lately creating...

lately I've been creating...

a small stack of goshorty bibs with this delightful brushed cotton 'peas in a pod' print

space

creating space to slow down

creating space to be there for my children more

creating space to hold them through illness

(and creating some cushion covers for the brown couch with colourful fabrics that I love like mad! it's lovely to add more colour, more patterns, more life, more me to this house) 

things that have helped me declutter and simplify

I've been really good at blaming different life factors for the state my home:
- I have never had to do the almighty downsize for an overseas relocation
- when I got pneumonia at 27 weeks pregnant and had to stop working due to illness and a prem baby, I lost the planned 3-7 weeks of "nesting" when my maternity leave started
- both babies were sickly leaving me little down-time
- my two-storey house makes it impossible to keep an eye on the kids (and vice versa because without that, MUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!) so I can't declutter
- I could go on!

so in line with the thinking, reframing and action I've slowly embraced, I have found the following things to help with the decluttering/downsizing/simplfying process:
- being kind to myself!
- flylady.com was where I started, after seeing a "27 fling boogie" tip in a Listener magazine.  while I don't feel like I fit in the target market for the site, it helped me find a few helpful daily routines to help me get on top of the chaos.
- Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project (and to date, I always keep one duchess drawer empty)
- my darling friend Nic loaned me a copy of Marie Kondo's book on the Japanese art of tidying up in january of this year, and it kicked me up a gear.  touch every item. does it spark joy? no? it's gotta go.
- friends with smartphones and Viber who are on a similar journey.  progress or before/after photos are exchanged, as are words of encouragement or decisiveness where needed.
- becomingminimalist.com and the Simplify and Clutterfree With Kids books
- 40 bags in 40 days challenges - not just limited to Lent.
- slowyourhome.com - which I found via podcast, then discovered the website.
- most importantly, variety.  getting to know myself more means I find out what works for me.  I get bored, so if I can change tactics or motivators then it's refreshing enough to get me going again.


my two children have been so very blessed with toys, craft supplies and more.  it became too much.  coincidentally when I discovered how much it was taking over, a friend happened to tell me about a book she then loaned me which covered the very same thing.  simplicityparenting.com is the website, and the book of the same name has been incredible in putting things in perspective from an expert's point of view (as in, someone with appropriate qualifications and years of experience behind them, not just a parent; yes I'm picky about these things!), and guiding decisions on how to simplify life for them.

it's also led to our television going on 3-month holidays, and a huge reduction in screen time.

plus most of their toys have been donated or handed-down and all that remains are some craft and play-doh supplies, imaginative play cooking toys, some angry birds figurines for endless hours (or minutes!) of construction, knocking down and giggling... and Lego.  so. much. lego.

the result? calmer kids. less outbursts. more imaginative play.

and calmer us.

running poker

tomorrow morning, 6am, I get these pretty things back on my feet for a new challenge a friend set me: running poker.

it's a running streak competition. nzd$50 buy-in, and you must run at least a mile (or 1.6km?? I'm going for 2km each day to play it safe!!) every single day. logged within a group on Map My Fitness, you can see who is keeping up with the daily challenge and who has dropped out. we get one $20 buy-back-in opportunity, and it's last runner standing - winner takes all.  there's almost a dozen of us in the group - game on!

the iphone weather app tells me it's going to be 10 degrees celsius, with 50% chance of rain at 6am tomorrow.

gulp.

juney june june

I was having a wee nosey at a checklist for june over on the 'slow your home' blog.

with my 4yo curled up on my lap (rare occurence these days: he is unwell) it was a wonderful opportunity for me to read the post about june being a month of change, to listen to the gale force wind and my humming fridge, and reflect on how much my life and home has changed since embracing a slower way of living.  there's still a long way to go!

in this post, Brooke McAlary shares how many items she has decluttered from her home so far this year. it had never occured to me to do this, beyond the 4 times I've challenged myself to downsize 40 bags in 40 days.  so I think I'll give it a go, and see if I can get rid of 2015 things for the rest of 2015.



a year ago I was slowly slogging away at about 4 areas of my house that looked a lot like this:

and while they are much less, there's still a long way to go.

... here goes nothing!

slow your home

there are so many wonderful and free tools for people like me trying to slow down.

recently I discovered podcasts, and one that I am listening to often is a new one called 'slow your home'.  the woman who does this podcast is australian (with a very easy-to-listen-to aussie accent.. phew!) and bits of her story sound like bits of mine. 

she speaks about her own journey towards living a slower, simpler, more intentional life. she also interviews names from the minimalist/simplifying blogs and websites I have followed with interest. 

it's much lovelier to listen to this inspirational channel than the howling Wellington wind, or to my children getting grumpy while I try to cook dinner. 

my current favourite: rhythm, baby - this ties in so well with both my own life, and what I try to promote with new mothers at my work.

rhythm trumps routine.

a little tidying up

this little character, created by one of my little men, kinda sums up how I've been feeling about life lately.  (except my hair is never that full and fabulous!)

so I've been decluttering, tidying, downsizing, donating, and embracing a slower life with less.

I've also deleted about 2/3 of the previous posts on this blog and will probably mow down a few more in time.

inspired by Gretchen Rubin talking about a one-sentence journal, I'm heading more towards that sort of thinking. say more with less. but also remember some of the special things.

getting the stage itch again..

last year I returned to the stage.

I love community theatre, I love the rehearsals, the mucking about, the final weeks of stressing over learning those last lines you stumble over, the costume fittings, the excitement.

opening night is insanely scary and exciting.

my last play was last year after nearly 7 years off, and it was a bit-part (as usual, a bit of light-hearted comic relief) as Greta the air-headed secretary in Agatha Christie's 'Witness for the Prosecution'.

here's a little backstage opening night selfie with my theatre bosom-buddy (and serial-community-theatre-actress) Jess:

and she went on to win an Antoinette for her role as Romaine (the leading lady). that's Wellington's version of the Oscars. terribly proud of her!

so now I'm seeing the audition notices coming through every now and then, and wondering how I could fit in another play... hmmmm...

gardening hack

we live on top of a hill i like to call 'mount doom'.

it's solid clay, it's almost always windier than the rest of the suburb, and i struggle to learn how to garden here.

five years ago my lovely and talented sister taught me a bit about gardening, and she helped us lay some pavers down.  the carpet thyme hasn't spread between the pavers as we'd hoped, but it slowly moves... sadly not as fast as the clover and other weeds.

i found a solution: take broken/ugly garden pots or kitchen plates, give your kids some tools, and permission to smash, and voila! you can have some colourful fillers inbetween the pavers while the plants take their sweet time to grow.  they still blow around or away in really powerful wind, but i'm not losing nearly as much soil. and it looks purdy!

washi tape

umm. i think i have a little bit of a problem.

is there such a thing as too much washi tape??

surely not.

upcycle of dresser drawers for the 3yo

i saw these cute yellow/white drawers in 'your home & garden' magazine in about february this year. i couldn't get the idea out of my head.

fast-forward to october and i came across some dresser drawers just begging to be spruced up for my almost-4-year-old son (cue panic - he's my youngest!). took said child to op shop to see if he liked: he loved making funny faces in the mirror, they'd been reduced to $40, so i bought them.

hurried searching for ideas and tips on how to successfully paint something like this, bought some test pots, mini rollers, spray paint, bought/made stencils, spent small fortune on new wooden drawer pull knobs, and set to it.

the 3yo helped too. he vacuumed drawers, rolled paint, made more funny faces in the mirror.

i don't remember ever being so quick in actually doing a makeover on anything!

this went up on instagram ...

the response from friends and randoms on instagram and facebook was overwhelmingly lovely. and then yhg got in touch to say how much they loved it! what a blessing.

best of all though: the 3yo loves it and takes great care of the drawers and what they hold. love that kid. they're a manageable height for him to be totally independant which fits with a montessori book i have been skim-reading - at times it's like reading about him.



goshorty is on instagram here.

radio silence over

the radio silence is over.

i didn't feel there was much worth blogging about. but then realising that things get lost on social media sites like facebook and twitter, i thought it'd be nice to come back here.

it's almost advent ... "prepare ye the way of the Lord" ... so I've been clearing out a grocery-bag sized lot of things from our home each day for three weeks so far in an effort to live with less.

i am reading joshua becker, 100 things challenges, kim john payne, and more to inspire me to downsize, declutter and live with less.  

i have spent time with wonderful women who embrace life, seasons, gifts, creating, children, laughter. i feel ready to start recording my creations here again for myself, and for anyone else who stumbles across them.

i'm not starting over. just evolving.

petite kitchen discovery

Have you discovered the Petite Kitchen blog yet?

My husband and I are both sensitive to gluten foods (mine diagnosed by blood test, his self-diagnosed by realising how much more alive and well he feels when he doesn't eat white bread, pasta etc etc), so I'm always open to suggestions of gluten-free recipes which are delicious.

My friend, a mother of triplets who has an intolerance to gluten, put me on to it.  Wow.  Beautiful recipes, equally beautiful photography, and even better - a notable absence of flour, sugar, additives and preservatives.

So far I've made the coconut bread (which I couldn't believe how delicious it tasted with only 3 ingredients!!!), the "slightly posh" prune and pistachio chocolate truffles, and the raw lemon & coconut truffles - one of the best treats to sneak out of the fridge any time of day!

The recipes are simple to make, taste delicious, and dare I say it... my children didn't like the prune and pistachio truffles at all - so there were plenty more for us adults!

a little Monty...

I'm always aiming to improve the life my littlies have at home, and I do this by listening, learning, Pinterest-ing, reading, experimenting and asking.

The closest Montessori preschool to where we live didn't appeal when I was checking out ECE options for my older son, it just felt too much like a business than a centre for learning and nurturing.  Call me what you will, but with the 3yo I have to make these decisions carefully because he is wired to be more sensitive than the average kidlet, and if we do things like rushing him, raising my voice in frustration, giving consequences which don't entirely make sense etc etc etc, we risk 'losing' him for an hour or four.  Just to put things in perspective.

The 3yo currently attends a preschool 2 days a week, and it seems to suit his needs and provide more socialising and stimulation than I can provide at home.  I'm constantly looking for new and better ways to do things at home to encourage learning independence, and feeling like he has a special role in our home, so I'm trying a few Montessori-type methods I've seen recently and introducing them slowly to our daily life.

The first step was to clear out our kid-plastics drawer and make it a special place for the two boys to have their eating tools in one place.  I got a bit of an idea from the blog 'how we montessori' and went from there.
Here's our drawer at the moment:

a plate, bowl, cup, fork and spoon for each child, and when they haven't been relocated by the 1yo, a couple of cloths for them to dry dishes or mop up spills.  We'll try for a couple of weeks and see how it goes, but I have to admit - the space provides so much order and peace!  And it makes sense!  I'd love to have glasses and earthenware plates but we have concrete-hard ceramic tiles... need I say more?!

angry birds

Well, it all started with a game.
A game that my sister-in-law let my then-2yo play at his baby brother's christening which he wasn't coping too well with.

Then I found a tutorial online on how to make your own characters from this game.
So I made one...

... and then I made a beanie to go with it (once I mastered the art of crochet enough to finish something)...

 ... and it was such a hit that I started on another beanie...

... and then I made another softie...

... so you could say really that I'm feeding the addiction!  But he loves his toys and his beanie (which is also a crafty way to get one on his head, and it worked!!  one point to meee!!) and I just love seeing how he enjoys them.  Good old Angry Birds huh!!

Now that I've got those out of the way, I'm off to feed my other addiction.
My Eric Carle addiction.
www.sewpretty.co.nz with their beautiful supply of Eric Carle prints on cotton are not helping... and neither is my stash of appropriate coloured wool to crochet beanies!

a little word on grief

Two days after Brett left this world for the next, we lost our other friend David as well.
Terminal cancer has taken the lives of two of the men in our close group of friends, aged 43 and 41.
We have said some farewells, shed some tears, shared some memories and leaned on each other.

Somewhere in the midst of caring for my friends and racking my brains for ideas on what I could do for my girls who were facing such immense loss and change in their lives, I forgot that I needed to grieve too.  My angels have surrounded me this weekend as I am carrying a tiredness with me that is rivalled only by the tiredness a first-trimester pregnant mother could understand.  Some angels wake me to hear my boys crying out in their sleep, others get me moving, and getting through the difficulty I've found in just putting together a simple meal.  Another angel has come in human form, turning up on my doorstep with icecream and hugs, and then taken me out to a movie the following night so I could forget myself for a while. And another angel who is a friend from secondary school, who reminded me I have my faith to lean on, which was so encouraging.  So although I grieve, and I still get angry from time to time, God has sent me enough to get through.  I always always look for the silver lining in life, and at the moment I think the silver lining in this is that I have a closer bond with my friends and my husband from this experience, even if it was a horrific way to get there.

If you're one of the confused few that has been stood up by me as I have forgotten a play date, or a housewarming, or even had me with you in body but my mind has been elsewhere, I thank you for your patience.  It's been a tricky sort of year.

I'll end this post with a message that Brett's widow Kylie shared at his funeral: slow down and enjoy what life has to offer.  There'll never be enough years to do everything you want to do, but enjoy what you can.  Laugh.  Love life.

Be kind to yourselves!


The Riley Family's website: http://www.thelifeofriley.co.nz/
Suz and David's website: http://davidonaplate.wordpress.com/

see you on the other side

Thanks for all the lovely wishes and thoughts from an earlier post on two of our friends who are dying of aggressive cancers.
Today, Brett Riley passed away.  His wife has written some beautiful words on their website (see here).

At 3:30pm, when he left us for a better, cancer-free place, I just happened to be enjoying my first family movie at home experience - the four of us had all snuggled on the couches to watch Bolt, young Maddy Riley's favourite movie.  Touching coincidence.

So tonight my heart is full of sadness, but my head is full of memories of hanging out, moving houses (plural), sharing friends' celebrations, drinking beautiful coffees made by Brett (especially last year at their beach house when both our kids had been waking allll night), listening to my husband talk Apple with him, me discussing with him the best online tutorials for making softie toys for our kids, and some of the funnier moments from the last 9-ish years that Brett has been part of our lives.  Such a gentle man, a clever and creative man, such a huge loss.

Thoughts and prayers go to his beautiful wife Kylie, and delightful daughter Maddy.

Be at peace with God, Brett.  See you on the other side.

angry birds beanie #1

... one little Angry Birds fan is the proud owner of a crocheted beanie - not bad for a virtual beginner!

terminal

Once upon a time, the word 'terminal' was within a transport context for me.
2012 has brought new meaning to the word terminal, and I just wish it hadn't been so soon.

I have a wonderful group of girl-friends with whom I meet at least monthly for dinner and a wine, or takeout and a fizzy drink.  We've known each other since university days and since have celebrated each others' new flats, new boyfriends, birthdays, weddings, new homes, births of babes and more.  Two of these wonderful ladies have been dealing with something we never ever thought would happen around our 30th birthdays - their men have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. 

The website for the Riley family's journey with this diagnosis has been set up here: www.thelifeofriley.co.nz
Details of upcoming events to raise funds for their cause will be listed here: http://www.thelifeofriley.co.nz/category/events/

The talented and amazing Sophie Voon (Wellington fashion & bridal designer extraordinaire) is also doing something here: http://www.sophievoon.com/arohanui_may10.html

For the other couple, while they have enough to cover essentials (just), they would love help to enjoy a meal at a few of Wellington's finest restaurants... or old haunts.  A website will be up soon to donate towards this cause if this is your 'thing', so that in the weeks they have left, David and Suz can afford to enjoy some last suppers - as fancy as Logan Brown or as fun (and nostalgic) as KK Malaysia.

'David on a Plate' is a fundraising effort set up by David and Suz's colleagues: http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/DavidOnAPlate

You can follow David's journey here: http://davidonaplate.wordpress.com/

and there is a new goshorty baby beanie in production which will be helping raise funds.

For those of you who pray, please remember our friends in your prayers.  They need all the grace and healing they can get.

And go and hug your families when you read this.

A miss is as good as...

I didn't quite make it to my 40 bags in 40 days...  But I did clear 35 massive bags of unwanted, unused and unloved "stuff" out of our house during Lent!  Actually that's not quite true yet - there are 10 bags in the garage still waiting to be taken away, but that's no biggie!

The run-down:
Bags 29-30: our patio garden.  I had a little helper with his little tools (see picture above) and I filled 2 bags to the brim with weeds and garden rubbish, so although it is still a weedy mess that is in dire need of my sister or mother to come and save the day, it has stopped resembling The Day of the Triffids. 
Bag 31: the study corner in my room - way too much excess papers, wrappings and rubbish, gone.
Bag 32: clothing that had been destined for Trade Me that never made it there: gone!
Bag 33: one bag full of goodness knows what, from the boxes sitting on our upstairs 'landing' area.  3 baskets and 2 bags went down to 1 basket and 1 box and it is much easier to move around there now!
Bag 34: more 'stuff' from the garage, a whole basket of stuff decluttered.
Bag 35: another lot of clothing and toys my boys no longer need, off to a friend whose wee boy will be in the clothes soon and will love the new toys!

So that, and 5 bags from a friend, takes my ticker up to 215 bags, but how about the rest of you?  Any bags to add to the final total?

Even though I didn't get to my goal of 40 bags, the sense of peace in my house where once there was chaos and mess, well it is pretty addictive!  Happy Easter to you all, and God bless all of you and your homes.

The eyes have it...

You know how sometimes you discover something so amazing you simply *have* to share?
Well today, it's makeup and I am loving myself sick (in the words of Kath & Kim) in two of my new beauty product staples.

Firstly: Nutrimetics Lash Impact Mascara.

A friend of mine is a Nutrimetics Consultant and it's always a wee treat when it's my birthday, because I'm guaranteed to have a wee NC parcel from her.  Last year I got this mascara and it has done the unthinkable: it has converted me from my old faithful Maybelline Great Lash mascara.  For nearly 2 decades we've had a great relationship but now it is time to move on.  This baby has a silicon brush and from first application it glides on beautifully and lasts all day.  (Shh secret squirrel - it's on special at the moment, but only for another couple of days!!  Click on the image to check it out)

Secondly... I do love a bit of sparkle, but chunky face glitter should really be restricted to school-aged kids or 1960s-1970s theme parties.
Let me introduce you to Marbleyes!

Marbleyes in Eclipse

I have it in 'Cosmos' and I just dust a little on the top of my cheekbones and eyelids, and dust any remaining powder from the brush onto my decolletage.  It is a fine shimmery powder that gives a lovely subtle sparkle - simply magic when the sunlight catches it!  AND it's currently on special for $19.90 - click on the image to check it out.  The pressed powder is about twice as large as a MAC pressed eyeshadow, just to give some perspective.

... and if you need a little help choosing anything Trish is a wonderful lady with a great wealth of knowledge on all things skincare and makeup.  Spoil yourself!