Saturday, April 26, 2014

Making things pretty - 5 tier plastic drawers

I've always been a fan of making things pretty, and with the incoming new addition to the family (T minus 19 weeks) and a change of rooms/rethink of the way our study/Leah's room/spare rooms are used I'm getting a bit nutty with it.

I plan to do a lot more and I promise I will share with you all, but I wanted to show you my attempt at this little project from Simply Living that I'm sure most of you pinterest stalkers like myself have seen once or twice.

I've had the idea in the back of my mind for over a year now and in a spat of boredom this morning, it happened.

This is what my drawers looked like before. Now, I must admit that I've had a clean out of these drawers recently, so they are relatively tidy (ie: looking through the front to what was inside wasn't exactly a disgusting exercise), but even so, the goal for me wasn't to hide clutter, as the simply living blogger was trying to do. I simply wanted to make them prettier!
 I started with this selection of paper, but substituted out the peach coloured number for a darker purple one which I thought would balance the greyish tones better. Application is as easy as cut to size, modge podge and smooth. The blog link I already mentioned has more indepth instructions and I don't want to take the idea away from them so I'll let you go-a' snoopin'.

This is how my drawers ended up looking. They're a bit Monet (fine from far away but don't get up too close). They way my set of drawers is designed was difficult to get the paper in, in an easy manner, but I tried to make it work the best I could.

What do you think?

Monday, April 21, 2014

Silent...Monday - Easter Weekend Edition

To be honest... I don't really know which day it is (yep, I'm in the chocolate induced, almost post weekend blerrrgh phase), which I must admit is kinda nice. I don't need to know which day it is for the next 2 weeks. Hoorah for holidays <3

Here's some snaps from our Easter Weekend. We had a tonne of fun.... and too much chocolate. How is a 28 2 year old supposed to eat all this cocoa-y goodness?

















xox (:

The bigger the space, the easier it is to forget about mess.

When we moved (last JUNE) I had a plan. The plan was to make the house as stunning as possible, not unlike the beautiful homes showcased on I <3 Organizing and Bowl full of Lemons. That level of organisation just sings to my little OCD heart. 

Unfortunately my 'a bigger house was going to be easier to organise, right? Lots more space means lots more opportunities to organise' mentality was shortly lived. Bigger space meant that I could hide mess or run away from it, as opposed to our old, little house where there was no room to hide!

Well not anymore! It might be my pregnant brain, or it might be my school holiday brain...but whatever it is. I like it.

For the almost a year since we moved in, this is what my linen closet looked like:

But after a short trip to the warehouse and a few hours work over the weekend. Voila!



Friday, April 18, 2014

Potato Tart

This thing is so scrumptious and so easy I just had to share. Please note that I don't have a photo of it cooked as once it's ready, my husband is on it and it's gobbled up before I can even think about getting my phone out for a photo!

Potato Tart
1 sheet puff pastry
3/4 cup grated cheese 
2 potatoes
Oil
Red onion
4 bacon rashers, roughly chopped
Dried thyme 




 Preheat over to 200 degree celcius

Cut pastry sheet in half - the one in the photo was made horizontally but vertical is best.

Arrange grated cheese over the pastry leaving about 1cm of edging around the outside.

Slice potatoes thinly and arrange them over the top of the cheese, overlapping. Brush potatoes with oil.

Place onion, bacon and thyme on top of potato and cook for 10 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and potatoes are cooked.

NOM!

xox
 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Easter Traditions

In December I wrote about our Christmas Traditions as a child (or there lack of) and the new ones that I'm starting with my own little family. It was inspired by Baker's Delights delicious goodies they provide me at Christmas.

They also provide me with delicious delights at Easter too. So, in keeping with the tradition theme. Here I am. Again, I don't recall a lot of traditions from when I was a kid. We always got an egg (or 7) and all I really recall about Easter is that I used to gobble my eggs down super quick and my brother was (is?) one of those annoying people that makes treats last forever - nibble by nibble. Which made me very jealous come Easter Sunday or Monday when my goodies were all gone.

As with the Christmas traditions, I am very conscious of making traditions for us. Easter egg hunts are our tradition. At this stage they have been different each year for Leah, but I'm sure as our family grows they will gain some substance. I had a very funny chat with Leah today about Easter and what it's all about. She seemed to think it was like Christmas, but with chocolate and a bunny instead of santa. Well, yes... I suppose in our religion free family I suppose that is what it's about (and 4 day weekends!).



The goodies we recieved from Baker's delight were gobbled up weeks ago! I'm just slack at getting my post up. Because of this, I've also missed the boat on the 'Bundraiser' day that Baker's Delight was promoting with their hot cross buns. Although, I don't see why you couldn't still have a lovely hot cross bun morning tea and raise some money for a good cause, ala' the intent.


PS: The buns are delicious. I have bought a tonne more and although they may cost a wee bit more than your supermarket made, they are very much worth it. I went to Baker's Delight today and the traditional buns were SOLD OUT! But that's OK because I prefer the chocolate... I mean, baby prefers chocolate.. yeah, the baby. <3



Have a lovely long weekend everyone.
xox