home and away....

We have been a bit quiet in blogland, but for a very good reason.....

WE ARE ON HOILDAYS!!!

Not the kind of lazing by the pool working on my tan kind of holiday but even better...

the travelling "home" kind of holiday which entails lots of time with extended family, visiting relatives, reminiscing and best of all no cooking!

Day one and I have already left Little Miss A...twice!!!  This is a record for me!

I leave her twice a week to go to work but have always felt guilty asking the "nanny" to watch her while I do "me" related things.  So... yesterday I had my haircut AND took Master O to the movies!

It was the first time I have taken him to the movies and the look on his face when those curtains pulled back and the giant screen was revealed was AMAZING!

We are LOVING this North Queensland heat!  The weather here is simply breathtaking, our flus have quickly vanished!  I hadn't realised just how much the cold southern weather had gotten to me, until I returned home!

Just a quicky from me as we continue to revel in all that is family....think italian home cooking, lots of kisses and cuddles (and babysitters) for My Pigeon Pair and being able to unwind, relax and breathe in this warm air.

Sneak peek...latest organising project!

Sneak peek at whats happening at our house today.....

the laminator has been working hard and

the hubby has been busy installing our new organising secret weapon....

can't wait to share this project with you

courtesy of

Green Apple Organising and

Living Locurto

Are you doing any organising this weekend?

Jewellery Organisation

Notice that little pile of necklaces so casually thrown on the floor?

(Bottom right)

Thats what happens when.....

You have a treasure hunter, delving into the jewellery drawer

unearthing sparkly finds and taking them back to add to her collection!

This was driving me INSANE!

Mainly because she "chooses" to play this game, whilst I am in the franic

I HAVE TO LEAVE IN 10 MINUTES

morning rush!

As part of Operation Bathroom

I HAD to find a solution to this disaster!

Enter......IKEA!

Ok so by now, you have surely realised I am obsessed with IKEA

but when ti comes to organisation, they have it covered AND its cheap!!!

In the wardrobe department I discovered this little beauty....

a sliding hook organiser...

I have attached it to the inside of our Walk In Robe.

Can you spy it?

It is so carefully hidden away from the treasure seekers!

There it is!Two lines of hooks, just made to store necklaces, bangles etc!

and when I want to take somehting off, or view what I have...

It just slides out!

I LOVE IT!!!

I can now see everything that I have

It's not tangled and the hooks help keep it that way!

I can't stop playing with it!

You could put this inside a bathroom cupboard, on a wall, anywhere!

It would also be great for hair bands or belts!

The possibilities are endless!

SO what do you think?

Meet you at IKEA???

Of course now that I have entered the wardrobe, I have to start organising it too!

Can't wait to share some great finds from Green Apple Organising

Little Golden Cases of Joy.....Honey Joys

If you go into the woods today.......you will find a whole container of sweet little cases!!!

Master O had his very first Teddy Bear's picnic and 

all Mumma bears were on "bear" themed party food duty!

Besides the obvious Tiny Teddies I could not think of anything!!!!

Porridge?

Picnic Baskets?

 Bear = Honey??  

Well at least it does in most children's stories so....

Honey Joys it is!!!

Honey Joys

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups corn flakes

90g butter

1 tbsp honey

Melt sugar, butter and honey in saucepan until frothy.

Poor melted sugary goodness onto corn flakes and mix.

Spoon into patty cake papers

Bake for 10minutes on 150 degrees celsius

SO SIMPLE....and so sugarly delicious!

Needless to say, the container was a few short

 by the time the little golden cases of joy made it to the picnic mat!

Green Apple Organising Rave and review

Well our bathroom organisation project has definitely left us with the organisation bug 

and this is one bug we are in no hurry to get rid of! 

Our organisation fever has  moved on from the bathroom 

and now taken its hold on the wardrobe!

In particular Master O's wardrobe has long been cause of heart palpitations with an overwhelming amount of clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, swimwear, even a large family of stuffed toys have taken up residence amongst the chaos. 

In particular I have been searching for a way of storing and organising his clothes so that he can independently get dressed (in appropriate clothes) in the mornings.

Sending him off to get dressed often results in him reappearing with his swim suit bottoms, a jumper, socks and sandals.  As much as I appreciate his european styling, I am not sure it would meet "Kindy standards" and so we waste another half an hour arguing, wrestling the clothes off getting him changed.

With his first year of school uniforms rapidly approaching I was starting to get frantic!

We have the space but just not the solution.

Then I spied this little piece of inspiration...

Living Locurto

Amy from Living Locurto was in a similar predicament when she created this great system for her son!

I must admit the procrastinator in me bit and although I saw this picture months ago, I have not done anything about it!

Well to be fair it was not just procrastination but the how-would-this-work-for-us question?

Master O has to be able to reach the clothes for this to be effective?

How can you put a clothes rail at his height?

Do we really have room for a whole other clothes rail in his cupboard?

How would you install it?

enter......

The InstaHANGER

$19.99

Green Apple Organising

 I found this little beauty when I recently stumbled upon a life changing website. 
Green Apple Organising.  
Australian based, Adele from Green Apple not only has the most amazing products 
but inspiring videos with time saving and simple snippets of organising gold!
I had massive organisers envy when I browsed her online store but there was one product I had to HAVE!

This product the InstaHANGER is the perfect solution to our wardrobe problem!
Basically its a mini hanging shelf that can be put almost anywhere you need some extra shelf space!

It can be installed anywhere!  On a door, wall, cupboard or in our case in the wardrobe!
Here it is!!!

We are putting it at Master O's eye level so that he can see what he is to wear each day.
Each coathanger has a day of the week tag on it so I can help him plan for a week of clothes!
The InstaHANGER is the perfect size, stable and can hold 50lbs of weight.
and.....

It has made the most of the unused space underneath the current clothes rail!
Children's clothes are so short that you often have unused space (at their reach!)

I would love to have one in the laundry to place clothes on once I have ironed them.

Or in our guest bathroom for guests to put their clothes on whilst they have a shower.

Or in our entryway for school jumpers and work jackets.

ANYWHERE!

It is great because when you are not using it just folds discretely against the wall. (see the little inset picture above) and can be used inside and outside!


The InstaHANGER is available online through Green Apple Organising
but beware they have sooo many clever products (more of which you will read about on here!) and Adele's You Tube Clips are addictive
and will only encourage your organising bug may take hold of your life! 
That can't be a bad thing, can it?

One is a magic number.....teaching babies one to one correspondence.

You are never too young to learn to count!  

The winter sun has been absolutely beautiful lately so Little Miss A and I have been spending lots of time in our entertaining area playing!

This little activity kept her amused and out of the garden! 

In the plastic container are pebbles out of our garden.

The green plastic container is a "seed sorter" from our local "cheap" store.

Little Miss A would take one pebble out of the container and put it in one of the seed sections.

This is her "pincer" grip or grasp.

This is a very important skill for children to develop and practice.

By practicing and encouraging this skill, children gradually develop strength and control.

This skill will one day help her tie her shoelaces, hold a pencil and write!

At the moment its great for picking up the tiniest objects and putting them in her mouth!

Its the little things!

she uses her hand eye coordination to place it in a section

she is learning about empty and full, another maths concept.

Only one pebble can go in each container.

"one" is a magic number! 

When children learn to count it is so important that they develop 

"one to one correspondence."

Simply put, one-to-one correspondence is the process of touching one object for each number that is counted aloud. This may seem simple but many children initially find it difficult to coordinate their counting with the movement of their hand.

She may not be "counting" but she is learning the value of one.

Until children master this skill they will find it hard to count larger groups of items!  Rote learning of numbers (being able to count aloud from memory) is pointless unless children have an understanding of one to one correspondence!

You can do this in many other ways

One peg for one sock on the clothes line.

One fork for one plate on the dinner table

One toy person for one toy car when playing.

One baby bottle for one doll (Little Miss A's Favourite)

The key is to make it fun, make it part of your everyday routine,  

and enjoy learning together!

Bathroom Makeover - Before and After!

So here it is....

The Before and After

of our 

Project Bathroom Organisation!

HER DRAWERS

TOP DRAWER - Make Up

BEFORE

This is definitely embarrassing...

so much make up!  and one container had leaked everywhere!

This was the motivation for this whole project and the area that required the most work!

AFTER

What a difference!  I now know what I have...and ordered a few extra bits and pieces.

So many of the conatiners in there were empty!

And all those bits and pieces for when I "go out"

Well I have been "out" maybe twice this year so they have now gone in the bin!

2nd Drawer- Jewellery

BEFORE - Notice the little hand exploring this drawer!

The Jewellery just had to go from this drawer because of this!

so now....

AFTER

This drawer is now for hair ties, booby pins, hairspray etc!

I love the little containers from Woolworths that have hair ties, booby pins etc in them 

It keeps them safe from little hands!

HIS DRAWERS

(well I have taken over them a bit!)

TOP DRAWER

BEFORE

OMG...what is going on in there!  The toothpaste is everywhere!

AFTER

Now that the toothpaste is in its own little spot, hopefully it will stop it going everywhere!

I also threw out the "can" of toothpaste.  It just made too much mess.

I am thinking of moving the razors into the cupboard, but for now it is right at the back to keep them safe!

2nd Drawer - Hairstuff, tweezers, scissors

EVERYTHING!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Much easier to keep things together when they each have their own compartment!

CUPBOARDS

HERS

BEFORE

A medley of boxes, containers and deoderant!

AFTER

It looks so empty!  There was so much unused junk in this cupboard!

I particularly love....

BEFORE

My nail polish used to look like this!

After going through them all I discovered nail polish that 

hubby once bought me before we were married 8 years ago!!!!

Needless to say, a major cull was needed....

AFTER

I dabbed a little of the nailpolish colour on the lid so I can find them easily.

Can you tell I love pink and red!!!

HIS CUPBOARD

BEFORE

Cleaning products and another collection of deoderant!!!

AFTER

Top basket for cleaning products and toilet paper

Bottom basket for aftershave and deoderant.

This is definitely THE BEST organising project we have taken on

It cost under $50 for containers and was worth every cent.

Not only is everything more organised, its cleaner and has actually changed my frame of mind!

It has inspired me to now organise our wardrobes!!!

So where did the jewellery go?

That is another post!

Cant wait to share this clever way of storing jewellery away from little hands!!