This is going to be alittle wordy

Hey hey! It has been a couple of weeks (sorry!) & I have totally fallen off the January Cure wagon .

But that is all ok, considering how the last couple of weeks have been, alittle CRAZY!

Crayness started Sunday 2 weeks ago with a little getaway that myself & WH (wonderful husband) took. We headed to Brissie for a night to have dinner with friends & then spending another night on the Goldie to do some shopping, hanging by the pool & have dinner at our favourite restaurant that is at the hotel we stay in.

Side note: the previous week I had begun cycling again & had pushed myself pretty hard (hard for me anyway).

After dinner with our friends both of my legs become very, very sore & started to stiffen and seize. Through out the weekend things went up & down with how well I could walk, when we got to the Goldie WH took me on a walk to hopefully stretch out my legs. This only made my whole body feel worse, sick to my stomach. After food, sleep & more light walking I did feel better but when I got home all I wanted to do was sit on the couch & nap.

After a good few days of rest I felt better, then the weather decided to do some crazy. Saturday (last week) the weather went from rainy to really rainy.

Another side note: Far north of where we live at this point a category 1 cyclone was heading for the coast. Not usual for wind and rain to get this far down as the result of a cyclone up north.

Sunday it got worse, big worse. The Cyclone (called Oswald) had crossed the coast up north & was heading south. It was no longer considered a cyclone, but no one seems to have told it that. In a nut shell Sunday power went out & didn’t come back on until Wednesday morning. 3 full days without power. 

Time was spent making sure we had plenty of freshwater (we live on tank water, no mains water, so no power = no pump = no water into the house, yep even to the toilet) & non perishable food to eat. As well has moving our generator around to both of our parents houses to run their deep freezers for awhile so they didn’t lose what was inside. Didn’t totally work. Our frozen stuff went to WH’s work to stay in the staff room freezer, but we did lose everything in our fridge.

After Wednesday the rest of the week has been getting the house back into order, putting water jug & buckets away. Washing towels & doing all the laundry in the house. And cleaning up the backyard, which we were lucky, no damage. Up north people have lost so much, homes, memories & in some cases loved ones.

So yeah, crazy couple of weeks. And today (Monday 4th Feb) is my birthday! I’ll be back with all the details soon!

Here is to 2013 being alittle charmer for awhile. 

Changing things up

Organising this house & all our stuff is always in a constant state of flux, I try something out for awhile and if it doesn’t work as I want it to I change it.

We did a big clean of our house over the weekend, alot of dusting deep cleaning, etc. I decided that I would also look at all of the organisation systems I put in place a couple of years ago & reassess. One area that just wasn’t working was our suitcase side table in our bedroom, it wasn’t being used to its fullest.

It doesn’t look too terrible, but it was too cumbersome to move the tray to get access to the inside of the suitcase. Which consequently has been seating empty for 6 months plus.

I did a quick raid of my home (cheapest shopping trip!) & found this dish amongst our huge pile of serving/party ware (which I also need to go through & organise).

We have never used this dish for anything & it seemed perfect for holding my bracelets.

After sorting through what I wanted to keep & what could go somewhere else (whether in the house or to charity), I was left with a tray that looked much more organised & most importantly more stable. I can now easily move the whole tray & access the suitcase underneath.

As for what I am putting in the suitcase, I am thinking of putting my make-up. Which is currently living in our bathroom (I know your not suppose to store make-up there, which is why I’m planning on moving it), not sure when I’ll get to that as I’m not sure how to set things up in the suitcase yet. Pinterest here I come!

Day 4-6 of the Cure

See day 1-3 here

Day 4: Get a fresh perspective in just 10mins

Find a place in the house that I don’t often sit in & take 10mins looking at a place that I find most problematic.

I choose to sit on a set stool that had been moved to a different spot so our robotic vacuum could do its thing & look specifically at the top of our white bookcase that sits in our back entry. Also have a good look over both bookcases that sit in that area, some things about them work and some I have never been able to get to work as I would like them to.

What I decided is that I wanted too much from the space as a whole & that what is stored & displayed in the area needs to be pared down & simplified.

I am a list person so I jotted down a few things that I wanted to move & where I thought they could go instead.

This I think is going to be a good tool to use in the future, with any project that I do around the house. I do have a tendency to dive in head first without thinking about what I’m doing & things can get frustrating quite quickly as a result.

Day 5 : Select On Project for Your List to Complete this Month

I picked for my project the two shelf units that are in our back entry, I had read ahead abit so that is also why I choose to do day 4 assignments in the same area.

Here are some before photos

I have been pinning ideas for the last couple of days & adding them to my bookshelf pinterest board. Starting to feel the itch to get started.

Day 6: Choose a piece of Artwork & Get Going on Framing it

I just so happened to have a couple of pieces of art hanging around our house that haven’t been hung up on the wall yet. So this was an easy assignment.

One piece is a print of the Orient Express, it is the setting for one of my all time favourite Agatha Christie books Murder on the Orient Express. It has been sitting around for almost a year. And the other is a print that WH (wonderful husband) got for his birthday, a T.A.R.D.I.S printed on a page for a random old book.

I have put them aside waiting for hanging day!

Taking the 2013 Cure

Happy New Year! Can you believe that it is already 2013, the last 12 months have just flown by. There have been some big changes in the last couple of months that I will be sharing soon & I am also going to be sharing my ‘One Little Word’ for 2013. But right now I wanted to share another thing that is becoming a bit of a participation tradition for me. The Apartment Therapy Cure, check out the link for more info. But basically it is away of kick starting a organised 2013. I have done one of these cures before I found that you get some great motivation to organise & clean areas of your home that you might find overwhelming or just find it easier to avoid doing. And these are things that you can keep doing through out the year to maintain all the good work you did at the beginning of the year.

I’m abit slow getting started as the January Cure started on the 2nd of January (actually 3rd of January as the US is behind by about a day) so it is day 3 already. Lets play alittle catch up & I’ll show you my progress so far.

Day 1 : Make a List of Projects

Pretty simple one to start of with, grab a piece of paper, a pen & a highlighter and go around your house making a list of projects you would like to get done big or small in each room.

The part that I kinda struggled with was resiting the temptation to fix/clean/organise the stuff I was identifying. But all this day is about is making a list. So after about 5 mins (we don’t have a big house, but I don’t really see this taking very long for anyone) this is my list.

The highlighting is the next part. I went back over my list and highlighted the projects that I thought were the most important to me. Our instructions for the day says choose no more that 3-5 projects per room. I stuck to that.

I decided to rewrite my list with only the important projects per room. Here is my final list;

Entry

• Clean front door
• Find rug
• Change out art
• Do something about old shoes
• Find a place to WH’s thongs

Lounge

• Hang new frames
• Organise cords
• Clean fan
• Get another ottoman

Dinning

• New ceiling hanging
• Area rug
• Put away sewing stuff

Back entry

• Mess of bags
• Wash rug
• Get outside mat
• Get cork for display board
• Restyle top of white bookshelf

Music/Guest room

• Clutter in corner
• Dooner insert
• Pillowcases
• Get frames & hang art

Kitchen

• Pantry clean/re-organise
• New draw organisers
• Under sink clean-up

Craft room

• Total over haul

Bedroom

• Solution to WH’s clothes storage
• Closet purge

Bathroom

• Toilet paper storage
• Drawers purge & re-organise
• Under sink clean up

Day 2: Set up your Outbox

Click the link above to find out all about what an outbox is & the rules involved with it.

I have had an outbox for awhile & use it alot. It is actually an old washing up basket that lives in my craft room.

It gets filled whenever I do any purging or re-organising around the house. So the set up part of this assignment was already done for me (yay!). I even had in mind something to put in it straight away, some clothes that we taken from our closet before Christmas & a pair of shoes that I have just been holding on to for too long. I have had these shoes for ages, but they needed to be replaced. I had even bought replacement shoes (that I love just as much if not more), but the old ones have been sitting in our bedroom for months & months. In the outbook they went!

Day 3: Flowers, Floors, Green cleaners & Outbox

I read this day after I had gone shopping early this morning, so didn’t actually buy any flowers. But I did raid out backyard, which was alittle slim pickings on the flower front (note to self plant more flowering plants) but I got some flowers to replace my fake gerberas in the kitchen & some others for alittle sprig in the bathroom & on the butchers block cart between our back entry & the kitchen. I will buy flowers next week!

This past week we took all of our decorations down so just like before we put them up every year the floors got a good cleaning, so that one can be marked down as already done.

I hate using chemical cleaners & in the last couple of years have been moving away from bought cleaners altogether (including the green ones). I have found that making my own out of a few simple ingredients in far cheaper & work just as well. So I have that marked as done too.

So that is my experience with the first 3 days of the Apartment Therapy January Cure. One of the Apartment Therapy contributors is live blogging her experience as well, check her out here.  

Butterfly Specimen Art

Working in housekeeping you find some interesting things that people leave behind, I’m also a bit of a magpie & hate to throw things out that could be easily reused. A couple of months ago I found two die cut butterfly’s that had been used for a place card or as a tag on a gift. They were too cute to throw away so I brought them home, not really sure what I would do with them.

With Spring now well & truly upon us (though with the heat & humidity we have been experiencing you would think we totally skipped over spring & went straight to summer) I have been adding some touches of spring to our TV unit mantle. And some new artwork was in order & the die cut butterflies seem to fit the bill.

Here is what I did;

Supplies

- Pattern paper

- Frame

- Die cut butterfly shape(s)

- Scissors

- Frame

- Adhesive

Line up the piece of paper that came in your frame on your pattern paper (or just take the measurements of your frame & transfer those measurement to your pattern paper)

Cut out the shape with your scissors

Attach your adhesive to the back of your butterfly shape

Place the butterfly shape on to the pattern paper

Put the whole thing in your frame & your done!

I made two with the two butterfly die cuts I found at work, I use to different frames & different pattern paper. Don’t they look great! The two frames certainly add a lovely pop of spring colour to our TV unit mantle.

Reaching Romans

Trying to get a life balance now that I am working has been hard! Actually it is still hard. Which is probably quite evident by my complete lack of posting. I have also been struggling with doing my daily devotionals, which isn’t any surprise at all since I was struggling before I started working again.

I reached the book of Romans a day or so ago & have been totally floored by the wisdom & the knowledge that this book is over flowing with. And I have only read 7 chapters!

In my bible study group we have looked at the book of Romans before, but reading through it by myself again seems to be getting at me more. I am finding inspiration & encouragement everytime I sit down to read a couple of chapters. This morning I found a verse that I just had to post on my Facebook page.

For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

~Romans 5:19

I am feeling more like life isn’t rushing ahead without me, I am finding time to do the things that I want to do & enjoying the days when I am not at work even more. Entering Romans I defiantly think is a turning point for my new working life. And that can only be a good thing.

Unusual display objects

I love reading the articles on Apartment Therapy (who doesn’t!), I subscribe via my blog reader Bloglovin. Most of the articles I skip over, there are usually 30+ new articles every time I open my blog reader. But I have kept my subscription (even after I did a re-evaluation of what I was and wasn’t reading awhile back) because when I do come across are article I want to read I love it, or get some great ideas for my home.

This morning I came across an article about unusual display objects in the home. Click here to go & read the article yourself, it is really thought provoking. Read the comments too!

Quote from the article:

So much of what we see in the world of interiors fits into a mold, and frankly it can get a bit boring at times. While I’m not promoting displaying random stuff just because it looks cool, I think that embracing your inner quirkiness might not be such a bad idea.

Which made me think about the things that I display around my house. Over the last 12months or so I have been trying to inject my & WH’s (wonderful husband) personalities into our home. Particularly focusing on WH, because I am the one doing the majority of the decorating decisions that my personality comes through quite easily.

I thought that I would share some of the quirky things we have on display around our house.

A Dalek & a dolphin (something from my childhood) live in a corner of our kitchen.

Dashound (WH family have a soft spot for dashounds & every member of the family has a dashound either a statue or a soft toy or even a Christmas decoration)

Sail boat & some Irish coins in the music room/guest room (WH use to sail alot when he was a kid & he is 1/2 Irish, his Mum as born in Ireland)

My sister-in-law crochet this for me last Christmas, it looks just like our pet bird Curios.

T.A.R.D.I.S lamp, must admit I asked people to get this for WH’s birthday last year. I knew he would love it, but I love it too.

 

Do you have things displayed around your house that are quirky & express your personality that might not be usual?

The problem with black holes

I have a black hole problem.

(Source)

The black hole in the bottom of my hand bag.

No matter what size hand bag I own I always end up digging through it looking for my phone or my keys or in my current bag my wallet.

I love this bag! But I can’t find anything in it. Want to see why?

I’m the type how likes to be prepared for almost everything. Can you tell?

Anyway, I did some searching around pinterest & googled to find a solution. I also like to change my bag around quite a bit so I wanted a way to move my stuff easily between handbags.

I ended but finding this tutorial from Cupcaking around as well as a couple of Youtube clips (type purse organizer into the search & heaps of videos come up). I adjusted the tutorial slightly, made the organiser slightly small & added a piece of cardboard inserted inside the organiser to give stability while inside my handbag.

I  also grab a zippered pouch that I made for our  trip to New Zealand last year. And started to organise my junk stuff.

I put all my eco bags inside the zippered & most of my stuff in the organiser I made. Once everything was in the organiser I rolled up the organiser.

Then I put the organiser inside my bag (aka black hole) & unrolled the organiser so that it sat up against the wall of my hand bag.

*sorry for the bad picture, it is hard to hold the bag open & take a decent picture*

The blank space in the middle is where I put my wallet, pencil case, sunglasses & the zippered pouch in that space.

We will have to see if things are more organised inside my handbag now & the only way to do that is to actually use it. I will keep you posted.

Inspired to organise

The hotel that we stayed in for our long weekend on the Gold Coast I found totally inspiring. Especially with how the place was decorated & how they made the most of a relatively small space. I was so inspired that I bought a couple of ideas home with me.

First idea came from the actual quite small bathroom (that didn’t feel as small as it actually was).

(Source)

Ok, the image above makes the bathroom look alot bigger. Just for reference in real life the mirror is actually round not oval. There a quite a few things that I liked about the bathroom, my favourite was the vanity/sink area. I love the openness of the vanity & how they have used that openness, the yellow stool fits under the sink (having that stool was a great way to add some extra surface space) & they used the bar that runs around to hold the hand towel.

But the idea I like so much I decided to recreate it at home is that pink bag that you can see hanging under the sink. It holds the hairdryer.

Pink is not my thing but I do have quite a few enviro bags that in all honesty I don’t use after I first buys them when I’m at the check out.

I removed the handle & unpicked a small part of the seem that runs along the top of the bag.

I inserted the handle into the seem so it would act like a drawstring. Then using my computer I printed out some iron-on letters using transfer paper.

I ironed them onto the front of the bag following the instructions on the packet.

Then I put in my hairdryer

Grabbed an over the door hook & hung my new hairdryer bag from the back of the bathroom door.

Not the prettiest back of door shot but hey it is more functional now!

Got to love an easy project that solves a storage problem. Makes me happy.

Alittle Update

I mentioned in this post that I was going to go through my blog reader & pair down the number of blogs I read. Seriously some days I would get home from work and find that I have 200+ blogs posts to sort & read. That was find when I wasn’t working (certainly filled time when I had nothing else to do) but with working now I just wasn’t able to keep up.

Well I did it! I sat down & looked at everything that I was following & made the decision to keep following, completely unfollow or to keep following for another month then make a decision.

At the end of the process I really didn’t feel that I had unfollowed too many, I was use that I was only following those blogs I really enjoyed reading but still didn’t feel like I had put much of a dint in. Though I am happy to say I was wrong, over the last week I have noticed that when I open my blog reader the number of unread posts is much, much smaller than it use to be. It has gone down from 200+ to the highest being 50 (though most 30-35). Yeah!

And the best thing is that I don’t miss any of the blogs that I did stop following. Which goes to prove that I was really reading them anyway, just keeping them just incase there was something I wanted to read one day. Silly right?