Manic Monday - Shedding some light....

I very grandly call my little office room "the workroom", or "the fabric warehouse". Or "the craziness that I try to get some work done in".

It is a small room, with dark corners - which just never felt particularly inspirational. But all it took was some new lighting! The addition of a simple desk lamp really improved how I felt about the room... now I just have to work on the clutter! (LOL - oops, did I just admit that?!)

My Manic Monday tip is to make a list of quick, easy, inexpensive ways that you could bring some order, or peace, to just 1 area of the house or office.

Some random ideas -

Add a basket, to collect bits and pieces together.

Get a paper tray, to organise receipts.

Tidy a space and move a pot plant to it, so that you can't put 'stuff' back there!

Add a lamp, or light to brighten a corner or work space.

Use rubber bands to tidy up electric cords (you know, fold them up into a bunch and put the band around to hold it together).

If you just make the list today, then you can start thinking about which ideas you might like to put into action. One little step at a time - today, just make the list.

Oh, and I have to tell you, because I am very excited... If you want to shed some light into a dark corner of your house, come back on Wednesday for some exciting news about a great way to get lighting, online at http://www.buysterlighting.com.au/ !

The Sticky Beak Series Part 2 - Welcome to the house!

I like this house - it really seems to me to have a welcoming entrance.

Every home and decorating magazine I have read suggests making your entry somewhere that people don't just pass through. I like the front paved area, because it has room for a nice chair (we often sit here to wait for Daddy to come home). The timber shutters (louvres as we Aussies call them), make it feel 'warmer' and a bit different to any other house on the block. And then there is my triumphant pot of lavender (which is actually a bit too far left to have made it into this shot!).

I am sure you are too polite to even glance at the very dead pot of basil and parsley in the front right of the picture.

But inside the front door lurked a trap for unwary visitors. Enter at your own risk! The pile of shoes inside the front door was getting ridiculous. I hesitated to take a 'before' photo, in case you began to think that Sweet Hubby is akin to Imelda Marcos (was it 6000 pairs of shoes she owned??). Yes, they were mostly his (I will confess to 2 pairs).

So today we tidied them. The pairs that are rarely worn went back into our walk-in cupboard. The regularly used pairs went into this plastic tub, just inside the door. This is only a temporary measure, but at least the trip hazard has been removed, and I can now sweep the floor!

The Sticky Beak Series - Part 1 - My Sewing Room

I love posts where people open up a part of their homes to their readers. It always makes me feel connected - like, it's ok that my kitchen benches are sticky from spilled juice, because other people have little kids too!

So I have decided to do a "Sticky Beak" series, where you all get to see into the wonderful world of this Small Town Mamma, and her family. And because I spend so much time sewing, thinking about sewing, yearning for delicious fabrics, playing with crafty things etc..... I have decided to start with the Sewing Room / Office.

This is the first house we have lived in that I can really say I have a room to keep all my craft and sewing together in. I still do most of my cutting out on the dining table, because as you can see, there is no large workspace here. And yes, those are packing boxes holding up the shelf, and the end of my sewing table. They are full of books. If I feel the urge to read one, I have to dismantle the shelf!

I love this room. If we owned the house, I would have the walls covered in hooks, to display cross-stitch and quilts. As it is, I have been very naughty and put some hooks in under the wall shelf, to hold up the organiser. The pockets make a great place to keep all my mailing things together - customs labels, envelopes, thank-you cards, airmail stickers etc. It is actually an over-door shoe holder thing that I got at Howards Storage World.

And because this is the room where I create all the lovely things for sale over at Sasha Sews, here is a pic of the new little purse that I have designed. I call it the "Naomi Purse". Ironically, I got the design finished and bag sewed on a day she was at her Family Daycare house! But I did think fondly of her, when it was finished!!

Feel free to indulge my nosiness and show us a room of your house! If you do, leave me a link in the comments so that I can come and visit your place -- I will bring home-baked muffins, I promise!

Nesting? Or just motivated?

Hmmm.... nearly 35 weeks pregnant. And I am actually getting some projects around the house completed, that have been bugging me for a while.

Such as the playroom toy shelves, which desperately needed sorting, culling and tidying up .....


And the pantry shelves, which also needed a good sort through, clean out and removal of suspicious looking little black specks scattered around the shelves. This is a photo of the bottom half of the pantry - I still have 2 shelves to go up the top!



In the last week I have even managed to finish off some craft projects, such as the patchwork table runner that was the first thing I started sewing on my new machine (on Boxing Day - I had nothing else to sew, and found these left over squares from a quilt I made years ago. I just made this runner up as I went along).

So... what do you think? Nesting?? Or just motivated and efficient. I am going to give the credit to Rachel at Home Sanctuary, and her great housekeeping schedule that I talked about a few days ago. Having just a few jobs to do each day, and which I usually get done by lunch time, seems to free up my mind in the afternoon for doing other bits and pieces. I feel like I have already done the necessary jobs, so spare time (ie. when Naomi is watching her favourite Wiggles dvd!) can be used for accomplishing extra things, or just enjoying crafty things.

I feel like I have a plan, and I don't have to do everything I think of at the time, because the important things are in a schedule, and I know that they will get done during the week. Am I making sense, or just hormonally rambling?!?!?

A Housekeeping Schedule

When it comes to keeping house, I like to think that I am somewhat house-proud, with a clean and tidy house, while certainly not being the obsessive type. Saying that, there are plenty of times that I slip off the wagon and wander in the housekeeping wilderness (apologies for the mixed metaphors!).

In the past, I have tried the Flylady system. It was a bit too regimented for my liking, and dear Brad got a good chuckle out of all of routines and lists. He knows me so well that he knew it was only a matter of time!

But now I am enthused again, for my friend Rachel Anne at Home Sanctuary has blessed us with her system. It consists of some minimum maintenance each day - ie. what is the bare minimum that it takes to keep the chaos at bay? Then schedule the tasks that you feel are the important ones for keeping your family and house chugging along. Rachel explains it wayyyy better than me, so head on over to her blog for details. But, in case you are interested, here is my system:

Minimum Maintenance (done daily and at least once on the weekend):

* Make beds
* Run dishwasher and empty it out
* Sweep kitchen and dining room floors
* Tidy kitchen after dinner, including wipe down benches.

Additional Scheduled jobs:

* Monday - Dusting and all floors (vacuum / sweep / mop as required), grocery shopping
* Tuesday - Laundry (family clothes)
* Wednesday - Change beds, Laundry (linen & towels), sweep outside areas
* Thursday - Bathrooms, internet banking and clean windows (in rotation, different room each week)
* Friday - vacuum lounge carpet
* Saturday - make sure Brad's work shirts all washed
* Sunday - iron work shirts ready for the week, review menu plan and shopping list

It has been nearly a week now, and so far so good. I only got 3 work shirts ironed on Sunday, but my excuse is that we had a power black-out for most of the afternoon / evening, and I don't have one of those old-fashioned coal-heated irons to finish off the last 2 with!

Where, oh where has she been?

Trapped. Digging my way out from under a huuuuge pile of packing boxes, containing all of the stuff that was deemed necessary enough to be moved. I thought I was ruthless, when I packed. I took large bags of clothes to the charity shop. I threw out several car loads of junk and rubbish. I even culled (ok, maybe that is too strong a word. Maybe I lightly pruned) my craft and sewing stash. So why do I still have boxes of things that I look at and think ... why did I keep that??

But more to the point.... What did I do with the can opener?? That is driving me crazy. Do you know how many canned goods there are that don't have ring-pull lids? And that I have always just blithely opened with the can opener that I had before moving into this black-hole void for kitchen utensils?!?!?!!

Oops. Sorry for getting carried away. See what happens when you blog late in the evening after 2 glasses of wine?

A quick house update

It's official. We will be moving out of the house we started our little family in, on 28 May. The plan to move into the next house on the same day has come completely unstuck. The vendors of our next house cannot sell to us until 4 June - a whole week later!

So it is a week in a holiday apartment, with our furniture in storage, for us. Expense we could have done without, but so be it. Also, I will be unable to have daycare children until we are set up in the new house - so nearly 2 weeks of lost income. Darn. The best laid plans of mice and men.....

But on the upside, we are spending a week in a holiday apartment!

House sale and bargains

I forgot to mention yesterday, our most exciting news - the sale of our house is set to proceed on 28 May! The purchaser has confirmed that he is happy with all the inspection reports that he has received (pest, building, electrical and a property valuation!). So I now have less than 3 weeks to pack up the combined clutter of a 3 bedroom house and a Family Daycare business into boxes. The big catch is that we are not yet sure that we can move into the new house on the same date. It may be as much as 2 weeks after we sell this house. Whilst I relish the thought of 2 weeks in a holiday apartment, we could do without the expense of renting, storing furniture etc, not to mention the loss of my business income from not having a house to care for kids in!

I have to get onto our lawyer today and get confirmation of a date to move into the next house, so that I can warn my parent clients if there is going to be a delay of some days.

Above is a photo of Naomi enjoying her new property - a diorama book called 'Maisy's Farm' that I picked up for $2 at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. It shows signs of previous hard lovin', but the daycare kids and Naomi love when I set it up and they can play with all of the cut-out people, animals, tractors etc.

Home Alone... well, almost!

2 evenings in a row where I find myself sitting down in front of my laptop, with Naomi asleep, Brad still out, the lamp on and music playing gently in the background... I would complain about Brad working back every night this week (he has a building to deliver tomorrow - got to love the construction industry), except that these few moments have been pure bliss. And tonight I have dinner on my lap and a glass of wine by the keyboard. Heaven!





Naomi has found getting back into the swing of our daycare kids very tiring. She still only naps for 40 minutes, around 11 am. No matter what I do I can't seem to get it any longer. So by 5 pm the poor thing is collapsing - here is the evidence of her falling asleep in the highchair, between mouthfuls of dinner. Clearly I have to work on improving my dinner table conversation, so that she is interested enough to stay awake!

For the record, she didn't even wake up when I took her out, changed her into pj's and wiped her face (which she hates). But she did wake an hour later, when her tummy figured out that it had missed half of dinner, and her bedtime nursing!

I had a 14 week old baby start in my care this week - just for 2 days each week. Boy, was that a shock to the system! But with a name like Valentino, was he ever going to be anything but a total charmer??!!?!? And yes... I am now clucky again. Which Brad is thrilled about!

As for the house -- well, anyone want to buy a cute 3-bedroom house with tropical pool?? In a lovely little estate, tucked in a valley with great views. Lol... we had an offer for exactly what we wanted, while we were away in Fiji. They emailed the contract to us and we signed. We were absolutely thrilled and couldn't wait for it to go through, so that we can buy our bigger house! And then we heard yesterday that the buyer's finance had fallen through. So we are back to square one, and I have to have the house ready for an open home inspection again this weekend. Just when I was congratulating myself on cleaning and presenting the place beautifully while we were away, and not having to keep it that way once we got back from holiday. Sigh.....

Found a bargain!

Brad worked on Saturday, so I found myself driving to the shops with Naomi, at around 8.30am. On the way I happened to pass a sign advertising a garage sale. Maybe it is the wee drop of canny Scottish blood in my veins, but I do love to find a bargain. I quite enjoy rummaging through garage sales! But as it is not really Brad's thing, and sleep on weekend mornings is at a premium, I rarely get the chance.

But here was my opportunity - footloose & fancy free, and with money in my purse! Browsing through the items, I spotted a lovely little set of shelves & drawers for a kids room - but sadly, it was already sold. Then I hit paydirt.

These pillowcases were bundled together with a sign saying "Pair of pillowcases, $2". Seriously?!?! I liked the fabric, could see that they were mariner's compass quilt block patterns, and snapped them up. When I got them home and had a closer inspection, it is clear that these are hand-quilted! Someone's mother / aunt / grandmother has put hours of work into them.... and I got it all for the princely sum of $2!!!

PS -- please ignore the fact that we have a pink floral bedspread on the bed today... I was so excited by my find that I had to use them straight away -- matching linen, or not!

A place to curl up.

They say a picture says a thousand words.... I have always wanted to have a window seat, to snuggle up with a blanket, soup and a book, on wet days, and watch the raindrops slide down the window panes, and soak the pretty cottage garden outside.

Thanks to DesignerSpaces.com for supplying the photo that shows exactly what I was thinking of!

Do you have a nap routine?

I used to be a very organised person... at work. I have never really been organised at home, despite my best efforts. But today I noticed that I have a little routine thing going.

When Blossom's little eyelids drift closed, the first thing I do is go to the loo. Is there any other job in the world where your "co-workers" not only follow you to the toilet, but want to come in with you, and cry if you shut the door?? So I grab a pee in peace.

Next thing is to put the kettle on, and prepare the cup for tea (aaahhhh... the elixir of the Gods). While the kettle is heating up, I do a quick whip around, generally picking up stray blocks, putting the books back on the shelf and even a very brief sweep of the kitchen floor. Once that kettle boils, though, it is relax time for me. I either read, or blog, or just surf and check my emails, while sipping my reviving Earl Grey blend. I figure that a de-stressed mummy / carer is a better mummy / carer, and the rest of the toys can be picked up at any time.

If there is a miracle and the nap lasts longer than my cup of tea, I do try to get a few other things done, but not until I can count the leaves on the bottom of my pretty china cup.

What do you do when your darlings are asleep? Do you have any routines that are essential for preserving your sanity?

Very Vintage - Part 1

I haven't really let on much in this blog, but I am a closet vintage addict. I have been outed to my nearest and dearest (Mum and Emma), but that is ok, because they are as addicted as I am! But for those of you to whom this comes as a shock, please take a few deep breaths. I assure you that our house is not decorated in flocked rose-print wallpaper. Alas.

But I do dream of one day living in a cottage, or a house with character... something with history, and lovely little nooks and crannies just begging to be decorated with restored furniture and scattered vases of the flowers I will grow in the cottage garden. (Ignoring my black thumb). For this I think I am going to have to move - either down south, or back to the UK. There just aint nothin' like that here in our tropical paradise. But more on that in the years to come....

So I have decided to treat you, over the next couple of weeks, to a selection of my favourite vintage websites - the ones that keep my genteel Pride & Prejudice-style daydreams alive, while I wipe off the shmeared banana from sticky hands and highchairs... have I mentioned that I HATE banana??

Top of the list is The BrocanteHome Chronicles. Brocante is a French word meaning 'a thing of trivial value'. This site is all about bringing some vintage joy into the mundane life of a SAHM. Alison has an amazing list of Puttery Treats that are perfect to help you bring a little bit of joy, luxury, or pleasure into your life - in the simplest ways! Even just reading the list is a treat in itself.

Alison has just run her first Puttery Treats challenge - bloggers were invited to choose a treat and then write about how they incorporated it into their home / life. Some of the responses were utterly delicious to read - there really are some talented writers out there in bloggy-land. And of course, all who participated got to enjoy their treat! The next Puttery Treats challenge begins in January, so keep an eye out for it.

I hope you enjoy Brocante Home as much as I do...

WFMW - lovely scents

I think that scents are one of the finishing touches that adds to your house being a home, so here are two pretty-smelling tips for your sniffing pleasure!

If you have scented soaps or candles that you are not yet using (perhaps, like me, you already have an abundance of candles on display!), use those scents in other ways! Tuck them into your linen press, underwear drawer or wardrobe. The smells will be magnified in the small spaces, and you get to enjoy them before the burning or washing begins.

Second, to make a dry nappy-bucket less offensive every time you lift the lid, sprinkle bicarbonate soda in the bottom of the bucket, and then sprinkle a few drops of your favourite essential oil in the bottom. Repeat the sprinkling of oil in on top of the nappies as often as you want. The bicarb soaks up the odours, and your oils will help to cover up any lingering smells - and it all washes out before going back on baby's bottom.