DIY Loopy Luna

Hmmm... I'm not sure what this wee creation should be called.. I have a faint recollection that some people could be calling them taggy toys?? I'm not sure how something changes from a softie to something else with the addition of looped ribbons.. but anyway, I'm calling mine Loopy Luna(r). Cos well, she has loops for hair, and is rather moon like I think.

This is one of the projects I put together in week 38 of my pregnancy. It was really a time of using any craft materials I could find in my house to distract myself as much as possible! This one wasn't Pinterest inspired, rather she is based on a character from an Enid Blyton book "The Far Away Tree". The character is called Moonface. And he is a darling wee character. I wanted to make a wee softie of him for Sophie, for when we read her the book later. Then I received a bunch of cute ribbons in my Christmas parcel from Mum, so I thought, why not add some loopy loops, for baby to grasp on to. And thus, Loopy Luna was born (and he became a she). Its amazing what the pregnant mind can come up with huh?

So... Materials for this project -
- Fabric for the main body of the softie. I used a light weight white cotton, because, well, it was in my box of fabric. But you could use any colour. I liked the white for the moon, but you could make her yellow for the sun, or mix it up with some floral.
- Ribbons. I used 5 different ribbons, 2 wider ribbons, 3 thinner ribbons. I used ones with patterns, but you could combine plain and patterned. I quite like the colour combination of mine, especially since my base fabric was white and I think it needed brightening up.
- Embroidery thread. Now, maybe its because I am from a very Scottish and thrifty family, but I always keep my leftover threads when I do cross stitch projects. So I just used different coordinating colours that I had left over.
- Embroidery hoop - this was super helpful for the embroidery part (duh) and also for making her a good circle shape without using a template.
Oh and I don't know if I could have done this without a sewing machine. I'm gonna say that I may have gone mad trying to hand sew this thing.

How it all went down -

Iron your fabric. It always looks better that way (I didn't until near the end, and it totally made it better).

Place your white fabric into your embroidery hoop. Cut out a square of fabric around the hoop, make the overall size about an inch or two bigger than the embroidery hoop you have. I used my hoop size as a basis for the size of the softie.

Decide what personality you would like your softie to have. I wanted Luna to be lovely and friendly. With happy cheeks. Once you know what you want her to be like, draw it on! I have said many times how bad I am at drawing, but even I managed a smile, some cheeks and some wee eyelashes. If you have a fabric safe pen, you could use that, but I just used an ordinary pencil.

Next is embroidery time.. But don't worry. Its just back stitch, the easiest stitch that can be. I started stitching her eyes, splitting the length of one eyelash into 3 stitches. That set the stage for the size of each stitch. Continue stitching until you finish her face.

Sophie and I stitching Luna's smile.

Trim the edge of the fabric so that the edge runs along the edge of the embroidery hoop (you will end up with a circular piece of fabric the same size as your hoop). Remove the fabric from the hoop. Pin this onto the rest of your fabric, to use it as a template to get another circle the same size. Cut out the second circle.

Once you are happy with her face, you need to organise the ribbons. I decided to do a pattern with five ribbons, repeated each time. I found the easiest way to do it was to think of her circular face as a clock and divided it up roughly that way. To make the loops safe for wee one, make sure you don't make them so long that she could choke or anything. That would not be good. I used 10 cm length ribbons. These are then folded in half, and with the seam allowance, mean that the loops end up being a little over 4 cm long.

So. This part confused me. And I had no instructions, so I will be honest, I did have to seriously work through the baby brain to get this part done. I will try and explain it as clearly as possible.. Lets see.

Lay your fabric down, face side up. Arrange the ribbons around the fabric in the spot you want each one at, and with the spacing you want. Take a piece of ribbon. Double the ribbon over so that it is folded in half. Take a pin and pin it to the edge of the fabric. You want the loop to be laying so that it sits above the face, rather than out way from the face. Continue this the whole way around her face. I used lots of ribbons so this took ages, obviously it will vary with the amount you use.

Now. Using a sewing machine, stitch around the outside circumference of the face. Double back at the start to make sure you don't have any thread pull out. Work slowly to make sure you don't get a pin stuck in the machine, you also don't want to come away from the edge effectively "unlooping" the loops.

Okay, still with me? Take your face, which should now have a bunch of ribbons stitched around the outside, and take the other piece of fabric you have. Line the outer edges up and pin them together, face side inside the package of cloth.

Turn the fabric over, so that the back of the face is facing you. You should be able to see the circular pattern of stitches which are holding in the ribbons (which are on the inside) of the fabric right now.

Start stitching the two layers together, making sure the seam is further into the circle than the seam holding the ribbons in. That is to say, when you turn it the right way in, you want the ribbons to be within a seam, not hanging out higgledypiggledy. You know? Lol this is so hard to explain. I hope it makes sense.

Continue stitching the two layers together until you get to about an inch away from where you started. Double back to make sure your threads don't come loose when you turn it the right way in.

Turn the softie the right way out. Here's how she might look!

Fill your softie lovely and full and chubby, chub out those cheeks!

When you are content with her filling, hand stitch the last wee gap... And she's all done!!

What do you think? Does it make sense? Do you have any questions?
I was so happy with how she turned out, especially since I didn't have a pattern, and I did have some intense baby brain at the time haha. Are you an Enid Blyton fan? What childhood favourite would you make into a softie if you could?

The last 20 weeks - In 5 Words or less.

Hmmmm. Is this doable? We shall see. It's almost like those life lately posts on crack.


September.
Baby moon. Two sweet words. A modern construct in a modern world. Regardless of your thoughts on a baby moon. We had saved my most anticipated trip in the States for fall of 2014. And we happened to be pregnant, so baby moon it became.
In short: Houston to Vancouver. Ferry to Victoria. Ferry to Seattle. Drive to Portland via Mount St Helens. Drive to Crater Lake via Columbia River Gorge. Drive to the Pacific. Then, casually trot down to San Fran. And let me just say, it was my favorite trip in the States. There will be so many Travel Thursdays coming from that trip.

So much happniess. Victoria is beautiful.

Crater Lake. There are actually no words.

Latourell Falls. One of so many beautiful spots along the gorge.

Two Baby showers!
So spoiled. A lovely afternoon tea at work. And a surprise shower and early thanksgiving from our adopted Texan family. We are so blessed to have a family a world away from our home.

Organizing a move in your Third Trimester.
Yeah, nah. Don't do it. Instead, enjoy little things. Like football. And donuts. This was a time of making the most of some of the things I love about America. Like football. And donuts.

Like donuts.

And football.

Little Man!
Our Texan family has been going through the pregnancy journey with us. And the bestest news... Little man decided to come two weeks early so we got to meet him! And spend a week with him. So happy and blessed to meet him.

Houston to Dubai. Dubai to Perth.
All I can say is that the other side of the world really is, the other side of the world. So far. So, so far. But having best friends waiting for you at the other end is rad. With a capital R.

Dude, we are kind of homeless.
Well, not really I suppose. We have a hotel for a month. But this baby mama has been waiting to nest for 7 months. Someone get me a house. Stat.

Wow. 29.
Is it me or did 29 years go pretty fast? Hmmm. Pretty happy about the way my 29th year has gone. Let's see how year 30 will be!

Sophie got in some great Happy Birthday kicks.

The view from my birthday lunch. I don't hate it here, not at all.

We have a house! And a thermomix!
Cue cleaning, building idea furniture, trips to the department store, trying to rest but really sucking at it, listening to the house noises, wondering whether we will be murdered or if it's just the house, scrubbing the bath, taking baths, chatting to Sophie, seeing our lovely friends, hoping for the temperatures not too get too high, being happy when temperatures stayed under 35, sulking when they got higher. And oh the thermomix. So much happiness in one machine.

Nesting.
It's like all the things I imagined and pinned and plotted suddenly started coming to life. So much relief, glee, excitement and aqua. I believe its a pregnancy thing.Can't wait to do a "nursery tour" and share where I got all the pretty things from.

I just love her Moses Basket.

This makes me happy.

Yes. This Ikea hack is my favorite thing ever.

Baby Shower.
I really have the bestest friends. So lucky. So lovely. Vintage woodland themed amazingness.

The origami garland.

Liz makes the cutest cupcakes.

Christmas!
The lead up to Christmas was mostly spent distracting myself from the upcoming delivery. So I made lots of Christmas decorations and tried to rest up. Christmas away from home is always hard. I was up anyway so I skyped my family at 4 am so I could watch my wee nephew open his presents. Totally worth it! Christmas Day itself was spent with our dear friends celebrating a special ladies birthday and enjoying the sunshine.

These lovely angels were a Pinterest win indeed.

You know when you nail something that you didn't have a pattern for? Very stoked!

Our lovely treeling.

Garland wall in all its loveliness.

Baby watch - two solid weeks of contractions mean we are just waiting for her to pop out (that's totally how it works right?). One day they will last more than a few hours and then it will be game on. For now it's a perching on the birth ball and waiting kind of game.

New Years!
Party animals. Well except not! More resting and wondering if all these contractions would lead to a baby born at 12:01 on January first. Nope! She's still there.

So that's us, all up to date! Its been lovely catching up with you guys! And I'm sorry. I guess I totally went over the 5 word mark.

DIY Brooch and Button Bouquet - Part 1

So... One of the biggest projects for the wedding was the bouquets.

Like so many things with weddings, there are so many options, and you can easily spend so much time and money on flowers, that will, as is their nature, wilt. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE beautiful flowers, I have pinned so many beautiful bouquet combinations in the last few years, but I just wanted something different.

When I googled "alternative wedding bouquets" I got a lot of very cool ideas. Some seemed less functional than others. For example, I love the idea of a candy bouquet. I also love the idea of eating candy. Given this, I feel like, I personally, am not compatible with candy bouquets. I found bouquets made of feathers, paper flowers, silk flowers, flax flowers, butterflies, and so many other things. Another thing I found was a small bouquet, made of buttons that someone had given as a mothers day bouquet. So I googled "button bouquet" and I found images of bouquets people had made for weddings and had made. They I found that some people made "brooch bouquets". I loved them! They were all so eclectic and unique.

I found that there are some very talented people selling them on Etsy and Facebook.. But I thought.. I bet I can do that. It can't be THAT hard. And well. It wasn't THAT hard. But it took a lot of time, and buttons are pricier than you may think. However, I think that making the bouquets were so worth the effort, that I would like to show you how I made mine. If you have time, and love to create things, this is a fantastic way to make yourself a bouquet that will one day be an heirloom for your children. 

It was a pretty long process so I have divided it up into two posts: the first is on starting out and making your stems, the second post is about assembling the stems into a bouquet, and finishing touches to perfect them!

Part 1: Starting out and making your Stems

Starting Out

Shopping List

1. Wire - 24 or 26 gauge You can find this through florist stockists, on Ebay or in some beading and craft stores. I find the 24 was sturdier and held buttons better.  Prices vary, once you find a store of brand you like, if you can buy large, you should.  I did not realise how many metres of this wire I would go through.  I literally used hundreds of metres of wire.
2. Wire snips - again, you could find these on Ebay or through craft supply stores. These are invaluable for the project.  A decent pair will cost around $10-$20.
3. Buttons. Buttons. Buttons. Depending on how eclectic, varied, large, you want your bouquets, the size and shape will vary.  For each stem you want 2-4 buttons, varying in size and colour. 
4. Depending on how varied, how shiny, how bright, how colorful, how big or how small you want your bouquet, the end materials you end up making your stems out of will change. Here is a list of what I ended up including in mine:

While this was definitely cheaper than buying pre-made button bouquets, the costs can easily add up. Here are where I bought most of my trinkets and buttons:

Notes on buying the goodies:
Etsy - I found some great stores that make their own buttons. They were a great resource for specific colors. 
Ebay - this is a mixed bag. Literally. Often I would buy large bags of thousands of mixed buttons. In some bags I found lots of vintage buttons and unique sets. In others there were literally hundreds that were not in my color scheme. Also, some suppliers from Asia sell bulk amounts of buttons. The medium sized, white buttons I used as a frame for novelty buttons and cabochons.
Amazon - I only bought a few specialised buttons off here.
Second Hand Stores - awesome for cheap, old jewellery. You can use clip on earrings and costume rings just like brooches.
Garage Sales - hit and miss. Sometimes you can find jars of buttons or costume jewellery, sometimes nothing.
Friends - often people have jars of buttons sitting around they aren't using. One of my bridesmaids even went out and bought a few special buttons for the bouquet.
Craft Stores - obviously this is the easiest and fastest way to get buttons. Sales can be good, but I found these were generally more expensive.

Setting Up

This turned into a year long project. Luckily I had just bought a dining room table. In the beginning I used one chair and sat at one end in the evenings crafting. By the time I was done, I had taken over the whole table. And the chairs. I had jars full of different colored buttons. And dishes full of different charms and beads. 

Making Your Stems

1. Cut your wire into a length approximately the same as your elbow to your hand. (This is dependent on how big you want your bouquets, but experiment. I ended up cutting a cm or two off the end of mine. Remember you can always shorten it.)
2. Stack a bunch of buttons together on the table in front of you. Experiment with the number of buttons, color arrangements, and patterns. These are your flowers. How varied do you want them? Do you want recurring patterns? Do you want them all different? I stacked lots of different buttons together, and then would twist a bunch of the wires. Do it in groups. The progress is slow at first, but when you are done you have a whole bunch of stems.
3. For the twisting. Take your wire and bend it loosely in half. Take your stack of buttons, maybe 3 or 4, and thread each end of the wire through two opposite button holes. The smallest first. Push the stack of buttons to the middle of the folded wire. Then twist, twist, twist. The tighter you make the twist, the more secure and strong the stem. Think of a huge flower or a weak stem, the flowers droop.
4. Try stacking a large button below a medium button below a small button, this is a sturdy and symmetrical way to start a stem.
5. Try adding a bead, pearly or vintage button to the end of the stem.
6. Do you have vintage buttons? Try adding a vintage button or brass button onto a plain white button. 
7. Try a cabochon or flat back stem. Thread a medium sized plain button onto your wire. Add several small ones underneath it, to give it some strength. Twist down and secure. Take a hot glue gun and add a cabochon onto the end.
8. Want to only use brooches, or add a few to the button stems? Try a thicker wire. Or make the stem double the strength.... Since most brooches don't have button holes like a button, look for twists, holes in the pattern, or hook the wire into the clip device on the brooch. To make it stronger do this with two sets of folded wire. Or, secure the end with some hot glue.

So what do you think? Are you considering making your own bouquets? Or have you already made some...? How did you do it?

Stay tuned for the next post where I will talk about assembling the stems and creating the bouquets themselves. And maybe even adding some flair for neat ways to give them to your girls. They really are a beauiful gift.

DIY Fabric Garland

Here is a simple and gorgeous DIY that I helped Steph make for her wedding. We made long garlands for her day, and Rob and I had spiral ones for our day. Either way they are easy to make, and make such a beautiful statement. They can be personalized to your wedding or party colors and you can make them for a bargain, or you can splash out and they will cost a little more.

Like I said, these were for a wedding, but you could use them at a baby shower, hens night, birthday party, or truth be told, I just want one for above my head board of my bed!

Here is what we used,

A couple of yards of 6 different fabrics. Three accent colors from their wedding color scheme, a crepe chiffon, creme lace and white embroidered cotton.

Base for the garland, we used a heavy duty twine (see notes below for alternatives).

Here is what we did,

Cut fabric into strips of varying thickness, the thickest were one inch across, the skinniest were half and an inch. 

The fabric was one yard in width, and I cut it lengthways. 

When you have a pile of each colored fabric, start by deciding if you want a pattern or just a whimsical mix. 

One color at a time, I tied the fabric strips along the twine, mixing them along the length of the garland. To make a longer strand you can tie the strip at one end, and to make a fuller looking and shorter garland you can tie them at the center.

The lace strips have a sweet vintage feel while the chiffon sparkled in the light.  

Options - 

Now, Steph bought her fabrics and splashed out. They were stunning colors, and a beautiful lace. We did another set with ribbons too. If you wanted to go that route, the advantages are that you can get the exact colors you want, and you can get the exact amount you want. The ribbon one needs a lot of spools to fill in the garland significantly so can get really pricey fast. 

If you want to get a bargain, I suggest you try looking at second hand and thrift stores for fabric scraps, sheets and old linen. Or, I had great success looking through the scrap and clearance bin at Spotlight (Aus, NZ), in the US you could try Joanne's, Michael's or Hobby Lobby. 

You can change the length, fullness, and shape of these garlands. For spiral ones, which hang in a large circle, I used a dog frisbee (odd I know), but it was basically a large plastic ring. For Stephs day we used heavy duty twine so they could be hung from trees and tables.

Guest Post - Crochet Tips with Leah!

Today my post is being taken over in the loveliest way possible, my dear friend from home will be sharing a DIY crochet project and some handy tips!

Tehani, Leah and I at our MSc graduation!

Hi Blog readers!

You don’t know me yet, but I am a uni friend of the wonderful Sarah. I live in Aotearoa New Zealand with my lovely fiancé and our gorgeous son. Since our son was born 7 months ago, I seem to have decided I am somewhat of a crafty person (curse you Pinterest!) and Sarah asked me to guest blog about one of my recently finished crochet projects so here I am :-)

I recently learned to crochet – only very simple, mind you. My sister-in-law-to-be was crocheting one evening at my house, so being the nosy sod I am I asked her to show me how to do it. What started as me learning to crochet turned into this cot blanket for my girlfriend’s baby due in November – she is British, he is Argentinean so I chose Paua shell colors to represent New Zealand and the new life they are building together down here.

 


Now my niece, bless her, she is a character and I love her to bits. Very crafty herself at almost-5 years old, she saw me working on the cot blanket and asked me to make her one for her 5th birthday in red, white and pink. (When I told her I had decided to do purple, white and pink she simply said, deadpan, “huh. That could work”. So funny!) I won’t go through trying to teach you to crochet, there are loads of tutorials and blogs online already but just thought I would share with you some of the things I learned in this project!

Now, the first thing you should know about me is that I get bored kind of easily. I started out making the two-toned granny squares, changing every round to a new color. Then, because I get bored easily, I changed it so that on one square it would end on a colored round and the next would end on a white round. Then instead of changing every round, I changed every second round. 

Tip 1: don’t cut the yarn when you change colors. Otherwise you are going to have to thread in a whole lot more loose threads than you really need to. It means that you will see the yarn on the wrong side of the blanket but trust me, it will make the final job a lot easier and you won’t even notice it!
When I had 8 squares done, I tried to get an idea of what sort of pattern might look good for the finished piece so tried laying it out. But really, it was too hard. My FB community was pretty evenly split on which way to call it! I took a picture and decided to wait and see before I started joining the squares together.

Tip 2: don’t be afraid to start a project without the end product firmly in mind. It just makes it more exciting when it comes time to try and cobble it all together and you aren’t locked into something  if you happen to change your mind when you are further through.

Originally I thought I would only have four granny squares per row, but realized quickly this would end up being too narrow to have enough coverage on a single bed. I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out how the middle row would go – I needed something that would fit with the rest of the squares on that row, but when I tried it out it didn’t look quite as I wanted it to. By shifting the center squares up one space it suddenly worked a whole lot better. 

Tip 3: Experiment! Crochet is great because it is quick – if something doesn’t look right, it doesn’t take long to take it apart and try other color combinations.

Tip 4: do what you have to to stay interested. I said already, I get bored easily. So when I was about halfway through how big I wanted the blanket to be, I decided to stitch it together to spread the workload and so I wouldn’t have loads of threading and sewing to do at the end.

I have to say it was very rewarding finishing the last of the granny squares. After doing a double-crochet border on the cot blanket (so time consuming!!) I decided to just do trebles around the joined squares, one in each color to make a border. It was quick (yay!) and it looked better than expected, though it did blend in some places more than I thought it might. 

If I am being brutal, it is probably still a tiny bit narrow for a single bed, but one more granny square would easily spread it out that little bit more.

So yep, those are probably the best tips I have if you are going to start a simple crochet project. It was quite fun doing something similar but a bit different, and I hope my niece will love it as much as I enjoyed doing it for her. I also hope she keeps it for years and years, and maybe even passes it on to her daughter one day.

Happy crafting!
 

Isn't the pink and purple adorable! You can check Leah out at her Pinterest page here.

How we keep our whare organised

Much like my mother, both grandmothers and great grandmother before me, I am a woman of many scarves.

This post was inspired when Sarah posted on her Facebook asking her pals if they had any organising or storage tips.. It made me think.. I love it when things are organised. I stress when they aren't. So how do I keep my goods sorted? 

I created a pinterest board with neat ideas that I find on the Internet, you can check it out here: "Organising Made Beautiful"

Here is how I keep my shit tizzite. So to speak.

My wardrobe

I bought a wee fold up stepping stool from CVS to make the most of the top shelves of my wardrobe. It is super handy to keep bulky or delicate things up there. Like hats and bags. I stuff the bags with shopping bags or tissue paper to give them rigidity so they don't topple over.

Baskets - I have a set of baskets that I store alot of accessories in. I like to keep things where I can see them.
This way everything fits on my shelves and I have easy access to all my beautiful things.
 

Belts - my belts are stored in a set of two baskets and I use a plastic tub to have them wrapped around. That way I can find the colour I want quickly.

I have a lot of belts. Its kind of required with all the dresses!

Glasses - I use this vintagey tray that Rob got me from hobby lobby. I used to have a coat hanger on the wall with them hanging off it, but this is way cuter.

Some of my glasses. I admit to having random pairs strewn through out the house, but I do try to keep them coralled :P

Earrings - I use this cute cake server that I bought in NZ when we were home in December for our wedding. Its so adorable. And I love choosing a cute wee pair out of it. Before I had this super cute dish I used another one. A trip to the opshop can provide you with mucho storage potential!

How I keep track of my jewellery.

I use a canvas that I painted to keep necklaces from getting tangled. And a ribbon from Tiffanys to keep my bows and flowers from being crushed in a basket or drawer.













Boots - tip! I use empty water bottles to keep the shape in my boots and to stop them slouching and folding over during summer when they aren't worn.

Keep boots straight in Summer with empty water bottles.

Dry cleaning - tip! I have a bag set aside where all my drycleaning goes into so that I don't accidentally put them through the washer. I take my dress cleaning very seriously lol. 

Buttons - tip! I have a mason jar on my shelf that I put all my buttons in when I bring them home. I used to have buttons scattered all over the house, but now I know exactly where to get one if I have a button popping incident!

Tags, receipts - if you are like me and break things, or change your mind about certain shopping items, I find it handy to keep a wee Victoria's secret bag on the shelf so that I can throw tags and receipts in. Then, heaven forbid, if I have buyers remorse, I know where to grab the paper work.

Shoes - I find the best way to fit all my shoes in is stacked shelves from costco. But, I really like the rustic look of wooden planks and cinder blocks. This is a DIY option that I love the look of.

Underwear draw - I am a coveter of frilly knickers, so it goes without saying that my drawers drawer is usually overflowing. I tried this the other day, and I am so happy with the result. Haha I am so OCD and I feel so much better that they are all organised now.
I used two small shoe boxes spread out across the drawer. This creates four individual spaces, so my bras line up exactly! I like this so much better, and it does actually save me time so I am not fossicking through my drawers looking for the right coloured bra!

I know it is OCD to organise underwear, but it does save time!

Robs Wardrobe - That boy like hats. So we got him a hat organiser from New Era. It clears up the shelf for other man things, and it just looks better to be honest.

Office

Mason jars. Mason jars. Mason jars. I use them for pens, pencils, colouring pencils, paint brushes, rulers. We have one for pennies, and one coins of actual use (thanks American treasury). 

I use saucers for random things, like pencil sharpeners, erasers.



Sugar bowl - I use this for pins and thumb tacks. It looks cute, and it keeps the place tidy. Alternatively, you could use a tea cup or milk jug. I love random objects which can be used for storage and organising but that look so much more original than standard storage solutions.

Cork board - I had no idea how much space this would make on my desk. Now all our concert and sports tickets are pinned up, coupons, appointments, phone numbers. They are all up there. My "to clear" pile has never been so cleared. If you don't like the look of the board, you can spray paint it, or buy a coloured product. You can buy or make cute pins. (DIY cute push pin tutorial coming soon). 

Here is the cork board. I think it is a little plain. (there might be a DIY coming soon to fix that!)

Bathroom

I use cute things in my bathroom, I just like it that way. We found that our cleaner would move all our things around to clean (SOOO not complaining by the way. Bless her heart). So I looked around for a large vanity tray, that way she can just take the tray off! I use tea cups for lipstick and gloss, a mason jars for brushes. A wee porcelain milk jug stores eye and lip pencils. A tea cup keeps Q tips standing up right and ready to use.  I like that it is tidy, but it looks good too. No one likes an ugly bathroom bench now do they?

Use random op-shop tea cups for make up storage.

We have two vintage vanity trays on our dresser with our colognes and perfumes on them. This is functional as the dresser surface can be cleaned more easily, and it looks really pretty. 

Our cologne and family photos make the dresser personal.

Bathroom drawers - up until a few weeks ago these were manic. When I threw the shoe boxes into my underwear drawer, I grabbed the lids and used them to create some individual compartments for make up, medicine etc. Again, so glad I did it. And its only a little thing, but it makes it way easier to find the right nail polish or some panadol or whatever.

Use shoe box lids to create compartments in the drawers. Good for spills too!

Vitamins - I am so useless at remembering to take vitamins. Like, so useless, my Mum is always telling me to take more. The only way I can remember to take them was to buy one of those daily pill things. To be fair, I thought only old people used them. But they work. On Sunday, throw enough in for the week, and then you don't have to open individual jars or containers each morning. Brilliant. 

Kitchen 

I spend hardly any time in the kitchen these days. Work is so busy and I just don't do the same amount of cooking, entertaining or baking here that I did in Perth. However, here are is something we use every day.

Tea drawer - I love tea. Rob loves tea. We drink it by the bucket full. We decided to have a kitchen drawer whose sole purpose in life is to store our tea. Instead of fussing with all the different boxes in the cupboard, each time we get a new box, we trim the lid off it, and place it snug beside our other tea. This is super functional, as you can just glance down and grab exactly whatever tea you want. Plus, instead of opening jars, or individual boxes, you can grab a few kinds if you are making tea for pals. 

We really like tea.

______________________________________________________

These are some of the ways I like to keep our house just so. Rob loves all the wee solutions cos luckily he is just as OCD as me. Yay. 

Please let me know if you have any tips or tricks, I would love to hear them!


xox

I really like beanies. And berets.

Rereading this, it turns out I really like a lot of things haha.