January clutter challenge

Verdict so far - doing ok. I keep making up piles of crap, and saying I'll get my phone and then forgetting to. I missed the 9th so I'll find another 9 things - so not hard.

Bathroom sink area

Kitchen

Xmas cards can go

On a shelf

Bathroom 

Old handbag

Makeup up drawers 

Make up drawers - will need another thing as I miscounted.

January clutter challenge

Over the last two months I've been redesigning our lounge room and getting A's room done.  When I say redesigning I actually mean designing because, well, our furniture and interiors have been pretty slap dash - buying what we needed, when we needed it, at the cheapest price - so nothing matched or looked nice.

The before and after will be another post, after I'm done.

But for now I want to share my current challenge. As you know, I'm a great starter; I love to start project, but struggle to finish them. We'll see how this on goes.

This one starts easy, you dump/donate/sell things every day; the date tells you how many items.  Today's date is the 4th - so I have to remove 4 items!

Brilliant, but I'm starting today - hey I only saw it in Pinterest last night.

So here are my things so far:

A bag from my first aid course. I've taken the bandages out and put them in the first aid bucket.

Kimmidolls - I get given them.  I'm sure I have more but these two have been sitting on the bookshelves collecting dust.  I've put these in a 'donate' box.

Empty bottles - we didn't even drink these. Actually we have turned into a dry house so we have been giving away or emptying wine and liqueur bottles. These three have been above our sink for a few weeks now.

Candles. More Kimmidolls. Candles don't last long in our heat before they melt - these poor ladies have melted in on themselves although you can't tell from this angle. The orange candle was bought because it was 'supposibly' scented - it didn't really smell much and we now have Scenty. The other candle is pretty but we don't need it. The layer or dust proves this.

So there you go - I wonder what I'll find tomorrow to get rid of?

 

Life went a bit skewwiff

So my life went a bit skewwiff for a while there. After Atlas was born, we went back home and started to settle into our new rhythm. But then my husband was granted parental leave, so off we went to visit the southern part of our state and friends and family.

But then... driving to his mother's, my husband experienced severe pain, and fobbed it off. By 1am his mum had called the ambulance and he was whisked off to hospital. Turns out he had gallstones and pancreatitis.

So while he was in pain in hospital, they gave him the wrong sort of drip and so he ended up with chronic gout as well. So his stay in the hospital was extended.

Once that was over, we stayed at my mother-in-law's home - bless her for taking us in even though... well that is another story to tell probably never on here - for two weeks before my husband went in for surgery to remove his gallbladder.

Two more week after the surgery he was given the clear to go home - so we drove the three days that it now takes with a baby and finally got home.

So my life in dot points:
- End of May - Left home to go to my parents to await the birth
- Start of June - Husband travels to us
- June - nightmare of a month with two uncle passing away, issues with hospitals and anesthetists. Working on our home to make at least one room livable.
- July - Atlas is born and breastfeeding becomes an even bigger nightmare - I will make a separate post on this topic because I really couldn't find anything to help me online.
- August - We finally make our way back home - We are getting pretty good sleep, breastfeeding is still an issue, Atlas is a beautiful boy.
- September - Went to visit family and friends down south. Spent between hospitals and doctors
- October - Spend between hospitals and doctors before we finally get to go home.

November and December has been fantastic - settling Atlas into our home routine, Charles going back to work and me working out how I manage to do very little all day bar looking after a baby, but not get much else done.

I had some big changes in my life in the last 6 months, but I'm keen to get back to blogging.

Wardrobe Challenge 1 - Define your style

After being pregnant and not being able to fit into anything except for some leggings, maternity jeans and a few tops, I am really craving having my wardrobe back.

But I'm going to going back to my clothes with a little bit more organisation.

I've roughly followed the philosophy of "Color Me Beautiful".  I remember being a pre-teen and going to a session with my mum. The lady talked about colours and held up fabric pieces and loaned my mum the book. In university I found a copy of the book at the second hand store - called "Gillians" in Brisbane - loved that shop. Here it is on Amazon.

So you will see a lot of the same colours in my wardrobe, as well as clothing silhouettes - although I don't always follow the 'flattering' suggestions.

I'm going to follow "The Six Pillars of Wardrobe Building, which is here. Not for any other reasons, but it was linked to last year by someone in the Australian Curves group and I remembered it.

The first step is "Define Your Style" which includes a palette. I'm copying Gillian from "Crafting a Rainbow" for this.

BAM!

Behold the amazing colours of my life... I just picked colours I like and have in my wardrobe already. So many colours - oh well... 

Next up, I have to develop a signature look...

Birth happened

I've been preoccupied with my last trimester, birth and looking after a new born.

I'm not going to lie.  Giving birth was the most terrible thing I have ever had happen to me.  The first two weeks were absolutely shit and I wanted out, I cried all the time and questioned myself and my ability to do this.  Breastfeeding is the pits.  8 weeks on, and I'm now coming out of the coma and am loving myself, my husband and my baby but holy hell... I'm so glad I came home to be with my parents because being here with nothing to do but concentrating on being a mum has been amazing.  Love them.

Altas Vernon, born on the 5th July 2015, 5:51pm, 4.65 kg and 56cm long.

Fluffyhouse vinyl toys

I found these sitting in drafts - thought I should publish them since I'm cleaning out clutter!

Smiggle scented gel pens

Yesterday I wandered into a Smiggle store, not expecting to buy anything - honestly.

I pondered over the set of gel pens.  I bought a set a couple of years ago but was disappointed at the quality.  They skipped, the dried up quickly, and the colours were very pale on white.

As I was leaving I saw the woman at the counter using them so I asked straight up, 'Are these any good?'  We chatted for a bit about how they have now improved their quality, that they seemed a thicker barrel.  I was still umming and ahhing.

In the end I went back to the shop and bought the big pack, the woman even got out a pad of paper so I could test the set I picked up.  That's pretty awesome service I think.

So I have now tested them all and I'm happy to say that although some were a little scratchy they all worked well.  Only two didn't write straight away.

The pastel colours are very vibrant - seemingly neon.  

The glitter is fine, can be a little patchy but overal nice to look at. Silver in colour. I tried to photograph that for you here:

Now we will see how long they actually last.

You can buy these from smiggle.com.au as well as in store.

Colouring in

I love to colour.  Adult colouring books are really popular right now so I'm stocking up when I can!

I bought two books by Zoe de Las Cases, 'Secret Japan' and 'Secret Paris'.

Both have illustrations that have a sketchy feel.

There is both detailed images, patterns and scenery pages.

At the moment we are using Staedtler triplus fineliners simply because they are the pens I packed.  I'm currently visiting with my parents until my baby is born so I packed light. Although most other people I know don't pack art and craft supplies like I do!

But of course I have ordered some new gel pens because I really miss having the variety of colours and pens :)