Post Chrissy Round Up!

Firstly, Thank You to everyone that left those lovely comments.....the craft table I use was my MIL's until she passed away about 18 months ago. I love it too. It is nice and big and just the right height to sit and sew at. The little shopping trolley is kinda cute isn't it. That was actually already here when we moved it! The kids used to play with it but there are soooo many fights over it all the time that I ended up taking it to my craft room. Mean aren't I.

Now on to the pressies.......

What did I get for Christmas???? I was a bit spoilt I think.

My biggest gift was this 1TB external hard drive. So so cool!





An absolutely lovely 3 tier stand - I just wanna use it!



Complete digital photography Book - this is great, some excellent tuts and great tips.



My SIL Melissa (and my bro I guess...hehehe) got me this lovely clock. Thank you :)



I received this cute knitting bag that is currently over flowing with, well, knitting stuff



I looooove my new Laundry Powder Tin! It also comes with a little tin scoop. Now all I have to do is pick up one of these (all in pink of course) and this


I am a LOST JUNKIE! I have every episode so far (Mum gets me the new DVD set each year) and have watched them a few dozen times. I can't wait until LOST starts again this year but in the mean time this will keep me going!



My lovely PedEgg! I have wanted to get one of these for a while (see what happens when you have to watch midnight TV while breastfeeding!). Mum really does listen as I mentioned it in passing a while ago. (And yes, it does work!)



I got a nice soy candle and some soy melts. As well as some super yummy smelling hand cream!



Again from Mel and Dan, isn't this pillow cover stunning!! It currently sits on my bed during the day because I'm to afraid the kids will wreak it!



Mum got me a little sewing organiser. It really is brilliant. Isn't it great to receive all lovely, thoughtful gifts that you actually want and will use?! My family really does love me!


Image from here

I also got this GREAT cook book (that my entire meal plan for the next week is made up from - check back for Meal Plan Monday)


Image from here
Lastly, some lovely coasters.

I'm pretty sure there was other things too but they are not coming to mind at the moment.

So there you have it. Brilliant Christmas but the best bit, the bit I loved the most was the time I spent with my family. The two weeks I spent at Mum's house was so incredibly relaxing and fun. I just didn't want to go home! Now I miss them all terribly too.

Ok, its late...better get to bed. I am rather tired. Good night all!

You know....

I have just realised that I really look forward to every post from One Pretty Thing and it actually excites me to see that name appear in my bloglines! The things we do, huh!

Some other sites that 'excite' me when they appear:

This Young House

CurlyPops
Three Buttons

Scrapping with Ikea Goddess

Fail Blog - Funny!

My Creative Space

Kirsty has come up with another great idea that will replace On My Desk!

Welcome 'My creative space' - brilliant!

This is 'my space' currently. Getting ready to finish off Ashlee shirt that I have been meaning to get around to for quite a while now. Hopefully I will get this completed over the weekend! I have been a bit preoccupied with my new project 'Operation Organise' but I think I need a few minutes off from that - I have already got some much done! - and do something else. Just for a little while, I still have so much to do.

Head on over to Kootoyoo and take a look at who else is participating today!

Another BIG day

Good Morning All!

Today is Day 4 of 'Operation Organise'! We have another big day ahead of us - or should I say I have another big day ahead of me!

On Today's List we have:

* Clean off the top of the Pantry and re-organising it

(Which currently looks like this)


* Clearing off, culling and reorganising the Fridge top

(Which unfortunately currently looks like this)


* Clearing off and reorganising the top of the office cupboards

(They currently look like this!)


* Filing the paperwork from drawers and making room for the kids craft things

(These are the drawers I was talking about)


Lastly, here is a GREAT idea that I can't believe I haven't blogged about yet!!

My wonderful Mum made this for me - it was a little while ago now.....



A roll away pantry! The double door pantry we had was just not big enough so in her usual wonderful and handy style she constructed it for me. It holds all my baking things and all my extra stuff that over flow from the other pantry. I love it!



It rolls away nicely between the pantry and fridge and looks great too! Thanks Mum!!

Another great storage idea that I picked up from Aldi on clearance while in Canberra for $2 for a pack of 4 (I got a few packets) are these plastic drawer organisers.



As you can see I'm not using this one as a drawer organiser but to store all our stationary things (i.e. the staplers, calculators, my Dymo Labeller) on the computer desk. Keeps them all in one place!

I also got a 4 pack of larger ones - $3 and this I am currently using this one to store some smaller books and notepads on the book shelf that always seem to fall over.



So 'Operation Organise' running along nicely, I would love others to join in! Big or small it doesn't matter.

Check back later for a Christmas Present post!

A big success!

That's what today was!

The kitchen cupboards are done, the linen closet is clean and organised again and the clothes are folded and put away. Dinners over, kitchens cleaned up, toys are cleaned up, kids are sleeping and I'm pretty happy (and so much more organised). Although I didn't get it all completed before the Twins woke up and it ended up taking me a bit longer due to the 'help' I still got it finished. Tomorrow I will be tidying up the fridge top and culling a few kitchen items, for example a toaster grill that was given to me quite a few years ago and I have never used.

Also on the list for tomorrow is:

* Put away filing
* Empty plastic drawers and move all the kids craft things in
* Reorganise craft cupboard

I want to get some sewing done too. During my cleaning today I found these lovely tea towels that are to thin to really be useful for tea towels but they definitely have a use in the sewing room! What will they become??

Now I'm off to do a little sorting in the pattern and recipe department while I sit and watch a bit of LOST. I'm a LOST addict!

Link Love - Organising Edition

Check out some of these great 'Organising' Ideas:

1. A perfect place for all your patterns (or recipes or anything really!)
2. Cord Keeper
3. Thrifty Organisation Ideas

4. 18 Five Minute Decluttering Tips
5. Clean up the Bedroom in 15 minutes
6. Furniture Rehab - Blackboard dresser

7. Make a laundry Loader
8. Make a chalk board organiser
9. No-Sew Fabric covered boxes

10. A hidden Cork Pin Board
11. DIY Spice Rack

Lastly, not really an organising idea but I just had to show this! I love it! What a brilliant idea! I can just imagine my daughters room with this set....

Or this one....I love the wardrobe under the bed idea!

Check them out over at Tumidei

Operation Organise

Since I returned home from my lovely, relaxing trip away over the Christmas/New Years period I have decided to do some major reorganisation around the house. We have a lot of 'stuff' we just don't need anymore - or never needed to begin with....hahaha. As this house is only small I need all the extra space I can get!

On the first day of 'Operation Organise' I began with the Office/Craft Room.

This room does become a 'dumping ground' for a lot of things unfortunately. Thankfully we have recently added two double door cupboards to the room that has given me a lot more storage and things that were sitting around on shelves and the (ahem...) floor are now nicely stored away. Notice I didn't say neatly - well that's because it is not all that neat at the moment. OK, not really true. It is kind of neat but the arrangement of things could be a little better and I do have a couple of 'gotta sort that out later' boxes in there too. You know, those little things that just don't have a place to go - yet. I'm working on it. I also need to tidy and sort out the things on top of the cupboard but being short I can overlook that for a little while. Some other small things like cleaning out the plastic drawers need to be done too - I'm going to use them to store the kids craft things (e.g.: pencils, paints, paper, etc.) Currently they are full of 'need to file' papers and the like. Over all the room is much better and much more usable too. I'm loving that I can sew when ever I like as 'my craft space' and neat and tidy.

Day two on 'Operation Organise' was a little less productive. I did get some major cleaning done though which I guess will help in the long run. The bathroom/toilet got a good scrub, the entire house got a through vacuum and the wet areas got a through mop. I reorganised the toys in the lounge room a little better too. Other than that I folded and put away clothes, did 3 loads of washing (including the couch covers), did dishes, organised dinner, went for a walk and scrapped - again!

Today is day three of 'Operation Organise'. The Twins have just gone done for a sleep so on today list we have:

* Firstly, go and jump in a shower while I can!!
* Reorganise the hallway linen closet/storage cupboard done this morning :) !!
* Clean and reorganise the kitchen cupboards (next on the list after I'm finished here)
* Fold the washing and put away


If I get time:

* Sort and organise my sewing print outs (patterns etc.) and my loose recipes in the folders I have purchased for this job.

That is probably something I can do tonight while I watch TV I guess.

I better get moving! These things won't do themselves and I need to get as much done while 'my helpers' are sleeping.

I'll leave you with a page I scrapped last night. (I don't know if I am completely finished with this but thought I would show you anyway. I'm also in the process of doing a similar one for Zach.)

Click to enlarge

(Credits to come)

P.S I'll also add, check out Works for me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer! I'm a regular reader of this and there are always some great hints, tips and ideas with Mr Linky. One day I might even be able to participate!

Oh no!

The first thing I saw when I uploaded this was the spelling of surprise! I've spelt it wrong!!! Please over look that for now, I will go back and fix it soon but I have spent long enough scrapping today - yes I have done other things too! Enjoy!

{ Christmas Surprise }

Click to enlarge

Akizo Designs - Xmas alpha2
Trixie Scraps Designs - My Christmas Gift Mini Kit
Small Twill tags from Gunhild-Storeide

Angel Eyes....

Well, well I scrapped again!

The kids have been so good to me this morning and have just been playing quietly and nicely together so I thought I would take the opportunity to scrap a page with a new kit I recently downloaded. Now I'm off to dress children, shower, do dishes, hang washing, as well as fold some and put it away. Then I'm back in the office again today to try and reorganise a few things; like the craft cupboards that are just bursting at the seams! I will be back later with some photos of a few Christmas presents I received this year, spoiled as always. Everything I loved!

See you later!

{ Angel Eyes }

Click to enlarge

The warmth of friends Alpha - recoloured - Enchanted Studio Scraps Collab kit
Love Letters Kit - Oscraps Collab (in Scrap 'N Art Jan/Feb issue)
Template from Youandi (Designs by Fryske)

I'mmmmmm back!

I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of things post Christmas so I am going to participate in this weeks......
Time to get real and fess up to all the things I absolutely positively DID NOT do this week:

Sunday while Brett and Mitchell were down the farm and the Twins were sleeping I totally did not lay on couch for just a few minutes waking up 2 hours later. No way would I do that, there is just so much to do around here! And then I did not proceed to run move quickly around the house to get everything done just so that they didn't know I was sleeping. No, that would be stupid. (No, really it would be stupid!)

I most certainly did not lay in bed last night thinking about things that I should of added to my last post, and I wasn't up at 3:30am this morning feeding Zach and have an over whelming desire to catch up on blogs. Not at 3:30am! I didn't give in to that desire and finally get back to bed at 5:30am only to have the Twins up at 6am.

I down right didn't let Mitch have a muesli bar before bed because he wouldn't eat his dinner and was really complaining that he was hungry! I would not give in like that - no way!

And lastly.......I mostly definitely, most certainly, really didn't pack away all the MCN's today because keeping up with them, the house, the kids, Zachary's therapy and appointments and just 'me time' in general is just to much (that and they have grown out of 99% of them and I don't have the time or money to replace them right now). NO WAY! I didn't fill up the shelves formally known as the 'nappy shelves' with Christmas toys either. My kids didn't get spoiled so much that they don't have room for it all - never! I didn't shed a small tear over it either...... (Modern Cloth Nappies for sale everyone!)

So there you have it - Head on over to MckMama's blog to play along!

See you all again soon!

OPERATION ORGANISE BEGINS!

This New Year I have made the resolution to GET THE HOUSE MORE ORGANISED. So, I have decided to start 'Operation Organise'. You can join in with me if you want!

Below I will list what needs to be done and cross it off as I do it (or add to it if I feel like it too!).

Kitchen:

Empty, Clean, Sort, Cull and Re-organise the Kitchen cupboards
Clear off, Clean, Sort, Cull and Re-organise the top of the Fridge
Clear off, Clean, Sort, Cull and Re-organise the top of the Pantry

Bathroom:

Empty, Clean, Sort, Cull and Re-organise the bathroom cupboards


Laundry:

Not to much to do in here other than a really good clean - like under the washing machine.....

Office/Craft Room:

Re-organise Craft cupboard
Re-organise Storage cupboard
Put away filing and empty plastic drawers
Sort and pack away into (above) plastic drawers kids craft things
Re-distribute things to the rest of the house that does belong in this room
Organise photo and files on the external hard drive - started

Hallway:

Empty, Clean, Sort and Re-organise the Linen Cupboard
Clean and organise the top of the Piano

Lounge Room:

Re-Organise Toys
Tidy and Re-organise the TV Unit

Our Bedroom:

Sort through Clothes and cull anything not worn or that does fit - my cupboard
Sort through Brett's Clothes and cull anything not worn or that does fit Would you believe he had about the double the clothes that I have in my cupboard! About 85% of these clothes I have never seen him wear in the 7 years we have been together! We were able to donate 3 large garbage bags of clothes to the Op Shop and a completely pack shopping bag of coat hangers that we just don't need anymore as well as getting a small bag of older clothes for rags!
Sort out the boxes of clothes under the bed - started

M, Z & A's Room:

Sort through Clothes and cull anything not worn or that does fit
Re-organise books on bookshelves
Tidy and re-organise the top of the wardrobe
Sort out 'daycare clothes' from other clothes

Ashlee's Room:

Hmmmmm.....where do I start?!
Edited: Ashlee has been doing a brillant job on this herself! I'll keep you updated.

Oh My Goodness!

I'm actually blogging! Who would have thought.....a lot has been going on around here, some of which I won't go into. Blogging hasn't been top priority but now here I am at 9pm blogging when in all honesty I should be cleaning up and getting ready to hop off to bed!

I'll start by saying.....

I hope you had a lovely evening and a great time bringing in 2009!

I have been home since the 1st. Still trying to get everything unpacked and put away from our time away - what fun! Ashlee stayed with Nan in Canberra for a few more days which was good because we had the car absolutely jammed packed full coming home (plus we had to leave a couple of things there until next time) and I know we wouldn't have had any more room for Ashlee let alone all her stuff! HAHA. Ok, its getting later so I'll try and keep this short.

Here is a small look into some of the favoured Christmas presents the kids received....


I also got some crafting in while I was away. Here are the finished pencil cases Ashlee sent off to her friends for a (belated) Christmas present. (I printed out some birdies, ironed them on, stitched around the bodies and stitched on the legs.) They don't look to bad.

These are some little bags that I made up for Mum to store all her leads, cables, etc from her DSLR, external hard drive, camcorder, etc. I made the boxy ones using this tutorial from Three Bears.


And some how I was actually able to sew up this bag on my very last day night in Canberra. (That's what I was doing at 12 midnight!) I used a combination of this tutorial from Ric Rac and ideas from this post over at Twelve22. Its not the most wonderful bag (making wise) but its great for a very first try and I actually REALLY love it! (Don't look to close!)

Its even lined!

This idea I took from a bag my Mum has that I really love. Its a little zippered side pocket that holds my purse, keys and phone. I no longer have to go searching for things in the bottom of the bag.


And inside there is another pocket that holds dummies and things and I add some slots for a couple of pens because I'm always looking for one.

I also made a lovely little pillowcase dress for Anna too. I think it is so pretty and she really loves it too!



I did some shopping at Spotlight and was able to pick up a Knitting Loom similar to this. I have wanted one for a while and now I'm blissfully happy knitting away with this. And nearly finished my top that I have been working on for months.

Ummm, a bit more went on but my mind is blank so I will come back for that. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

Until next time I will leave you with a page I scrapped today (yes! I scrapped - Its been a while)...

{Sweet Precious Baby Girl}

Credits: Hugs 'n' Stuff Kit by SJTowers - Random musings of a Scrapaholic

(Oh and I changed internet providers too! Good Bye Forever BigPond!! Hello super fast and super cheap TPG!)