organising

DIY, how to, organising, Sewing, Tutorials, Uncategorized

DIY: Felt Needle Organiser

01/30/18

A few days ago I posted details of this on Instagram. People kinda went a bit nuts for it. (Hey I don’t mind being called a genius on social media. Schucks. (“Feigns humility but secretly enjoys the flattery”) It’s not genius (we’ll leave that term to groundbreaking, world changing scientific discoveries). But genius offen lies in simplicity. And I guess it’s one of those super simple, easy to do kinda things that solves a few problems in one go.

Life is full of petty little annoyances which on their own could be called trivial. But collectively…if you spend a whole day subjected to petty little annoyances? That amounts to one BIG annoyance. I’m a great believer that if you can check off those buggers one by one…then cumulatively, when you lump all those solved problems together, that leads to a much less annoyed (read calmer and nicer) individual.

Someone commented on IG that this seems alot of faff for needles. It’s actually not faffy at all. Can’t have taken me more than 10 minutes to cut and sew (not counting taking the photographs in between) and it is super duper easy too. And those 10 minutes will hopefully solve some of those pesky annoyance critters.

So I have several bug bears when it comes to those little machine needle packets:

Having my needles to hand
Finding the packet I want quickly. (I semi addressed that here but it’s still open to improvement)
Knowing I’m running low at a glance and need to restock
Remembering what needle is currently in the machine (I always forget)
When a needle has been used, but not yet ready for the bin, it usually goes in a pin cushion to save it. Then I forget what it is and throw it out anyway.

(NB: I am fully aware that needles are colour coded or marked (in frikkin microscopic writing) to identify their type. But going through every single packet to find the matching colour codes; or cracking out a microscope (which I don’t have) to read the engraved numbers? Well that’s the very definition of faff to me. )

I really don’t need to write a tutorial for this. It’s pretty apparent how this is made.

I used this felt.Â Bought for another project that never materialised so it’s been sat in my stash for like, two years??!! (Hangs head in shame). So yes, this quick and easy make will not only save your sanity, it’s also a great stash buster. You don’t have to use felt. Leather scraps word would work. As would a little quilted version in fabric. Or fabric stiffened with interfacing. Neoprene could be quite funky! Anyway…you get the idea.

It’s a rectangle. With narrow strips sewn across it ( the strips need to be approx half the height of a needle packet)…then separated into individual pockets with lines of stitching. That’s it.

So lets work through the various problems this hangy felt thing solves. Firstly,Â I can organise my needles by type and then size in the little individual pockets. When inserted upside down, I can clearly see the part of the casing that shows the needle type and size AND the number of needles of each type and size that I have left. (That solves 1, 2 & 3 from my list).

When I have a needle that I’ve used but still has some life left in it, I can pin it through the felt right infront of it’s corresponding packet. That solves number 5.

This pocket at the bottom…in a different colour…is where I place the pack that corresponds to the needle currently in my machine. And that solves number 4. Boom!

You could up the anti by embroidering each pocket with the needle type you plan to store in it. This only occurred to me after I’d made the thing. But I did a little tester to see how it would look and I kinda like it!

My hangy thing is held up using these clips. If I recall correctly I actually found them in a charity shop. But you can get them quite readily on Amazon. I quite like these black ones!

Then it’s simply hung from some of these net curtain wire end loops (I have no idea of the proper name for them) screwed into my wall right behind my machine.

In the interests of keeping it real and just in case you had any misconceptions about my level of organizing, take a look at that overflowing zip draw and that draw of thread spools. Neither of which will actually close now. They might get their own felt hangy thing one day….or not.

DIY, home, how to, interiors, organising, repurposing, Upcycling

DIY: Clay Wrapped Pots

04/13/15

I love me a pot, jar, “caddy”. I like coralling things together and having little places for everything; keeps me CALM; and pots are perfect for that. If it can be a pretty pot, then I’m a very happy bunny indeed…

And these are pretty, non? My love affair with air dry clay continues and these pots are very much in keeping with the style of my torn clay bowls. In fact the process Â is more or less identical….

Except for the “mold” of course. That is….these pots hold a sneaky secret!

Boring old food cans!

Cunningly disguised….

…and keeping me calm 😉

You don’t need a step by step tute for these, right? Good…because I fluffed the photography up so I don’t have one for you, lol. Â Just follow the same steps as for the torn clay bowls but instead of draping it over a bowl, wrap it around a can and trim the base with a sharp knife. Wetting the surface of the clay before you wrap helps it stick to the can and itself once wrapped.

Simple as that!

DIY, getting my house in order, home, how to, organising, storage, Tutorials

DIY: Vintage Map Box

08/27/13

Still on a bit of an organising kick here (since I can do no sewing right now) and some of the things I have never really had a specific place for are things like passports, leftover currency, travel adaptors and the like. Every time I need to lay my hands on things like that, I can never remember where I put them last. In the proverbial “safe” place of course! Trouble is, I can never remember what that safe place is so I decided to make a “travel” specific storage solution to corale all of those bits together in one place and Â put pay to the last minute, panicked passport hunt that precedes most of our foreign trips….

I had this lidded wooded box that struck me as ideal. What better for a travel related storage solution, than to cover it with a vintage cloth backed ordinance survey map, right?

After removing all the edges (which had been written on) I marked out the pieces I needed on the back of the map, drawing around the box and the lid as a template….

My map wasn’t big enough to wrap around the box in one go. So I ended up with one piece for the lid, and two pieces (one long strip and one square) to cover the sides of the box…

I cut the lid piece with a small allowance around the edge and brushed on some pva glue to the surfac of the lid…

Pressed the lid down onto my map piece, and smoothed flat with a soft cloth…

Snipping the corners as shown, allows the edges to be glued up and around the corners neatly like so…

Once dry, and with the lid replaced, cover the sides of the box with the remaining pieces. Covering right over the lid join/seam…

With the lid completely sealed/covered by the map, you might wonder how on earth you’re supposed to open the box? Because essentially it’s sealed shut at this stage…

While it’s all still damp, with a cloth gently rub over the “seam” where the lid join is to create an indentation all around. Using a rotary cutter or sharp craft knife, gently and gradually cut along this seam…(The main upside of doing it this way is that the all map details all line up when the lid is on. It’s a detail…I guess I’m a bit sad like that!)

Remove the lid, smooth the edges and allow to dry completely….

Et voila!

Now I just need a holiday to recover from the school holidays! (At least I know where my passport is now;)
I could have used a slightly more exotic map, granted, but it’s what I had to hand. If you can’t get hold of a vintage map, Â (or one that’s exotic enough to be inspiring!) then there are some fab map themed wrapping papers out there at reasonable prices that would do the job very nicely indeed 🙂

DIY, getting my house in order, home, how to, organising, repurposing, Tutorials, Upcycling

DIY: Spice Caddy (from recyled babyfood jars & an old DVD holder..)

08/21/13

The school holidays always reduces the amount of time I can spend on sewing projects. When I spend that time in the house I start finding things that need doing! So last week I turned my attention to my kitchen cupboards. Boy was THAT a job that took longer than I thought! Aaaaaanyway…one cupboard that needed some serious attention was our spice cupboard. I find those little jars of spices a pig to keep tidy and organised. They come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. If you corale them in a tub for easy access then you can’t see what’s what from the top. If you line them up on the shelf directly, then they tend to stain the shelf (turmeric, I’m looking at you!) and invariably you end up making a mess of them in order to search for the bottle you want. So a solution was long overdue!

I’d had this project in mind for a while and had gathered all the bits together a few weeks back. The babyfood jars I got locally via Freecycle. The wood laminate box is actually an old DVD holder. It had plastic strips glued inside it to create the slots for the DVDs to slide into. I simply removed these and I was left with a simple, if a bit plain, box that conveniently held all my babyfood jars…

I got these self adhesive vinyl letters from our local hardware shop for 20p each….

I completely masked off the rest of the box as I only wanted to apply colour to the front…

I used Plastikote Gloss “Smoke infusion” and applied 2 coats over the front of the box…

I let it dry overnight and then carefully peeled of my vinyl lettering…woohoo! It worked! (I never really know if these things are gonna work out or if I’m gonna fluff them completely :)…

I cleaned and sterilised all my jars and applied 2 coats of the same paint to the lids too…

Here they are all nicely nestled in their new box. See how perfectly they fit? DIY kismet I tell you!

Using double strands of natural jute string I plaited/braided me some handles…

Drilled…

Threaded through…

And secured with knots in the spaces between the jars…

I bought labels from ebay here. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, finishes and quantities. (I went for a 29mm diameter in a matt finish.) The company that produces them provides a template that you can download in Word or PDF format, so the alignment when you print is spot on. I downloaded a font called “A safe place to fall” from this free fonts website. I wanted the handwritten chalkboard effect so simply set the background fill to black and the text colour to white and printed ’em off…

Then filled em up with my spices…(there’s that pesky turmeric!)

And there it is 🙂 Stores neatly in my cupboard, lifts out for easy access AND I can find the spices I need easily without having to root around…

I’d call that problem solved….and I need some more ground cumin….

If you fancy replicating this, (or something similar, for craft storage perhaps (Huli?)) these old DVD and CD boxes turn up all the time at charity shops and car boots for pennies. For the jars, if you have a baby, then you’re sorted. (If not constantly knackered! They’re great for miniature homemade chutney/jam stocking fillers at crimbo too). If you don’t have a baby, (then making a DIY spice caddy is not a good enough reason to have one. Just sayin….) do what I did and find someone who does, either within your circle, or somewhere like Freecycle 🙂 The rest of the supplies can be bought online. Whilst I spent about Â£10 on the labels and spray paint combined, I only used about a third of the paint, and only half a sheet of labels. So I have plenty left for future projects and therefore it still works out super cheap in my book. I’m planning a similar “co-ordinating” caddy for all our oils and vinegars 🙂

Have a great day peops!

DIY, diy planner, Freebies, organising, planning, printables, Tutorials

DIY: Planner (Part 2) The Printable Planner Pages (inc Free Download)

05/01/13

…and so we arrive at the point where we get down and dirty with a printer, a guillotine and a hole punch! These are the Free Printable Planner pages. Ready to download whenever you are and completely editable (so if you find this post 2 years down the line you can still just change the dates!). All of these pages will print onto A4 or, as pictured below, A5.

A simple Year to View….

…Month to View

…Week to View

…pages for the list makers among you

…which could be edited for anything just by changing the title….like this for my fellow bloggers!

Editing Options:

I’ve provided these pages as editable Word documents. (In theory they should work in Open Â Office but may be a bit glitchy. Let me know!) Essentially they’re created using the “table” function in Word and then all the individual rows, columns and cells have been formatted to create what you see before you. The entire thing is editable. But presuming you’re happy with the overall layout then the 2 main things that you’re likely to want to edit/customise will be:

The dates in each cell. You’ll need to change those to create a set of pages for each month/week I’m afraid. It doesn’t take that long really. I just sat there watching the telly while I was doing mine. Alternatively you could delete out all the dates, print blank ones and fill them out by hand. Obviously the boxes that are blocked out in colour will change according to the way the dates fall in each month
The colours, the font size/style/colour, and the position of the text within each cell. You might choose to have your date numbers on the right of each box/cell for instance.

I’ve highlighted in the screenshot below, the menus where all these changes can be made. But if you get stuck, email me 🙂

Printing Options:

The files provided will print automatically onto A4. If you want A5 size then simply select the “2 pages per sheet” option when your printer dialogue box pops up. Be sure to print with “no scaling” just as you would when printing a pdf pattern 😉 Your printer will then print both the left and right hand pages onto one A4 sheet that will then need to be sliced down the middle. More on that in a minute!

But what about the blanks on the reverse of my printed planner pages you may ask? Well, you could leave them blank so that between each week you have two blank pages for notes/sketches etc. Or you could feed your printed planner pages back into your printer, back to front, and print the “Notes/To Do” or “Blog Ideas” pages on the back of them; which is what I’ve done and it works really well for me.

Cutting and Punching your Planner pages:

If you’ve printed on A4 for a large size planner, then obviously no cutting is required. If you’ve printed your pages 2 to a sheet for A5 then they’ll need to be sliced down the middle to give you your individual pages. I took mine into my local copy shop and asked very nicely if I could use their industrial guillotine. (I offered to put a donation into their charity box, which I think meant they couldn’t say no!) It meant I could cut more pages and cut them more evenly. The ones you can see sticking out below are the ones I tried to cut at home with my dinky paper guillotine that cuts about 2 pages at a time and has no paper size guide to line it up. Nuff said!

For punching the holes, if you’ve got a 4 hole punch that matches the dimensions of your rings (or you local copy shop does ;), great. If not, you could do what I did. Create a little card template, and lay it on top of your pages to show you where to punch the holes using a single hole punch.

Important: Each week/month/year (and indeed notes/blog ideas pages) will have a left hand page and a right hand page. Before you punch your holes, you’ll need to make sure that all the edges that need to be punched are aligned ontop of each other. So I’d recommend sorting all your left hand pages into one pile; and all your right hand pages into another. The left hand pages will need holes punched on the right edge; and the right hand pages will need holes punched on the left hand edge. Make sense? Scroll up to the page images at the top to see what I mean!

Assembling the planner:

Your pages will probably have got a bit mixed up during the cutting and hole punching process. I’m afraid I haven’t worked out a way around this. It’s simply a question of matching up your left hand pages with your right hand pages and inserting them into your planner like so…

…and there you have it. Your very own handmade leather planner with customised planner pages!!

Other Options:

Use a different fabric. Wool, denim, felt, linen? All would work equally well with this design.
Embroider orÂ appliquÃ©Â your binder to personalise it even more.
Add a pen loop (I forgot!) or stitch some pockets into the lining.
Use a different fastening. Press stud, button hole, magnetic closure, velcro, fabric ties, a buckle…
Choose some different planner pages. These are good (I originally planned to use them myself but they just didn’t work in A5) or you could just google “free printable planner” and have a root around. There’re some great free downloads out there. Even one that offers filofaxÂ compatibleÂ free printables

Happy planning!! (Any questions or problems with the download/editing pages etc….just drop me an email)

DIY, organising, refashioning, Tutorials

DIY Planner: (Part 1) The Leather Binder

04/30/13

Materials:

A piece of leather (I cut mine from a pair of leather trousers)
Lining fabric (mine is a scrap of cotton/linen curtain)
Leather thong (Approx 1m depending on how many times you want it to wrap round)
A large button
Wonder Under/ Bondaweb
Stiff Interfacing
Machine needles specifically for leather
A walking foot (recommended because the leather can slip under a standard foot)
A ring binder attatchment
Strong machine thread

The first thing you need to do is draw out a template for the shape of your binder. This will of course depend on the individual dimensions of your planner. Mine’s A5 and quite thick; yours might be A4 and alot thicker or even thinner. (The pages I’m gonna share with you later in the week can be printed A4 or A5) So I’d advise spending some time putting your planner pages together Â (that’s all of your pages together and inserted into the ring binder fixing.Â One like thisÂ that comes in a little kit) so you know what dimensions you’re working with, before you attempt to make a binder to fit it. However, that part is quite tedious so I thought I’d show you the fun and satisfying part first…then you can decide whether or not it’s worth the effort to print, guillotine and punch all those planner pages like I have below!

Essentially it has to be big enough to wrap around your planner, with however much overlap you require on the front, and an extra 2-3mm top and bottom to allow for trimming and to make sure your pages are protected around the exposed edges. I rounded off the corners on mine just because I thought it looked nice…

This can take a bit of trial and error. I cut a couple of templates out of old wallpaper and tested the fit around my planner (with all the pages inserted into the ring binder fixing) before I was happy with the fit. IMPORTANT: Make sure you mark the “spine” of your binder on your template, so when it comes to fixing the ring binder mechanism, you know where to fix it. Then once your’e happy with your template……

1) Cut one from Wonder Under and affix to the reverse side of your leather; and one from stiff (ish) interfacing and affix to the reverse of your lining fabric
2) Trim away the excess
3) Peel away the paper backing from the Wonder Under on your leather piece, then place wrong sides together with your lining fabric (the thong should be inserted between the 2 layers at this stage. See Step 4). Then press under a cloth, until evenly adhered together. (The Wonder Under adheres everything together temporarily. So no need for pins, which would damage the leather. Along with the interfacing it also acts to stiffen and stabilise the binder). Don’t worry if there’s a bit of excess lining poking out along the edges as you can see in the far right pic. We’ll trim this later

3) Edge stitch all the way around the outside. I’d advise practicing on some scraps first. I had to use quite a high tension setting on mine to get the bobbin thread to sit flush on the underside. I also used a walking foot as the surface of the leather is quite slippery for a standard foot.
4) When you get to the tip of the envelope part, this is where the thong should be. I SHOULD have inserted this between the leather and the lining fabric before I adhered them together. But I’m a numpty sometimes. So I had to peel the 2 layers apart slightly (Wonder Under is not a permanent adhesive), insert them between the two layers, and carry on stitching all the way round.
5) Trim close to the stitching all the way around for a nice clean edge

6) Then it’s just a question ofÂ attachingÂ your ring binder (I got mine from Amazon but they’re available on Ebay too) according to the manufacturers instructions. Use your template to line it up where it needs to go and mark where the holes are; punch out the holes, fix in the rivets/screws and you’re almost done….

All that remains is to add a button to the front and fill it with your customised planner pages!

So if all of that doesn’t sound like too much hassle…then stay tuned for a Free Download of the planner pages themselves 🙂

DIY, organising, refashioning, Upcycling

Refashion: Dodgy Trousers to Handmade Leather Planner!

04/29/13

I’ve been in organising mode recently. It happens every now and then when I feel I’m losing my grip on some of the things I’m juggling. I have to stop, take stock, reorganise everything and then start afresh. The only way I’ve found that I can do that is with an old fashioned diary/planner. I’ve tried Outlook, calendars on my phone, calendars on the wall….to no avail. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am a jotter…a list maker…and that the only way I will get stuff done is if I plan it or make a list. Because the list then just taunts me until I can get through it and tick everything off! That’s the most satisfying part of a list don’t you think? Smugly putting a line through a task once it’s done. Then looking back at the end of the day at a whole page of scribbled out tasks and feeling just a teeny bit self congratulatory 😉

I thrifted this “well dodge” pair of leather trousers off the Â£1 rail. Just check out those press studs! 90’s in a bad way I think we can all agree 😉 The Italian leather however, was soft, supple and a beautiful buttery colour. I’d been hankering after a new leather organiser (er, pricey isn’t the word!) but buying what I wanted wasn’t an option financially. So, well I made one…..

The leather thong (I love that word…is “thonging” a verb? It should be.) wraps twice around the envelope style binder then a couple of times around a vintage button to secure it…..

Now your gonna think I’m REALLY sad…I even designed and printed my own planner pages (Weekly, Monthly and Yearly plus Notes and Ideas pages) and attached a ring binder fixing to hold them all in….

So it actually looks (and functions) just like a proper shop bought planner….except it’s handmade!
(For a little under Â£15 including printer paper and ink!)…..

What’s more, it’s actually working. I’m way ahead on planning and preparing my blog posts, which in turn is freeing up my time for more making (oh and some housework and gardening occasionally gets done too;) which in turn means I’m a calmer and happier puppy 🙂 Being organised officially rocks; and because I like my new planner so much AND the layout of the pages really fits with how I work, I’m more likely to keep it up! I’ve had 3 different diaries/planners this year already; but haven’t stuck with them because the layouts have just been all wrong for how I work. You know…daft stuff like the lines are too narrow for my writing…there’s no section for notes…or there’s not enough space to write more than one thing under each day…just niggly stuff that means I gradually stop using it. Do you find that? A planner or diary has to really fit with how YOU work…..and it has to be pleasant to look at and use in order for you to keep on using it?

If that describes you too, then stay tuned for step by step photos and details of how you can make one of your own, PLUS a Free (editable) Download for the planner pages themselves so you can get them just how you want them 🙂

Freebies, organising

Planner Pages – (Free Download)

09/26/12

Just recently I feel like I’ve got a better handle on the sewing/blog/life balance. For a while it was the case that I had so many ideas of things that I wanted to do, floating around in my head; that I ended up doing none of them. Do you ever get that? I have little chunks of time throughout the week when I can get some sewing done. But because I wasn’t planning ahead for that time, I really wasn’t getting the most out of it. I love writing my blog but was finding myself getting frustrated trying to squeeze everything in (and often failing!) So the other day, I decided to take the bull by the horns and add a little structure around my sewing and blogging….

I came up with these little planners. Nothing fancy. Just done in Microsoft Word using columns and text boxes. But the difference they have made to my productivity has been brilliant. I actually feel like I’m achieving things rather than just thinking about the things I want to achieve. All because of some little A5 sheets of paper, ha ha! These are they…

Like I said very simple. A box each for Mon-Fri on one side, (Nothing sewing or blogging related on Sat/Sun for me. That time, and weekday afternoons, is set aside for family and household stuff. Weekday mornings when Elliott is at pre-school is my “creative” time 🙂 and a column on the right for ideas and a little to do list. For each day, I write in what I plan to sew and what, if anything, I plan to post on this blog. My ideas columns is rolling list of stuff I want to do. What doesn’t get done one week will get copied over to next weeks ideas column. That way, a potentially good idea doesn’t get forgotten in the midst of the million and one things that need doing every week! My “to do” box is usually to remind me of what I need to photograph or what sewing supplies I need to get.

So in the interests of sharing these small eureka moments, I’ve made this blog planner available to download here. It’s in Word format sized to A4 (I scaled mine to print in A5 so it slots neatly inside my diary). When you view it via the download host I’ve used, it looks a little different. But once you download it and open it in Word, it’s all good. (Any probs, let me know and I can just email you the attatchment direct) I’ve left it editable so that you can change fonts, text, move stuff around to suit your needs. They’re very generic really and could be used to organise lots of different activities. I tweaked it to create a meal planner too (essential for me when dieting!). You can download the meal planner here too if it’s of any use 🙂

So, a little mid week gift from me to you. If it helps save just one overloaded and frazzled brain, then I will consider my work is done 😉

DIY, getting my house in order, interiors, organising

Getting my House in Order # 3 – Behind closed doors…

08/16/12

First off I apologise for the shocking quality of the photos in this post. One of the reasons I’ve never really shared any photos on here that have been taken inside our home, is that the light just isn’t conducive to decent photos. So, well, sorry!

If you’re a regular reader you’ll be aware that normal sewing activity has been put on hold for the summer as we spruce up our home and try and get it working for us in the best way possible. We live in a very small property with practically no decent storage built in. When we moved here we had to try and fit in the contents of a 3 bedroom detached house into our 2 bedroom bungalow. Add to that the ever growing collection of toys the Little Tornado seems to accumulate, and you can probably understand that STORAGE is an ever present dilemma. I hate clutter and mess. I find it oppressive and find myself getting agitated. (You wouldn’t like me when I’m agitated. Heck, I don’t even like me when I’m agitated!) The old adage “a place for everything, and everything in it’s place” is sooooo true. I find that if things have a “home” I find it easy to keep things tidy. The problem with a property that has little or no built in storage (and little space to add any), is finding a home for everything. You just end up with random piles of “stuff” dotted around with nowhere to go. We all have a junk drawer/cupboard/bowl (delete as appropriate) somewhere in our homes, right? Receipts, packs of cards, Euros from last years holiday, earphones, screws that we might need one day, chargers for phones we no longer own…….rummaging through stuff to find a screwdriver or some batterries that I know I’ve seen somewhere….. well I decided some time ago that enough was enough.

I’ve been on an “organising” drive these past few weeks and have been finding creative ways to maximise the storage that we do have. One of the conclusions that I’ve come to is that the humble old cupboard door has storage potential just waiting to be unleashed. With a few screws and fixings I’ve used the insides of our kitchen cupboard doors to organise and make it easy to access the stuff that we use on a daily basis, and free up storage space inside the cupboards in the process…

With a few screws and miniature bulldog clips at 15p each from our local post office; I’ve put an end to hunting around for J’s prescriptions and hospital appointment letters. The shopping list is at hand for when I open the cupboard and find out we’ve run out of something, and money off vouchers are there to grab before I head off to the shop. Now I just need to print off an A5 size planner to pin up and fill in at the start of each week and we’re good to go….

Left: These cutlery holders from Ikea (erm mine were only 50p each from the charity shop though, hehe! fixed to the inside of the door keep all my everyday cleaning materials to hand, and free up space under the sink (that part I’m still organising!)
Middle: I used tool clips and cup hooks from my local hardware store to keep everyday diy tools to hand so that if a little job crops up I can do it there and then instead of putting it off because I can’t find the screwdriver. The miniature screwdriver kit is velcro’d to the door and is in constant use with Elliott’s toys constantly needing repair or new batteries
Right: A simple cup hook to store chopping boards, racks etc

Tool clips, cup hooks and bulldog clips. Cheap as chips to buy but are now my new sanity saving heroes. Erm, if you do fancy organising your cabinets like this, a word of warning from someone who learnt the hard way. Don’t eyeball it. Double check the length of your screw against the width of your cupboard door. Wouldn’t want a hole right through to the outside would you….ahem! (Yes. Yes I did. It’s only a teeny one though and I don’t think J has actually noticed yet. Shhhh!)

And what about this canny idea for your fridge door…….

Haven’t had to rummage around for a pen since. Not mine this one. I shamelessly copied it from here….

book review, Crafting, Giveaways, goldhawk road, Inspiration, joanna gosling, miscellaneous, organising, Ponderings

That chance encounter I was telling you about…

04/08/12

Regular readers of this blog might be aware of my recent frustrations in terms of finding the time to “fit it all in”. Changes in Elliott’s routine have kind of thrown me into a bit of a wheelspin. Whereas 6 months ago you would have found me more or less successfully juggling all of the various elements of my life, the latter 6 months have seen me frantically treading water while I try and re-order and streamline my routine in order to adapt and get some momentum going again. Which brings me to the serendipitous meeting I referred to in a previous post. Sometimes life just puts you in the right place, at the right time, and gives you exactly what you need at that precise moment. Which was just what happened when I was waiting to purchase my 2 metres of cotton seersucker in a shop in London’s Goldhawk Road last Wednesday….

Ahead of me in the queue was a lady who looked familiar. I couldn’t quite place her. In any case, we got chatting about how brilliant Goldhawk Road was and how awful it was that the council were even considering demolishing the place. I can’t quite remember how, but we got onto the subject of her writing a book, and my writing a blog. I gave her my details, we went our seperate ways. Joanna emailed me that evening, she liked my blog, she sent me her book, I LOVED her book. SERIOUSLY people, was someone up there listening to me or what?? Check this out…

The lady in question, as I twigged a few days later, was none other than BBC News presenter Joanna Gosling. Yep that’s why she looked familiar! Months of early mornings and late nights with a newborn baby, with BBC News 24 on in the wee small hours, had clearly lodged Joanna’s face somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my mind!
Joanna is a working mother of 3 with a successful career in news broadcasting and now her first book under her belt, with another under way. So as much as any of us, she completely understands the drive to be all things to all people, all at once, and the pressure we can put on ourselves to meet such unrealistic (and usually self imposed!) expectations of perfection. All too often, it’s the “me time” that is sacrificed in the pursuit of these goals. The little indulgences. “Treats” that we can only allow ourselves to enjoy guilt free once the house looks “perfect” and all the chores are done. But since “a woman’s work is never done” those little indulgences and bits of “me time” seem desperately few and far between at times. Joanna’s book, entitled Simply Wonderwoman seeks, and in my opinion succeeds, to help redress that balance. To free up time for “me time”. It’s subtitle encompasses the spirit of the book in a nutshell. “A survival guide for women with too much to do”. Yep, that’d be me then!

The book is divided into two distinct sections. The first, a treasury of tips and tricks gleaned from friends, family members, her own experience, (oh and the occasional rock star), is aimed at saving time, money and effort. Amen to that! Every aspect of day to day life is covered from planning your day, polishing off the household chores in super quick time, to organising childcare. The brilliance of these tips and tricks is in their simplicity. There are some old favourites in there, but let me tell you peops, there are some real lightning bolt moments in the pages of this book. Ideas that made me slap my hand on my forehead and emmit a Homer Simpson’esque DOH!! Why had that never occured to me before!

There are some great ideas for budget and eco friendly household cleaning products. Tips for cleaning shortcuts that will see you banishing petty annoyances like oven cleaning and smeared mirrors for good (and no, not vinegar and newspaper. Something much much better!). Laundry, cooking and party planning are just some of the areas to receive the Gosling treatment. DIY is given the once over too. My personal favourite is decanting leftover paint into glass bottles. (hmmmm, I recognise those passata bottles methinks!) No more battling with the lid on the paint tin that doesn’t seem to want to go back on. (you know the scene. You tap it down on one side and it pops open on the other! Grrr!) Plus you can see at a glance what colours you have left, how much, AND it just looks so much nicer. See what I mean? Simple genius at it’s best.

Chore after chore is streamlined and pared down, with the sole aim of making more time for the “stuff that makes your heart sing” as Joanna puts it. Giving you the time and head space to escape to that creative place in each us. Which is what the second section of the book is devoted to. Crammed into this section are loads of simple to do, satisfying creative “fixes”. Nothing in this section requires any prior experience, knowledge or particular skill level. They’re aimed solely at satisfying that urge to create in the form of manageable “bite size” projects that can be achieved in an hour or two. All of which makes this a perfect “coffee table” book to dip into again and again…

My first reaction when Joanna offered to send me a copy of her book was an instant “yes please!”. Immediately I suggested reviewing her book here on my blog and organising a giveaway too (yep, that’s in the bag so stay tuned for that 😉 Then it occurred to me. Eeep! What if I hated the book? Could I write a lukewarm review or worse, be really enthusiastic about something I didn’t like? Ha! I needn’t have worried. From the stylish cover, great photography and easy format, to the “eureka” moments and cute crafts…there was nothing not to like. Reading this book is, in places, like having a girly friend sat chatting with you over a coffee exclaiming “you sooooo have to try this tip I picked up, it’s a-ma-zing!” There’s not a hint of that “look at me and how brilliant I am at doing everything” approach that can come across in other books/programmes of this ilk. Just a real understanding of how things can get on top of you and a genuine desire to share the things that work and help to make everyday life more manageable.

I’ve already implemented some of the ideas, and I concur, they absolutely do save time and effort. Yay! (Oh, and meaningful sewing has occurred for the first time in weeks 😉 I plan on picking one idea I love each day and implementing it. I’ll be back to sewing up a storm and “fitting it all in” in no time 🙂

Stay tuned for an interview with the lady herself, and the chance to bag a copy of the book for yourself 😉