The January Cure

I blogged about this month-long project here and although I haven't completed as much of my list as I'd have liked, I did manage to get some stuff done!  Some time ago I inherited a very large ornate mirror frame.  It was a very dark finish so I sprayed it white, leaving it a bit patchy for interest and variety; a sort of vintage look.  I got as far as putting it up on my newly painted wall with an idea for a gallery wall, within the frame. It sat there empty for many weeks.  A few more weeks.  I kept looking at it and thinking I must complete the project but I had one major problem.  In the summer I bought these prints at a market in Tynemouth:

I loved them.  But, they've sat in a cupboard for the last 6 months waiting to be framed.  I always do this.  It's one of my less endearing traits.  So I started hunting for thin black frames 10x8".  Seriously - how difficult did this become?!  I went everywhere and the only frames I found were priced way over my budget; then, quite by chance I noticed some black frames on a supermarket website.  A quick trip later I was the proud owner of three black frames at a bargain price of £1.98.  So, my gallery wall is now complete.  Here it is in all it's glory.  I love it.  One thing to strike off that list too...

The January Cure

Whilst I was aimlessly browsing on-line yesterday, an email popped into my inbox about a project that I'd forgotten I'd signed up for!  Called The January Cure, it's a month-long project that promises to clear your home of clutter and make it a more organised and pleasurable space to spend time in. Well, I'm all for that! So the first assignment... go round your home room by room and make notes of any grot spots; jobs that are half-finished, areas that need de-cluttering, re-organising and tidying. The instructions say very clearly not to dive in and start 'doing' anything; today we are just noting and making my very favourite thing...A LIST! Yay....  So, off I went.  I started off with blank pages and before I knew it I had a very long and heart-sinking list; three pages to be exact...

I was relieved to read that once my list was done I was to take a highlighter and choose only 3 or 4 items on the list for every room to focus on...phew...So here's my typed up list; just a few things to do!

 

My List:

Front Garden: (this isn't strictly the house but it's the first thing I and others see)

• reorder recycling bins (someone stole them!!!!)
• replace cracked refuse bins
• sweet up leaves
• move empty flower planters to back garden

Hallway:

• clear shoes from under chest
• wash down paintwork and front door
• replace entrance mat

Living room:

• tidy/clear alcove cupboards
• clean rug
• wash sofa covers
• complete gallery wall project
• re-hang pictures
• get black and white prints framed

Dining Room:

• clear sideboard and tidy

Utility Room:

• paint white
• clear cupboard over washing machine
• get rid of random bits of wood behind the door
• buy some laundry containers
• buy ceiling dryer

Kitchen:

• re-paint
• clean unit doors
• clear baskets on top of units
• tidy out cupboards and throw away accumulated pots and pans that are NEVER used!
• buy battery for radio

Bathroom:

1. Clean tiles

Bedroom 1:

• Empty and tidy cupboards over wardrobes
• clear out desk
• clear out alcove
• tidy and clear UNDER desk (big dumping ground!)

Bedroom 2:

• empty cupboards over wardrobe
• empty/clear/get rid of accumulated clothes/clutter from spare wardrobe

Bedroom 3:

• clear out cupboard over wardrobe

Loft:

• systematically clear and throw away (there's baby stuff up there and my kids are now 18/22!)

That's it!  My list in all its glory.  I'll live-blog my progress with this project as I go along through the month so keep watching for updates.

 

have you got any big projects lined up for January?  If not and you want to join in the January Cure, you can sign yourself up here.

 

Image:  Apartment Therapy

Creative Displays

Whilst I do like my home to be clutter free and organised, I also like to collect things; china, books, shells, beautiful stones and more.  Over the years, it's entirely possible to build up a HUGE collection of  'stuff'; some of it useful, some of it beautiful and most of it stored away in a cupboard somewhere.  Creative Display by Geraldine James guarantees to help you solve the dilemma about what to do with your treasured collections.  The tag line says 'Inspiring ideas to make every surface beautiful' and that's enough for me!  I spent a wonderful few days browsing its pages and have begun to try out some of her ideas.  One of the best ones for me was using books as plinths for other objects - as I have a huge library of books this idea has made the piles seem more like art than clutter!

"To me and those in my world, displaying our treasures or collections comes naturally.  All of us have things we love that we want to display for our enjoyment and for that of others.  We also have stories to tell about them and want to explain our choices.  This is what defines us" Geraldine James, Creative Display.

Splitting her book into sections including Display, Work Spaces, Celebrations, Outdoors, it's easy to navigate depending what room you want to tackle.  She gets that it itsn't always easy to transform objects into interesting displays but comes up with inventive ways to rearrange your treasures.

Buy it, read it and then just enjoy playing with different ways to display.  Get creative and let your treasures tell their stories...

Mirror, Mirror...

I know most people decide to have a clear-out in the Spring; but the urge is upon me and I've decided to do something about my living room.  Not only is it going to get a tidy-up but a coat of paint too.  It's currently painted a colour called 'hessian' which is a pale taupe/cream colour and it's done it's job of showing off my treasures very well, but time for a change.  I'm thinking white - throughout the living room and dining room and using the colour from paintings and soft furnishings to vary the tones and break it up.  However, that's not my dilemma.  My current obsession is not paint but mirrors.  Yes. Mirrors.  I have a wonderful Edwardian mantlepiece that is the centrepiece of the room and above it stands a nice (but boring) mirror with a plain gold surround.  It's not enough.  It's just not big enough and I'd quite like something with a bit more detail.  Here's the dilemma: gold or silver or white french chic? 

silver gilt?

classic gold?

ornate gold?

or French chic?

What to do? 

Do something new this weekend...

The UK is all set for an extra-long bank holiday weekend to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.  I'm taking advantage of the four days to head north to see family so will take a blog break until next week, but, hopefully will return with some lovely pictures of Northumberland.  To keep you going here are some lovely links and ideas for the next few days if you find yourself with time to indulge...

1. If you're in London head for the river on Sunday to watch the 1,000 strong flotilla .

The formal river procession will be between 2pm and 6pm, starting upriver of Battersea Bridge and finishing downriver of Tower Bridge. The boats will muster between Hammersmith and Battersea and disperse from Tower Bridge to West India Docks.
It will be one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the river. Rowed boats and working boats and pleasure vessels of all shapes and sizes will be beautifully dressed with streamers and Union Flags, their crews and passengers turned out in their finest rigs. The armed forces, fire, police, rescue and other services will be afloat and there will be an exuberance of historic boats, wooden launches, steam vessels and other boats of note.

2. Make your own Granola using this receipe from Rosaline of This is Glamorous

3. Ring the changes with a cocktail cake as recommended by The Glitter Guide

4.  Fuschia pink and gold leaf - make these gorgeous notebooks

5. Get organised.  Get out your makeup bag, clean and throwaway anything older than 3 months or not  used.  Wash your brushes in baby shampoo and leave to dry before organising like this

 
Have a wonderfully relaxed and beautiful weekend whatever you have planned...
 
Photo sources 1)Google 2) The Glitter Guide 3)Eat,Sleep, Cuddle 4)Deliciously Organized
 

In the Closet

If there's one thing I've always hankered after it's a walk-in-closet.  All that organisation, space, colour-coordinated outfits/bags...sigh...what a pleasure!  I do pretty well in my current house for wardrobe space with a whole wall of built in wardrobes, drawers, shoe rails etc (as well as half the built-in wardrobe in my daughter's room - note to self to clear some clothes) but it's not the same as a whole organised room to indulge my obsession with clothes,bags and shoes!  I've had my eye on a few designs and thought I'd share some of my favourite images to date - well, a girl can dream...

Elegant and chic

Gorgeous - pink and lilac girlie girlie!

More functional but very organised

Loving the pink chandelier and little chair

Let's not forget our favourite - Carrie Bradshaw's closet

How do you store and organise your clothes?  Any suggestions?

Photo source: 1,2,3,5 (Google) 4 (House Beautiful photographer Bjorn Wallander)

REcycle

REcycled glass jars

Just recently I've been hearing a lot of the buzzword 'upcycling'...I didn't really get it's whole meaning - is it a 'trendier' version of recycling or what?  It seems it's not!  Here is the Oxford dictionary definition of 'upcycle' and 'recycle'
Upcycle
reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original: the opportunity to upcycle trash, or turn it into new products, was vast (as adjective upcycled)

Recycle

return (material) to a previous stage in a cyclic process: the amino acids are recycled in the synthesis of other proteins

So recycling is not transforming an object for use, but REusing it I guess.  So, talking of RE using, when I was last up in Northumberland I visited this amazing space - RE - short for re-found objects.  Set in an old converted workroom, in an unsassuming but lovely market town in the north-east, it is a veritable treasure trove of household objects - raRE, REmarkable, REstored, REcycled and you can find anything from vintage juicers and cutlery to RElics such as plaster cast Virgin Marys!  If you're ever up that way  make sure you find time to pay a visit, alternatively you can shop til you drop on-line.  Here's a taster of what they have to offer:

Bone-handled cutlery

Embroidered cards

Old postcards

Household utensils

Tin plates

Old map of Tyneside

Some of these items are from another great source of REcycled goods Florence and Florence. There's something special about re-using an item, especially if it has personal significance, but it's also a great way to cut down on the excess waste we pollute our planet with on a daily basis!

My favourite re-used items are the bone-handled fish knives/forks from my grandparents house and an old-fashioned lemon juicer, found at a table sale.  What's your best RE-used find?

D.I.Y.

.I am one of the worlds best organisers (of others); I can direct and if necessary, dictate, and nowhere is this skill more utilised than when some DIY needs to be done.  I'm a very impatient person underneath my calm personna (yes, that's right family - my CALM personna)and when I decide I want something to happen, I generally want it last year and then backdated.  So, when something needs doing in the house for example and I haven't quite got the skills to do it properly (read drill, rawl plugs and so on) then I call on someone who can.  Then I direct and dictate until the job is done when I can then sit back and enjoy the end result(s).  So this weekend I decided it was high time to tackle some shelving projects - especially as they're glass and they've been sitting in the downstairs loo for some time - a disaster waiting to happen if I wasn't very careful.  I had thought carefully about where I wanted them to go (kitchen and spare room) so here is the before and after...

Down with the notice-board and up with the shelves

Fill with treasured things

and enjoy

more treasures, this time in the spare room..

It's so nice to dig out all my loved bits and pieces from the back of dark cupboards and actually enjoy them.  But wonder who's going to dust all that glass?!!!!!

Books, Books, Books

It's no secret that I love books - actually, it would be more precise to say that I love the printed word; however, that largely comes in the form of books in our house.  Despite my kindle, I still buy books, just for the physicalness of them.  The smell of the paper, the feel of the shiny cover in my hands, the satisfying weight of it; my kindle can't replicate that, so I still keep buying.  My problem is, that for some time now, I've had nowhere to put them so they're taking up an entire landing (as written about before!).  I'm on the hunt for some book storage solutions and I'm trying to think 'outside the box' and not just go with some bog standard bookcases.  This is what I'm up against:

So in the spirit of research I've been looking at possible solutions but got side-tracked by the interiors as well as the solutions, and most wouldn't fit in my home, but here they are anyway:

I love the shape of this one

the clean lines of this one

the simplicity

the clutter!

the chicness

Failing all else, I could give them away to a charity shop, OR, I came across this - in America ...

a phone-booth library.  It started off as an experiment with a few books put on the shelves.  They disappeared, so they put more books in; they disappeared and so they kept topping them up, until one day they went and the shelves had disappeared too!
What do you think?  Any ingenious ideas for books?

Sugar and spice and all things nice..

So it's the start of half-term and any sane teacher would be lying on the sofa revelling in the thought that tomorrow they can have a lie in; they'd be having a glass of wine with their lunch (even tho' it's Sunday!!!!) and accepting invitations to go to the cinema.  What am I doing?  Sorting my kitchen cupboards!  This is all part of my 'plan' to get things more streamlined and easier to find what I'm looking for when I'm cooking.  For instance, when I cleared out one of the cupboards I found no less than five partially used packets of sesame seed! I mean....!!! It was a messy job - flour, golden syrup (not a good combination), seeds, I even found a packet of pasta lurking at the back that had a sell-by date of Aug 2008.  Anyone fancy coming for supper?  So here are some before and after pics and for those of you wondering where I got my stuff to help me organise.. I got all my bits from Lakeland Plastics .

Nice huh?! NOT. Chaotic mess and harbouring out-of-date packages that even my mother, renowned for her hoarding, would be ashamed of...

 So, all my baking stuff, sorted according to type; cake dec stuff in one box; dried fruits etc in another and so on.  All in easy to pull out cartons.

This is my favourite. Sad but true.  Before, all my spices were on one level and 4 or 5 deep so I had to pull out everything to find the one I wanted.  Now they are at graduated levels and grouped similarly ie curry spices together, herbs together and so on.

Such a good idea - why didn't I think of it before? 'Lazy Susan(s)' which only just fit but will have to do and make it far easier for me to find oils, vinegars and other condiments.

 All my flours, sugars etc labelled up with brown luggage labels for easy identification.
Aaaahh.... so now maybe I can go and sit on that sofa and relax in the knowledge that my kitchen cupboards are tidy and clean and look forward to my lie-in tomorrow..