A Quick Party

Amongst packing, moving and being almost full term in our 2nd pregnancy we also had out little mans 2nd birthday... just cos there was not enough going on. Family had suggested to postpone LJ's 2nd birthday celebrations with everything that was going on but I was not having any of that! He is our little boy and he deserved a small gathering to celebrate his 2nd birthday!
So with not much time and the very little energy I had left I got to organising a birthday party.

Whilst packing up our old house I had been mindful of where I had packed all the left over party supplies from LJ's 1st birthday and so this box was first on my to open list.

This saved me heaps of time and money. I already had blue plates, napkins, forks, spoons and knifes. I also had some blue tissue paper and a bunch of different coloured balloons. And so the necessities were covered... now to theme the party... hmm what did I have in the cupboard??

Looking in LJ's toy box I came across a jack in the box, a spin top, some wooden alphabet blocks and his red waggon. So I decided to pull these modern vintage toys out and use those as decorations.
I did a quick shopping list and struggled to the shops where I just grabbed a red table cloth, some red tissue paper and a happy birthday banner.... decorations done - check!

The cake.. what to do for the cake?? Last year I made a 3D owl...

But this year I could not do anything like that! Not at 38 weeks pregnant with bubs giving me so much pain. And so I decided a simple two tear square cake would have to do. This time however I cheated and bought two square sponge cakes, cut one smaller for the top and then iced it..

With only hours to go till people arrived this was what I was faced with... ahhh.. my worst cake ever!
I had trouble rolling out the icing with my big belly getting in the way I just ended up giving up and the perfectionist in me took a back seat.

It worked out OK in the end.. not my best cake but a cake none the less.

Now for the food... Usually I would make everything from scratch as I love to bake however with little time and NO energy I cheated again and made packet cupcakes and a brownie slice then got each family member to bring a plate of food. Easy.. food done - check!

I could not believe that I had everything organised and under control considering we had been in our new house for 5 days and were living out of boxes.
I even managed time to style my hair and put some make up on... make up.. I never get to do that!

Now it was not much but it was better than nothing... and apparently the only thing I had forgotten about was our camera...  lol.
Non the less it was a great day...

And what a surprise when LJ got given some very theme fitting gifts also...

A vintage tin push car

A sketch-o-gram

A car floor mat

Overall, our Mr2 had a wonderful time running around playing with family and friends. A day full of fun and the sound of giggles... And I loved watching every min of his enjoyment!

 

^YKylie

Shopping 4 Hozzie Bag

As most of you know were due to have our second bubba at the end of this month. I have been a little layed back or slack in packing for hozzie but with week 36 passing along I thought it was about time to get my bum in to gear.

First I convinced my wonderful little sis to take me shopping for a new overnight bag. I totally love Kate Hill and so we headed straight to the DFO outlets. Now yes I could have purchased this wonderful bag online with free postage however I was being very impatient and wanted it NOW! I also needed an excuse to get out of the house after being cooped up for 3 weeks with back pain.

And so I purchased the above Kate Hill Venice Weekender bag. I've fallen so in love with it that I'm also thinking of using it as our new baby bag after our hozzie stay. The idea of using the separate shoe compartment for storing nappies and wipes has me excited... no more scrounging through the nappy bag for a nappy like I was always doing the first time round with Mr LJ.

Anyway going through bubs clothing organising what to pack I suddenly realised that she had no small sized under suits or nappies so I would have to go do some baby shopping.. oh what a shame! I headed straight for my local Kmart and all I can say is wow - when did cloths become so cheep?? Or did I just get luck?? ;0)

I picked up a new set of PJ's - pink polka dot pants $8 & grey long sleeved top $10. A pink polo top $8 and a maternity tank nightie $15.

My new cloths

Not bad since I only was really going to get bubs some under suits... 4 for $10 not bad!

I also stoped passed Pumpkin Patch (how could I walk past the 60% off sale signs) and picked up 2 beautiful jumpsuits at around $11each. BRAGIN!!
I then stuck my head into Best & Less and purchased another pink spotted jumpsuit along with some essential singlets and beanies.

Bubs new stash

Overall I was so happy with all my new purchases that when Mr LJ decided to fall asleep in the pram I grabbed the opportunity to sit down and have a delicious iced coffee and gorgeous chocolate cupcake at The Cupcake Bakery... YUM!!!

A perfect way to end a perfect shopping day... that was until I suddenly realised that I had 15min to get home for my Cole's online grocery delivery at 3pm.... ahhh... I waddled as fast as I could and made it home in time! lol

As for the hozzie bag.. well it is still not packed :-s but I now have everything I need in order to pack it :0)

Washing and drying is in progress and I promise the hozzie bag will be packed this weekend for sure!

^YKylie

New Do

Time for a change... I've been feeling a bit down of late probably due to this pregnancy not being so lovely as the last. Having morning sickness the majority of the time, feeling fat and generally downing negative thoughts on my entire appearance called for a change.

So I decided it was time to try spruce myself up with a dramatic change of hair style... as we do!

I came across this lovely hair do on pinterest and instantly loved it. The idea of having something easy to maintain yet still a style really appealed to me.

This my ultimate hair style goal

 I currently have long, frizzy hair that I always chuck up into a ponytail as it is so hard to control and style. So I decided it was time to come off!

With much hesitation from my sister who is a hairdresser I finally convinced her to just chop it! She was so concerned that it was a pregnancy hormonal thing that I was going to majorly regret.. but I managed to convince her otherwise and so the chop was done!!

Chopped.. an arm length of hair off

And I'm very happy to report that there was no regret what so ever! I can not remember the last time I had short hair but wow my head instantly felt lighter and my mood instantly lifted!

I just kept running my fingers through it and smiling stupidly! lol. My wonderful sis then styled it for me and walla ... MY NEW DO!

My new do!

OK so it is not exactly like my original pic that I love but it is dam close. I came to the conclusion with a little learning on how to get volume into the back of my hair and it would be perfect! Overall it's totally better than what I originally had. My hair finally looks shiny, healthy and glowing like I always see on others. Who would have thought a simple hair cut would spruce me up so much..lol

Even my straight out of bed hair style look pretty good don't you think.. lol

I'm finding it so much easier to control and style. All I have to do is run my hair rolling brush through it and I'm done! Quick, simple and effective so with bub's number 2 on the was I'm confident that I will now look good even in the sleep deprived states that are yet to come :0)

So any of you out there trying to decide i you should or should not take the hair cutting plunge... I say DO IT!! Worst case you grow it back right.

It might be just hair but it certainly has made me feel a lot better!

^YKylie

Littlies Hair Cut

It was all hands on deck over the weekend as our little man had his second hair cut.

I'm so very lucky to have a sister who is a hairdresser and so she cuts our hair usually at my mums house. It makes it so much easier and our little man is already very comfortable with the idea of a hair cut. So comfortable this time around that it was all hands on to try keep him still.

The first hair cut he sat very still and quiet and it was great. All over very quick with no tears and were all so relieved that it was a lot easier than any of us had thought. So this being the second time around we thought it to was going to be easy peasy based on LJ's behaviour first time round. Little did we know that he had a different idea.. ha ha ha

Mr Wiggly would not sit still and every time I hold him to hold still it prompted him to wiggle due to a TV program called yo gabba gabba where the song goes.. hold still.. wiggle wiggle wiggle...

Little did I know that letting LJ watch such a simple kids TV program where he wiggles like crazy to would turn into him never being able to be told to hold still as this apparently now means wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.. just keep wiggling....

And so the circus began with my mum, sister and me all trying to distract him with combs, counting toes and playing his harmonica.

There was a lot of giggling, some stern talking and a lesson learned... I wont be telling LJ to hold still again whilst scissor are present. However after one cut finger and a lot of passion shown from my sister LJ's hair cut was completed.

What can I say he is our cheeky wiggling little spunk!

What measures have you gone to to keep your little wigglers still during hair cuts?

^YKylie

Kitchen Junk Draw

As most of you would know I've been struggling with sciatica pain and have been restricted to the in laws couch for the past two weeks. I'm not some one to stop, sit on the couch and do nothing so as you can imagine the past two weeks have driven me insane to say the least. No the less it has made me learn a lesson and I now realise that as bub's #2 fast approaches I do need to take it easy. So to ease back in and feed my craving for organising (call it nesting if you like) I decided it was time to do a small job like the kitchen junk draw.

Before: Kitchen 'junk' draw

I'm sure many of us have that 'junk' draw located in the bottom draw of the kitchen however I wanted it gone. It's always been a draw that I keep telling myself I will get to another day so today was that day.

I pulled everything out and put it all into a basket so I could comfortably sit on the couch and go through it. With the help of a few tupperware containers I sorted through all the stuff. I was then able to place all the random batteries, pegs and appliance paperwork etc.. into the correct homes.

Everything out into basket

I had decided that I would need a solution to stop this 'junk' draw from occurring and so I've decided to now keep my aprons, oven mitts and tea towels in the draw instead. It only makes sense to keep them here instead of in the linen cupboard as they are then quickly on hand when needed. So I neatly folded all my tea towels (wow I have a lot) and then placed them in the draw at the front. To the back left we have my two aprons with my new Donna Hay tea towels I'm yet to open. To the right I have our oven mitts. Awww... how nice :0) he he he

After: Kitchen 'tea towel' draw

Have you got a small quick organisation task like a kitchen 'junk' draw that you have been saying one day to? Perhaps today is the day to get it done!

^YKylie

To Many Cleaning Supplies

Whilst cleaning out my horrendous Laundry (that is taking me days to complete) I emptied out the linen closet only to find that I had over 15 cleaning cloths!

Why do I have so many? Well I think I lost most of them in the back of the linen closet and so I just kept on buying more.. tut tut.. naughty me.

The funny thing was that the very next day I found myself going to buy more cleaning cloths. The wonderful Clare from The Home She Made blogged about these wonderful e-cloths and I thought WOW that's just what I need! I'll throw out all me cloths and start again... silly silly me.

On second thought I realised that another purchase of cleaning cloths is just what I didn't need to be doing right now! And so I kicked my bum in to gear an got organising the cleaning supplies I already had. Firstly I started with all those cloths reducing them into 4 colours that I would use for 4 areas/zones of the house.

I then had the urge to organises all the cleaning supplies to go along side these cloths.. really this was to stop me from jumping back onto the net to buy those wonderful looking e cloths.

Under our sink is where I use to shove in all our cleaning products. Truth be told I was not to sure what supplies I had under there either.

So out it all came.. making my famous cleaning/organising mess once again...

Please tell me that you make a mess in order to organise your space or is it just me that is silly enough to make such a mess?? lol

I sorted it all by what area of the house it would be used in and bundled it all together.

Green - Kitchen, Blues - Bathroom, Yellow - Laundry and Pink for Lounge/bed rooms. I then placed each colour into its own basket, where they are all now in a new home in the Laundry cupboard at eye height so I could quickly grab one out when required.

I now have room under the sink to store what I actually use on a daily bias in the kitchen.

On the top shelf I have my light blue sink tin storing our dish washing brush, bottle brush and cloths. Next to this the small basket stores the dish washing tablets along with descale for the kettle and coffee machine.

On the bottom shelf I have put one cream tin that holds dishwasher detergent, spry and wipe, eucalyptus oil and paper towel.

Once again all this was done during toddler nap time as it was another quick and simple organisation task that I can now tick off my list. YAY!

I still however really want those e-cloths and I'm really trying to fight the urge to purchase them. Perhaps once I've used up all my cleaning supplies that I have now I will get them. I really want to go green in cleaning however don't want to be wasteful with what i have and so find myself at a crossroad.

What would you do? Throw out the chemicals and go green now or use up what you have then go green??

^YKylie





En suit Organised

I was having one of those days were I was doing a lot but not achieving much... you know the days where you run around the house all day but it looks like you have done nothing! I hate those sort of days and so when I put our boy down for his afternoon sleep I decided to organise our en suit. It would be a good task for me to quickly achieve and then I would visually be able to see something that I had achieved for the day. Now I don't know about you but if I can see I've achieved something I feel a lot better and don't get in a tizzy. Its has a somewhat calming effect for me.. I know silly but that's how it is and so our en suit was the task as hand...

Our en suit cupboard consisting of our mess shoved in

Firstly I pulled everything out. For some reason when I start these re organisation projects I'm always so surprised at how much stuff I pull out of spaces. Perhaps it is the fact that everything is out all at once and therefor makes me realise that we really do have to much stuff!

I created a bigger mess!

Armed with a few storage baskets and boxes I set to the task of grouping everything into categories then placing them into the cupboard.

On the top shelf we have...
1. My toiletries - in striped fabric basket from The Reject Shop
2. Tools such a nail clippers, tweezers, nail files etc.. - in mini wooden draws I already had
3. Hubby's toiletries - in striped fabric basket from The Reject Shop

On the bottom shelf we have...
4. Samples - into a lovely flowered pattered box I had been given a present in
5. Soap & Body wash - in white plastic basket from Kmart
6. Toothpaste - in small white plastic basket from Kmart
7. Supplies: Extra bottles or cans of Shampoo/Conditioner, Hairspray and Deodorant.

Now I did contemplate throwing away all the sample bottles that I have collected however I just can not part with them just yet.. they are so cute and I would love to place them out on fresh towels for any future guests we may be lucky enough to have stay with us. So for now they stay!

In regards to all that toothpaste.. Well what can I say it was on special and to buy in bulk always saves money hence were not going to run out of toothpaste for some time!

I also make it a rule to have one spare of the necessities such as shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and deodorant in the cupboard so as we are never out. As soon we use something we replace it with the stock supplies and it gets written on the shopping list to buy again. This works well for us and has eliminated hubby's urgent requests for deodorant at the very last min.. eg: I need it now as I've just finished my can.

I will be adding labels to the front of each container but for now at least it is organised.  And so there we have it... I was done! A quick, simple organisation task that I achieved during kiddo nap time. I can tick it off my to do list and it made me so much happier that I could see I had achieved something for the day. I'm even happier to report that it still looks as neat and tidy a week on.... YAY!!

En suit organised.. tick! Now back to the on going Laundry I go...

^YKylie