Happy New Year and Welcome to 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Can you believe it is 2014 already. Wow! I am a little stunned by how fast 2013 went but little wonder with it being our first full year as parents. And what a wonderful year it was. I can't imagine a year will ever be quite that good... but I hope I am wrong about that.

So my goals for this year have a big focus on simplifying. While I do not do the one word each year project, Simplify would be my word. I plan to declutter, organise and downsize my 'stuff' as I am a bit of a hoarder and am quite messy. This was my goal last year and I did make a nice start but got a bit distracted by motherhood, returning to work, starting a business, being creative... you know how it goes!

I have started on my goal too. I started re-cleaning out my wardrobe. I only did this last year but I still have way too many clothes I never wear so this time I got a little stricter and I've only done the WIR so far. Yet to go through the drawers and spare cupboard but its a start. I really don't need 10 of everything. And in saying that.. I just purchased 2 new pairs of swimmers that I really didn't need :-/ Oops! But did put down a $2 t-shirt yesterday because it was cheap... but I have plenty that work just a well haha

So to kick 2014 off with my new simple plan, I have also decided to do my 2014 project life as a digital album. I am excited about this and have already started with my title page and half of my week 1 spread done. I will still be scrapping and doing some physical PL, since I still have about a month of 2013 to finish plus a lot more baby album to finish. You will see these progressing along the way on the Scrapbook Creations blog as part of their PL team for 2014 :-D And you will still see my traditional scrapping with Scrapmatts for another year.

Anyway, wishing you all a wonderful 2014

Holly x

Time to get organised...

Evening,

Well I believe I may have said this at the start of 2012, that I planned to sort out my craft space... and my whole house actually, well before Lily arrived. Unfortunately of that plan the only room that really got the full make over was the nursery, which used to be the junk/spare/storage room. But in doing so, the other spare bedroom has since taken on that role. Not quite as severely but definitely a horrible sight to see.

But I can ignore that room by pulling the door shut haha It's another room in the house that is more cringe worthy than any other... the scrap room/office. It is really really bad. I'm not exagerating. There are piles of stuff covering most of the floor, other than the path from the door to the computer and another to the guillotine/paper shelves. Otherwise, it is just horrible.

I'll admit I've always been prone to clutter and am a bit of a hoarder. But a lot of this is because of my excessive habit of acquiring new craft products or keeping anything that might be useful. I have sooooooo much patterned paper for example, yet can't help buying new sheets that take my fancy. I have gadgets for so many purposes. Embellishments that scatter across every corner of the room and just random scraps and mess all over the carpet. If we are entertaining, this door is definitely close off since its right off the kitchen/living area of our house lol

So with my plan to kick off Project Life (whenever my goodies arrive... last recorded leaving Auckland a couple of hours ago by courier), I have seen so many lovely Project Life organisation ideas. In theory that would be wonderful, but I simply do not have the space with things the way they are. And if I am waiting impatiently for my stuff to arrive, I might as well get a start on getting this room sorted once and for all. Last year I started by investing in an Ikea cube shelf and it has helped a little. There was a short time when the floor was mostly visible too... but it was a long time ago. I guess its time to tackle the worst job ever!!!

Here is some PL organisation stations for motivation:
                               

Something like this isn't possible with any clear desk space... and I certainly have no desk space. You will see what I mean below.

Here is what I'm facing (yes there is a desk under that):

Please don't judge me LOL

 Told you it was bad. Really bad!

As you can see, there are no OCD traits here. Sometimes I wish I was a little bit OCD when it came to organisation. But no... instead I create myself big messes that take much more effort to clean up than if I had been clean to start with. Oh well... time to get into it. Wish me luck! And if you don't hear form me soon, chances are I was buried alive in the mess...

 

 

 

Off The Page with Designer Scrapbooking

Hey there

Can you believe it is finally Friday? It has been a big couple of weeks for me so my weeks feel so long lately but I am looking forward to a quiet weekend. Actually, it will be extremely quiet with the only plans I have being cleaning the house (parts of it...as inspired by the 20 days to clean your house challenge at The Organised Housewife). More on that later. I also plan on doing a bit of baking... some trial runs of things I want to make for my baby shower in a couple of weeks time. Otherwise, a bit of relaxing is in order I think.

So today I want to share a couple of recent OTP projects that I have done as part of my DT role over at Designer Scrapbooking. Suzanne sends such fun projects to work with, giving me the chance to dabble in some OTP since this is an area I love but rarely squeeze in between all the general scrapbooking.

The first project I had to work with was a Twidleybitz Treat Box:

 The treat box comes as flat packed MDF, but this photo above gives an idea of how it looks before you put on the lid. A little tricky to put together but it did not take too long.

 I gave my paper on the top of the box an aged look by inking and distressing the edge and applying a coat of Helmar 2 step crackle paint for something different. The photo does not really show up too well.

 The box comes with lots of lovely chipboard words and shapes to decorate the box with. I heat embossed my words before adhering them to the box.

 The papers used were Kaisercraft and My minds eye, with d-lish scraps embellishments and a Kaiser flourish.

Now for the latest DT project I completed, Suzanne sent me a super cute butterfly MDF blackboard to work with. I can see this is going to end up in my nursery at some point so I decorated it with that in mind.

 I forgot to take a picture of the raw item, however it comes in 2 pieces, the blackboard and the Wood frame. I simply painted the frame in white paint, decorated with some Kaiser Tigerlilly rub ons and d-lish scraps rhinestones, then added some Kaiser collectables butterflies, also from the Tigerlilly collection around the edge. Simple but pretty for a nursery for a little girl :)

 

So with my baby shower coming up in 2 weeks time, and the fact that I decided I wanted to host it here, I have a mega clean up to do. My house is pretty freaking awful right now. I am not the neatest person on the planet. A bit of a hoarder in fact, and emptying the former junk room to create the nursery has definitely caused the rest of the house to suffer even worse. So when I saw the Organised Housewife 20 days to organise your house, I thought what an awesome idea. The only problem is I don't have 20 days in a row to get into it. So I am doing the tasks on my weekends instead. It means I won't get anywhere near all of the steps done before the baby shower, since I have done 2 and it is up to 10, but I will work out the most essential ones for the areas that need to be done by that day and do those first and then work on the rest later for the rooms I can hide on the day.  So far the kitchen has had a big tidy, and the ensuite. Tomorrow I will tackle the laundry probably as its a smaller job, plus the living room perhaps. I dunno. A bit daunting. There is crap everywhere lol

 

Then closer to baby time, I am going to start from the top and work my way through all 20 days in a row step by step, as I have been printing off the daily tasks and planners for future reference.

 

Anyway, its getting late and I have a layout to finish and a comfy bed to climb into. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned.

 

Holly x

Scrap Room Progress

Hi all

So many of you may know one of my new year resolutions was to get my scrapbook organised.. well my whole house actually. Its been slow going with all that's happened lately but it's coming along nicely.

For my birthday my parents got me an expedit shelf unit from Ikea which has formed a large part of my reorganisation. I love it but geez it was painful to put together. I kind of want one in every room now haha

BEFORE:

PROGRESS SO FAR:

So as you can see, still a long way to go but that is so much better than it was... trust me. I know many of you will still probably cringe at the site but I'm loving a big clear space on the floor where I never used to be able to walk. So a lot of it is now shoved under the desk or on the other side of the room but I'm getting there.

There is another room in the house that's getting a big bit of a make over. It was a spare bedroom/music instrument storage room... but it will one day hopefully have the special purpose of a baby nursary. Despite our recent loss, I am staying on track with the revamp of this room which is now a fair bit emptier than it was in these pictures:

The bed was sold, the instruments are in another room and the clothes pile has mostly been put away finally lol So now there are some baby items starting to fill the room instead.

So all is going slowly but forwards in my declutter process. More updates to come once I get on top of it all again.

And yes, I'll have some scrappy shares soon. Time to go do some scrapping

xo

Declutter 52 Steps Challenge

Hey,
Yep, another blog post. I'm doing well this week but trrying to get some early 2012 motivation since January is already getting away on me. I saw a great challenge inspiration on FB yesterday and went to check out the blog... 52 step decluttering challenge. Some of you may remember that one of my main goals for 2012 is exactly that... to declutter! So this sounds perfect for me.

You can find the first post here.

So first things first... what are my 2012 organising goals:

1st step to decluttering is creating goals for yourself so... what are my 2012 goals:

1. To declutter my house
2. To keep organised with my scrapbook committments
3. To completely re-organise my scrapbook room/office
4. To get rid of unwanted items on ebay, giveaway or bin them
5. To maintain a healthy lifestyle and get my body pregnancy ready
6. To do all my christmas and birthday shopping earlier this year
7. To have a supply of hand made cards ready to go so I don't have to make them at the last minute all the time
8. To get on top of debts, save money and splurge on an overseas holiday

So these goals are fairly similar to my resolution based post, but a few extras and more specific ones added in. Now to start the actual decluttering process... well... when I get my new office shelf I will start haha That sounds terrible but at least I'll have a plan in my head as the office is my problem room.

Actually, I have already made a couple of big declutter changes in the past couple of weeks, finally getting rid of an old single bed and dresser set on ebay. So easy... and far quicker than  the trading post online option I was trying. I had been wanting to get rid of those items for about 2 years.

Declutter tasks on my list so far:

Clean out wardrobe
Sell spare wedding dress
Sell spare formal dress
Sell king single bed
Sell bookshelves in office
Set up new shelving units in office
Sort books for keep, sale or giveaway
Dispose of old magazines
Purchase another scrapbook paper rack
Organise ribbons & flowers in scrapbooking room
Sell mini net book
Move band equiptment to garage
Move suitcases to garage
Sort storage drums in garage
Dispose of broken or unwanted items in garage
Give unwanted scrapbooking supplies to mum or someone else
Clean out pantry
Sort our laundry pile in spare room
Sort stuff in spare cupboards
Giveaway unwanted board games
Sell or giveaway unwanted console/computer games
Create better storage for christmas decorations
Give back mum & dad's push mower and storage box from garage


Okay, so that is a pretty big and very specific sounding list of tasks I have already planned for 2012. At least by keeping them that specific and putting them in the blog world for all to see, it may actually keep me on track.

Do you have plans to declutter  in 2012? Post a comment and tell me how you plan to go about it.

Holly x