Rust-oleum LOVE!

Trust me when I say that I am getting NO payment to endorse this magic spray, it is simple a case of true love.

I first read about this wonderful spray paint on the Door Sixteen blog, and since then I've used it to........turn hideous lanterns into something special for our spring porch;

...turn some also hideous pots into beautiful spring porch adornments;

...help organise the boy childs' art supplies;

...and so many many more projects that I've yet to share.

Our local Bunnings doesn't stock this magical mist, so I've had to make a few trips across town to stock up on my supplies. Why is it magic you ask? ...because it goes onto ANYTHING - wood, plastic, paper, metal and sticks like glue, but most of all it doesn't drip and gives a smooth-AS-finish...and as I said before it really is true Rust-oleum love!

Suzy's got it covered...

Yes it's me again, suzy of the cheesy blog titles!

I've quite a bit to share this week, because for once I managed to tick off and complete 3 wips over the weekend. But don't worry this won't be a monster blog post I'll spread them out over the week.

First up is this sewing machine cover, made of course from some fabric that I bought at Ikea! My sewing corner (well it's really a wall) is in our family room and is on show all the time, which makes it a challenge on two levels. One - keeping it tidy and clean and two - stopping everybody dumping their own treasures all over it!


I got the idea from Benita at Chez Larsson - who else I tell you? Between her and my Ikea fixation maybe I should just move to Sweden, but I digress...

The process for each of ours is a little different, same result. Here is the suzy way:

1. Choose a decorator weight, or mid to heavy weight fabric. The Ikea fabric is perfect because it is quite stiff, almost canvas like. I needed 0.5m of a 150cm fabric width.

2. I stood my machine cover on some newspaper and traced the end. For the main part, I kinda rolled the cover along the newspaper tracing away to get one single pattern piece.
So you should end up with 3 x pieces, 2 ends and a main piece.


3. For cutting I was quite particular to make sure that the pattern design on the ends was vertical. I couldn't stand looking everyday at dodgy positioning.

4. Sew the pieces together, right side facing (you know, here's me telling you the bleedin' obvious!). I pinked the seams. It would have been to hard to overlock a u-shape piece, you could have done it before you made the seams up, but this baby won't be washed a lot, so it didn't seem necessary.

5. I really wanted the hem to sit right on the table, so I fitted the fabric cover over the machine cover, turned it upside down and marked the hemline. I then overlocked about 1/4 inch outside of it, turned it up and voila perfect.


6. Last but not least, Suzy added a tag to the front so that I can tell easily which way is the front...and more importantly so I don't forget my name!

Now I've got to go and rip this cover off and do the final push of sewing before my ETSY shop opens next Monday - how exciting!

Organizing Burda

So I've been committed seriously to buying Burda Style (BWOF) every month for over a year now. When I say committed, I well sort of stalk the newsagents in town every four weeks when I'm expecting the latest copy to arrive. It sux that it is 3 months behind and we pay nearly $16 aussie dollars an issue, but no longer people! I've finally got the lovely people at Burda to answer my email and I'm about to get a direct subscription which will come in a touch over 9 bucks an issue, including postage - ORGANIZED!


..and for some time I've been meaning to sort out my issues like thus so that I have a quick reference for when a potential project pops into my head. This way I don't have to flick through every copy to find the right one. So simple, and flogged from someone's blog that I can't recall (sorry fellow blogger). You colour copy the summary page from the beginning of each issue, and then b&w copy the line drawing summary page and voila. Sort them into date order, add some tabs for each year, season if you so desire and clip the pages into a ring binder. Your mags and pattern sheet can then be filed away- see ORGANIZED!!!!

Cheers....

Four drawers

I can hardly believe that I am posting about drawers (it seems a little ridiculous that y'all would be interested) - but here we are...the re-organisation of the kitchen drawers.

Sometime ago I discovered this wonderful blog and since then I have been busy TRYING to re-organise the house. I'm desperate to go to Ikea to gather some supplies so I can finish this project, but alas that won't be happening until the girl-child is a little more cooperative in the car. Back to the drawers....

There are four small drawers in our kitchen and whilst the top drawer had some semblance of organisation, the middle two were disasters! Not any more...

The top drawer contains the usual suspects, plus bag ties (god bless Ikea), tags for labelling (we use them to identify frozen meat), a screwdriver (for quick battery changes of boy-child cars) and the bread recipe for the man of the house who unlike me can't commit it to memory. I lined the front of the drawer with some left over paper from Kikki K.The second and third drawers contains the cooking utensils. The ones we use the most are in the top and others like preserving equipment, bbq tools live in the bottom one.
The last drawer holds the rolls of foil, wrap, zip bags etc. Plus some hot-plate tile thingos (Ikea again I think) and washed zip bags. Yes folks, I wash and reuse zip bags.

There you have it!

Getting organised.....

A couple of lazy Saturday afternoons ago, I was doing some random blog reading. When I say random I mean you start off on one person's blog and skippity do da through the blogs that take your fancy, and voila, I happened upon this very classy blog, Chez Larsson. Now like most of the really cool blogs out there she has a stream of admirers...I too fell for her charm and she is now my latest blog crush.

I have always had a thing for Scandinavian design, particularly loving how clean, fresh and simple it is....and they're always so darn organised. Hail IKEA! Benita from Chez Larsson admits she is a neat freak, something I'm NOT, but I do have a propensity to be a bit anally retentive and LOVE I mean LOVE being organised. I'm the one with a spreadsheet for my grocery shopping which is checked off fortnightly, and the weekly lunch and dinner menu on the fridge, complete with recipe page references. I know it's nerdy but I get all warm and fuzzy about organising stuff. Benita's blog is chock full of great DIY for home organisation and she lovingly endorses of all people Martha Stewart. Well I just had to have a peep over at old Martha's house, and I find myself quite impressed. I thought Martha a bit daggy before, but she has won me over. I've even subscribed to the organisation and craft tip of the day. Go on laugh your heads off, but I'm loving it!

So I've spent the last couple of weeks pondering and staring at all of our cupboards and have come up with a list of organising to do...I will put them on my side bar so you can keep track of my progress. I started the first one this morning. Our laundry cupboard went from this.........
to this after a trip to Bunnings and a couple of hours. Our laundry cupboard contains a fair bit of kitchen overflow, such as jam jars, plastic containers for stock, freezing left overs etc. So they needed a good tidy up and cull. I then sorted the cleaning stuff into what we use weekly (they went into a carry tray) and little used items. We use old clothes and sheets for rags, so instead of using a whole pair of jocks to wipe the coffee table, I have now cut them into a more appropriate shape, overlocked around the edge and attached some cotton twill tape for hanging (see green rag in white basket). The medicine chest needed a huge overhaul. I now have a huge pile of medication to take to the pharmacy for safe disposal and the remainder is sorted into general medication, first aid (band-aids, betadine etc) and I need it quick (children's panadol, ventolin etc) sections.

Just like Benita I'm trying to colour co-ordinate each of my projects. Why I hear you ask, just 'cos I can I say...