Party box

Hi all, Been a bit quiet round these parts lately. Ive been busy pottering around the house and hanging out with the family but today I thought I'd just share a quick project I did one night organizing our party supplies.

I was using this old nappy box to hold unfinished projects but thought with a bit of prettying up, it could be put to better use.

So a layer of wrapping paper later we had this:

I didn't bother with the inside since it was going to be hidden away in a cupboard anyhow.

And inside houses my larger disposable party items and yes, that is some Australia Day stuff in the bottom which I had no home for!

This box sits in the bottom of our dining unit along with some entertaining pieces.
(except the items up the top dont really belong but again, had no other home for)

On the shelf above you can see my other party supplies box

Just a cheapie box I picked up from the dollar shop which I thought to be very appropriate for what it stores!

Inside this one is balloons, candles, plastic tablecloths and leftover invites which I probably wont use but didn't want to throw away. The green bag holds balloon sticks.
I also added sparklers I found randomly stuck in a vase. The things we do when hiding items!

I don't really have that much but I do like to keep everything together so when it comes to planning those special events, I can just have a look and see what we already have.

Maybe this gives you an idea on how to corral your party items.

Cushions!!

This is a project ive been wanting to tackle for aaages! I bought a sewing machine a good few months back with the intention of tackling some sewing projects. But then it just sat in the office area staring at me with its intimidating needle eye until the other day I had enough motivation to open it and set the thing up.

It took one night of you-tubing and trial and error to work out how to thread the damn thing and once Id sorted that out, it went back into storage until I had another night of motivation to get it out again and actually start sewing.

First project was cushion covers! I only tried 2 and they're not really on the material I wanted to use around the house but it was a good practice run. I followed Jackie over at Teal and Lime Easy Envelope cushion cover video tutorial. Speaking from an absolute amateur, her video is really easy to follow so if I can do it, Im sure you can too!

Im stoked at the result. First i tried with the one type of fabric and then I thought id give the two tone a go. Both versions are found on the video.

I'm cushion cover mad now and I cant wait to do some more. I bought some more fabric yesterday that im hoping to give a go soon. Hopefully now Ive got over the first hurdle, I wont procrastinate so much!

Bits n bobs clutter

I have this drawer in my buffet that Ive been meaning to clear out for awhile. It has all my picture hanging and some felt pads stuffed in there.

Enter these couple of storage items I purchased cheaply on the weekend. Originally they were going to be used for some crafty items but I thought how useful they would be to help clear out this drawer.

Its one of those quick jobs you wonder why it took so long to get to it!

This compartment container holds all the picture hanging items, although whilst I was sorting them out I wondered if I would ever use them anyway now theres such a thing as command strips! Theres also some cup hooks I bought for another project. Im sure these items will come in handy one day!

The drawers house all the 3M stuff in the top drawer

and the felt pads in the bottom.

All done. And now Im left with an empty drawer to fill!

Busy day

As some of you may have read yesterday, I had a really productive day. I had the pleasure of an annual leave day (which incidently coincided with the Adelaide Cup long weekend, so woohoo, 4 day weekend for me!!). Ace was also in child care so i took advantage of a very rare day to myself.
Unfortunately it was a sticky 35C so not the best day for getting down and dirty with it (as some might say!) but I ploughed through since i had no choice.

I didnt get everything done i wanted to but some of the more important bits like doing a good ol' deep vacuum clean in and around the furniture. It really was quite disgusting and I had to empty the vacuum out a few more times than Id care to admit!

I also wiped down all of the blinds and skirting boards.

Now I wasn't a good blogger in that I didn't take photos of shame for you all to see but just imagine furniture that hardly or has never been moved since you moved in 4 years ago! Yeah, that!

Anyway I also did some baking and cooking in which I was more than happy to snap away....

Vanilla icecream in my icecream maker

Cheesy spring onion fritters

and also baked some brownies. I used this recipe which i found on pinterest. It was dead easy and turned out to be delicious. I sat down that evening with a coffee and smothered them in cream. Yum!

I also attached the spice rack i bought a few weeks ago but then never got round to pulling the drill out to attach. 

It was to help clear up this disaster corner of my pantry...

So today was the day but now that its up, I'm not so sure about it. 

The 'grill' design doesn't hold the little bottles that well so i might have to add a cardboard base to make it more stable. It also didn't hold everything I had, so i'll either buy another or maybe one of those Ikea ones.

Time went so quickly and before I knew it, it was pick up time.

I still have some more days up my sleeve to get stuck into some other projects if i feel like it however this weather is insisting on sticking around and it really isn't the most motivating!

Holidays update

So I'm halfway through my holidays now and I have achieved some of what I wanted.

I documented what I was hoping to achieve during my break in this post.

One thing I really wanted to do, was finally get round to painting my side tables.

This has been a long time coming project of mine and, as it was, took a couple of days to finish in between coats. I ended up doing 2x undercoats and 2x top coats.

They went from this..

To this..

To this!

There is a 3rd table to the set which I am still contemplating what colour. All I knew at the time was I really wanted a teal blue and yellow table.

I will reveal soon what I've chosen. Oh the suspense!

In case your interested, the colours I chose were: Dulux Zuni

and Dulux Pale Buttercup 

I also need to buy some clear lacquer as being wall paint, its not that tough for everyday use. 

Whilst I had the painting gear out, I gave the Ikea Bekvam stool a makeover with Zuni. Again, this will also  need a clear lacquer coating.

Ive also done plenty of baking and cooking, most of which has ended up in our bellies and not the freezer! Grrrr! Oh well, lucky I love to cook!

And I finished off a couple of crafty projects I had on the go.

In my final week Ill be heading to Ikea to grab some furniture for the playroom/office, tidy the linen closet and pantry, head to Bunnings for some more paint supplies, oh and squeeze mothers day somewhere in there too!

And s promised, there have also been  a few trips to the playground! 

                           

3 Things Thursday

3 Things im loving this week are...

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, or just not noticing my contstant HOLIDAY updates on FB, you would know Im VERY excited to be having a small break from the rat race!! Just some time to spend with my family and doing the things I love to do like bake and craft and update stuff around the house.

One mission I have just accomplished, was painting 2 out of the 3 side table set I have. Now just pondering what the 3rd colour will be....

And lastly I got my couches and rug cleaned yesterday. The state of them has been driving me nutso lately and then I saw on one of those deal sites, a carpet cleaning package for $69! I just asked the company if I could swap the 4 rooms to these 3 pieces. We only have 2 carpeted rooms anyway!

So that's a little of what's been happening. Exciting stuff round these parts ya know!

Thanks for helping me grow...

Master A has just moved up from the baby room into the toddler room at childcare.

His carers/educators are such nice ladies that I wanted to give them a token of thanks for helping Ace thrive and grow whilst in their care.

I went with a pot of perennials since theyre pretty, budget friendly but will last longer (hopefully!) than a bunch of picked flowers. It also fit in my theme of thanks for helping him grow.

At first i was going to make a card but then i thought of adding these plant sticks with a cute little embellishment and the words "Thank you for helping me grow. Love Ace"

Just a simple idea for saying thanks.

An Op Shopping we will go....

Ive been wanting to pick up some bargains from a second hand shop for awhile but never found the time. However on the weekend, I had a free half hour, childless, so decided to pop into one.

Holy Moly I was in op shop heaven! I spent most of the time in the homewares section but Ill definately be heading back in the not too distant future to browse the clothes etc.

I got all this (plus a Chuggington top for little man) for a mere $21!!

There was way more stuff I could of taken away with me but I limited myself to this for now. There was a fine line between collecting bargains or just more clutter!

So i got myself a couple of baskets. The larger one im thinking of spray painting and using for Master A's toys and the rectangular one Ill either use as a bread basket (which was its intention) or maybe as a table decoration.

Ive been wanting a large wooden tray for ages so I had to grab this one at a steal of $3!! The smaller tray was just cute and only $1. Reckon these will both get a lick of paint as well

 The star container I thought i'd use as a pencil holder or similar.

And I couldnt go past the Thomas (Master A is obsessed!), another steal at $3!

I never thought of op shops even selling fabric but they do! I got a few meters of this lovely blue and white material for about $6 I think. Not sure what my plan is for this..maybe cushions covers or even a bean bag cover.

Cant wait to get stuck into some projects with these beauties!

The paintbrush is calling me....