The 2 minute tip

I’ve a small confession for you today. I’m an home organisation geek. I’ve bought copies of home organisation books from Amazon, have an entire board dedicated to the subject on Pinterest and am just a little bit obsessed with Martha Stewart’s organisation pages on her blog. I know it’s a little tragic but it makes me happy!

I recently read a simple tip on a website that I came across during one of those ‘Alice in Wonderland’ internet surfing sessions. You know, the ones where you stumble aimlessly throughout cyberspace, clicking on links to new pages and seeing what you discover as you go. For that reason I can’t recall where I read this advice but it is simply this:

Not rocket science exactly, but I’ve been trying it out now for a month or two and it works really well for those niggling ‘to do’ jobs that you carry around in your mind during the day.

I try to attend to my ’2 minute jobs’ when I’m making a cup of tea. It takes between 30 seconds and 2 and a half minutes for a kettle to boil (depending on how fancy your kettle is) with the average being around 2 minutes. So, instead of standing waiting for the kettle to boil and perhaps staring out the window (although there is nothing wrong with this), I’ve been doing a spot of washing up, or putting away dry dishes, or spending 2 minutes sorting out the little pile of paper clutter that seems to gather in the kitchen – pizza leaflets, tesco clubcard letters etc. I may only do 2 lots of 2 minute jobs a day but it makes quite a difference! I challenge you to give it a go.

Image via

Any other organisation tips you’d like to share with me?

Home tour – Brighton renovation

One of my favourite websites to browse for inspiration is House to Home. It was whilst looking at some of the interior design that they have featured on their site that I came across this amazing house renovation based down in Brighton on the South Coast.

The blue accents in this room are subtle yet striking. I haven’t really been a big fan of blue before and so rarely used it in our homes, however it is certainly starting to grow on me now…

The old photographs up on the shelf are wonderful. Are they real members of the family do you think?

The bathroom is my favourite room in this house tour. I think it’s amazing. Another great use of blue, but much bolder this time. I’m hoping I can post my own ‘before and after’ of our bathroom in the not too distant future. And yes, the new bathroom does feature subway tiles. I know the world and his wife has them now but what can I say? The world and his wife have great taste!

Images all via

Sunday night feeling

I had the lovely opportunity to go to a spa this weekend with some friends from work. It’s my first year in my new job as a lecturer and so it was great to get to know some of the ladies I work with a little bit more. Plus, I LOVE going to spas. I’m the kind of girl who loves a facial, massage – you name it. If the room smells of lavender and there are candles burning, then I’m happy.

This weekend has also been difficult for some friends at church so my thoughts go out to them – and you too if things are tough for you at the moment. I heard recently that when you’re going through a time of suffering, it can either make your heart harder or it can soften you. Either way suffering is suffering and by that I mean that it’s awful but if there can be even some small rainbow that comes out of it, then I guess that goes some way to helping. I know I certainly have been changed by tough times for the better. I wouldn’t ever want to go through them again but I can see how my character has been changed. Plus I find my hope in the fact that I identify with a suffering servant in Christ who identifies with our pain. I find that amazing.

Take care my friends and have a good Monday,

C.x

Image via

#ff Ashleyelladsgn

You may have noticed that the blog header for Celebrate Creation changed yesterday. I’ve been wanting to update the header for a while now and so did some shopping around on Etsy looking for a graphic design shop. Enter the lovely Ashley Ella Design.

Ashley designed 4 amazing blog headers for me which means that I can change the style of the header as and when the fancy takes me! One per season perhaps? She’s an incredibly talented designer and charges an extremely reasonable rate for her work – I highly recommend her. Therefore, she is my twitter #ff for this week!

What do think of the new header?

C.x

Guest bedroom musings…

After waiting for ages to have our front door replaced, we finally had enough sunshine to be able to have a new one fitted. In true Brit style it’s raining again now so I’m glad we acted when we did! The next thing I would like to turn my attention to is our guest bedroom. It’s basically a bit of a dumping ground at the moment for the ironing board, my husband’s bass amp – you get the pricture. It’s not pretty.

Here’s some of the inspiration for a guest bedroom makeover that I have on my pinterest board so far..

I love the blue feature wall in this bedroom. I feel as if I’m getting a bit boring with my feature walls though – we have them in 2 rooms in our house already. My argument for a painted feature wall though is that I spent so long painfully scraping years of nasty, sticky, bumpy and painted over wallpaper off every wall in our first flat that I shudder at the thought of putting up wallpaper now. Anyone feel the same?

As you can see, there’s a bit of a blue, pastel green and yellow theme going on here. Best get off to the DIY store and start stocking up on paint samples!

Images via 1, 2

Sunday night feeling

 

Eeek, it’s been a whole week since I last posted. My apologies to regular readers, my excuse is that I’ve been marking fourth year dissertations and other assignments which quickly adds up to several tens of thousands of words so I’m sure you will understand when I tell you that I’ve been buried under a pile of paperwork recently!

I wanted to post this image tonight that I found via Pinterest – you can follow my boards here. I am always inspired by the description of this woman in the book of Proverbs – she’s one of my heroines. I’m always challenged when I read of her faith and diligence in working and am also inspired by the fact that she is a successful business woman as well as raising a family at home. If you have time, you can read the full account of the woman of Proverbs 31 here.

I would like to be known as someone who is clothed with strength and dignity. I’d also like to  ’laugh without fear of the future’. If I’m honest, I haven’t nailed that one yet but I’m working on it…

Take care and have a good week my friends. I’ll be back tomorrow to share some ideas I have for my next decorating project.

C.x

Image unknown – if you know, please do share it with me!

Sunday night feeling

 

I love this image. It sums up all that I hope the Spring/Summer evenings will be like in our garden. Relaxing and warm! I’d love to recreate this look but we don’t have any trees – we have a very small back garden but I’m grateful for what we have as garden space is expensive to come by in London. So, I’m going to have to be creative with tea lights and ribbon to see if I can create something similar. Have you used candle light in your garden? How did you do it? I’d love to hear your tips.

If you are in the UK then I hope you have a wonderful Bank Holiday Monday – no Sunday night feeling for you hopefully. Yippee! If you are reading from elsewhere in the world then have a happy Monday and enjoy the rest of the week.

C.x

Image via

Celebrate 91 magazine

The Spring/Summer issue of 91 Magazine is out and it’s certainly worth a read if you haven’t already spent some time flicking through the pages. 91 Magazine was recently awarded the Women in Publishing New Venture award and it’s great to be able to write about the magazine and support it as it continues to expand and grow. Celebrating and promoting other people’s talents is a major part of what Celebrate Creation is about after all!

One of my favourite articles in this edition is the investigation into how new craft trends are started. I agree with the writer, (Caroline Taylor), that there seems to have been an explosion recently in colourful washi tape inspired craft projects - guilty of that one myself – and also paper pom poms at wedding or party venues. From my own travels around the web, I would also add that I think that chevron inspired DIYs and craft tutorials are also big news, especially in the States.

So what’s next in the way of trends? There are two predictions in the image above. I think that the mini garland idea may well take off as we move towards the summer with bbqs and outside parties being planned. The article also features glitter keys, an interesting update on the vinatge keys that are sometimes used in interior styling perhaps?

Why not take a look for yourself and see what interior and crafting guru Holly Becker has to say on the subject too? If you spot any future craft trends, you can join in the discussion by leaving a comment here or over on the Patchwork Harmony blog (which features more of the work of the 91 Magazine team). You can also engage via social media as 91 Magazine have set up a discussion on Pinterest and Twitter via the #crafttrends hashtag.

All images via 91 Magazine, with thanks.

Today I’m inspired by…

cool, calm and serene interiors.

Images via: 1 – Source unknown, 2, 3

15 minute craft project – Washi tape flowers

Last Christmas I was given a reed diffuser from the White Company which was lovely. When all the fragrance had evaporated, I was left with the reeds and glass bottle that I didn’t really want to throw away – I’m a bit of a sucker for packaging I must admit. After a  quick search on pinterest, I found a great tutorial from 91 magazine which showed how to make some simple flowers from crepe paper.

I followed the tutorial, wrapped some of the reeds in washi tape and that was it!

I also made a smaller flower that I attached to the wall in our porch with yet more washi tape. (I have a bit of an addiction. Although I’ve heard that’s actually quite common…)

The flower is stuck within a hand drawn frame that came as part of  a wall sticker set. I have a few on the wall clustered together with some other pictures/craft makes. That’s another post for another day…

Let me know if you give it a try – it’s an easy one to do in front of the tv!