A great Method

Has everyone been enjoying this fabulous weather in the North West? It is proper Summer, brilliant! 

I have been spending quite some time at the allotment, weeding and picking the fruits of my labour in particular. I have been coming home with potatoes, onions, strawberries, raspberries, black currants, radishes, parsley and lots of rhubarb to make delicious Summer meals. 

All is growing nicely, the sprouts and beetroot that I grew from seeds at home were looking a bit limp to start with but are doing really well and all the nice plug plants that I got with Grow Your Own Magazine are doing very well. Thanks to a great supplier! 

I thoroughly agree with those that say growing your own makes you happier. It is incredibly fulfilling and rewarding to spend all that time outside in the fresh air, seeing how things develop in nature and to enjoy it later on your plate. Growing my own makes me try even more new things and I also feel a lot happier at home, making sure that all is tidy and looking welcoming with flower arrangements where possible. 

The other day I was given a beautiful bunch of flowers by the lovely Mr G and although I kept the curtains in the lounge closed during the day, after about 10 days some of the flowers just couldn't cope. Those that were still nice I put in a vase with flowers from my own garden, I am quite pleased with this country bouquet. The minimalist ones in the slim glass vase are looking quite stunning too. They are the flowers from the onions that were going mental. Not sure why some of these onions developed these lovely long flowers and others didn't but when I have a Google moment I shall find out. 

To help me make my home even nicer, the lovely people at Method sent me a couple of things to try out. Knowing that I've got very dirty hands and a rather messy entrance hall and kitchen when returning from the allotment, they sent me a nice hand wash, floor cleaner, all purpose cleaner and laundry liquid. I am a keen fan of natural cleaning products and for the last 10 years or so have been a huge fan of Ecover. I think I have a new favourite. The Method products look stunning (apologies for the photo, I did have a really nice one but due to the Apple ios 6.1.3 update my phone has been messed up and the not so nice people at Apple who are supposed to give a two year warranty on products are not replacing it!)

Anyway, the packaging of all products is stunning and they smell just gorgeous. I have tried the pink grapefruit hand wash and once that is finished I will buy this straight away again. Even the little ones and their friends love it. And best of all it only squirts just enough rather than a lot.

The floor cleaner again is in a beautiful bottle, I just love the minimalist design and it is very easy to use. The lemon and ginger smell is so natural; I like it as much as my usual Ecover floor cleaner. I know they are different brands but I believe Method was bought by Ecover so the compliments stay in the family so to speak.

The laundry liquid has a beautiful smell too and is also very easy to use, the squirt system is so much cleaner to use than the usual pouring system. Drips on bottles always annoy me. And as for the multi surface cleaner with the gorgeous French lavender smell, well I have not stopped using this in the last couple of days. It really encourages me to clean every surface in the house on a daily basis.

FLY and be Green

My intention was to create a basket full of brooches today but I got side tracked and realised I was a SHE (sidetracked home executive). In order to put me on track I have recently signed up on the flylady.net site. It is just brilliant! As the monkeys are helping me by pleasing the Housefairy I needed to do something myself and although some people think I was born organised it is more like organised chaos in my life. OK moving house 4 times in 5 years didn't help and having too many projects on the go doesn't make it any easier but still that shouldn't be an excuse. 

If you like being told what to do then FLYlady is fabulous. I now get daily emails to remind me what I should be doing, such as clearing out the plastic tub cabinet (don't we all have one with lids that do not match the pots?), or decluttering your hotspots for no more than 10 minutes. FLYlady believes we shouldn't spend more than 15 minutes a day doing housework and if I understand her correctly one hour of power cleaning a week. I am now getting in the habit of setting my alarm for 15 minutes every morning and it is unbelievable how much I can get done in that time. After I drop of the monkeys at school, I make myself a coffee (I never start the day without, it's the one unhealthy habit that I could not ever give up), catch up on the news, set my alarm and tackle one room. I can then start crafting without feeling guilty. I try to do 15 minutes at the end of the afternoon as well though, I am obviously still a FLYbaby. For those of you who had children and didn't like GIna Ford's method, you might not be too keen to become a FLYlady but if you're anything like me and raised kids with Gina's book in your hand, this could be a saviour.

As I got into this home organising thing today I got myself Ecoballs and Dryer Balls, and printed off some information to teach the monkeys a bit more about the environment. I love being green and wish more would be done to save our planet. Having grown up in Holland I was used to recycling and it came as a shock when I moved to London some 15 years ago that there wasn't a paper or bottle bank in sight. In the village I lived as a child paper was always recycled (and I am talking nearly 40 years ago if not more), plastic and glass bottles had a deposit on them and well, tins we used to keep to make stilts, containers for keep sakes etc. Dad hardly ever threw anything out that he could re-use. He still keeps a lot, his shed is hilarious. 

Meanwhile I have thought of a little green project I can do with the monkeys after school tomorrow: we can sow love heart or teddy bear cress figures. That should keep them entertained for a week or two. The holidays are coming up and my list of things to do is getting endless, could we please take the rest of the year off?