Our Break away ..

I have had a little blogging hiatus lately, not by choice, but more just lack of time. So I guess I did make a choice, I chose to spend time and live in the moment with my family and try and make it up to you later!! So I promise, in the efforts of sucking up, I will have quite a few blog posts to come!

But for now, some snaps of our family holiday just before the school holidays started! We took the last week of term off, travelled about 760km south, while my parents travelled roughly the same distance north and we met in a gorgeous , small, seaside town for a week of rest and relaxation! 

We camped in a tent, while my parents had a caravan that they borrowed from friends and we had a ball! The kids were in heaven with their grandparents there and Dad on holidays. We spent our days at the beach , swimming, snorkeling , building sand castles. Our afternoons having some nibbles and beverages and taking the time to catch up and just chat. The things you can't do when you live 1300km from your family! 

So here is our holiday in photos .... 

The scenery on the way down was just lots of this. We have had a dry wet season and it is showing on the Pilbara soil! 

I made sure to pack lots of simple activities for the kids. Play dough, colouring in books, blackboards and the best of all - Paint with water books!! A cup of water and a paintbrush and its hours of entertainment! 

Fun in the sun , the bay is protected, clear and just stunning! 

Its not a holiday without a few G & T's !! 

Because we travelled south, the weather was much cooler than we were used to in the morning and at night so we felt it a little. Daddy did not complain when he scored more cuddles though!

This lovely friend was under my chair and my husband warned me not to move!! Who does that?! Of course I ran and jumped on the Engel fridge!! 

No summer holiday is complete without an icecream! 

I just wanted one nice photo of our 2 girls together!! 

Always dancing and prancing together! 

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Poor Angus was so worn out when we went out for dinner on our last night, he didn't get to eat his meal and fell asleep on the chair! 

Road side toilet breaks on the way home. One for the 21st book!! 

Doesn't it look terrible? All that white sand and the clear water? All of the big snapper and sting rays you can see while snorkeling? The tropical fish, the warm water, the protected bay? 

Needless to say it was a beautiful week, spending time with my parents and taking some time out as a family. We have re booked for next year and can't wait!! 

The kids favourite things? 

Building sand castles

Grandma and Poppy

And sleeping in a tent ! 

Easy to please aren't they?!

Lately ....

It has been a busy few weeks in our house. Lots of parties and catch ups. Meetings and big work schedules. My birthday, friends birthday's and all that life has to offer in between. 

I have so many jobs half finished around the place. Either I am struggling to get supplies or struggling to find the time , so the next Organising on a Budget post is on its way soon, or I am struggling to find the time. Life is busy but full of all the good things.

And this is a little of what we have been up to lately .... 

All of the kids have really been into puzzles lately, not the peg puzzles but 40-60 piece puzzles. So much fun for everyone!! 

Stella lost her first tooth!! She has been waiting for so long and it was wobbly for some time but she was so patient!! She was so happy and proud of herself!

Max and Lacey are loving kindy, and we are learning how to write names and different letters.

Our theme weeks that we used to have a few years ago for Stella have returned. Anything to help with the learning process. We do crafts, collect things from around the home starting with that letter, use flash cards and play games.

We took a day trip to a lovely beach and had lunch with good friends over the long weekend. The weather was warm (as usual) , the company was lovely and it was good for the soul.

The kids loved the beach, and I didn't realise just how much I missed a white sand, no nasties in the water sort of beach!

Crafting and painting. Drawing and colouring in. Always on the cards at our house. Here Lacey is making a Sun, 'S for Sun'.

Stella participated in the school swimming carnival for the first time. They had a ball and it was so well organised and run. Only in the Pilbara is there a tag relay where the kids have to put on a high vis shirt and run around cones!!

Max and Lacey's drawing and writing skills have improved so so much since starting Kindy. Max never used to draw or write anything. Nothing at all. Now he can write his name and can draw the most  gorgeous people!

He drew me this picture for my birthday. That's me with Max and Lacey in my tummy!! So cute!

I had a lovely birthday. The first one without my family around. I miss them dearly but my gorgeous friends and 'Pilbara family' really went out of their way to make me feel special. I feel so lucky to have made such beautiful friends up here. They have certainly made the move easier.
Cards and gifts, morning tea and play at the pool and dinner out at the Yacht Club.  Two gorgeous friends made me birthday cakes, one a Baked chocolate cheesecake that was to. die. for!! Best cheesecake ever ever!
Lucky Liz

I love that Stella is becoming more confident and clever with her reading and writing and I get the pleasure of finding these little notes around the house!! 

Its the big things that make you smile but all the little small things that really contribute to happiness. I want to remember all the little small things.

That's a tiny part of our lives lately ...

A list ...

Later this week, I will be celebrating my birthday. The last birthday of my 20's . Its not anything significant and it will be my first birthday away from my family. However it feels a little different to me. 

I feel like I should have a plan in place. A 'bucket list' of sorts. I know 30 is not that old. But its not super young either. 10 years ago I used to look at people in their 30's and think , they are real adults ... old even and in 12 very short months , I will be a real adult too! 

I didn't ever make a plan for my life. My plans of my future when I was a teenager was to study at university. Then nature took its course and I ended up with Glandular Fever, missing a lot of year 11, with the prospect of having to repeat the year. 

So ... while waiting to commence again I walked into a hairdressing salon and stumbled across a hairdressing apprenticeship .

I can't say it came easy. Because it didn't. It wasn't. Each day was hard work, long hours standing on my feet and a firm boss. But I am who I am today because of that time, and that lady. 

Its amazing how one event can change the whole course of your life. And every cloud has a silver lining. 

A butterfly landed on my hand in the supermarket car park the other day,
it sparked a train of thought about my 'Before 30 List'

I have fit a hell of a lot in my 29 years. I completed an apprenticeship,  I ran a business which at a point had 6 staff members, I have had 4 beautiful children who are my light , I have been lucky to find an amazing man to share my life with. I have a beautiful family, who support us to no end. They are enough family for the both of us . (My in laws are less than supportive which is a shame , their loss I say!)

We have been in our new town for 9 months now. It was a big decision but it has paid off and we are loving life. I am happy, I am healthy and I am lucky. 

I appreciate all the life has to give and has given me. 

But I will make a plan. Set some goals I would like to see through in this next 12 months My "Before 30 " plan. 

Then I may even make a 'Before 40' plan. Just places to see, people to visit, things to do and fears to conquer.  

Why not? 

If you were me, and you were making a Before 30 plan, what would you include? 

Organising On A Budget - The Tupperware Cupboard

For this weeks project for my 'Organising on a Budget' series, I decided to tackle a very well used, but always messy area of our kitchen. The beloved Tupperware cupboard. 

Now these things are always a haven for kids to play in, and I don't think anyone could say that their plastics cupboard is always 100% tidy and organised. 

Our kitchen is very small, with limited bench and cupboard space and I am not 100% happy with the location of everything but really don't know where else the things would work more efficiently , so until I do it is all staying put! 

BEFORE; 

To begin, I pulled EVERYTHING out of the cupboards. I sorted the items into piles of similar containers and found matching lids for every piece . Anything I haven't used in a while got chucked (yes I know its expensive stuff but if you don't use it , what is the point in having it?!) and anything that didn't have a lid or was damaged or a bit grubby/worn got chucked too. Not actually chucked but I donated the bag of goodies to a friend that moved here with nothing and is starting fresh. She appreciated the extra lunch box items etc.

The cupboards got a good clean, and of course a little washi tape action on the trim again. I am addicted and love seeing a little bit of colour and cheer in our old Kitchen. 

When putting the containers back in the cupboard, I know that everyone has their own system and preference.

 Me? I would prefer the tall items or the ones that I have more of (like the sandwhich keepers for example) at the back and the smaller piles at the front. They are all visable as I have to bend to look inside the cupboard but it makes the small items more accessible. 

AFTER 

I love how it doesn't look as cluttered. How all the containers we weren't using got chucked and how I have found things that I forgot we had!! 

This cupboard is actually on the end and then flows into a corner, so the larger dip platters etc are hiding in there. 

After seeing THIS post on The Organised Housewife, I loved how the little wire drawer was used for lids, and I actually had bought a set for my Bathroom Cupboard makeover and didn't use them (as all the little bits and bobs kept falling through them) so this was a great place for the drawers to be used. 

These drawers are from Kmart and are just a few dollars. 

All the small lids are in the drawers and all of the big lids are either down the side of the drawers or underneath the items themselves. 

And because one cupboard always flows into another , I culled and cleaned our crockery cupboard too!! Sorted the dinner sets, chucked some old plastic plates and bowls and put the items we use the most when preparing food down the bottom , within arms reach ie: grater , measuring jugs 

I feel heaps better about the cupboards now. The items we do have, get used often and because they are neat and tidy, its easy to see where things are supposed to go - for those hubby's that are so lovely to help out but like to dump things in the first spot they see!! Bless their hearts 

Go on, try it. Chuck and clean your plastics cupboard and see how good it feels. Make yourself a glass of vino and snack and enjoy it even more x

Changers .....

Game changers. In the words of Beth from Baby Mac,  of course!

Lately, we have been lucky enough to have some real game changers in our household. Things that change the way you function, cope and enjoy . Whats not to love? They make a change in this thing we call life and for the better!

First off the list is a minor one, and only cost a few dollars too! 

I found this yummy scrummy Onion Marmalade in Woolworths last week. It didn't take long to empty the jar! We have been enjoying it in ham and salad wraps for lunch and even toasted sandwiches but it would be totally Delicious with some crackers and cheese too!  It seriously reminds me of those yummy relishes that you buy whilst doing a tour of the wineries etc , so some days I like to pretend that is just what we've done!

This thing!! Oh how I love it so!! 

For the last 9 months, since we had to get the head on our vacuum cleaner replaced, I have been battling with it staying on the pole. A long story short, they updated the models so the new head doesn't click into our vacuum pole so when I have been vacuuming the floor rugs, when I pull it back I have to hold the head on!! MOST. ANNOYING. THING . EVER!!

Insert extremely happy face when my husband bought one of these Dyson cordless beauties home the other day! We have been interested and researching them for a while. And finally, its mine. 

Not cheap mind you, but I can vacuum my whole house with this beauty daily. I can whiz under the dining table multiple times a day , to clean up the food and carnage from the kids eating. I can take it outside at the drop of a hat and vacuum the car. Game Changer!!

And lets not forget this little beauty!! Bought from Typo  , for just $10, I finally have music around the house again! I have been having to use the laptop etc as our iPod dock carked it. This is a great little battery operated radio (perfect for cyclones) and its cute too!

We have this Bose Soundlink speaker  on our wish/lust but a bit more saving will have to be done for that first!

So there you have it. Not a lot but enough to change a few things around our home, and all for the better!!

Have you discovered many game changers lately?

Organising on a Budget - New Bathroom Storage

As an extension of my last post on our Ensuite Bathroom Cupboard makeover , I wanted to show you a little something extra that we added to our teeny tiny ensuite so that we had some more storage space. 

Just like time, space is of the essence, especially in our little bathroom . Even though I have never been a fan of these units in the past,  when I saw the Over - The - Toilet Cupboard , not only on sale but with $2 shipping from Deals Direct turn up on my emails, my mind started ticking. You see, freight for furniture, or any item really, is extremely expensive to get to the Pilbara , so I really wanted to make the most of the deal on furniture. Plus I knew we needed something to fix a few problem areas . 

This is our terrible gorgeous toilet space before

So a few weeks and $90 later, this beauty turned up and my clever husband set to work putting it together . Flat packs are a Blue job in our house for sure!

This unit has holes already pre drilled and for you to be able to attach it to the wall, however, because we are renting we wanted to avoid doing so. Instead we used little wedges (cut from rubber door wedges) to hold the base of the legs up (the floor is slightly sloped to allow for drainage and because I think its just a little dodgy) and also a bunch of command strips around the back of the top cabinet part. 

After a quick trip to our few shops , I found a couple of storage items and that cute enamel bowl on the shelf as a little decoration. 

The white frame is from Typo a while ago. I bought a few as they were out mega cheap and re homed it from another area of our house. 

The enamel tin has some paper type flowers that are scented. Something nice smelling in a bathroom is always a good thing :)

The main reason we wanted some new storage was so that our sharp items were out of reach of the children. With low cupboards, even though they know they aren't supposed to rifle through them, it is always a possibility and temptation. 

So on the top shelf from left to right;

The white tin holds my husbands razor and nail scissors. 

The glass jar is full of nail items, nail clippers, small cuticle cutters, tweezers etc

The cream basket has my husbands small clipper set (he uses on his face) and the various attachments for it 

The bottom shelf holds the commonly used items, so they are at arms reach but still kept clean and safe. 

Deodorants, shaving creams and face items for my husband. The white dish is where he pops his mouth retainer during the day (such a nice night time look!!) and of course the ever practical cotton tips and cotton balls in the glass jars (they were bought as a set of 3 from Thingz for $7)

We are extremely pleased with how the cabinet looks and functions. It has added a bit more storage to the area without imposing on space or practicality. It does shut out a bit more light from the window from what we had before, but that is not a major thing for us. If anything the room stays cooler! 

It was easy to assemble, a good price and great quality . You can't ask for much more than that!