Polaroids from Instagram

I think sometimes it's hard to go from a crafty planner to a crafty doer. The actual act of starting (and finishing a project) can seem a little overwhelming. And that's how you end up with a fridge that looks like this

I bought these cute magnetic Polaroid frames at Typo way back when I was doing my Christmas shopping. They were a very spur of the moment purchase but I had wanted to put up polaroids ever since my Sister made these last year.

DIY Instagram Polaroids

If you're wanting a from scratch kind of DIY then her blog is the place to go. I found so many reasons I couldn't get started on these. My photo's weren't good enough, I didn't have a colour printer set up, I didn't have time, the list was never ending! In the end though I decided it didn't matter if my photos weren't professional, it didn't even matter if they were horrible, we'd still enjoy looking at them.

I resized my instagram shots to 3" x 3" in Photoshop and put them in the middle of a 4" x 6" white background. I then had them printed out at the local shops for only 15c each.

There was another photo on my USB stick of my sister but for some reason it didn't show up when I was printing them out. I trimmed the white border off with a ruler and hobby blade.

I put a little washi tape label on each one with a caption. The writing shows up much better in reality. You can get the adorable washi tape at Chibi Run.

The only thing left to do was put them on the fridge with some of my favourite magnets. This really only took about 15 minutes tops, but they are already brightening my day. Though I can't decide whether to keep them on the fridge or use them to spruce up the eyesore of a filing cabinet in the middle of my living room?

Are you on instagram? If you are you, feel free to follow me!

It's just a migraine...

After a trip to the hospital (thank you to my sister for calling an ambulance, I'm sorry I yelled at you), blood tests, poking, prodding and an MRI the Dr's have established I am suffering from migraines. The kind where:

- Body parts go numb

- My vision goes out of whack

- I forget how to speak

- And I don't get a headache

You could forgive someone for thinking it was a stroke.

I'm fantastically grateful that there is nothing more wrong with me but I am utterly disappointed that the diagnosis didn't come with an instant fix. I don't want to space out on a daily basis, I don't want people to constantly watch me to see if I'm about to do something weird and I get frustrated constantly explaining that a Dr can't help and I don't need to go to hospital.

I feel like I've aged about 60 years with the amount of pills I am suddenly popping. I've got beta blockers to stop them long term, instant fixers (when they work) that I take daily and the chemist convinced me a magnesium supplement was needed too.

I hate taking the drugs in that I want to believe that through healthy living I can stop the migraines myself. I can think if about a million different ways that I could improve my lifestyle, but changes like that time take time to take effect. And I need to be a functioning member of society now!

I wish I knew why they got suddenly and dramatically worse, but no one seems to know or care because it's just a migraine.

I'm having my own little pity party at the moment but the reality is I just need to be patient. The new medication will take time to work and then when it does I'll feel like my old self again :o)

Ikea Love - Floor Planning

The furniture in my house is getting on a bit in years. It was gifted to me by my Dad when he downsized and comes from a home much bigger than mine. At the moment it is all crammed in minus a few arm chairs that I had to leave in storage.

I have a lounge dining/area combined. Half my lounge space is taken up by a ginormous corner desk and the other half by my sofa and TV console. My rather small dining area has an 8 seater table, but only fits if part of it is pushed up against the kitchen island!

My furniture is funcional and it does the trick but I do plan on replacing it all. And I do love Ikea!

I have a certain sister who would happily take my dining set off my hands any time I asked, I have no need for a desk that measures 1.8m x 1.8m, a console half the depth of the one I have would do and I would dearly love to replace my couch with a sofa-bed so my poor Mum doesn't have to sleep on a mattress on the floor when she comes to stay! 

As I cleaned today I moved my sofa around trying out different locations until I finally settled on a setup I like. Floor space isn't so much a problem as the ridiculous location of doors and windows that leaves not much in the way of blank walls to put furniture against.

I scoured the Ikea website to find some furniture I liked then drew up a little floor plan in Illustrator.

HEMNES

Bureau with add-on-unit

HEMNES

TV bench 

MÅNSTAD

Corner sofa-bed with storage

BJURSTA

Extendable table

STEFAN

Chair

The total cost of my new downstairs? $2235.96

Hmmm.... Not quite sure how this fits in with my New Years Resolution to become debt free? A girl can dream though can't she? :o)

New Year, New Year!

Happy New Year

And while we're at it Merry Christmas, I seem to have forgotten that one :o)

Christmas was a quiet affair here and it made for a lovely change. Just relaxing with my girls and my Mum.

I don't normally do resolutions but I feel good things about 2013 so I thought I'd try and organise my brain dump into a meaningful list.

1. Organise our home - We moved into our little townhouse in May. We've finally finished unpacking but things are still cluttered. I'm going to kick of the New Year with The Organised House Wife's "20 days to organise and clean your home challenge" I also hope to get my hands on Kiki-k's family diary if it ever comes back in stock!
2. Build up my garden - We are very lucky in that our entire back yard is garden. This means no mowing and incredibly low maintenance. But there is also a lot of space to plant new things if you are that way inclined (which I am)
3. Become Debt Free - This is pretty self explanatory and just requires discipline. I've paid down a lot of debt in 2012 but am no where near where I could have been if I'd stuck to my plan. I'm trying hard at the moment to find that balance between being frugal and living a little :o)
4. Become healthy - It would seem that I'm experiencing out of control migraines (waiting on official confirmation) at the moment. I need to find out why this is happening and how to stop it!
5. Finish things I start - I have so many unfinished projects its beyond a joke. A main goal of 2013 is to finish what I start.
6. Sew at least one item a month - The motor on my overlocker has died and since I'm forking out the $300 odd dollars to get it fixed I need to make sure I get some value out of it. What better way than more sewing for me and the girls. I was lucky enough to be given Gertie's New Book For Better Sewing as a Christmas present and there are so many things I want to make.

Gosh I think I could go on forever but fear the more I have the more likely I am to fail. So expect to see some posts on organising, gardening and sewing. I think 2013 is going to be a great year, what about you?