An Award and An Apology

First an apology - I've been quite ill for over two weeks and had little energy to devote to my new blog so I've been MIA. I've also been dumped by most of my followers. How soberingly sad for me, but I will plod on, I'm determined to get back into it and fulfill my quest to be frugal and cash only in 2012.

Next, I'm delighted, thrilled and honoured to receive the Leibster Blog award from the lovely Claire at The Little Pom. Her blog is FILLED with great recipes, treats and fantastic tips on saving, cooking and living. I'm so pleased to be noticed by her. Please take a swing over to her blog and have a gander - you won't regret it.

The award is for up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. It has a few requirements:

Copy and paste the award on your blog (Check!)

Thank the giver and link back to them (Check!)

Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog

Hope that your Follower will spread the love to other blogs

Choosing has been crazy difficult, but I think I've chosen well. I hope you agree.  If anyone chooses not to accept, I, like Claire from The Little Pom, will not be offended. Instead, I hope your'e honoured as I am.

Okay, here are my choices in no particular order:

Sue, at Smiffy's Blog.  I love this charming blog. She's cute and has great observations about life. She's a terrific writer and the blog is somewhere you can spend an hour reading and searching. Definitely worth a  look.

Mum over at Mum's SImply LIving Blog is another great blog to pore over. She has recipes, thoughts, crafts, and loads of interesting posts to read. The photo with the cats in her bookshelf is worth a trip over! Love Mum!

Jen at A Thrifty Mum. She's also writes as Mum in the Madhouse. She's way famous! Her crafty blog is divine. I've stolen a few ideas off her blog already. If you can, go have a look, she's go great ideas.



Never To Old To Learn From Your Mistakes. I love this blog. She chronicles her everyday life and it's fascinating. Go have a look.

Miss Piggy Bank. I love this blog s well. She has great insights into living frugally and has a great style about her. Again, definitley worth a trip over there.


I could have easily chosen many other blogs and perhaps I will add a few, break the rules and shake it up a bit! But for now, I hope you'll take a look at these bloggers and I hope they are as thrilled as I was to receive the award.

The Quick 1-Hour House Clean

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best housekeeper - not by a long shot. But I do try. We  haven't had a cleaner in the new flat and I thought I'd save myself the cash and do it myself. Hey, I'm willing to try anything.

The flat's not that big, but it's still quite a lot of work. So when I saw this article in Woman's Day Magazine about quick tips and how to clean your house in an hour, I thought, 'This is for me!' The article makes perfect sense and looks simple. I also figured that most of the people reading the magazine in the US have houses at least twice the size of this flat. If they could clean in an hour, then I could do it too.

It separates the house into zones and has time limits:

1. Bedrooms: 10 minutes per bedroom
2. Bathrooms: approx 9 minutes
3. Kitchen: 12 minutes
4: Living room/lounge: 15 minutes

If you do the math for this place that means: 46 minutes to clean the house - then tack on 5 to hoover the hall, 5 to tidy the dressing room/walk in closet). According to this article I should have a clean(ish) house in 56 minutes.

I timed myself in each room and it went like this:

1. Bedrooms: 9 mins for master, 15 for kids
2. Bathroom: 15 minutes
3. Kitchen: 22 minutes
4: Lounge: 24 minutes
5. Hall hoover: 7 minutes
6. Closet hoover/tidy: 6 minutes

 Total: 96 minutes. Either my housekeeping skills need honing, or I need to hire the woman who wrote the article. We all know the answer to that. The problem, I think, is that I notice little things along the way, get distracted and zero-focused on getting that job done (like toothbrushing the bathroom sink fixtures within inches of their lives - they are gleaming now, though) rather than the whole picture.

Whatever the case, I have to say it worked. I'm going to give it another whirl tomorrow to see if I can get the time down. I will keep at it until I get it down to a science. But for now, the house gleams with pristine cleanliness. So nice!