About this time last year, we installed a small rack in an awkward, unused corner of the kitchen to form a tea & coffee station.

It has been working quite well, but it still meant I had to go to various drawers, shelves and cupboards for some of the essentials like teaspoons, mugs and sugar. Actually, the term ’station’ was probably a bit of an overstatement now that I think about it.

I didn’t want all these little things cluttering up the kitchen benchtop and having to move them to wipe up every day. What I needed was a tray (“You’ll need a tray!”).

Turns out I had the perfect thing already under my nose, in the form of this adorable strawberry crate that I bought for this shoot. There’s lots of red and a bit of green in the kitchen already, plus I’ve been wanting to add some natural textures to soften the stark whiteness so it couldn’t have worked out better!

I already had the mason jar, sugar dish, milk jug, mugs and hooks (the latter I borrowed from the spice rack) so it was a totally free project. Gotta love that!

We only use the milk jug and sugar for guests now (I’ve succeeded in one of my 2013 goals to eliminate sugar from my coffee – go me!) but I still wanted to have that all in the same place too. When we entertain I can now just remove the kettle, add some teacups and take the whole tray into the lounge.

I love how streamlined the process is now. Sure, it only saves a few seconds, but instead of needlessly fussing about getting out my coffee making things, I can do something more useful like put away last night’s clean dishes or open some mail.

The only thing I haven’t managed to find a solution for is the teabags. They’re currently in a divided box in the pantry – it’s too large to fit here as is, and I quite like how it separates the flavours so I’m not sure what I will do about that yet.

Tell us: how do you store your hot drink essentials? Convenient and out in the open or neatly tucked out of sight?

I normally talk about my fave technology lifestyle tips on my Tooling Around column over on Scoutie Girl. But there is such a thing as too much. We’re now filling every spare or ‘wasted’ moment with checking our phones, updating our status and checking email.

Today, I’m challenging you (and myself) to not fill those empty moments. Simply relax and enjoy the breathing space it provides in your day.

Read the full post and let me know how you go!

Hello sign from Lark

Morning, lovelies! Did you have a nice weekend?

Let’s start the week on an organised note and go through the essentials to creating a functional entryway in your home.

View the full Houzz guest post here.

Inspired by our trip, I thought I’d make this instalment of Tooling Around all about working while travelling. Although most of the tips apply to any kind of travel, whether you have a business or not.

Read the whole article here.

I’m off galivanting around the world for a few weeks so I have lined up some some talented ladies to hold the fort while I’m gone. Hope you enjoy!

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From reading her blog Look See I know that Naomi loves nothing more than packing her bags and camera and visiting new places. She has a way of capturing the simple beauty that others might miss. So I couldn’t think of anyone better to give us some unique ideas on how to display travel photos. I’ll be using some of these ideas when I get back for sure!  – Alicia

Hi everyone, I’m Naomi Fenton from Look See. I’m a Tasmanian photographer and  secondary school teacher and I’m so chuffed to be sharing some ideas for displaying your travel photos in this guest post for Alicia.

This is something I’ve been putting a bit of research into since returning from living overseas a couple of years ago. My partner and I are both into photography and you can imagine that after travelling together, we’ve got quite the collection of shots that we’d love to have on display. The sting in the tail is, that our living space isn’t large to say the least, and while we both love traditional framing – it’s quite expensive if you have a lot of prints you want to display. (And we do!)

So, keeping that in mind I trawled through the interwebs (and can I just say – thank you internet Gods for inventing Pinterest – you can follow me here if you like) and found a few great ideas.

I Still Love You

The mini pegs display is by Melissa over at I Still Love You and actually includes a free, downloadable tutorial to take you step-by-step through the process. I like the simplicity of the version above, but I have also seen others that incorporate a lot more images which can have a great impact as well.

Just B

The amazingly awesomely creative and talented Kootoyoo over at Just B has an easy peasy tutorial for creating fridge magnets from your Instagram shots. I love how simple this idea is to execute and I love the freedom of being able to play around with different layouts as well.

Ladies & Gentlemen | The Painted Blackbird

Over at Ladies & Gentlemen, Jean & Dylan found a great way to display prints, especially if you are renters and handy with wood. Of course, you can simply use the hangers on their own, minus the shelving.

Kim at The Painted Blackbird is a bit like me in that she’s got a major crush on old fashioned clipboards (I’m actually using some in an exhibition later in December – I’ll post about it on my blog Look See, so check back if you’re interested in having a gander at how they look in that kind of setting.)

Both of these ideas are great for creating a vintagey kind of vibe and you can find them online or in op shops.

The Creative Mama

Stacey posted the bulldog clip idea over at The Creative Mama. This is a great option again for renters (or if you just don’t want to mess up your freshly painted walls) – you can find scrap pieces of wood (keep them as is, or paint them), hammer in the nails and attach your photos with the clips. Then use 3M tape to attach to the wall. No muss no fuss.

So there you have it, just a few ideas for displaying your travel (or any kind) of photos – the tip of the iceberg no doubt. I know I’ll be keeping an eye on Pinterest for more!

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About the guest poster:

I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, however January is a great time to consider your plans and goals for the year, don’t you think?

With that in mind, my first Scoutie Girl post for the year is all about defining your goals (business or otherwise) and some tricks to help you find the time to achieve them.

You can read the post here.

My goals for 2013 you ask? This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are a couple of things:

• Edit our overseas photos and create an album (February)
• Launch the Atypical Type A redesign and shop (March)
• Finally renovate the bathroom (Easter break)
• Do something special to celebrate The Man’s and my ten years (!) together (August)
• Do up the porch and front garden (September)

Plus many, many plans I have for the business!

How about you? What’s on your agenda for 2013?

Operation Packing is in full swing over here. But as we get closer to the departure date, it’s not just our suitcases that we need to get ready. As I mentioned the other day, we’re having a housesitter so we don’t need to worry about things like the mail and perishable foods before we leave, but of course we will need to change the linens and make sure the house is in a tidy state.

The required jobs for you will depend on how long you are going away for, whether you have pets and whether you’re having a housesitter, so just cross out any that don’t apply to you. Why not laminate it and re-use it before every holiday?

Download the checklist here.

P.S. Sorry if you were expecting lots of Christmas posts this month, with us going away there’s no decorating here this year. Guest posts will begin on Monday 17th December, starting with some last-minute festive ideas, followed by everything you need for some new year decorating.

All of the above from ModCloth, except the camera bag by Jo Totes and the brooch from Lark.

I haven’t actually got the suitcase out yet, but I’ve been doing some serious packing on paper for our upcoming trip. I had a few essentials already (jeans, camera bag, scarf, boots and a few tops) but this Australian girl needed to pick up some new woolies to cope with the European winter.

When I went shopping for the new gear, I made sure every piece could be mixed and matched with other items in terms of colour and style. Versatility is important too, such as the long jumper that I can wear over jeans for a day of sightseeing then wear it as a dress over tights to go out to dinner.

The same goes for which existing items in my wardrobe would make the final cut – you can bet I’m taking the teal tutleneck instead of the pink one that wouldn’t have gone with anything.

By doing this I’m able to keep my clothing and accessories to a minimum while we’re travelling. And you know what that means – more room in the case for souvenirs!

What are your tips for packing light?

We’re having a friend housesit for us while we’re overseas, partly for security but also to take care of the garden, the mail and such. We had her over for dinner last night and showed her around (she’s been here a lot before, but I mean getting into the nitty gritty inside cupboards).

I know if it were me I’d remember most of what I was told but there would be some essential detail I’d miss (does the dog get walked twice a day and fed once a day or the other way around?!) so I thought it was best to write everything down.

Normally I would just type everything out but instead I decided it would be fun to design a fill-in sheet so you can use it too! It’s two pages and contains everything from the basic bins/garden/pets/mail instructions to emergency information, plus those easy-to-forget-about tips such as the wifi password.

My mother (you can see where I got the organising gene from) always leaves some cash and a list of groceries they would like the housesitter to have available when they return home. I’ve stolen her idea and included it in the list. In our case I’ve listed milk, cereal and the makings of sandwiches so we won’t have to drag our jetlagged arses out to the supermarket straight away.

Click here to download the file.

I hope you like it because I’ve got more coming! I decided on a whim this morning to create a few matching free printable household lists for you. I reckon I might make them into a full set next year, what do you think?