornings from grumpy mother to calm, happy mother :)

however it's the "pocket money" jobs that have gone out the window recently.  i want the kids to have the ability to earn money so they understand the synergy between working and having money :)   i used to have a job sheet on the notice board and the peeps had to chose at least two jobs a week but could do more if they wanted to earn more money.  since the big goal of having money to spend overseas has gone, i need to resurrect a new way of earning money because the peeps currently aren't interested!  i thought i could incorporate what stacy julian from playful.productive.present has done with her kids and their morning clipboards but with the ability to have some choice.

materials for the clipboard

the first part of today's creation was making the clipboards ... i wanted small clipboards as i didn't want the size of a big A4 clipboard to visually overawe them.  i used some 5 x 7" mdf boards, paint (for the edges), some scrap paper, letter stickers, and bulldog clips to create the clipboards.  the clip down the side of each board is for the money earned ... hopefully ;)

clipboards ready, now for the list

i then set to work on the computer making a list of the things i wanted them to do each day and then added a couple of blank lines along the bottom for things that needed to be done that day but weren't necessary every day (eg: putting their washed clothes away).  i also liked how stacy's idea was that they tick them off and then she returned later to assess and add the money to the clipboards. this is definitely what i intend to do - leave the peeps to make their own choices for what they do and then attach the rewards at the end of the day hoping for a positive outcome!

list done, now all i need is some eager peeps :)

the finished product, clipboard and list
combine to form dangling carrot!

outcome: pending ... for me i am hoping the daily presence of money attached to these jobs will help motivate them to do them ... especially my little boy peep who often has to be told 5 times to put his laundered clothes away :} i really hope the dangling carrot works for these jobs as well as it works for their morning routine ;)  in the meantime the clipboards look pretty sitting on the kitchen bench and i feel very positive about this new pocket money system working ... hopefully my wants will match their wants and all will work happily ... wish us well!

my thanks to stacy julian at playful.productive.present.  this is one of those ideas where you wish you had seen it sooner because the possibilities of making it work to fit your home and peeps are huge ... seen it now, and i have big hopes it will work really well :)

day ninety five: hasselback potatoes

tonight's hasselback potatoes .. yum~!

day ninety five and these hasselback potatoes were calling my name today, saying "eat me"! they looked so good on pinterest and when i saw the recipe called for garlic it was a done deal.  the recipe is from the sea salt with food blog and is pinned to my recipe must do's board.

today's ingredients

apparently these potatoes are the swedish version of baked potatoes.  you will need some potatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.  the original recipe also has knobs of butter on top of the potatoes but i figured i would see if they worked without the added calories, given i'm trying to lose not increase my size!

cutting the potatoes almost all the way down without cutting through took some practice but i got there in the end.  notice some of them have their ends sliced off, it was the first slices that proved most difficult to do!  i tried to put the garlic into the slots, but ended up dicing it finely and putting it on top after the disaster (see pic below) of trying to insert broke the potato in half!  i perhaps could have been more delicate with this process but leaving for hockey was getting closer and i figured the garlic might slip into the slots as they baked and opened.

the breakage as a result of my inability to
be patient when inserting garlic

the less than inserted garlic now diced instead of sliced.

these all disappeared off the kids plates before anything
else ... they do have a chip type appeal to them, but oh
so much better and far more healthier!

outcome:  yummo ... ok given the option, these would come out far more crunchy with butter knobs on top i suspect ... however, as a healthier option these were seriously good.  the garlic slipped off into the bottom of the dish as opposed to into my potato cuts ... stink :( so my garlicky potatoes weren't as garlic soaked as i had hoped ... lesson learnt, spend more time and care inserting garlic next time.  still these hasselback potatoes are damn fine!

my thanks to angie from sea salt with food blog ... the recipe is a winner and i thought it was better than having french fries!  if you are after some delicious recipes, especially malaysian cuisine angie's blog is a great place to start :)

day ninety four: paper flowers from circles

paper flowers from circles, one used on a
christmas card

day ninety four and it feels like winter is back today ... so a good time for indoor creations.  today's inspiration comes from the whimsical world of laura bird blog and its her gorgeous paper flowers.  these were pinned to my paper crafts board on pinterest.  there were a couple of other tutorials for making these flowers on pinterest but after looking at the finished products and the different tutorials, i thought laura's final product looked the nicest and her tutorial was the easiest to understand!

what you need, paper and a way to cut out some circles,
if you don't have a cutter just trace around something
round that has a diameter about 1.5-2"

i thought i would make a start on my christmas cards with these flowers and i had some pretty graphic 45 christmas paper i have been itching to use. i used a 1.5" circle to make my flowers and a 2.5" circle for the base to place them on.  definitely used laura's idea of placing the first petals at north, south, east, and then west as it makes spacing them so much easier and you can get a nice tight placement of the petals.

the folding of the petals (i inked the edges of my circles
because i didn't want the white showing with the vintage
style graphics of the paper 

placing the petals on the circle base

the finished flower minus a centre

the finished flower with a centre, this one
is a brad but buttons would work just as
well on these really neat flowers

outcome:  laura's tutorial was brilliant from the folding to the placing, she gives you all the tips and tricks you need to make these beautiful flowers ... it's like doing origami without all the hard intricate folds!  once you are into the swing of folding the petals they actually don't take too much time once you have your circles cut, and if you have a circle cutter even that's not painful!  i loved the christmas card i made with the first one and think i will also add these cute little paper flowers to some of my presents as well!

my thanks to laura from whimsical world of laura bird for the really well put together tutorial for these paper flowers.  as i said earlier, i looked at a number of tutorials for these flowers but this was by far the easiest to understand and she even had great suggestions on how to put the flower together!

day ninety three: appliqué onto a t-shirt

appliquéd t-shirt

day ninety three and pollyanna and i are off to see france play japan this afternoon in the rugby world cup :)  SO excited and polly has been bouncing off the walls ready to go and support her second team france!  i figured we needed to dress for the occasion and thanks to this wonderful 20 minute crafters tutorial from a little bit funky we can!  this was pinned to my general crafts board on pinterest.

i am going to attempt to applique a french flag onto the front of polly's t shirt! i used the freezer paper trick i did on day twenty eight to print on fabric a design i made using clipart.  once the design was printed i used the applique tutorial to attach it to her t shirt ....  you use heat'n'bond or similar to attach your design and then zigziag around the edge to finish it!

the design printed on fabric

iron on the bonding web and place on the t-shirt, then iron
again :)

zigzag around the outside :)

outcome:  THIS IS SO COOL ... i can make some cool t shirts for all sorts of occasions now!  it was super easy and the nice thing was you didn't need any special tools, just freezer paper and some bonding web. it took about 30 minutes from opening clipart to the finished product ... polly and i are now ready to go and support france as they do battle against japan in today's match!

mon petit supporter français prêt à aller!
[my little french supporter ready to go!]

thanks so much to little bit funky for their awesome crafting tutorials ... i am their newest follower because ... i mean really .... who doesn't need to know how to craft in 20 minutes!

day ninety two: cupcakes for the start of the rugby world cup :)

rugby cupcakes :)

day ninety two and the start of the rugby world cup is FINALLY here!  all the flags are going up and people are really starting to get excited.  i thought a day like today deserved some party food and these football cupcakes from about.com looked perfect!  they are pinned to my party ideas board on pinterest.

we have slighty different goal posts than american football (ours look like this H) but apart from that i figured with some scorched almonds for rugby balls these would work well!  i baked up my favourite cupcake recipe  in wrappers and once they had cooled i set to work with my rugby pitches!

rugby ball ingredients

the procedure .... :)

instead of green icing i used a white butter cream icing and then pushed the icing into some green coloured coconut on top for grass.  i always dye my coconut in a ziplock bag so there's no mess!   i then used a ready made white chocolate icing pen to put some stitches on the scorched almond rugby balls.

tonight's half-time feast!

outcome:  the flags are up, the cupcakes are made and i am buzzing and completely excited for tonight's opening ceremony and the first game!  it is tradition in our house to have traditional foods from the host country for dinner, as new zealand is the host it was pretty easy .... and we went with the REALLY easy option of fish and chips with kiwifruit pavlova for dessert!  these cupcakes will be perfect for half time in the rugby and the response from the kids was great ... and you know what, i was pretty proud of them as well!

my thanks to about.com, this site always has what you are looking for even when you don't know it!  i often use their worksheets for my kids and now i know they also have fantastic party ideas!

if you want some quick easy printables for the kids to do during the rugby world cup head to activity village for some great inspiration and there is plenty more on the official RWC website :)