Nightwolf's Den

From the Den Kitchen–Me & my Thermo

Yup, we finally got one. Last Saturday our new Thermomix arrived and both hubby & I have been cooking up a storm in it.

Thanks to Belinda, our lovely Thermo consultant, we had a delicious demo meal with some friends & family – sorbet, dip, soup, rolls, a chicken dish and then custard all in 2 hours. If you get the chance – go to a Thermo demo – you won’t be disappointed 😉

We’ve made Anzacs, scrambled eggs, orange juice, not tinned spaghetti, silverside & mustard sauce, more Anzacs, honey joys, Profiteroles, Chicken & corn soup AND a sponge cake! I’m currently making a cheese, bacon & garlic pull apart and tomorrow the plan is to make some vanilla essence (& vanilla ben paste), Scottish tablet (fudge) and maybe try making my own condensed milk.

Do you own a Thermomix? Do you want one? Not fussed?
If you do – favourite recipes?? or blogs – always looking for new blogs 😉

It’s that time again….

It seems to sneak up on us every year. Christmas. It’s 100 days away (well 99 in Australia but I’m a day late posting this). Can you believe it!!

I’m trying something a little different this year and will be following along with 100 days to Christmas. There are a few ways you can play along – follow the blog, sign up for the daily emails or buy the eBook and work at your own pace. Me? I’ll be following along on the blog.

Now off to start creating the Christmas section in my diary 😉

Beat the price rise

Disclaimer – all links are affiliate

So I share about Leonie Dawson’s Amazing business & Life academy a bit and I thought I’d give you a quick heads up that if you want to join, now is the time. Prices will be going up from $199 to $497 on 1 October.

If you join now you’re locked in at the current price as long as you keep your membership going. That’s right – if you’re already a member, you’ll be able to keep your membership price for the lifetime of your membership.

And Leonie is the best because as well as the one off payment she also offers a payment plan (it’s how I pay – spreads the cost over a couple of months)

By joining the academy you get access to all the awesome ecourses, meditations and both the business and life versions of the 2014 Create Your Amazing Year workbook, planner + calendar

Selfies

I hate having my photo taken. I’m nearly always the one behind the camera. And then a post by Tina really struck a chord with me and then a few days later she started the #tgdmselfieaday idea. Posting a selfie everyday in August.

I’ll let Tina explain it herself….

“I started a little hashtag
called #tgdmselfieaday
I thought I would be on my own
But my interweb friends came to play.
It all began with Mrs Woog
who wanted to know why women were bitches
And then this post on TGDM
because my fingers got the twitches.

In no time at all
and with no delays
we now have over 200 selfies
taken over the August days.

Seeing the faces of interweb friends
is one I think is fun
And if I’ve helped someone pop their selfie cherry
my job here is done.”

I managed to do a selfie every day in August except for 2, which I thought was pretty good actually. Think I’m inspired to do them more often. Thanks Tina, you’ve created a selfie monster LOL

Oh August where have you gone?

Well here we are, the end of August.

The grand plans to use the Xbox more never happened. By the time Miss K had gone to bed and finally went to sleep neither hubby or I could be bothered. Yup lazy 😉

I’m still doing the AH Beard Sleep Challenge. So far, so good.

I have been taking time on Saturdays to be more spiritual. The Creative Goddess course lasted a week but I do have a plan for an awesome Goddess canvas. I just need to get motivated to finish it. I started the Goddess Haven e-course in the last week of the month so will continue it into September.

I have been keeping up with the artist date with myself on Sundays. Loving having quiet time to scrapbook or read or art journal. I’ve even spent some time creating during the day & Miss K loves spending time with her craft box and crafting with mum.

Oh I also took part in the #tgdmselfieaday but that’s another post.

Next month’s plans?

Two classes at Big Picture Classes – Project Life Lessons and Big Ideas Festival – Celebrate your childhood memories in 30 prompted lists (this one is FREE). 30 Days of Lists. Continuing the Goddess Haven e-course. Hopefully playing with our new camera – finally buying a dslr!

What’s your plans?

Creating a glorious haven in your home

Disclaimer: All links are affiliate.

So most will know I am a HUGE fan of Leonie Dawson (aka Goddess Leonie) and her Amazing Biz and Life Academy. I found out about the site after hearing about the amazing Create Your Incredible Year Calendar & Workbook and finally joined at the end of 2011. I love it. Love I have access to an amazing group of wonderful women. Love I have access to amazing e-courses and it’s one of these e-courses I’m blogging about today – Create your Goddess Haven.

Leonie describes the Goddess Haven e-course as

A six-week adventure for when you’re wanting & needing & craving a space that is a true haven for your the Goddess in You! You’ll use space clearing techniques to make your space’s energy sparkle. You’ll learn how to divinely declutter. You’ll dive into inspired interior design. You’ll be empowered with all of the wisdom, tools & techniques you need to make your space feel & look amazing to you. And you’ll end up with a home that is a sanctuary just for you.

I started my adventure earlier this week and decided to blog about it as I go.

The three main things I want to have changed at the end of the six weeks are

Our bedroom. It’s a dumping ground at the moment, I want it to be a sanctuary for me & hubby.
The sunroom/Miss K’s playroom. Another dumping ground and a total mess.
Keeping the stuff in our lounge to a minimum.

I’ll blog a bit more when I’ve finished week one.

Shhh someone’s sleeping

We’ve half way though the AH Beard 6 week sleep challenge and my sleep has been good then all over the show.

Week 2 was all about cutting out the caffeine near bedtime. Pretty easy for me. Don’t drink coffee and I try not to drink coke near bedtime as I always end up feeling bloated and blah. Slept fairly well this week.

Week 3 was about gadgets. Keeping phones, TVs and computers out of the bedroom & not using them within 30 minutes of bedtime. I fail this one big time. My phone lives beside my bed. The charger lives beside the bed. And I’m usually reading books on my iPad when I get into bed as my wind down. We also have a TV in our room but it’s hardly ever on and I’ve have started making sure it’s not turned on at the power now before I go to bed.
We had a bit of a crappy week this week too. Miss K got tonsillitis and Thursday night I spent the night stressing over stuff. Sleep was not good. I feel tired & yuck.

Overall though, apart from the last few days, I’m finding my sleep is slowly improving 🙂 Looking forward to the next 3 weeks!

From the Den

Disclosure: I was given product or vouchers to trial the following products. All opinions are my own.

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared what we’ve been checking out so it’s a bit of a mish mash list

Table of plenty Hot or Cold Muesli

I’m a bit of fan of the Table of Plenty Nono’s bars and mini rice cakes (especially the Triple Berry ones) so when asked if I’d like to try Hot or Cold Muesli I said yes, especially with winter coming up (at the time). We’ve tried it hot and it is rather yum. It’s oats with honey and cinnamon sprinkled with pepitas and sultanas. Sweet but not over sweet. Miss K did pick out the pepitas though. Look forward to trying it out cold over summer with some yoghurt and fresh berries.
RRP $5.99 for 350g box (eight 45g sachets).

Maggie Stir Fry Creations

Thanks to Kidspot we got the opportunity to try two of the Maggi Stir Fry Creations. Interesting idea. Your packet is an infusion paste that you marinade your meat in and a finishing sauce. The Honey, Soy & Garlic was pretty tasty. All in all, pretty easy to use and pretty quick.

Wemo

The lovely people at Belkin sent me one of their (relatively) new WeMo Switch. Oh how I love this little product. So what is WeMo?

You have the WeMo app on your phone and you plug your device into the WeMo switch. Then you can switch your device on or off from pretty much anywhere. We weren’t too sure where we’d use it but have plugged in a lamp in the lounge room.
You can set up schedules – for example we’ve got our lamp to come on at 5pm. You can control your devices pretty much anywhere you have access to wifi or 3g (yet to try this bit ourselves though). I know we’ll be purchasing a few more, maybe even investing in a WeMo motion (it turns devices of your choice on or off as soon as movement is detected) and I really can’t wait til the WeMo light switch (currently only available in the US) arrives in Australia (October from what I’ve read).
WeMo Switch RRP $60 and available from Officeworks, Harvey Norman and Dick Smith (check your local store for availability)

Sleep soundly? yes please

I read about the A.H. Beard sleep challenge over on Fat Mum Slim’s blog a few weeks ago and at the time wasn’t sleeping well. To tell the truth I haven’t been sleeping well since… before Miss K was born really.

The pre challenge was to find out what type of sleeper you were. Me? Eventual Sleeper. Can take me AGES to go to sleep of a night.

Anywho, last Monday was the first day of the challenge and Week 1 was all about creating a sleep sanctuary.

I was interested to read about the effect of noise on sleeping. I often go to sleep listening to music or one of many relaxation apps I own (SleepStream 2 is great for that). I really struggle to sleep in total silence. I really, really struggle when I stay at my parents cause it is REALLY quite

I knew light could disrupt your sleep and I tend to wake as soon as light enters our room. I prefer to sleep in a totally dark room. This week I made sure our TV & the stereo was turned off at the power point before we went to sleep. I can’t see hubby’s alarm clock (which we never use now cause of our phones) and half the time he’s thrown clothes over it. Must say turning off these appliances did make a difference.

I checked the temperature in our room and it is around 18°C. Did have a giggle about wearing nothing to bed. Haven’t done that since before Miss K. Sleeping nude isn’t an option when you have a little one who likes to join you in bed of a morning, well in our house anyway. Do find I sleep better when wearing lighter sleepwear though.

Finally I know we need to replace our pillows. They are over 6 years old and pretty yuck. Must get onto that. Our mattress is still pretty new and damn comfy. So pillows are on the shopping list.

Looking forward to seeing what this week’s challenge brings.

So many plans

I’ve got so many plans for the month of August.

Health wise I’m going to get back into doing some exercise. The plan is to start using the Xbox again and work out using both Your Shape: Fitness Evolved & Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012. (plus a little Kinect Sports, Angry Birds & Kinect Star Wars). I’m also going to give the A.H Beard Sleep Challenge a go.

Spiritual wise. Goddess Leonie’s Goddess Haven e-course. I’ll be blogging about it as I go. I’m also giving the Creative Goddess course a go as well. Taking time for my spiritual more every Saturday.

Craft wise – I’m making an ‘artist date’ with myself every Sunday. I might scrapbook. I might art journal. I might just read a photography book or mag but it’ll be something artistic.

So we’ll see how I go with all that. Some I’ll blog about frequently, others not so much.

What plans have you got for August?