Becoming Organised - Charge Station

One of my favourite spaces in my house is this one.  It is SO organised and all things concerning batteries, chargers, cords, and gadgets are in one place.  Do you know how much time and energy has been saved by bringing all these together?  NO MORE SEARCHING!!  We attached a power board to the back of the drawer and fortunately there was a power point behind the chest of drawers. 

Becoming Organised

Being organised doesn't come naturally to me; it just doesn't fit my sanguine temperament, but I do love being organised, because this means less housework and more me-time.  
I've cleaned our local library out of books to help me along my way...

I'm sweeping through the house, room by room, and one of the spaces that is sorted is the books.  We don't have a bookshelf at the moment, so the books are in storage and the 'use regularly' books are now shelved in a box.  I think this is a great idea and I will be doing this with the children's books with a circulation system, so when the baby-girl-child reads, there will be less books sprawled across the floor.  

I'm also whipping up an over-supply of draw-string bags because this is another great way to store or carry odds and ends.
This was Emma's bassinet sheet and it's now a laundry bag for when we go away.  I'm very excited about this because I really dislike scrunched up dirty clothes thrown back into the suitcase next to the clean clothes.

A linen tree print which is great for carrying cheese and bacon scones for this afternoon's picnic...

Another small bag for something small (like garlic)... 
(a great way to use stamping experiments)

This was another stamping experiment just because I love dots.  The photo is misleading but this bag is as small as the palm of my hand and holds the nail care set...

We're off for a picnic to catch the last of the Art Deco happenings.

Art Deco in The City of Napier

We have been out and about, enjoying the Art Deco scenes, except we were in twenty-first century clothes and had coffee and cake at Starbucks.  The rest of Napier looked like they were in the Thirties.  Next year I'll be organised enough for Art Deco week. (I said this last year).   

I was so amazed at the precision of these planes...  I think I need to make some stamps and stamp this scene and my placement will probably not be as precise.

and these were some of the faces watching the fly-over...

Pretty Mucky

This babygirlchild and I have made an agreemnt, I will dress her in 'pretty' and she will get mucky.  I would love to pass these clothes on to others, but I'm wondering if that will ever happen.  

We're waiting for these to ripen,

and tomorrow is the deadline for the bridesmaids dress! 

Heart Garland

I've been inspired by quite a few love posts lately, and I've also felt like sending something to a friend (who has been through too much this past year).  I hear that her husband is doing something quite romantic on Valentine's evening, so I thought I'd seal the deal and send them a garland.

The pack of origami paper from the 1,2,3 shop was the perfect range of colour...

Then I cut, sewed and rolled....

There are a million-and-one options for the leftover cutouts!

Mini Clipboard last minute birthday present

I had one day's notice for a birthday present.  Well I did know about it, but it was always "next week".  


Then yesterday, Amy announced "tomorrow's my birthday!"  


Amy loves little cute things, so under the short-time-frame-circumstances, I opted for half bought/half handmade and dashed out to the shops and came home with a key-chain pen.  I covered a cork coaster with pretty paper and mod-podged it.  I found some note paper and rounded the corners and fastened the stack of paper to the clipboard with a mini fold-back clip.  


She was over the moon with her mini clipboard!

Supplies

All done!

Giveaway Winner!

While I was collating the two lists of entries for the giveaway, from here and Facebook, I was chatting to my friend Jenny on Facebook (is that place taking over?...Spellchecker even makes you capitalise it).

I asked her to pick a number and she picked 6. 

Congratulations, Raewyn!

Beautiful Butterflies GIVEAWAY

“What the caterpillar called the end of the world, the Master calls the BUTTERFLY (Richard Bach)”

These beautiful butterfly creations are made by my friend, Chantal.  Chantal has an online shop on Felt, New Zealand's handmade shop.  Chantal's butterflies literally fly out of her shop! She has had her shop for four months and has sold just under 150 sets of butterflies! Chantal has a very faithful love for God and I believe that He has blessed her in abundance with her business.  She initially started her butterflies as a means to an end, one great thing to achieve another great thing.  One day, when she has achieved her next great thing, I will tell you about it.  As a mother of little ones, I cannot wait for her to be finished, as she will be able to help us along our way on this parenting journey.

Chantal has kindly offered to give away one of her beautiful sets of butterflies.  

To enter the giveaway, please do the following:

• visit Chantal's shop and choose your loveliest set.  
• If you have a social networking page, please 'like' or 'tweet' her page.
• leave a comment telling me what set you would like to receive.

Or

• 'Like' my facebook page and tell me what set you would like.

I will then use an online number generator to choose the winner and I will get contact details from you.

To leave a comment click on the title of this post and scroll down to the bottom.  If you are an 'Anonymous', please leave a name.  Thanks!

Keeping it clean, naturally

A while ago I came across Wendyl the Green Goddess' book.  My original intention was to make products at home to keep the cost of detergents down, but now I'm more charmed with the gentle, non-toxic smell of the products.  My favourite is the General Spray Cleaner.  Once my store-bought product had finished I removed the labels and made my own.  

• Fill the bottle with water
• Add 1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• A few drops of Sunlight liquid soap
• 10 drops of tea-tree oil, or any essential oil

Make up another bottle of the same potion but add a tablespoon of olive oil to clean wooden surfaces.  Shake before each use.

Another great mixture is the carpet cleaner.

• Mix a solution of 50/50 water/vinegar
• Add a couple drops of Sunlight liquid soap
• When you see a mark on your carpet, spray, leave a bit and then rub.

There are more recipes on Wendyl's site with links to suppliers of specialised ingredients.