It is crunch time for me. The end of the month is one sleepy away, and I still have lots of challenges to finish!! So a quick recap of where I am as of this morning:

1) Get something for free.

This went excellent!! Got free rosebush, free lemon tree, free Bougainvillea cuttings, free Lavender plant, free Acacias.

2) Lose 3 kg - shame, I tried but sadly failed. Luckily the 3kg is not going anywhere, so it is available for me to loose next month.

3) Knit a scarf - Done - photo evidence to follow

4) Make 1 outfit for myself - this must be done by tomorrow night, I am halfway there.

5) Finish a needle project - just about finished - another one for the weekend

6) Recycle something - not even started - I do not think I am going to sleep tonight as I need to finish this one also before Sunday

7) Upcycle a piece of furniture - Yippppeeeee - before I feel like a total failure, this one is done and ticked. Sure - not a masterpiece but at least some effort into a ugly little drawer unit to make it even more ugly!!

After looks a bit worse than before!

From this

8) Fix something broken - not successful. Have handed in a broken radio - but no joy in getting it back yet

9) Get rid of something - success, during the pantry exercise I got rid of a lot (except the bloody 3 kg of challenge 2)

10) Read one story book - Done. A horror called "the piper"

11) Read one book for development - Done. It is called FOOK IT!, and has led to me developing (I did read it for development) a real nice FOOK IT attitude. Has made a big difference in how I act and re-act to stuff. Please try this book - it works!!

12) Bake a Cake Chapter from "Baked and Delicious". DONE!!! I baked/maked 7 different cakes, even a Baked Alaska, and I can now confirm that you can bake Ice-Cream in a very hot oven without it melting all over the inside of your oven.

This was the achievement of the month!!! And some of the reasons why I did not lose the 3kg. The Parmesan Chili hearts should come with a warning - they are completely addictive

Parmesan Chili hearts from the book                         Parmesan Chili and black salt hearts from the Hunts

And then the least exciting bake in the volume was the poppy seed cookies. This challenge posed a bigger challenge - since all the poppy seed in SA is being used to snort by drug addicts, I could not find a single bottle of poppy seed anywhere. Not in the biggest P&P, not in the smartest Woolies food store, not anywhere!! So I innovates and used some pecan nuts instead of poppy seed. By this time of the challenge I could not care less.

And lastly - the ever-popular Pecan Pie. I bartered with the neighbour, she gave me free Pecans and I baked her a pie. And one for my new acquaintance, and one for my family. I had to take the picture quickly, as it disappeared faster than a pe-can in a pe-can't stampede

13) Fix one area in my house - DONE, pantry the only perfect room in my house. Wish I could sleep there every night

14) Fix one area in the garden - yet another challenge to complete on Saturday

15) Fix one area on the plot - uh-uh.

16) Complete one frugal activity - DONE, registered for chronic medication with Discovery

17) Keep to my budget - DONE!

18) Do something for somebody - DONE

19) Work/cook my way through "Fyn Kookkuns" volume 2, - DONE. This was a jol. I made 5 different stews, From Irish stew, to Beef Ragout with celery and walnuts, to Lamb Navarin, to Paprika Goulash. And then the section on vegetable was my favourite activity. Just to make one vegetable dish "Gordon Blue" style creates a kitchen full of dishes, utensils worthy of a 12-course meal. They make you pull the whole vegetable apart, then force you to put ti all together again. Just to make a Filled Cabbage can take up to 3 hours. These girls who wrote the book had too much time on their hands - but the results are worth it. Cabbage, cauliflower and Spinach have never looked so shit but tasted so amazing

 ALL of these dishes to just make a cauliflower with cheese 

 Outside and inside of filled cabbage with home-made tomato sauce. (told you it looks shit but taste fantastic!!)

 






20) Have one dinner party - this is happening tomorrow (with my new acquaintance)

21) Do one herbal focus - DONE, Lavendered out

22) Prepare for 1 long-term goal - DONE! Have secured one additional income stream for when I retire

23) Do 1 step towards short-term goal - DONE, consolidated every last bit of debt, planned payment schedule to ensure they are all paid off by end 2016, and communicated to all the lucky recipients of my hard-earned money on how I plan to pay them

24) Declutter one area of my house - DONE with my pantry project

25) Organise one area in my house - DONE - pantry project again

26) Knit one cushion. NOOOOOOoooooo - this is a HUGE challenge and the second one I know I will not achieve. I have even tried to knit in traffic (promise I only do it when the car stands still) - but no chance of completing it this month.

27) Knit one toy - DONE!! Meet "Meneer Boontjie" aka Mr. Bean

28) Save for my wishlist - DONE!! R500 in R20 notes towards my big-screen TV, R300 in R10 notes towards a personal laptop, and R150 in R5 coins towards a very expensive imported bra.

29) Make one new acquaintance - DONE!

30) Reconnect with an old friend - Done!! Dina, I love and adore you - thanks for not trowing me away due my anti-social and friend-neglect phase

So wish me luck for the weekend (or Saturday to be precise - let see if I can cram it and finish or complete the last 6 challenges) This statement is not valid for the fat, knitted cushion and broken thing challenges!! 

Lovies

Lizette