My Weekly 'To Do' Folder

This week, I have been sharing with you how I organise my Command Central Station in my home.  This area is just vital to us staying organised with paperwork, plus it provides some much needed solutions to the clutter that would otherwise accumulate on the kitchen bench!

My Weekly 'To Do' Folder is another part of this station that I couldn't live without, so today I will unpack how I have set it up, and how it helps me to stay on track with my weekly jobs.

File Folders in my Command Central Station

Yesterday, I posted about my Command Central Station here.

Today, I want to elaborate on how I organise the file folders that hold the incoming paperwork that flows into our house!  I do admit that this is a long post, but I wanted to put all of this information in one location for you :)

My Command Central Station

Today I thought I would share how I organise our incoming/outgoing paperwork and general 'bits and pieces' in our living area.  This system has changed over the years, and since I have not been working and spending less and less time in the study for anything other than 'creative' work, having this all in the living area just makes sense for us.

Finishing Off Friday - 19th April 2013

To all of our new friends here on the blog, welcome to Finishing Off Friday!  This year is my 'Year of Finishing Off', and each Friday I post about the jobs that I have managed to accomplish in the week just passed.  I feel I have achieved so much this year already by having this focus, and I have been determined not to start any new projects until all of my old/unfinished projects are crossed off my list!  So, here we go....

Today is my due date!  If this is being published, it means that the baby has still decided to stay snug as a bug in my tummy!!  Which drives me crazy some days, and other days it doesn't bother me.  Like everyone, I have good days and bad days, and this past couple of weeks have been laced with a few not so 'good' days... only due to my own impatience!  This is a picture of me taken yesterday afternoon, at our favourite little get-away place, just 15 minutes from home:

Baby Milestone Photo Cards

Today I wanted to share this awesome gift that we were given for our baby shower.  It is so unique and just perfect for the photo-lover in me...

My Study - The Whole Story

I have put together this page so that you can see our Study Make-Over from start to finish.  The photos are all linked to the corresponding blog posts, so just click on the picture to see that part of the story :)

My Study - The Big Reveal

After an epic twelve month journey of pulling apart my old study and then designing and putting together my new study, I am pleased to announce that we are ready for lift-off!

If you have been following along with my Finishing Off Friday posts, you will have seen the recent progress that we made on the room, in order to get it completed.  If not, I have plenty of pictures to share with you today!

My Study - The Workbench

As you know, making over my study has been on my project list for some time now.  One of the features that I wanted in my study was a big workbench for the centre of the room.  I decided that I didn't need a desk in here, and that I would get much more use out of a bench-height table, so I invested a lot of time into researching the best design I could find.

My Study - The Expedit Wall Unit

One of the main features in my new study is my 5x5 Expedit wall unit from Ikea.

It was really hard to get a good photo of the entire unit, due to the workbench being in the middle of the room.  I hope that you can piece together the big picture ;)

Finishing Off Friday - 12th April 2013

Its Friday again!  Already!  How the time flies...

I celebrated my 34th birthday on Tuesday - I had a quiet, but lovely day with family.

Our Baby Zone in the Lounge Area

As mentioned in my New Carpet post recently, we have created a little baby zone/playroom in the lounge area of our home.  This area is right beside our kitchen, and obviously backs onto our lounge room, so it means that it is very central to where we do lots of the 'living' in our house.

My Laundry - The Whole Story

I have put together this page so that you can see our Laundry Make-Over from start to finish.  The photos are all linked to the corresponding blog posts, so just click on the picture to see that part of the story :)

My Baby's Nursery

Now that everything is ready for our little miracle when we bring him/her home from hospital, it is time to reveal the nursery!

If you follow along with my Finishing Off Friday posts, then you would have seen all of the bits and pieces that have gone into making this special room.  Today I am putting all of the pictures together so that you can get the overall effect!

This photo is taken from the doorway, looking into the room.  Outside the window is our pool and patio area.  A lovely relaxing outlook for our child, as they grow up :)

A Little Laundry Decorating

Renovating our laundry a couple of years ago was such a fabulous investment of our time and money.  The room is functional and organised, and after a few years of it being like this, I can promise you that it was worth being so thorough with everything, as the systems in place all work like a dream!

Something that I always wanted to do was to decorate the laundry, to make it a little more visually appealing.  It looked lovely - very clean and sleek with the white cupboards and taupe bench tops, but it just needed some personality.

Introducing 'Loui... with love' - Personalised Gifts & Embroidery

I am super excited to share with you that my amazing sister, Loui, has opened her Facebook store, Loui with love, specialising in personalised gifts and embroidery!  Her products are such an amazing quality, and so adorable, they just make the perfect gift :)

To celebrate Loui with love's grand opening, I thought I would do a little post about the fabulous products that she has available.  I tried to take some great photos to share with you, but with my 2 year old niece as my assistant photographer, I had to be super-quick with my snapping ;)  The photos don't do the products justice, but hopefully you get the idea...

Baby Singlets - these are just some of the applique designs available

Cook Islands Travel Journal - Day 4

Dear Diary,

We woke up to yet another gorgeous morning on the isle of Aitutaki.  Mick again started his day with fishing off the jetty, getting 'smoked' by an illusive fish who taunted him!

I had a lie in (until nearly 8am), then a quiet coffee in bed, overlooking the gorgeous lagoon on our doorstep.  Another tropical breakfast, this time blessed with cappuccino and flat white coffees - instant was killing us!  And then back to the bungalow for more fish and reading 'relax-ment'.

Cook Islands Travel Journal - Day 3

Dear Diary,

It was still dark when I woke to find Mick creeping in from the balcony.  I wondered what crazy hour of the night it was, but was pleasantly surprised to find out it was 6.30am - the sun rises here at 7am.

Mick had been woken by the splashes of super-sized bonefish chasing baitfish around the pylon of our bungalow.  In a flash, he had a line in the water - the first 2 casts each returned a trevally - a pretty good start to the day from my perspective!  But, of course, having never had enough of fishing, Mick persisted and was soon rewarded with a good-sized sweet lip - victory!

We had breakfast at the Bounty Restaurant - our included tropical breakfast was fantastic!  While Mick satisfied his hunger with his absolute favourite, pancakes, I was delighted with my muesli and fruit which came served in a coconut!  Does this place ever cease to amaze??

Finishing Off Friday - 5th April 2013

This week was another very productive one for me!  Mick went fishing for three days over Easter, so I had lots of time to potter around the house.  This is what I got up to...

Preparing for Baby

- I finished off the Baby Zone in our lounge area.  This is where I will be feeding the baby, so I wanted to create some little packs of supplies that will come in handy during this time.  I will be posting more about this next week.

Nesting

Tomorrow I will be 38 weeks pregnant!  How exciting (and overwhelming, and scary, and exhausting, and wonderful... and all of the other emotions that are buzzing through my brain at the moment!).  Just when I think that my belly can't possibly grow another inch, it stretches even further and I wonder what it ever felt like to be normal!

I have loved every moment of this amazing pregnancy journey, and have been so blessed to have had a lovely nine months of growing my little miracle.  Getting here was a different story, but that just makes me even more thankful that I am here, and we are about to embark on a wonderful new adventure!

My New Laundry - The Electrical Elements

As you know, I put a lot of thought into the little 'things' that make up my laundry.  I tried to think of everything that would be of use in the long run.  This post is all about the electrical items that we added, to make the room just right.

Yesterday I posted about the Robinhood Ironing Centre - read about that here.  It would have to be my favourite electrical addition to the room! But here are plenty of others that have helped to make the room that little bit more functional also...

Mick found this amazing swivel light for the sewing bench.  Previously, I had a long fluro tube above this bench, and wanted something similar again, as the old one threw a lot of light.  I was so thrilled when Mick came home with this fluro tube that actually swivels!  You can point it directly down for sewing:

My New Laundry - The Robinhood Ironing Centre

It has been a while since I posted about my new laundry (which isn't really new anymore!), but I have a couple of posts that I wanted to put up, in order to finish the series.  You will see these pop up over the next week or so...

Including the Robinhood ironing centre in my laundry design was something I had dreamed of for many years!  After now having had the system in place for quite some time, I can certainly report back that it was money well spent :)