Carrot Cake in My Tea Break...20 Day challenge, week 3

I wasn't planning on posting photos of my cupboards before and after, even though I did take some. They just look a bit boring.  I was OK with that. Until Aunty Anne Marie sent me this...

 (from this week's Kalgoorlie Miner paper)

In re-evaluating the lack of photographic evidence of my cleaning prowess, I have thought it best that I stand and deliver. So, read on for the cleaning challenges that have consumed me this week. And carrot cake in my tea break.

Monday: Clean washing machine. tick. Organise linen cupboard. Tick. OMG you should have seen mountains of towels and sheets as it piled up on a chair. It was taller than me! OK, I know I'm not exactly tall, but it was pretty impressive. I decided that we didn't need 34 pillowcases or 18 towels.  I think I mentioned laundry cupboards in Monday's post. I didn't take photos then, but here is one of how it looks now. Actually I will post them soon. They are still on the camera...

And the fridge. Fridge-a-licious! Wow, if only it still looked that neat and orderly today.  Actually that was last week, but I wasn't feeling the need to share them back then. It is totally clean on the inside and out. I know we have a lot of condiments. I saw a photo of someone else's fridge on their blog. That made me feel better. I have taken to keeping jars of random things in on of the bottom crisper drawers. I make use of my Tupperware Fridgesmart containers. They are fantastic! Carrots keep in those babies for at least a month!! I have taken on board TOH's suggestion to chop up vegies and put them in the containers straight away. This will be so much better in summer with all the strawberries and melons my kids devour.  I think I could do with one or two more...

before

after

before

Unfortunately, in a week it has gone back to something like it was before, which was this..

after

I also re-evaluated my cook books. Again. I'm happy with this collection now.

Tuesday: Dishwasher. tick. Another job I had done partly only a couple of weeks ago. Bathroom vanity. tick. No fancy baskets in there, not particularly exciting.

Wednesday: Cornices. um. Fail. Incomplete. Job not attended to. At all. I have (some) very high ceilings. I'm pretty sure I'd have to put Henry on the top step of a ladder to reach. Henry is my vacuum cleaner. Not our cat. Her name is Abbie. What I should have done is vacuum behind the skirting boards. Ours are not stuck on/nailed on/ fixed to the wall, so for the past 3 days have made an excellent car racing ramp. The boys have LOVED it! But I did notice there was a lot (A LOT) of fluff and cat fur sitting in the little tiny gap between the tiles and the wall. It's still there. There's always tomorrow!

Instead, my helper and I looked at re-organising a kitchen cupboard. Sort of a baking cupboard, but with other random things in it.


Before...

During...

My little helper couldn't keep still if she tried!

After....
I had bought a small stacking shelf in Ikea last week, so finally put it together to use in this cupboard. At the back. You can't really see it but it's perfect for the job.

Thursday: Office. tick. Lucky I did this last week with the 'toy room/craft room/spare room or second living area'. The office is in the front lounge. That was easier than the craft room option. I'm scared of tackling my sewing room, AKA spare room . The bed is beneath a lot of stuff, that doesn't really have a home. A week's notice is good when our family comes to stay.

In the office I did have a go at tidying up the shelves and sorting the boxes on top of the Ikea Expedit 5x5 cube unit that houses our 'study' things. Until not long ago, the 2x4 unit that lays on the floor was up against the wall with another desk attached. We found the desk was really only used to dump stuff. So now the 'dump space' is smaller. The things left are 'to file'. We have a great filing system, which my husband insisted on a few years ago. We did away with the filing drawers and now use a myriad of named and numbered lever arch files. This does take a little longer to file things, but it is much easier to find something when you really need it.

Home office

Bookcase storage next to office desk

 In between Thursdays jobs, we made carrot cake. Keegan's favourite cake would undoubtedly be carrot cake, only for what he calls the 'carrot icing'. After buying carrot cake last week for a last minute afternoon tea play date, he asked for the left over cake when we were visiting them again a few days later. I'm afraid there was none left. Fortunately when a couple of my girlfriends came over for dinner on the weekend, one of them made carrot cake for dessert. Thank you Tarah!!  Saved!...

...so I thought, but it was not to be. Keegan still wanted to help me make one, so by Thursday I had relented (plus the left over of Tarah's was well and truly gone). Unfortunately I didn't have much in the way of cream cheese...just one tiny tub left from one of those 4 individual tubs that you snap apart. You know the ones.

I baked it in the Tupperware Kugelhopf  Form, which always gives a nice evenly baked cake (no sticky middle) and works wonders for slicing up even sized pieces of cake.

We only iced the pieces we ate, until we shopped for more cream cheese. 

I bought this teacup after the last Florence + the Machine concert in Perth. I wonder if Florence would like some carrot cake with a cup of tea...?

My very close, but far away, friend Belinda and I have a thing about having a cup of tea together, so this one is a cup of tea for you Bel... Except that it went cold while I was taking photos. I'll have to get a bit quicker at that bit.

I'd like to say, so there. See, I did do some cleaning, decluttering and organising. I've also been working out how to use Photoshop and Picasa. Which is why there are two watermarks on some photos. Hmmm. All these things to learn. So, photo overload today, but I hope you enjoyed the screen show anyway!