In little Oliver’s room -

I used all of the same canvas buckets and baskets I had in the change table previously. I just added an Ikea shelf above for the wipes, powder and nappies and then and Ikea railing which holds 2 tin buckets. The 2 buckets hold our most used toiletries. This was a simple and easy update to the changing area but it has made it SO much more functional I love it : )

I also find bookcases in the boys rooms a great way to add a LOT of space without taking up a huge amount of space in the room. I filled Oliver’s with his trickets and frames and then lots and lots of books on his level. He goes in there several times a day and pulls them all out “reading” them or requesting to be read to- I love it.

Then there are the reading nooks. A small new obsession of mine of which I have Pinterest to thank. After seeing a TON of inspiration on there which I had “pinned” I now have 2 nooks completed with the playroom still to come and so far I am in LOVE. Both boys absolutely love to read and having books out on display for them encourages this special love.

Oliver especially goes and gets books all day and then hands them to you, sits down and waits for you to start reading- it is priceless. Rotating through the books seems to mean they not only get read more but they notice them more so than in a standard bookcase. They are also very easy to put away.

Nook 1 –

This one is just a low picture shelf in Oliver’s room (Ikea). I made sure I placed it on a non traffic wall to prevent accidents. There is a dresser on one side and a couch on the other and so this nestles nicely in the middle.

Nook 2-
Then we added a repurposed plate rack from Ikea into the living room. I had been looking for a shelf like this for ages and alas everything was covered in kids motifs or brightly coloured letters etc. I wanted something neutral that kept the focus on the books and could be repurposed if ever needed. This plate rack from Ikea fitted the bill perfectly- just the right amount of books to not be overwhelming and they hold in beautifully with the railing. The boys love it !!

So there you have just a few of the ways I am trying to maximise the storage in our sweet new abode : )

In a few short weeks I will be undertaking the largest renovation I have ever done- a kitchen and a few weeks later a laundry. Daunting for me without a doubt- but necessary in this house as storage is sadly lacking. Ikea to the rescue and as measurements are made and quotes given I am getting closer- looking forward to sharing more on that soon.

In the meantime I work on the rooms I can and I am super excited about an entire day next weekend dedicated to hanging stuff on the walls – shelves, hooks, frames etc that all makes it feels more like home : )

Today I want to share with you just a little glimpse at the progress made in one of my favourite rooms – the scrapbooking/craft room. I was beyond blessed to find that this house had the perfect space for this and it almost like the furniture was made to fit here.

Here is a look at progress to date-

Just before the doors went on I took the opportunity to snap a photo I knew would be harder to capture afterwards- the full cupboards and contents.

This is a constantly morphing and changing thing but really just lots of baskets and boxes and magazine files storing all that crafty goodness. I also store all of the boys crafts supplies, paints, playdough, colouring books, textas etc in here.

In my last room I had the cupboards above my desk but in this room that was not possible without support on either side to hold them up. My dad was not comfortable mounting them without the side cupboards and so we made a decision to put them either side of the desk and I am in LOVE. So much extra surface space and room for me to work!!! We still need to create a little plinth underneath to raise these up a little for easier cupboard opening along with re-doing the handles to sit in the middle but for now- it works !!

Be still my couch loving heart I moved the armchair and ottoman in here so I can really relax and soak it all in (it was a tad big for Olivers new room). This is my new favourite place to edit photos and blog at night.

And the beloved Expedit is still here and got a little colour co-ordination too. Excuse the piles on the floor- I am not quite done yet.

And the beloved wall of storage? Well it looks all tidy with the doors on now. I forgot to take a photo of this earlier and so I just snapped one a minute ago.

So that is where I am at for now. Lots more to do and share soon so stay tuned : )

There have been a LOT of Ikea trips of late ; )

And I want to thank every single one of you for your patience, love, support, kind words and understanding during an interesting time in my life. And that will be all I have to say about that : )

Lately I have no “felt” like writing. A strange concept to me as for 2 years I wanted to write every single day. And even when I did take a break I missed it, this, you the blog terribly. Maybe in a crisis you revaluate what is the MOST important thing to be doing with your time.

If your “time out” is limited to you spend it on your hobby or on blogging about your hobby? It is all about balance right? And I am finding that and as much as this little space in the WWW is not my priority right now I will still be around and back to blogging eventually.

One of the projects I have chosen to work on whilst living with my mum is getting my scrapbooking “up to date”. On the rare night I have “off” I choose to turn of the TV and the laptop and get some scrapbooking done. Let me tell you I have been LOVING it. I was so far behind on the boys albums I cannot even tell you and so I set myself some goals and made a choice to take some time for me. I should have done it a long time ago!!!

I thought I would share with you today just a few of the recent layouts I have done in Flynn’s album and how I have used a mixture of lots and lots of different page protectors and some Project Life stuff to create this snapshot of my sons life as a 4 year old.

Firstly cards have always been an issue for me- where to store them and how. The other day when I was at Officeworks I picked up these great A5 project folders and a little lightbulb went off when I got home. I punched three holes in the side, added a little tag and then placed my cards on the inside. I added it to the front of Flynn’s album as to not bulk up the rest of the album too much. I LOVE this option as the cards are together with the photos and easily viewable.

And a few easter pages, incorporating art, cards and letters etc.

For this look I printed a 8×10 enlargement and then cropped the photo to the same 8×8 size of the page protector- a few Easter stickers and this feature was complete.

I love being able to include some larger versions of my favourite photos in this album : )

I am also using these great flip up page protectors as well to incude a lot of vertical photos in my album.

I just have to say again I am LOVING how easily these albums come together. I am able to get so many pages done super quick and just scrapbook when and where I feel like it.

So along with being mummy, moving house, working, baking, opening bank accounts, getting a PO box and a million other things that is what I have been up to ; )

My first son Flynn,

You came into my life for 4 years ago and taught me just what unconditional love was. It rocked me deep into my core and still does. At the moment I have the privilege of waking up to you every day and seeing you smile and run your little hand along my arm and say good morning mummy, or I love you mummy. The kicks in my back all night are well worth that special moment with you.

You are super smart and savy and have a fantastic vocab beyond your years. You love lego and duplo and cars and your current running obsession is the Army (it changes frequently). You love school, swimming, soccer, the library and the dinosaur museum.

Today you are 4 (finally) you have been counting down for weeks and weeks and I am so happy for you that your special day is finally here. You had a cookie for breakfast and enjoyed riding around on your first bike= terrifying mummy as you are a little speed demon.

I love you to the moon and back again my sweet boy and I look forward to every precious day I get to spend with you watching you grow into the most beautiful little boy.

Much love Mummy.
x

The party? It was last minute (think running around Woolworths like a crazy person the night before), I ran out of wrapping paper, lost my SD card, could not figure out how to set up the Tag reader thingy and felt like it was all falling apart. Cue worst mummy feeling ever, the guilt runneth over. I rang a friend in somewhat hysterics about my dilemas and worst mummy moments late Saturday night before the big day and their wise words calmed me. They said I remember the birthday I got my very first bike, and do you know what else I remember? Nothing they said. The thrill of the bike would outweigh all of the other “stuff” I was so worried about.

And you know what? They were so very right. We had a fabulous, quiet, last minute, store bought birthday and it was one of the best to date. I got to spend so much time watching Flynn enjoying his day nothing else really mattered.

Maybe I love them so very much because I try and get myself organised for a fun holidays free from as many “what are we going to do today” and I’m bored” as possible ; ) How do I do this?

Well when I was a little girl and I had school holidays we would always write up our “wish list” for what we wanted to do for the precious two weeks we had. We worked our way through this little list and never really got “bored”. We did a lot of playing at home, crafts, the movies etc etc.

SO the way I plan out my holidays is about a week before I start a little search www.kidspot.com.au for school holiday activities in my local area. I select a few for Flynn that are local/ cheap/ free and that I think Flynn would really love. If you have to book a place at the activity I also do this the week before to avoid disappointment.

Once I have picked a few activities I pop them into my calendar. Around these I work our home days, baking cookies, craft at home, movies days, library visits, park play time etc. I like to have a balance of a few activities for the week and also a lot of home/ down time.

Last holidays a few of places we visited were-
*Museum
* Art Gallery
*Library
*Miniature village
*Perth Zoo

Fun times were had. And then a lot of time at home in between.

Last school holidays I struggled with the calendar for the holidays, the list was on notepaper carried around everywhere with me etc. So I decided this school holidays Bianca and I would make a little something to make these school holidays a little easier.

First a calendar you can customize to your own school holidays dates and requirements : ) You can pop in your own details and any events you like.

You can edit and then print out the calendar the way you like : )

And a little Notes section at the bottom for things you want to remember to do over the holidays etc.

Then comes the holiday fun list. Again you can edit this to suit your children etc and as you decide on your activities you can add them to the list with any relevant information like opening times, event, cost etc.

You can also check out Bianca’s post HERE and enjoy all of her lovelies.

Calendar

Fun list

I really hope you enjoy getting organised this school holidays and most of all have fun : )

Now for the next printable in this set I wanted to share with you today the To Do List- simple and easy matched our menu planner and a little something else coming later on this week. Comes in a stack of pretty colours for you to all print and enjoy : )

You might just be able to squint and see a little blog to do list I have running at the moment ; )

Now before you click on the links- please consider these printables take time, a lot of time in fact. If you would like to use these printables to alter in anyway it is courtesy to email Bianca or myself and ask first please. Thank you xx

Turquoise
Pink
Periwinkle
Lemon
Biscuit

See below evidence.

I am not perfect, nor is my home, my schedule, my life and my time management. I work, I get busy, I have two small children and million and one other excuses as to why there are times where areas of my life slip through the super organised cracks ; ) This is life people- just keeping it real.

SO I could not open these drawers, nor could I find anything. Things would fall out when I opened them and it was just a downright embarrassment. Come to the rescue some drawer dividers from Target and I was super motivated to get this disaster under control.

So to started to organise, I followed the very same steps I do every time I overhaul a drawer/room/ area whatever and it works every time.

1. Make sure you have looked at the drawer/room/ area and have a think about what is not working, why and what you can do to fix it- crucial step here- if you just tidy and dont fix the problem it will be messy again pretty quickly.

2. I knew looking at this that I needed dividers and that I needed to find another home for AL those cookie cutters. Find storage solution that work for your problem area is another key step.

3. Divide, sort, throw and donate. Get everything organised into piles to start looking at what you have.

4. Reorganise back into the space neatly and in a way that makes sense to YOU.

Sprinkles (note to self, do NOT buy any more sprinkles)

Cookie cutters (also do not buy any more of these)

And cupcake wrappers ; )

SO once I had everything in their sections and I had cleaned out the drawers with my trusty spray I got to work putting it all back in a way that it would remain looking neat and tidy and not the mess you see above. The cute white metal drawers dividers were from Target and a fabulous investment I need a few more packs for the rest of my drawers.

I made sure all of the small loose items candles and opened sprinkles etc were put into mini glad bags and placed into a drawer divider together to keep it all neat.

And all is right again in my world : )

I can find everything so very easily now and by clearing out I now have everything in one drawer instead of 2- bonus! I found another home for the bulky cookie cutters in a cute basket which is much more practical.

I even felt inspired to bake and at the request of Master Flynn I made some sunny yellow playdough right after my organising spree.

Care to share how you organise your baking drawer?

All that is important is our health and so even though it was sad to postpone his sweet party he is now healthy and back to his inquisitive self which is all that matters.

Don’t you just love the little cupcake wrapper and topper? I am just in love with them. They dressed up my bakery bought (gasp yes I know) cupcake and made it look super cute- Thank you Cupcake City!! You really did come to me rescue : ) You can find these sweet wrappers and toppers in this beautiful little set HERE in their store along with a heap of other great cupcake accessories !!

Best of all they are FREE. Yes I did say free and come in a multitude of colours to suit everyone. Todays printable is the first of a few which will be released over the coming days and weeks for your enjoyment.

So I will started with the pin board system I have decided to use in my home to make this work for me and my family. In my day in the life a few months back Jen captured a photo of the pinboard inside my pantry see below.

Truth be told it really was a bit of a mess,a dumping ground for cards etc and really was not used effectively. So the idea was born to use this pinboard to hold a few small A5 clipboards which would assist in keeping my life a little bit more organised.

The little A5 clipboard come completely plain from Officeworks for about $2 and they are just super cute and very practical for todays printable which is menu planning. The board also came from Officeworks a little while ago but you can use any board in your home or alternatively you could put holes in the wall to hold the clipboards, magnets on the fridge or just have them on your bench/errands stations- lots and lots of options this is just what works for me.

My handy husband added some hooks- although these are a little long so we need to pick up some shorter ones at Bunnings soon. Simon also drilled some super small holes in my clipboard for some metal labels holders at the bottom for a little added flair.

I just cropped some patterned paper to fit with the corners rounded and added the metal labels holder and a tag. This is easy enough to change over the paper when I get tired of it. You could also laminate the back patterned paper for extra durability.

So that is my system for the clipboards. I like the board as they are easy to take off and on, in a great accessible and easy to view area but can be hidden if I close the door.

Now to the planner.

Menu planning is super important for our family and we have been doing it for about 3 years now. It has seriously changed our lives, the way we eat and the way we shop. We go to the shops less, we buy more of what we need and there is no “what is for dinner” question. You do have to be consistent with menu planning and make the effort to make it work- the menu will not write itself and so as I have mentioned in the past we make an effort to do ours every Sunday night together. I often write in my planner and make out my weekly to do lists as well. It is a great way to start the week and I strongly urge you to have a day/night where you fill this out- keeping old menu plans from the previous weeks at the back is a great way to get inspiration when you are stuck as well.

Our menu planner is an A5 size so it is super easy to slip into a planner, diary your handbag or to store on your clipboard. There is a space for the entire week and also an area for a small shopping list and other shopping. This planner was mine from last week so you can see how I plan out my week. The small shopping list was the things I need to make my recipes that I didn’t already have.

Planning your meals based of things you already have at home in your pantry and freezer is super important to make it cost effective and also means less food wastage.

We have plans to make a full A4 page shopping list for when you do a large shop as well- look out for this soon.

Now to colour we liked them all and so we decided that in this range which we have called the whimsy there are going to be five colours, pink, lemon, turquoise, biscuit and periwinkle. If you are like me you might love them all and choose to print them all and rotate every week ; )

Printing tip- these print best in Acrobat.

And so here are the links for you to enjoy- as always if you download and use these printables Bianca and I would love to hear from you, how you used them and if they made a difference in your meal time planning.

PINK

LEMON

TURQUOISE

BISCUIT

PERIWINKLE

ENJOY : ) It is great to be back.