Thankful for Shade

I love being able to sit out and enjoy the sun and the lovely breeze. With our fair skin though, shade is a must have. Thanks Phill for making this happen :)

New52 - Bye-bye Oven

One thing that we were looking forward to at our new home was a double oven. After using 900mm ovens all our married life, I was a bit cautious of going back to a 600mm oven.
Then once it was installed the oven never worked. Or rather the timer never worked – the click never lit up and the big oven wouldn’t turn on. Fortunately the top oven used an old school dial system so we can still use it. But as we speak I’m cooking a roast and it is a little squeezy. And muffins, well I had to cook them over 2 days as they grew to tall to have 2 trays at once. In general though I’m enjoying having a speedy little oven for garlic bread and the like.
So after 2 visits from a tech and nearly 2 months waiting, we now have to have to WHOLE OVEN replaced. Oh well, it will be exciting to try my new oven in June!
Being without an oven is nothing new, as we have incidents with gas bottles running out in Kalgoorlie, and then no oven during the renovation of our kitchen at Tindals Cres that took over a month, as Bunnings took ages to get our cupboards in. Phill did his bit in 1 long weekend, then were sitting around waiting for trades and those Flat pack cupboards.
I seem to have a bad record with ovens though. The gas oven at Lewis St never liked lighting for me, the small oven at Tindals Cres set my pizzas alight twice, and the whole door fell off and the built in oven almost followed (yes, we bought the house to renovate)

Our new oven at Tindals Cres had it’s clock die (Technika were brilliant and had it fixed in no time), and the clock on our parents oven at Foss St gave up the ghost while we were living there (admittedly it was already on the way out, probably the same power surge that messed up the dishwasher finally killed it!)
Enough with the negativity though, we are loving our new house, and enjoying making it a home. Oh and we finally bought a lounge suite. Everyone in Kal will be amazed, there is life after Stu’s couches! But that story is for a whole other New 52.
Curious about New 52? Learn more about the New 52 challenge here. I’m finding that looking out for new experiences is helping me appreciate that my life is full of variety.
Melissa

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Get-it-done Guy style wardrobe organisation for small spaces

After 6 years of wearing uniforms (aka prison clothes as Phill fondly referred to them!), Phill’s finally wearing office clothes regularly which is great, he enjoys being able to avoid work boots and thick cotton fire-retardant clothing for a change. The only problem is the in our ‘apartment’ we don’t have a lot of space, and the hanging space is in Emily’s room.

I remembered a tip from the Get it done Guy on how to organise your clothes. His example below.

So how could we implement this in our room? I thought what about hanging them on the back of our door? So we headed off to Kmart and bought an over door hanger. Then we just spend some time on the weekend planning his outfits and hook the shirts over the top of the matching trouser hangers. I can even clip the socks onto the matching trousers to avoid Phill hunting around in the dark. Works for us!

Thanks Get it Done Guy!

Related articles

• Project: Simplify - Hotspot #1 (allfivehorizons.co.uk)

My Memory Logbook

Thanks to Kristin from Log Your Memory, I’ve now got my hands on the downloadable edition of the Memory Logbook. I’ve printed the calendars and the pages for January and February. I’m keeping it nice and slim to fit into my purse easily.
Supplies I used for this project:

• 2 sets of Bind-it-all 7.5x5 inch raw chipboard covers
• 3/4 in silver O-wires
• Martha Stewart Glitter in Verdalite
• Large fabric flower
• Bella alphabet rubons
• Paper flowers yellow and white
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink walnut stain
• Martha Stewart bouquet ink in Meyer Lemon
• Martha Stewart flower glitter stickers
• Lemon mini brad

I’ve linked to similar products as many of the items in my stash are no longer available.
I decorated the cover with some glittery leaves and a large fabric flower and some rubons for the date, simple and pretty. I inked the edges of the cover with walnut stain distress ink.
To create the bookmark I cut off a bit of one of those advertising fridge magnet and stuck them on a stripe of cardstock. I then layered the flower and secured it with a brad. Simple and a pretty way to keep my page.
I bound it with my Bind-it-all (yes you’ll see heaps of Zutter projects this year!
Just doing a little something to make it special is well worth the time I invested, especially when it will be used every day!
Melissa

Want to know more about the 2011 Logbook?
*using my affiliate links supports my blog - thankyou!*