Project office re do

Greetings all, after a rather "heavy" post last time, let's lighten the mood. Hi, my name is Mother Bug and I'm OCD about organising :-) Since having lady bug, I've been fortunate to be able to work fom home. This gives me the flexibility to care for Bug but also enables me to work, save $ by not having to send her to day care another day and I believe working from home, I get more done. Yes, believe it! The interruptions of a 15 month old are by far less than I get in the office.

We built our house about 3.5 years ago and planned a built in computer nook off the kitchen area. Initially, this was a great idea but proved completely impractical especially when I was still at uni trying to study while father bug was trying to set the microwave on fire. So we dismantled the cabinetry of the computer nook and it's replacement will feature in a future blog.

Anyway, so the cabinetry cost a bit, so there was no way I was going to waste it. Father bug installed it into the area known on the house plans as the "activity room" however in practice, it is the area to dump stuff you can't be bothered finding a real home for. This made sense as its right outside lady bug's room & play room so I can be down that end of the house, near her but also working away. This spot worked not too bad, for about 5 minutes. The dumping of stuff was still happening, my desk was in the corner so I felt like a pot plant, rammed in the dark corner and sytematically, the "stuff" was invading my personal space as well as my work space. I just felt blergh working in there. The lighting was dreadful and it just had a flat vibe. Then I discovered Pinterest and much suppressed urges of organised prettiness were released with planning craze!

As all families, we are on a tight budget, and given our home is an ever evolving beast, I didn't want to break the budget setting up a work area. I looked everywhere for ideas. Pinterest of course, fellow bloggers, Howard's Storage World etc etc and came to the conclusion there was only one answer, Ikea! We did a bit of a reccy through the store after perusing the catalogue and mulling over multiple options and decided the Besta range suited our needs. I was then unleashed at the big blue place, credit card in hand, lady bug free and driving the big 4wd, so there were no limits to the damage I could unleash! I'd made a list of the key items and figured the prettying up of the space would happen on another day. So here is what I got:

Qty	Item	Unit Cost	Total
1	Besta 60x40x38 Shelf Unit	$  65.00	$   65.00
1	Vassbo door 60x38	$  40.00	$   40.00
1	Besta 120x40x38 Shelf Unit	$ 105.00	$ 105.00
2	Vassbo door 60x38	$  40.00	$   80.00
1	Besta 60x40x192 Shelf Unit	$ 155.00	$ 155.00
1	Vassbo door 60x192	$ 125.00	$ 125.00
1	Spontan Magnetic Board	$  19.95	$   19.95
1	Spontan Magazine Rack	$  19.95	$   19.95
1	Rationell Variera Shelf	$    7.95	$    7.95
3	Asker Cultery Pots	$    9.95	$   29.85
1	Grundtal Rail	$    9.95	$    9.95
1	Grundtal Magnetic Containers	$    9.95	$    9.95
2	Grundtal Contertop Lighting	$  65.00	$ 130.00
	Total		$ 797.60

So a trip to Ikea, a couple of days of assembly by father bug and it was complete. It has completely outdone my expectations and now it's time to "pretty" it up!

What do you reckon?  It looks great doesn't it?  It is such a wonderful space to work in now.  Plenty of light, organised and a really "zen" vibe about it.  I am in love with it! 

Stay tuned for more updates on how I progress with the "prettying" up.

Mother Bug xxx

And the reason is me....

Yes, I know, there's been quite a few days gap between posts. Not that anyone is reading this. I guess after my first post I was a bit blergh about what, why, how etc. Yes, I totally overanalyse things and I did with the concept of blogging. I've since had a think about what I want to achieve out of this and have concluded that blogging is the 21 century version of keeping a journal. So this will be my journal, my debrief and download. I will over the next god knows how many blogs, will give an insight into how and why I got to where I am now. I hope that by writing it here, it will help me to process it all and move on from it. So, my stats. I am 32, married, have a 15 month old girl aka the little ladybug, 2 slightly demented ragdoll cats an a partridge in a pear tree. I live in the southern suburbs of Perth WA. I work full time in the field of OHS and have done for the past 10 or so years. I've done fly in fly out, residential and corporate based work. I think I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. I think I have undiagnosed OCD, I'm bloody stubborn, I'm extremely loyal of "my people", my family are the centre I my life, I love my footy team, and slowly but surely, I'm learning to love myself. In recent years, my battles with my demons have come to a head, manfesting into full blown post natal depression and I guess, this blog is going to form part of the healing and rebuilding phase. I don't think getting PND is who I am and I refuse to allow it to define me, it's just one of the many "things" that makes my life "interesting". So why do I choose the blog my inner most secrets rather than chat with a real friend or a real family member? I ask myself the same question. Now I'm starting to come out of the "dark" and reflect, I think it's really about the fact that I just don't have faith in them at the moment to help me on my journey. Yes, my hubby knows, he's lived it every day, he's a good man who has been such a pillar of support. I think it's really because I'm lonely. I find myself spending way to much time on Facebook, reading blogs etc because I crave adult conversation with people with similar experiences and my family are the "she'll be right, toughen up princess" type people and I think this hasn't helped my cause. I think they just lack understanding and don't really like talking emotions, feelings, the warm fuzzy stuff. I'm a bit the same but that's probably why things got so "dark". The real breakthrough for me, was rocking along to my first mothers group meeting and befriending a very crazy kiwi chick that was in the same "dak" place. Yes, I was loosing my mind, but so was she and it was really refreshing to know that perhaps I was "normal"? I have been very open about my challenges, perhaps subconsciously because it's a shout out for help but the shout was never answered. Maybe I am to blame for some of this because I'm told I always have this outer air of confidence. Even the midwives in hospital left me alone thinking I'd done this baby thing a few times before. So my promise to all from now on, is o be more forthcoming with where I'm at, writing this blog will help highlight when I am and when I'm not doing so well. I will actively sek out help, I will reveal more of myself and showing emotion is not a sign of weakness, is a sign of strength. I just have to keep reminding myself of this! Well, this is a rambled thoughts blog today but this zipping here and there is how my brain works, yet another reason to blog. To get things down on paper so to speak, to help me get thoughts into some assemblance of order, to download so when I sign off forth day, I can leave theses thoughts behind ad completed. Till next time, Mother Bug xxx

Anzac Cake Recipe

I am officially a blogger!  I'm not 100% sure what this will end up as, but for now, it will be a place I can file thoughts/ideas/rambles to perhaps download my brain a little.  I'm thinking perhaps, a place for me to store recipes, ideas, tips and tricks that I'm learning along the way as I navigate the perils of motherhood?  So today, will be a recipe, simply because I do not ever want to loose this one, it is the yummiest cake ever and as I munch away at a slice, I must pay respect to the source, another blogger, "Cooking for the Gang" (great blog, check it out), so thank you for this yummy recipe.  


I did tweak it slightly (original has 1/2 cup of coconut, I changed it to 1/4 cup oats & 1/4 cup coconut) as we are not massive coconut fans in this household, I have a packet of oats I'm trying to use up, and as a mother of a 14 month old, anyway of sneaking healthy stuff into something that tastes and appears to not be healthy, is always a mission for me!


Anzac Cake
Ingredients
1/2 cup Golden Syrup
125g Butter
2 cups SR Flour, sifted
1/2 cup Caster Sugar
1/4 cup Coconut
1/4 cup Oats 
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup Milk
1. Preheat oven to approx 180 degrees (or 160 degrees for fan forced).

2. Grease & line a cake tin.  I used a square 20x30 silicone cake mold and lined just the base with grease proof paper, but really, whatever shaped "normal" sized tin will do.

3. Combine butter and golden syrup in a saucepan, stir over heat until smooth.  This is what the original recipe says but I'm sure you could combine and zap in the microwave.

4. Combine flour, sugar, coconut and oats in a mixing bowl.

5. Add syrup mixture and mix well.

6. Using electric beaters, gradually beat in combined eggs and milk until the batter is smooth(ish).

7. Pour mix into prepared dish and cook for approx 30 minutes.  My oven cooks super hot and fast so I always put things in for half the time and then check before adding more time if needed.  The cake is cooked if you insert a skewer into the middle and not gooey, uncooked mix is left on the skewer.

8. Cool on a tray for 10 or so mins before turning our on a cooling rack.

Now the original recipe says to cool then ice the cake, well, Miss Bug was trying to pull my leg off and about to crack a full scale tanty telling me she was hungry, so mine didn't make it to the icing stage.  It was crazy yum without it but next time I will ice it as follows:
Icing
60g Butter
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups Icing Sugar
1 tblsp Hot Water

1. Combine butter, honey and vanilla in a bowl.
2. Cream it together until the butter and honey are well mixed.
3. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and hot water until smooth
4. Smooth over cooled cake and sprinkle with shredded coconut.