Personalised Coffee Travel Mugs

Some of you may know that scrapbooking is my business, and over the weekend I helped to run a retreat with some of my lovely team members.

We usually make small name tags for the table, but this year we decided to provide everyone with their own personalised coffee mug as we have tea and coffee available at the retreat, but the cups provided are pretty small and there is always a risk of spillage, so these were a great option.

Using the Cricut and some sparkly silver vinyl, one of my fellow consultants cut names and stuck all of them onto the coffee mugs.


The sparkly silver vinyl was bright enough to stand out, and the large font from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge was perfect for the names.


At the retreat, each person received their coffee mug as well as a goodie bag.



The lovely Sheryl even made me my own coffee mug with sparkly white writing!



Everybody loved having their own mug and it made coffee breaks quick and easy during the weekend.

Our Pantry Remodel

Here is the second post of my house mini makeover, and today I am showing you my new pantry.

When we moved into our house, the pantry space was OK but it was rather cramped and messy once I got all my stuff in.



I had some great Tupperware containers, but my pantry was only half-done storage wise and I also had a lot of junk in the pantry that really didn't belong there. The drawers in the pantry were also in an awkward position and I couldn't get into the bottom drawer without moving some of my appliances, which were all shoved down the bottom.



Another of the problematic areas of the pantry was the overlapping shelves. Items would get shoved into the corner and then it was very hard to get them again, and I ended up purchasing things twice because I couldn't see what I had. I also had half a shelf full with random containers and craft supplies that didn't belong in the pantry and were taking up valuable space.



My husband got to work and decided to completely redo the shelving.



We also moved the drawers to the other part of the pantry, so that I could reach them more easily.



Now I have large shelves with more space, more depth and no overlapping corners!



I also finished up my Tupperware storage, and added some extra liners leftover from this project for my oils, dressings and sauces so that I did not have to wipe down the shelves as often.



It is so nice to have a pantry that works, and simply changing the shelving and placement of the drawers has made a huge difference in keeping the pnatry tidy!

Laundry Makeover

We were very lucky to get a cosmetic makeover for our laundry before we moved in, as the earthquake repairs included painting and re-flooring of the laundry room as they had to lift up the lino to check for cracks in the foundation, and the wallpaper was hiding some damage.

Before we moved in, we had a patterned brown wallpaper on the walls of the laundry, and net curtains adorning the windows.



We also had some very 80s flooring!



When we moved in, the room had been painted a light grey and we had new modern flooring. We also took down the net curtains and replaced it with a blind.



The only issue was storage space for everything. My husband put a shelf up for cleaning supplies above the tub, but everything was crammed into the corner, including my one washing basket. With a family of two active boys, one washing basket wasn't enough.



We set about building a shelf system so that I could separate whites, darks, colours and also towels and cloth nappies. Plus an extra basket to make it even! We used this fabulous tutorial from Ana White, which is customisable for any amount of baskets you want.



Here is the shelf with the laundry baskets in. We did not paint the shelf, but this is on our to do list.



These basket shelving sytem has certainly made a difference to that cluttered space in the laundry.



The addition of a more efficient, quieter washing machine was the last item on our list, which has been fabulous for our busy family. Our old one gave up over Christmas, so thank goodness for Boxing Day sales. Now I can easily do my washing, sorting and folding, and I don't mind being in the laundry!



Being on a budget, it is not a super glam laundry, but it suits our needs perfectly and I am happy to have a system (and washing machine!) that works.

Remembering our first home

Compass recently got in touch with me to ask about my first home- such a huge step in anyone's life. Compass makes it easy to find your perfect neighbourhood, something that is important when buying a house. They even have an app so you can search for a new place or sell your house when out and about!

I remember the hunt for our first home very well. We had escaped from a less than ideal rental property and were looking at some apartments- close to the city, not a lot of garden, two storied townhouses were our style. Then I suddenly found out I was pregnant and our priorities changed overnight. Now we wanted a nice neighbourhood to raise our child in, as well as some garden area, at least two bedrooms and lots of storage.

We were both still working in the city at that stage, so something close to the CBD but not too urban was also one of our must haves. A house close to bus routes, local shops and our families was also high on the list.

Amazingly, we found what we were looking for within a few weeks. It needed a bit of work but it was the right price, in the right area, and it was ours!



Our first job was a fresh coat of white paint to make the house brighter.



The kitchen was still original, with a small bench, not enough storage and very outdated cupboards. We called in the kitchen experts and we had a new kitchen put in when I was 35 weeks pregnant. We went from this small storage unit and stainless steel bench....



To modern cupboards, a tiled splashback and a dishwasher.



We also put in more storage space on the other side of the oven, and made units to fit in with our fridge and microwave.



The pride and joy was my walk in pantry- I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and so this pantry was my vision! Even more cupboards and bench area made this kitchen a dream to work in, and the wooden floor and large entry into the dining room meant that I could cook dinner and keep an eye on my son while he played.



Our poor house took a battering on September 4th, 2010, as the city was shaken by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 4:35am. Our home sustained some damage during this and the big earthquake on February 22nd 2011. We had paint peeling off the walls, parts of the roof coming down, and our items would fall onto the floor. We learnt to stick everything down and not have breakable items on shelves! We were very lucky, as some people lost their entire homes and others lost loved ones. Throughout these shakes, I was so glad to have a roof over my head and to be near my family.



Outside, we also made a few improvements to our home. My husband built this amazing vegetable planter box, and so we always had an abundance of fresh produce.



We also concreted the path up to the house, and built a new fence so that we could play outside with some privacy.



The new fence made a huge difference and kept our son secure in the front yard.



Our first house saw us through all seasons, including a huge dump of snow!



We were sad to leave our first house, but when we found out that we were expecting our second child it was time to upgrade to a larger property with more bedrooms. I look back fondly at our first house, as we put a lot of time and effort into making it our happy place.

If you are in search of your happy place, be sure to check out Compass!

We have been in our current house for two and a half years, and over the next month I will be bringing you a series of blog posts about the upgrades we have done to our existing house, starting on Monday. In the meantime, you can check out our nursery makeover and bookshelf makeover.