DIY & husbands

Unfortunately in my house these two do not go together. Today we had a list of chores that needed doing before winter set in and that we had been putting off. The first involved replacing the felt on the shed roof, now my husband however fantastic he is he is not known for his DIY skills, within 5 minutes of this task I could see it was taking a drastic turn for the worse with the rain pouring down and those mortal words 'well you bloody well do it then'! So me being me did but thankfully he did return with a cup of tea for me and help finish the job!

After a few hours of prepping the garden for winter, clearing out the shed, putting away garden furniture, clearing guttering (see how glam my Saturday is) it was time to chill. I came in to find the two men of the house cosy from their shower snuggled up watching a war movie and as the little lady was at a party I took the opportunity to catch up on my google reader and stumbled across Get organised with Alejandra and found myself gripped to her You Tube videos on different areas of organising. Now this women is super super organised, I think even maybe suffering from OCD. I kinda liked watching the videos but felt they went on for too long. Although watching them did confirm that I needed to buy me a label printer, I have been wanting one of these for ages and having just cleared out the cupboard in the kitchen where the boxes are crying out for labels I thought why not. Plus I love how they look when all labelled.

I shouted to the boys that I would be back in half and an hour and went off to my new favourite store, Staples (I was actually nearly gone an hour and a half)! I set out to research label printers but also wanted to pick up some supplies for organising my recipe folder and also a sneak at the Martha products again.

Only this time I also stumbled across and fell in love with their Arc customisable notebook system. I haven't been happy with my notebook system for work and as my filofax was made redundant last year (I store most stuff on my iphone these days) I still need to make notes when with different clients. The arc systems seems perfect for what I need as you can have zip pockets, different types of paper and business card sleeves (although sold out of these) so I treated myself to an A5 olive green leather cover notebook, dividers and zip pockets.

My new 'arc' notebook system

It is more olive green than the lime green in pic

I also saw some label printer's and was quite keen on one but the packaging didn't really have enough information for my liking so I took the details down and did some more research when I got home. I am pleased to report that after I managed to find exactly the same one on-line for £12 cheaper a purchase was made so now I just have to wait a few days for it to come in the post!

All in all a productive day with the family at home!

All about the heel

Great excitement in the house tonight as it was my daughter's school disco and she was wearing her new pair of Cinderella shoe's. What's so special about the shoes, they are her first with a heel!

She had a fabulous time and was buzzing when she came back and spent the next 30mins going through everything that happened, who said what and showing me the dance routines.

It is moments like this that I wish I could stop time and stop her growing up.

School folders

For my daughter's first school year's I kept a scrap book with photos, certificates and bits she had done but time takes over and to be honest I haven't had the time to keep it up or start one for my son.

Then I came across a fabulous idea on an American blog which unfortunately I can no longer find :(  and with school certificate's and artwork mounting along with school photos that stay on the computer never to be printed I decided to take action.

I purchased two presentation ring binders (one for each child) from Staples these have a clear film covering the outside which enable you to put in your own personalised covers;

Dividers were added for each new school year;

They have photos that were taken at school and due to the digital age we now live in they tend to stay on the computer but I came across the fabulous Martha Stewart Home Office range which is also available in Staples and these sheet protectors are great for displaying photos;

Finally it was time to personalise the covers, I used patterned paper and printed their names within a border on coloured paper and stuck it on to the patterned paper and slotted into the clear film.

Now when ever they come home from school with anything they wish to keep, they file it themselves in their folder and the plan is every couple of months I will update the photos. 

For larger artwork and end of term project books we have a clear artwork carrier to store them in.

Total bliss

After dropping the children off at school this morning, I got on a train with a cup of tea, an interior/homes magazine I love to read and a slice of bread and butter pudding and for one hour I spoke to no one and did nothing other than eat, drink and read... total bliss.

I don't randomly get on trains to do this, I did have a reason, a client meeting in London and although with the train being delayed by 10 minutes I got an extra bit of bliss time it did meaning dashing to meet my client. I was feeling a little nervous as it was the first meeting and will be my first time working with them but thankfully after a very productive if not long meeting, it was then back on the train for more bliss time, reading my mag and lunch before back to reality of being a working mum!

Martha comes to the UK!

I often read on American blogs about Martha Stewart products and have always been envious of the product range which unfortunately we do not get in the UK.

Then on my first trip to our local Staples a couple of days ago I stumbled across the 'Martha Stewart Home office with Avery' range. It had only recently come in and had 40% off all items, I could have cried with happiness seeing the display (see how sad I am).

My mind went into organisation over drive; what could I use the labels for, do I need another note book, if I start a cleaning schedule I could buy the folder and dividers, shall I treat myself to a pen pot!

After calming down, I decided on two large horizontal plastic pocket's which claims to stick to many household services (and they do) to hold my monthly calendar on my wall by my imac and one for the fridge. I also brought the smaller version for holding takeaway menus on the fridge. After only having them up for two days I do wonder how I got by without them!

 




I also purchased some sheet protectors for a children's school folder project I am about to do (post about that later) and kitchen labels for when I finally get round to re-organising my kitchen cupboard!

I have fallen in love with this range and have already thought of other items I will go back for.

Do you know of any other Martha Stewart products in the UK?

Not a day too early!

I had a heavy heart this morning as the little people were going back to school after half term, I am afraid to say this isn't the reason for my heavy heart but the fact I couldn't await to drop them off! I always love school holidays, we chill out and go out on adventures together but we didn't get up to much last week and my two turned from easy going kids to ones that just annoyed the hell out of each other which then in turn wound me up! Thankfully we did finish the holiday with a great day in London yesterday.

I work freelance for a local publishing company and cover a lot of projects for them and had to be in their office for a meeting today. I like going in as I really like the people I work with and it is nice to be 'me' again, wear smart clothes and have adult conversation's. With the children being in different schools I used to find the school run and then going into the office, being corporate and then back to two schools runs really stressful but when they started the autumn term I told myself I would not get stressed about it and just make sure I leave plenty of time rather than backing out of the office door still talking work with minutes to spare! Thankfully I have managed it every time I have recently been in the office... yeah!

Once home they were shattered after their first day back and on top of their late night in London the night before (opp's not great planning on my behalf). So it was tea and early bedtime - yeah!

With the house quiet I was looking forward to a night of catching up on my admin. I went to look for something in my kitchen cupboard that stores all my cook books, craft stuff, candles, napkin rings, ribbons, cotton reels, sewing box, etc - I found myself two hours later opening and closing the door to the cupboard repeatedly, admiring my re-organisation - sad I know! Having gone in it for some ribbon the cupboards were in such a mess that I then spent the next two hours organising them. Funny enough I had brought some storage boxes from the £1 store for when I had time to get round to doing this and they were perfect.

Now, I love before and after photos more than anyone (I am so nosey) but as I did not set out to do this I did not take a photo of the mess before I started and it was a mess, but look at it now!

After a major declutter

Loving my new storage boxes

Bottom shelf hasn't changed but the top two have

Think I need a plant or something by the cookery books and then label the storage boxes and it is done! Oh I also then went on and did the under stairs cupboard now this is really dark and dingy so no pics of that but it did include using some more of my new storage boxes!

Day of traditions

I love having family traditions and have great memories of them from my childhood. I have a few with my children and one of them is every Christmas we go to London to see the Christmas lights and the Christmas windows at Selfridges and Hamleys, then on to Fortnum & Mason for some sweet treats before going over to Harrods to see Father Christmas. We finish our day in Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.

Christmas window at Selfridges

We walk the same route every year and the children love it (and so do I). We have nicknamed our son 'Mr Christmas' as he loves everything about it from the decorative lights, the carol concerts, the food, the decorations, naivety play - the list is endless.

Hug's from the Hamleys bear

To see Father Christmas at Harrods, we book our tickets in August as they sell out within hours. So this year we had them for 5.30pm on the 23rd December but Daisy is in Panto that day so I rang up to change them two weeks ago and the only days they had left was this week so as it was an inset day we set off to London to see the big man himself.

The three of us had a fantastic day admiring the christmas decoration's and festive shop window decor, unfortunately the lights were not switched on yet. We spent over an hour and a half in Hamleys, we started on the top floor and worked our way down, playing with all the different toys. Great time to visit as very quiet. Our last stop was Harrods, they do Christmas so well from the Christmas window's, decorations in store to the fantastic Grotto. I love Harrods at Christmas time (well anytime really).

Outside Harrods

Christmas Window at Harrods

Another window at Harrods

We spent two hours in there, wondering through the magnificent food halls, purchasing some sweet treats! Cooing over the little dogs being groomed in the pet salon! Admiring art that costs £950,000+ in the art department, the fantastic toy department, the Christmas Grotto and finally finishing off in Cinderella's Slipper Salon where my daughter purchased her first pair of heels.

Cinderella's slipper's 

Never too early to start the Christmas celebrations!

He's behind you...

My daughter loves dancing and was offered a part as a dancer in the Christmas pantomime in the next town along from us and today was her first rehearsal. She would be gone for two and half hours, I did think about coming home to get on with organising some bits but instead took the opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done and took my mum and sister along for the ride.

We went to a store which is quite new to the area called The Range and discovered the most fabulous Christmas department with decorations and accessories at great prices. Normally I would have been on 'buy buy buy' mode but with my new organisation/declutter head on I decided to wait until I had gone through all my christmas stuff to see what we have already got. Although after much ummm and raring I did treat myself to the cutest china santa sack which I had planned to fill with gold chocolate coins.

Unfortunately I do not think I was destined to have this as this is what it was like by the time I arrived home.

She has rehearsal's every Sunday, so hopefully they will still have some left next week.

Paper work

It is amazing how much paper work a household can have, we have;

• Household bills
• House general 
• Car bills
• Car general 
• Children's general 
• Children's clubs and activities
• Children's school
• Husband general
• Husband work
• Me general
• Me - freelance corporate work
• Me - children's party company work

That is a whole lot of admin. As an event organiser, (the job that everyone seems to think is really glamorous and exciting) is mainly 75% admin therefore my admin skills are pretty good but recently I have been feeling pretty over whelmed by it all and not organised enough. The huge pile in my in-tray was proof of this. So with a day to myself today as my husband had taken my children to London for the day the big admin organisation began...

I already had quite a good system going with various folders holding certain documents for the house, finance, etc. There are another 4 folders behind the front ones. The boxes are used for storing business cards, sticky tape, etc

The children's birth certificates going missing was clear proof this was not enough so I purchased a new metal filing box to hold all important documents such as passports, birth certificates, driving licence, bank books, etc (also had the brain wave that god forbid we had a fire this would keep them safe). This sits nicely out of the way on my printer! I plain to stain the draw box the same colour as the desk top, these drawers hold birthday cards, personalised labels for clothing, lunch boxes, etc

I had also noticed that I had school memorabilia scattered around the place i.e. artwork, certificate's etc and I came across a fabulous idea on a blog I came across (which unfortunately I cannot find again) to have a folder for each child's school stuff. So of course it could not be any old folder, I had to personalise them and make them look nice - separate post about this later!

I purchased some filing drawers for our expense receipts, these used to be put in a draw and then we came to claiming them we would spend hours working out who's they were (my husbands or mine) and which business they were for (husbands work, my corporate work or party company). This has made life alot easier. Still need to type up the draw lables.

My last new addition was clear folders for currently projects I am working on or current events  happening in the family. This saves me going through a mountain of paper to find what I am looking for in a hurry, which I always seem to be in.

Lots of American blogs also have house cleaning schedules, schedules for admin, schedules for meal planning to name a few as much as I would love to be this organised with paperwork I think if I do those as well I would never actually have the time to do the cleaning, admin and cooking! 

Stuff everywhere

I think it would be fair to say that my friends and family would call me organised although the past few months I have really let things slip. After reading a few American mummy blogs I have fallen in love with their organisation posts, there are so many blogs that just focus on organising and unfortunately I have spent too much time reading them when I should be doing the organising.

So my mission for the next six months is;  To get super organised.

As a working mum of two (I am a freelance event manager for corporate events and also run a children's party company with a friend).  I do not get much spare time, but recently I have been making time for these projects and I started off with my work space.

My desk was situated on our upper landing in a little nook but this was not working as I had too much stuff and when sat at the desk if anyone wanted to go pass I had to move and it was also outside my son's bedroom so he kept popping out to check on me at bedtime or told me to stop tapping i.e. typing so he could sleep!  Unfortunately our house does not come with an office space, so we had to compromise and use some of our lounge space.

I wanted it to fit in without shouting out 'messy office space'. I could not find a desk I liked or fitted the space so I purchased one white Vika Alex drawer unit (I already had one) and one Vika Alex storage unit from Ikea along with a 6ft panel of pine from a local timber merchants which I stained dark brown to fit in with the rest of our lounge furniture.

I then positioned the two drawer units and storage units apart and placed the pine panel on top to create the work surface.  I position the drawer and storage units so I could fit in my printer and also allow two work stations (incase a client comes over or for the children to do homework).

Over the past few weeks I have been purchasing some accessories to make it all super organised and also re-organised all my folders - a separate post on the latter later.

Unfortunately I do not have lots of before and after pics as I started this project before I started the blog but here is how it looks right now and how I would love it to look all the time!

So what's this about...

I have been writing a family blog on and off for the past 5 years. It shows the lives of our two little people, well the great days out and the lovely things we get up too, not the tantrums and the boring days!

I been reading blogs from around the world for the past few years and for the past six months I have been thinking about changing the direction of the family blog to include more about my life but then thought why not just do a blog for me!

So who am I?

A mum of two, living on the South coast of England juggling looking after my two children, my husband, maintaining our home and managing my career as an Event Manager.

So here it is; 'Organised Mummy' because that is what I dream to be!

It will cover things I love, life as a working mum, shopping and organising, because I love to shop and I love to organise!

Enjoy x