day twenty one: weekly organisation sorted

the new home-made planner

day twenty one and it is beautiful outside ... i am hoping it stays that way tomorrow as its grocery shopping day!  speaking of grocery shopping, i was busy making my list (using day eights eat sheet creation :)) and trying to figure out all the things we have to do over the next two weeks and which meals would be best for which nights given how busy we are going to be .... and then i was struck with a brainwave, i have pinned some very helpful looking organising planners to my ideas for organisation board over at pinterest!

 i went through the options and decided on two: one is a daily organiser for all parts of life and the other is a weekly cleaning/chores checklist ... both are equally relevant to me and they are both highly usable for a home schooling mum! i printed out 21 sheets of the daily organiser from simple organized living and three sheets of the weekly chores list from another great site life as mom ... both were free downloads which was a total bonus :) i also grabbed an unused exercise book and the cutter and glue.  as with most things i wanted to give these a decent go so have opted to use the organisers for three weeks to see if they work.

materials needed :)

i glued seven pages of the daily planner in and then one of the weekly checklist and then repeated this pattern twice over in the exercise book ... making my very own portable planner!

so good to have everything written down in one place!

outcome: this planner has already made a difference in my life ... as soon as i had glued everything in i wrote down all the things that had been on my mind and immediately i felt the weight that had been getting heavier on my shoulders disappear ... writing it all down and seeing how the weeks would come together (and where i had too much happening on certain days!) was a huge pressure off and i feel very positive about seeing everything in one place, something i can take with me, and add to with ease.  as for the weekly checklist, so happy for this, while i haven't checked anything off yet, i know seeing a list disappear is very rewarding and if the kids wanted to earn some extra pocket money i can now tell to them find something on the chores list to do that hasn't been done!

simple organized living and life as mom are both wonderful sites to go to for inspiring ideas for organisation, even while i was there printing out todays creation, i found more ideas from both sites that i hope to implement in the future ... check them out if you need help clearing your mind, i can highly recommend it!

photo fun challenge day 16: mason jar

all our school stationery is kept in mason jars .. love them!

day twenty: apple table candles

the finished product lighting our dinner

day twenty and the weather is COLD! so what better day to make some nice table decorations in the form of apple candles.  these candles are pinned to my seasons board on pinterest and the picture was found on the tumblr are so happy.

just a few bits and pieces for this creation!

the nice thing about this little seasonal craft is it uses everyday things and some $2 shop tea lights ... mine are strawberry scented!

the finished articles waiting for dinner!

once i had finished them i couldn't wait for it to get dark ... they looked so sweet on the table and were a nice little welcome to dinner for everyone when we are all feeling a little blue with the cold winter that has finally arrived :(

outcome: these little beauties are worth the two minutes of effort you need to put in to make them! they added such a nice ambience for a cold winter night and everyone in the family appreciated the effort i had made to make the table look cheery! ... we will definitely be having a candlelit dinner tomorrow night and the apples should be fine as i squeezed lemon juice on them to stop any browning :)

thanks to are so happy for the great find ... well worth the effort!

photo fun challenge day 15: action

pollyanna doing her maths, who needs a calculator when
you have fingers!

day nineteen: a ruffle skirt for my girly girl!

the finished skirt ruffles and all!

day nineteen and it's back to sewing! this time its a ruffle skirt that was pinned from the pinterest gallery to my general crafts board.  the skirt pattern originated from grand revival design blog.  can't say enough about the tutorials here they are awesome and so much beautiful eye candy! tanya is a very talented and i LOVE her fabric choices :)

ok, so i chose two coordinating fabrics from my stash and cut out the bits called for ... its not mentioned but you need two of each piece as illustrated in the photo ... loved having the photos and the written instructions because if i didn't understand one, when you put the two together it made perfect sense! again .. not a sewing goddess, i just try hard so i need all the help i can get with these tutorials and this one is one of the best i have used!

the two halves of the skirt ready to go together

my daughter, pollyanna, loved the two pieces, before i had even sewn them together she had them on twirling around in them waiting not so patiently for me to finish the new skirt!

outcome: such a sweet skirt and i will definitely make another one ... love all the ruffles, she feels like a princess and this was well within the realms of a novice with a sewing machine such as myself.

a big thank you goes to tanya at grand revival design for the very clear tutorial that helped me get through yet another sewing project ... check her site out its filled with wonderful things!

photo fun challenge day fourteen: someone you love

my sweetheart ... 

day eighteen: home made flower hair clips

the hair clip in use with its new diy flower!

day eighteen and pollyanna is growing her fringe out so i was inspired to make some pretty hair clips to get the hair out of her eyes!  i pinned these beautiful hair clips from the pinterest gallery onto my general crafts board and the original tutorial comes from squiggly twigs.  this blog is gorgeous and has lots of free tutorials as well as a store to buy patterns from, loads of wonderful inspiration here!

the small amount of bits you need :)

super duper easy, you need some large ric rac (18" for each flower), hot glue gun, and some plain hairclips.  the original version used bobby pins but as i had plain little snap ones i thought i would test the waters with clips.  the instructions also called for a bit of felt to cover the back of the flower but this is not necessary.  i did end up using the felt as it made the back of the flower nice and neat and a good base for which to glue the flower onto the hair clip.  i also glued as i rolled to give the flowers a little more robustness ... my daughter is my princess but she gets really dirty for a princess!

outcome: i love these so much, i NEED more big ric rac. i am going to use these on cards, mini albums, more hair cips, anything really they are addictive! ... they only take about 10 minutes to finish and most of that time is spent waiting for the glue to heat up ... really cool and we love them in this house!

many thanks for the inspiration from squiggly twigs, they are such a neat idea and every little girl will love them i am sure!


photo fun challenge day 13: reminder of childhood

i remember going for my passport photo when mum and dad
took mo and i overseas for the first time ... now its ben and
pollyanna's turn!

day seventeen: carrot cake recipe

a delicious, moist carrot cake

day seventeen and i was up EARLY baking today's creation before spending time with two lovely friends crafting, then having dinner with some lovely neighbours who helped us out while we were away ... so good to have so many lovely people in my life!  todays carrot cake recipe was pinned onto my recipe must do's board from fresh in the kitchen, a site full of clean, refreshingly simple recipes from new zealand.

outcome: can i just say this carrot cake was a one bowl wonder that took no machinery to make, was SO incredibly easy .. oh ... and it tasted smashing! yes that's right, it was a huge hit after dinner tonight, took 10 minutes to make (15 if your husband won't grate carrots for you) and then it does the rest in the oven by itself for an hour while you shower and clean the one bowl and spoon you used to make it ... sweet, doesn't get any better than this when you have a busy day ahead of you!

big thanks goes to the lovely fresh in the kitchen website that clearly has well tested, delicious recipes :)

photo fun challenge day twelve: sun flare

this is as sun flared as it gets for winter in nz!

day sixteen: sewing a peasant top

the finished top in all its redness!

day sixteen and its yucky weather outside so the perfect day to do some sewing! today's inspiration came from my general crafts board, a peasant dress from the gorgeous blog ta da creations ... super cool blog, love the materials she uses.

ok i didn't have enough fabric that could coordinate well enough to make a full on peasant dress, so i made a top version! pollyanna chose the material she wanted from my stash ... hence the red polka dots you see here!  i used a kwik sew pattern to form my measurements and we were away ... did not take too long and whala a top was added to the wardrobe of my youngest!  actually the top was done with enough time to make a pair of boy shorts as well ...

i'd take a photo of them too but the oldest has them on (even though its cold and raining) and won't let me take a picture ... sigh ... next time i ask him to try something on to see if it fits, i'll remember i need to take the photo first!

outcome:  can't wait to pick up some material and make the full on peasant dress ... in the meantime i have a daughter who is very excited to have a new top and a boy that says the new shorts are so comfy he won't take them off ... awesome, productive day i'd say!

thank you so much to ta da creations for the inspiration to sew my children's own clothes ... its inspiring ideas like the peasant dress pinned to my board that make me get up each morning excited to create .... love that feeling :)

photo fun challenge day eleven: silhouette

love her!

day fifteen: a goodie bag for the librarian

the goody bag ready to give!

day fifteen and its friday ... yeehaa! as home schoolers the library is a big source of books for us ... and we have one librarian who is amazing, always helping with books and putting holds on books for the kids and i that she knows we will love.  so today's pinterest 365 challenge was a goody bag pinned to my home school projects board from the sweet blog of sun scholars.

all that's required, bag, lollies, bag topper :)

i originally intended to gift these goody bags to the kids after we returned from the library for their reading time ... and i still will one day soon :) ... but for today i thought they were the perfect gift for our librarian who does so much for us AND loves to read!

outcome:  the concept is easy and with a little design on powerpoint, a clear bag, and of course some worm looking lollies you are good to go ... easy, quick, and a much nicer surprise for her than the chocolate bar we gave her last time and this shows how much we care.

big ups to the sun scholars blog, it has lots of lovely crafty goodness and no doubt i will find more inspiration from her site to pin to my boards that i can try later in the year!

photo fun days nine and ten: fresh fruit and animal

day nine's fruit ... mmm lemon season

day ten's animal ... cookie the kitty!

day fourteen: miniature weaving for the kids

polly's miniature weave .. she is so proud of it!

day fourteen brings me to one of my favourite boards on pinterest, my home school projects board.  this is where i pin all those things i want to use and that have inspired me with regards to home schooling.  todays craft was teaching the kids how to weave and the pin came from the skip to my lou website, which i can highly recommend having a browse through!

putting the verticals in place

this is my pollyanna learning to weave, i used some cardboard squares that i cut notches in at both ends and we used a thick wool so we could have big bang for effort ... always a good idea when you are teaching little ones something new i find!  and as it was nice thick wool we also went without the needles on these initial weaves which worked really well, no pricked fingers here!

doing the weave!

she did a great job and was so proud of herself, it was really neat to see!

outcome: the kids loved the weaving so much they ended up making multiple squares, ben's are for blankets for his action men when they are out camping and polly is using all of hers in the barbie house ... no surprise there!  something the kids can now do on their own and they love and feel so proud of their new skill .... big thumbs up for weaving here :)

a great deal of thanks goes to the lovely skip to my lou blogger for the excellent tutorial on mini weaving and the cute things you can make with the end results, love the website and this craft :)

day thirteen: best chocolate chip cookies

nyt's best chocolate chip cookies

day thirteen leads us to the best chocolate chip cookies, well according to the new york times.  that sounded impressive to me so they were definitely worth baking.  the recipe is pinned onto my pinterest recipe must dos and is from the lovely blog of i am mommy.

the recipe makes a huge (fiftyish) amount of cookies, but you'll want that many!  the hardest part of this recipe is letting it rest in the fridge for a day.  i made the mix up yesterday and baked them tonight for dessert.


outcome: they are the best chocolate chip cookie i have ever made, so VERY VERY yummy!  family was devouring them in no time ... see i told you, you would need that many in a batch so the cookies can make it into a tin!

my entire family sends their sincere thanks to i am mommy for putting up this recipe, it is a new favourite in our house for sure!

photo fun challenge day eight: sunrise

man it was cold outside this morning!

day twelve: pillowcase dress

my finished pillowcase dress

day twelve and the home schoolers are learning and so am i ... up at 6am this morning, preparing for the pillowcase dress! this dress was pinned onto my general crafts board from the very cool little big girl studio blog.  some really sweet tutorials are available on this site and you will no doubt see more of her inspiration here as a try some of the other projects they offer tutorials on for my p365.  anyway, with pillowcase in hand, by breakfast i had cut the armholes, sewn in the elastic, and was halfway through pinning my first bias binding onto the armhole.

during morning tea i managed to sew one lot of bias binding on and pin up the other ready for lunchtime.  i am not known for my sewing and i have ... ummm ... limited history of bias binding sewing as the first time i used it i made a total mess of it.  any who, this dress called for it so i went with it, and, while its not perfect, it is acceptable!

so happy with the finished product!

outcome: this dress is really easy in that it takes very little sewing, most of it is in a straight line which is good and if you can sew with bias binding, you should fill your daughters wardrobe with these dresses ... if you can't sew with bias binding, practice, practice some more and THEN you will be able to fill your daughters wardrobe with these dresses as they are pretty, look so cute on, and are ideal for summer :)  still five months till summer here so there is hope i will conquer the bias binding by then and will be able to fill said wardrobe ... here's hoping ;)

my thanks goes to the lovely little big girl studio blog for the very simple, straight forward tutorial on pillowcase dresses, yours was, by far, the easiest to understand and once i get over my phobia of the bias stuff i will be making many more as they are cute and affordable, so i graciously thank you very much :)

photo fun challenge day seven: high angle

my peeps doing some work!

day eleven: barbie sleeping bags

sleeping bags for barbie, ken, and kellie!

day eleven has come with monday madness and a barbie and ken that are off tramping.  i hear you ask, why are barbie and ken off tramping in the middle of winter ... well ... their house is currently a little overcrowded and they need a break away ;)

two little visitors in the third storey bedroom

they do look comfy don't you think!

yes, we have two new kittens who have claimed a room in pollyanna's barbie house and, as such, bedrooms are at a premium!  i did suggest to my sweet daughter we could move the kittens out of barbies house, but she was adamant barbie and ken needed to go tramping for exercise.  however, there was only one problem, being a tramper herself, pollyanna was most concerned they didn't have packs or sleeping bags .... and now you see why day eleven's p365 pinterest challenge are barbie sleeping bags!

okay, after doing a search on sleeping bags for these dolls, i found a great site called mama smiles and pinned these very cute sleeping bags to my general crafts board on pinterest.  we used the barbie and ken dolls to measure the length and width of the bags and found you can make two "adult" sleeping bags and two "child" sleeping bags out  of a fat of quilting material. ... mine are not fleece lined because in new zealand we only tramp in warm weather conditions and i have no side opening for mine because that all seemed a little unnecessary to put my sewing ability through! i did add some american crafts camping ribbon across the top for whimsy, a button and a ribbon loop so they could be rolled up for carrying (very important when you need to take them tramping!) and they were good to go!

a well sorted family ready to tramp :)

... well after i cut up two unused rain ponchos and made ken and barbies some tramping packs!

outcome: if your barbie, ken, and kellie dolls need sleeping bags, i can happily recommend the above pattern, it is low fuss, EASY sewing, in fact, the hardest part will be sewing the button on ... and really, you only need to do the button thing if your barbie family are travellers :)

my sincere thanks goes to mama smiles who, thankfully, had to make barbie sleeping bags before i did and, as such, provided a great template for those of us who have since had to follow down the path of providing our children with pint sized sleeping bags for their barbies

photo fun challenge day six: books

what is currently sitting next to me bed to read :)

day ten: lemon crinkle cookies and pizza muffins

lemon crinkle cookies

day ten and it's a cold wintery one but the show must go on ... and for me that means not only my pinterest 365 challenge but also our family volunteering at the howick historic village on their monthly live day.  in honour of that, it was time for some picnic baking for our 1850's picnic lunch at the village so before we went i made pizza muffins from lick the bowl good blog and lemon crinkle cookies from the lds living website. both were pinned from the pinterest gallery to my recipe must do's board.

pizza muffins

the only change to the recipe i made was replacing the pepperoni with ham as that's what i had on hand. the pizza muffins were supposed to be baked in a mini muffin tin, but as i could not find it, i made them in my standard size muffin tin and the recipe made 12 medium size ones which were awesome ... they were just the right savoury picnic food, lots of flavour and were absolutely fine cold.

the lemon crinkle cookies were also devoured by my peeps and husband who thought they were outstanding.  i made them exactly to the recipe provided here, the only except was after seeing the first batch bake, i squished the balls down on the tray a bit and they spread further and were less thick, which worked well.

at the end of a long day, but still smiling!

outcome: these recipes were extremely easy to make, took little time, were both awesome picnic foods, and they have been placed firmly in my recipe scrapbook :)

many thanks to both these lovely websites, lick the bowl good and , who provided me with two knew recipes to fill the tummies of my family and wow them at the same time!

30 day photo fun day four and day five: clouds and breakfast (respectively)

almost forgot to take the photo of some clouds today, this
is the sky at 10 last night, it was wet and windy but you
can see that, right?   :)

while i was busy organising the picnic food, my darling
husband cooked up a hot breakfast for us on this cold
day before heading out to the historic village

day nine: sweet carrots for easter

my little bunch of carrots!

day nine has arrived and amidst the cleaning, rearranging, and baking there was also time to create.  truth be known i was really looking forward to todays project which is from the awesome blog of clares's craftroom.  thanks clare for your generous email allowing me to use your project for my p365 one!  the carrots project was repinned from the gallery at pinterest onto my holiday goodness board.

great for easter and autumn!

these were a delight to make! they are sweet little carrots and i see more in my future!  i only used what marterials i had on hand, next time i want to try a brighter orange and a more limer green (like clare's) as they were awesome.

outcome: totally making these again, i will have them around the house for all of autumn/easter time.  they were a joy and not to onerous for someone who spent a lot of her saturday cleaning!

a massive thanks goes out to the very talented clare at clares's craftroom. she has a wonderful blog i suggest you visit and an ebay store with plenty of doable goodies.

day eight: the eat sheet outcome

the boy in the middle of his shopping

outcome: these were fantastic, they worked a treat, and the kids totally loved having their own list to be responsible for ... the actual users (the peeps) couldn't have been more happy with them according to the survey i took once the shopping was complete!

the girl working through her list

the hands of the shoppers

photo fun challenge day three: hands
ben, polly, and i are all in this photo, which couldn't be more apt for today, they were HUGE helping hands with all the errands and shopping we had to get through today ... thank you peeps :)

day eight: the eat sheet

the eat sheet grocery lists and the smart snacking list

day eight and we are up early! busy day with grocery shopping and all the errands i have saved up over the last week all need to get done today along with the library and the kittens need their first vaccinations done!~  today's creation was repinned from the pinterest gallery onto my ideas for organisation board and it originated from the mommy tracked website.  it is of course a new grocery/menu planner that i downloaded from this great site. if you need help getting organised with lists, tips, and tricks this is a great place to go.


and it's another double deal as i have also used the smart snacking shopping list from be healthy, be happy downtownn blog, another really sweet site. i gave the kids the list and they got to choose a snack each from it to add the grocery list.  i printed it out half size and laminated it so we can use to again and again, now i just need a pinterest project to sort out a place to keep this type of thing!


i home school our two peeps and every second friday they have a list and collect the groceries from around the store.  each grocery item on the list has a budget next to it and they have to work out how much they need to buy of the grocery item while remaining under budget.  they do a much better job than i do because they don't get taken in by all the specials and multi buys available that i do!  they usually work together, but this week with the new lists and because i think pollyanna is now old enough, i have split the groceries onto two lists so they can have one each.  the lists have worked well so far and i will let you know later in the day how we went at the supermarket!


outcome: pending :)

thank you so much to the mommy tracked team and also to the downtownn blog for such lovely downloadables, they have certainly helped me and the fact they are free is truly awesome and a wonderful reason to keep visiting your sites for more tips and tricks

day seven: mini bunting birthday card double deal

my finished banner card

day seven and this sees us through our first of fifty two weeks of creating ... yeehaa me! today's little gem was repinned from the pinterest gallery onto my paper crafts board and is from the lovely blog how about orange.  it is a super cute  birthday card using the very popular bunting banners.

every good paper craft project begins with goodies!

this was super fun to make and the instructions on the how about orange blog are visual and really easy to follow. i didn't have any "nice" twine so i used a slim ribbon instead and i really like the look of my finished product.  i also used foam squares to pop out my happy and birthday circles to keep the 3d thing going :)  rather than plain card, i used a patterned card (i wouldn't do this with paper, really needs to be done with 160gsm card and over).

back

i here you asked what's the double deal bit ... well, i also used a second find from pinterest today a free downloadable from kind over matter blog, which i have also repinned onto my paper crafts board.  this blog is super awesome, she is an amazing graphic designer and has heaps of free printables as well as a great shop.  i used her banner printable 'happiness is homemade' on the back of this card rather than a "handmade by ...." stamp. i printed it out at 1/16 its original size, matted it and straped it on!

outcome: definitely a card i would make again and again ... with time.  its not a quick and easy, more a 30 minute job, but the effort is worth it in my opinion as i love the 3d nature of it

a very big thanks to such wonderful designers, firstly to jessica from how about orange, she has stunning stuff ranging from diy tips and tricks to fantastic graphic designs, well worth the look!  and a big shout out also goes to amanda at kind over matter who has the most amazing printables, so beautifully presented, many are free, and you can find something for every occasion.  so thank you to both of you for the wonderful creations you give up :)

photo fun day two: shoes

photo fun challenge day 2: your favourite pair of shoes
these are mine, the perfect mummy shoes for everyday (you can tell by the wear and tear can't you!) - flat, black, and oh so comfy!