I love having a clean house.  Right now, my house is not clean or tidy.  We are doing a spot of renovating and tearing up carpets is a sure fire way to fill your house with dust! I am just ignoring the dust at the moment,  I know it will wait for me.  Dust does that, it waits patiently for you!  

Perhaps it's fair to say that with age comes a new found love of a good cleaning product.  Never did I imagine I would find joy in discovering a nice smelling product or one that actually makes things easier to clean but here I am. The only person I normally share this information with is my dog.  She follows me around the house as I clean and like any dog owner, I chat to my dog as I work.  I tell her all sorts and she is a great listener.  I told her all about the new Lavender Pine-Sol I was sent to try out in my home. I told her all about how it actually smelt good and not all chemically like most cleaners do.  She nodded.  I told her how easy it made cleaning the bathroom.  She nodded again.  See I told you, she really is a great listener.  

Pine-sol also send me a gift card for Homesense and told me to treat myself.  Unfortunately they didn't sell gin so I decided that I would treat my cleaning companion, Nutmeg (that's my dog's name, in case you were wondering). 

As for the rest of the gift card, in the spirit of Christmas I will be buying gifts, games and puzzles and we will be donating them to the local Christmas Bureau.  I do love a good treat but I know there are many people who have many more needs than me so it seems only right we give a little extra this festive season.  

#YESITSPINESOL
Pine-Sol® Cleaners contain no ammonia or phosphorus.  They all contain biodegradable cleaning agents and all the bottles are made from recyclable PET.  It all adds up to a better clean with a great smell and more time to pour yourself a nice glass of gin and tonic.

I was sent some Pine-sol to test in my home- it's really good by the way!  I was also sent a lovely bunch of dried lavender and a gift card for Homesense.  Opinions, stories, photos, dust and bathrooms were all my own.  The dog bed featured in this post now belongs to Nutmeg but I have her permission to share it here.  

There is nothing quite like a crudites platter.  When I was a kid I used to buy a Mark's & Spencer Crudites lunch quite often on shopping trips with my Mum (second only to their egg and cress sandwiches!)

I love a good hummus with my crunchy veggies but I wanted to try and add a few extra dips to my repertoire, especially as we head into the festive party period.  

WHAT YOU NEED: Makes 1 batch

• 140 g carrots
• 1 garlic clove
• olive oil
• sea salt & black pepper

WHAT YOU DO

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Peel & top and tail the carrots.  Cut the carrots into even size pieces about the thickness of your thumb.  Toss in a little oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place the carrots in the oven for 40 minutes, turning about half way through cooking.  20 minutes into the roasting time thrown the garlic onto the tray.  Remove and allow to cool. 

SRIRACHA & LIME DIP

Place 140 g carrots and 1 peeled garlic clove into a blender with 1 tsp. sriracha, 1 tsp, sweet chilli sauce, juice of 1/2 lime and 1 tsp. olive oil.  Blitz till smooth.

CHILLI, FENNEL & LEMON DIP

Place 140 g carrots and 1 peeled garlic clove into a blender with juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp dried chili places, 1 tsp fennel seeds and 1 tsp. olive oil.  Blitz till smooth.