Cyclone Nylex Never Kink Hoses - Garden + Pet Friendly!

Lexi absolutely hates bath time, as soon as I go near the hose she bolts into the backyard and we have to go and find her, pick her up, carry her back and look at her little sad face which pleads ....

Why can't I stay stinky and covered in dirt!

I think her fear comes from all the times I've turned on the garden hose and it madly flips around on the ground out of control while I scream and shout and try to grab it, wetting everyone in the process - Lexi and myself included!

Don't worry - Lexi got her own back, that hose now has teeth marks in it after it became yet another chew toy!

But I may have found a solution to bath time with this
kink and pressure resistant hose!

Most of you will have heard of Cyclone gardening products who have 100 years of history in the garden sheds of Australia. Not only do they have a huge selection of gardening products they have also come up with a very clever solution for out of control garden hoses with a range of Nylex Kinkaway and Never Kink Hoses.

The hoses come in a few different types and sizes - I tried the Nylex Never Kink Pro Garden Hose. It has the biggest 5000 kpa burst pressure rating, that's a heck of a lot of water I can't believe the hose won't kink or twist under that kind of pressure! It also has a 25 year warranty which is pretty impressive against the harsh outdoor elements.

We put the no kink hose to the test - laid the hose out and turned the water on full pressure - we willed it to flip around and wet us but it laid on the ground as innocent as can be, the hose didn't move a bit.

The hose didn't kink or twist up either which is usually so annoying, you get all the way around the side of the house to water something .... and no water comes out because it's kinked up! 

Being 30 metres long this hose is pretty heavy to pull along so we fed the hose around a hose reel we already had, attached the hose to the reel and turned the tap on and we were ready to use it.

Our new improved mobile dog wash ready for action ....

Here's hoping that Lexi may start to believe the scary hose is not out to get her and bath time can be fun.

We used the hose with a Nylex trigger gun which had a few different speeds and the lowest setting was a gentle spray of water and perfect for washing Lexi.

Whilst Lexi may not look too impressed, trust me it was a very soft flow of water and much easier than the bucket of water we usually use to wash her.

We also tried out the Nylex Automatic Hose Reel which stores a 20 mtr hose, you attach the reel to the wall, connect to the tap, and then pull the hose out when you need to use it and when finished it retracts back into the holder.

This not only stops the unruly out of control hose but is perfect for us because Lexi chews anything we leave laying around outside including our hoses - but she won't be able to get her teeth into this one because it's protected.

This hose will remain intact long after Lexi has grown out of her chewing stage (if she ever grows out of the chewing stage!)

We installed the hose reel to a pillar in the courtyard next to the tap.

All we needed was a few screws, plugs, drill and a level and we fit the reel holder and then the reel  just slides over the top.

The hose already comes with tap fittings and a spray handle so once we connected the hose to the tap we were good to go.

It's bath time again Lexi .... just joking!

Now we can just pull the hose and go, there's no need to worry about the hose bursting off the tap fittings, or the hose getting tangled in knots, or more importantly for us Lexi chewing it!

I love that it's easy to store and tucks away neatly as well, it's a perfection addition to our courtyard.

Now that we have the water sorted this courtyard is in need of some landscaping, plants and lawn .... stay tuned for more kerb appeal and courtyard updates coming soon!

Sharing with link parties:
Curly Crafty Mom - Motivational Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Disclosure: Many thanks to Cyclone for providing me with these products for review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[All images my own]


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Book Review and Preview: Kitchens Of The Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal

This is a book review and sneak preview of Kitchens Of The Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal that is due to be published by Hachette Australia on 28 July 2015

Ryan was born in Minnesota and now lives in Los Angeles. Ryan has written shorter writings before but this is his very first novel. He likes books, wine, sports, root beer and peas!

This is a brilliant and original story told through various characters about the life of Eva Thorvald who becomes a world famous chef.

The story starts with Eva as a baby, her mother abandons her, and her father dies suddenly. Eva is cared for by family and lives simply, but all the time her love and talent for food and taste develops and grows.

Each chapter is told by a character in Eva's life over the course of about 30 years - from a friend in school to her boyfriend's brother to a country baker. You really get into that person's life and then the next chapter starts and the story is told by someone else. Everyone shared their perception of Eva from a distance and some loved her while others envied her.

I have come to realise that I love books about food! The wine connoisseurs lifestyle, kitchen and restaurant workers tit bits, and recipes scattered throughout the book added another dimension to this read and I really enjoyed those parts.

Overall I adored this book, it was modern and upbeat, brilliantly written and funny. Such a unique topic too and I think this book will be very popular with food lovers.

I recommend this book to lovers of adult fiction and foodies!

I give this book 5 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up the last tim tam for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Kitchens Of The Great Midwest can be purchased direct from the author here or Hachette Australia

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

You can visit the author's website here

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Hachette Australia to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[Image via Hachette]

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Organising The Garage: With Wall Rails + Hooks

As part of our subdivision plans we need to remove our Granny Flat so earlier this year we moved everything out of storage of the Granny Flat and into the garage.

Now we need to organise all that stuff and store it properly ..... a place for everything and everything in it's place!

We started to get organised over the Easter break and assembled two of these heavy duty shelving units along one wall for our camping gear, paint and renovating supplies etc.

The shelving units are perfect for the garage and fit a heap of stuff but we still needed a storage solution for our gardening tools, mops and brooms etc.

We found the StorEase system from Bunnings would suit us best - it has wall rails and different types of hooks and baskets that clip on depending on what you need to hang.

We installed the wall rails on the wall opposite the shelving units so that all the items are stored in one area which leaves all the other walls and garage space free for the cars.

We used 4 wall rails in total - 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom and we joined them up so they look like one long rack. 

Using a level to make sure the rails were straight, Mr P drilled a few holes into the rendered walls, added plugs and then screwed the rails in.

Now for the hooks, this is a really clever set up as you can buy different size and shaped hooks depending on what you want to hang - there are hooks for everything from bikes to fishing rods.

We stuck with the double hooks as they are perfect for the gardening tools and the hooks are big enough that you can hang multiple things on each hook too.

The hooks just slide onto the rail and you can move them around so they fit around other things that are hung.

We fit 4 hooks on each rail but there's room for more - we got 10 hooks to start with and then went back and got 6 more so we used a total of 16 hooks in the end.

As for the cost - the racks were $26 each ($104) and the hooks $10.40 each ($166.40) and so we spent $270 all up.

It was money well spent to have everything neat and tidy and easy to access when we need it.

Best of all everything is now off the floor and out of the way, now I can walk into the garage without having to worry about stepping over everything and knocking things over!

That's another weekend DIY project ticked off the to do list!

How do you keep your garage organised? 

Sharing with link parties:
Curly Crafty Mom - Motivational Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday



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Book Club Book Review: Useful By Debra Oswald

It was my turn to pick the book for book club for the month of July and I chose Useful by Debra Oswald

Debra Oswald is a writer for stage, television and fiction. She is the co-creator and head writer for two of my favourite TV shows - Secret Life Of Us and Offspring. She is the author of 3 'Aussie bite' books, 6 novels for teenagers, and this her first adult novel.

This is the story of Sullivan Moss - depressed, overweight and wanting to leave this world he unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide. When he survives his suicide he decides to do something useful for this world and donate a kidney to a stranger in need.

The story starts off slow as the characters in Sully's life become known and then the second half of the story you are drawn in as the momentum builds and there's a lot of action happening to keep the pages turning to the end. I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable (other than the young boy and the dog!) but I feel that it's the writer's intention as it goes with the theme of the book.

In the beginning I didn't like Sully very much, he was self absorbed, lazy and didn't care about his friends or himself. His character as a loser was portrayed perfectly. But as the story unfolded I started to cheer for Sully and wished he could see that he is worthy and has a place in the world.

I admit I did have high expectations of this book being that the author is the creator of one of my favourite TV shows Offspring. I enjoyed the writing style, it was modern, sometimes brash, and funny. It did give me some heart warming moments throughout and I appreciated that the ending was realistic and not a happily ever after fairytale.

I recommend this book to Debra Oswald fans and anyone feeling down about themselves or suffering from depression, you may feel some similarities with this story and it may help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I give this book 4 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Useful can be purchased from Penguin Books Australia

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Penguin Books Australia to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[Image via Penguin Books Australia]

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Kerb Appeal - With Earl The Letterbox And Numbers

Now that we have installed a fence and gate around our limestone courtyard we are looking at the finishing touches to add kerb appeal to the front of the house.

Starting with replacing our cute little mail box which I can't believe is still standing on it's rusty pole in the ground, it's been knocked over more than once by trucks reversing into it and then dumping sand on top of it (true story!) plus it's not lockable so our mail isn't secure either.

Letterbox shopping is serious stuff, we went to half a dozen shops trying to find one we liked the look of and that could be installed in fence slats.

These were the top two we found in Bunnings ..... Earl and Soho.

We picked Earl because the letter slot was covered so it would keep the mail dry, nobody likes soggy wet mail! I also like the large slot for junk mail and my magazine subscriptions.

We got out the cordless saw and cut a hole in our newly installed fence panel which was just a little terrifying as you can imagine, all that work to install the fence and then we were cutting a hole in it! 

Thankfully Mr P knows what he's doing and we didn't make any mistakes and the letterbox fits in nicely.

It is pretty heavy, we put a heap of screws in it to hold it secure and it's lockable with 2 sets of keys which is just what we wanted for our mail - safe, secure and dry.

Isn't Earl handsome .... !

Now that the mailbox was in we needed some shiny new house numbers to finish it off and so the mailman would put letters in there - for a week the mailman was still using our old mailbox until we took it away!

Only certain types of numbers are suitable to be screwed into brick, most numbers were stick-ons which wouldn't last for long out in the elements in the rain so we went for the screw in type.

Funny enough the numbers went through the checkout at different prices, apparently the 6 is worth more than the 1, but I got them both for the cheaper price of course .... I am the Bargain Queen after all!

We used the sticker template to measure and centre and get them straight on the brick pillar and then drilled them in. 

Nice and shiny and not too big or showy, I think they suit the pillar just right. 

I think the new letterbox and numbers make a great first impression and adds kerb appeal too!

Our next project out here is to start on the courtyard's garden and landscape design and turn this patch of sand and weeds into a garden with lawn and plants.

Operation kerb appeal is underway!

Sharing with link parties:
Curly Crafty Mom - Motivational Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday




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[All images my own]

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Slow Cooker: Roast Recipes

In my slow cooker I have cooked curries, hot pots, pasta sauce, stroganoff, vegetables all sorts of dishes but I have never attempted a roast dinner. 

For our Sunday roasts I usually fire up the Weber BBQ or the BBQ rotisserie because the smokey BBQ flavour you get is amazing. But for something different I'd really like to try a roast in the slow cooker this weekend.

Here are some delicious roast recipes for the slow cooker ....

Slow Cooker pork roast with lemon and sage stuffing

Sicilian Veal Pot Roast

Slow Cooker Roast Beef

Spiced Chicken with Lemon and Dates

Slow Cooker Guinness Lamb Shanks

My Sunday roast is sorted, I'm going to try the spiced chicken with lemon and dates roast this weekend.

What are you cooking in your slow cooker?




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[Images via Taste 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

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Book Review and Preview: Dinner Solved By Katie Workman

This is a cookbook review and sneak preview of Dinner Solved by Katie Workman that is due to be published by Workman Publishing on 11 August 2015.

Katie is the author of The Mom 100 Cookbook, the founding editor in chief of Cookstr.com and a food writer publishing articles in magazines and websites. Katie lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

This is a cookbook aimed to tackle the problem of pleasing everyone at the dinner table without becoming a short order cook.

There are 100 recipes in this book and they use a 'fork in the road' recipe solution which makes it easy to turn one dish into two, such as mild and sweet ribs for the kids that can become spicy ribs for the adults.

What I really liked about this book was that Katie's personality came through as funny and witty, it was like she understands fussy eaters, and wants to please the kids as much as the adults. I also liked that there were photos of every dish so you know what each dish is meant to look like, this is so important in cookbooks, but sometimes lacking.

As the book is American, some of the ingredients are not familiar to me but the recipes look easy enough to adapt to different ingredients found elsewhere, be it Australia or anywhere else in the world.

As I only had the Kindle ereader version of the book, I will need to add a hard copy of this book to my bookshelf at home to really make use of the tasty recipes inside.

I recommend this book to any home cooks with fussy eaters that want to get dinner on the table that everyone will eat.

I give this book 4 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Dinner Solved can be purchased direct from Workman Publishing

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Workman Publishing to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter


[Image via Workman Publishing]

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