After last week’s blush-worthy drawer makeover, here’s a less intimate organising project.

The top drawer of my dressing table is where I store the rest of my bling that isn’t suitable to hang on my jewellery rack.

As you can see from the top photo, I was already separating some of the jewellery using cheap plastic trays but the headbands, fascinators and other miscellaneous objects (my lifetime supply of my favourite discontinued perfume, for example) were all floating around in the other half of the drawer. The trays worked really well for the chunkier items such as bangles and necklaces but smaller items such as earrings and brooches could easily get lost or damaged.

(For eagle eyes who have spotted my embarrassingly juvenile jewellery box, that will be the subject of another project coming up soon.)

I picked up this tray from Howard’s Storage World which was perfect to organise all the smaller sparkly things. I love the adjustable dividers to customise the spaces and the sliding tray on top to provide extra room.

Meanwhile the existing trays work well for the larger pieces like hair accessories. Boxed pieces and gloves easily fit into the gaps around the edges.

I love that the like-items are all kept together now so it’s really easy to find what I need. Plus the smaller compartments mean no more losing those itty bitty gems.

How do you store your jewellery: hanging out in the open or hidden in drawers?

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So we haven’t painted the bedroom as discussed (yet) but I did do a mini update on the weekend.

It’s always nice to freshen up your linens with the change of season, don’t you think? Not only are you likely to be nesting down for the cooler months but the stocktake sales are on so it’s the perfect time to update those faded, threadbare sheets.

We still love our quilt cover,  but the mattress protector was literally falling to pieces so I picked up a nice thick Target mattress protector to replace it. The previous one had the elastic straps at the corners which never kept it in place so the new one is fitted so it doesn’t bunch up underneath the sheets.

The sheets, which had been purchased to go with a different quilt cover, were off-white so I also grabbed a crisp white Target Essentials sheet set. Such a simple update but I feel like I’m staying in a swanky hotel!

The nights have been getting very chilly (just ask The Man who has to deal with my freezing cold feet) so a colourful chenille throw rug was a much-needed addition to cosy up the bed. I love the bright aqua which ties into the colour of the existing quilt cover and cushion.

Finally, I had my eye on Betsy’s retro style but when I spotted this funky lamp (sorry, no link available) I changed my mind. The Man loves it too and he couldn’t believe it when I told him it wasn’t from some trendy designer boutique.

Next weekend I think I need to schedule some me time curling up in bed with a good book and a cup of tea.

I adore fresh, clean bedding as a little everyday feeling of indulgence. How about you?

What are your tips for small changes that seem much more luxurious than they cost? Share them in the comments!

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When I was digging through my files to find our house floorplan the other day I came across the ‘before’ photos of our house. (These were saved directly from the real estate agent’s website so they are shown with the previous owner’s furniture.)

Living area:

Dining area:

Main bedroom:

Second bedroom (now my studio):

Bathroom:

Courtyard:

Communal garden:

Here are a few more angles that weren’t covered by the agent’s photos (excuse the terrible photography – this was pre-blog and were only intended for my own reference).

Landing:

Laundry:

Kitchen:

The only room that hasn’t changed at all is the bathroom, which we will be remedying soon.

I still can’t get my head around the fact that this was over five years ago. It’s fun to look back and see how far we’ve come!

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I can’t believe I’m actually publishing this.

But I know how much you love a good organising before & after so I am putting aside all modesty (sorry Mum) and sharing my newly organised smalls drawer with you. The things we do for blogging!

It’s only a little drawer of my bedside table and it was so overflowing so badly I could barely close it. I chucked out anything that didn’t pass the ambulance test (you know how your mother always told you to wear your good undies just in case…) which immediately gave me more space but it was still a total jumble.

I took out the tights and pantyhose as they kept getting snagged on the wood (I’m bad enough causing runs with my fingernails and jewellery so I don’t need my storage to add to the problem!). They’re now being stored in a spare tote bag but I may think of another more permanent solution.

I then used one of these drawer dividers to easily separate the socks and undies – no more rummaging around to find the pair you’re looking for.

It’s the small things, right?

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With the public holiday on Monday this week has simply flown by, which means it’s time for another Polka Dot Bride project.

I’ve already shared the cherry pie and pumpkin pie recipes, so here’s how to pull the whole look together.

Click to read the full post.

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It just occurred to me that in three years I’ve never shown you a floorplan of our home! So here it is, to give you an idea of how the space is laid out.

As you know, it’s quite a compact little townhouse with two bedrooms and a courtyard. The wall on the right is shared with the neighbouring townhouse but we never hear them (unlike the previous tenant, who had a fondness for screaming matches with her family and boyfriend). Along the other exterior wall runs a shared walkway where we keep the bins.

We have a small patch of grass and a carport out the front but it’s all open as a communal area (we’re in a big unit block) so we don’t use the front ‘yard’. Unfortunately we’re also not allowed to do much with the exterior of the building, hence the 10+ year old coat of blue paint flaking off the woodwork.

The layout is pretty typical of a townhouse of this age (mid-70s) in our city although some of them have an extra toilet in the laundry which we sadly don’t have. Having guests go through the laundry to access the courtyard isn’t ideal of course (again, typical of the time) so we try to keep it tidy and I decorate it with art and potplants to make it feel less utilitarian.

Downstairs is all floating timber floorboards, except the kitchen and laundry which are tiled in white (but we do plan to replace them with matching floorboards at some stage to help it flow better). The landing and bedrooms upstairs are carpeted in a neutral beige colour.

The kitchen and master bedroom are both of a good size. The living area feels a bit cramped but that’s more due to our oversized furniture (we bought with future homes in mind) than the actual size. The second bedroom (my studio) is very small which can get a bit frustrating since I spend about 50 hours a week in there so an airy, spacious studio is high up on my future home wishlist!

The fill colour is the wall paint of each room. It looks truly awful when you look at it like this though! I think I’ll have to add in other swatches to give a better idea of the overall colour palette (which is much less 70s forest-y than the plan indicates) including furnishings and accessories. (I couldn’t get the shade of brown in the bedroom quite right either, it’s much greyer and less poo-coloured in real life, I promise.)

I figure the plan is fairly self-explanatory but let me know if you have any questions about how the space works.

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Yikes. My ’system’ of storing accessories consisted of shoving them in tote bags and piling them in the corner of my closet. Finding the one belt/scarf/hat that I was looking for meant dumping the bags on the bed and rummaging through to locate the one elusive item.

It also meant I wasn’t taking good care of my things: belt buckles and knitted scarves do not mix well.

Enough was enough!

I dumped everything out for one last time and sorted them into piles of like-with-like and then got to organising them with some nifty storage picked up at the Target stocktake sale.

First I tackled the belts. I hardly even wore belts, not because I don’t like to but because it was just too inconvenient to get them out of the closet.

No longer! This $3 belt rack will have me accessorising like a star.

I then moved on to the hats.

I installed this fun arrow hook and hung two bags from it: one for summer hats and the other for winter hats and beanies. Too easy.

Finally, I needed to do something about my scarves. I installed this sweet bird rack on the back of our bedroom door – perfect!

Aaaah. Sanity restored for less than 20 bucks.

What’s the biggest storage problem in your bedroom?

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Alright, it’s time for the June book nook!

I had been following Gretchen Rubin’s blog on and off for quite a while and enjoyed her bite-sized morsels of food for thought so I was really looking forward to digging a bit deeper in her book The Happiness Project.

So what’s it all about then?

The premise is that Gretchen decided to undertake a year-long experiment to see if she could improve her own happiness. She established 12 resolutions, starting with one in January and adding a new one each month until she was practicing all 12 by the year’s end. Each resolution was paired up with a relevant Commandment (such as ‘remember love’ for the marriage month).

Gretchen then shares her own experiences, punctuated by the wisdom of philosophers and snippets from her blog readers. She also weaves in so-called Secrets of Adulthood and Splendid Truths as additional guiding principles.

Personal highlights

I won’t analyse each chapter individually since there are so many (it’s a much longer and denser book than what I would typically be reviewing here). Instead, I’ll share a few of my personal highlights.

• I found it funny that the opening chapter recommends getting enough sleep and uncluttering your home as the first step since I was in this process before I started the book. She is right: it has decreased my stress levels and given me more energy during the day.
• Tackle a nagging task – left undone they drain your energy and make you feel guilty (don’t I know all about that!). I had been thinking about implementing a semi-regular Get It Done Day so this gives me more motivation to do so. Oh, and I have a dentist appointment tomorrow.
• One of her Secrets of Adulthood is ‘act the way you want to feel‘. You know what? It works. After weeks of unsuccessfully trying to drag my arse out of bed early I changed my attitude this morning and bounded out of bed looking forward to getting a head start on my day. (Okay, I lied, there was definitely no bounding but I did get up at 6.20 without hitting the snooze button.)
• Happy and unhappy are not two sides of the same coin, they are independent. You need to work on increasing happiness and also reducing unhappiness. I have never thought about it like that before but it’s true for me that if I minimise the negative (stress, clutter, money worries) there is more opportunity for happiness.
• Be a treasure house of happy memories by keeping photo albums, stories and keepsakes. Note to self: need to get on to updating those photo albums!
• Find more fun in your life – and be honest about what you actually find fun as it may not be the same as what others enjoy.
• Buy some happiness by directing your money (within reason of course) toward things that bring you joy, strengthen bonds with others or reduce unpleasantness in your life. (We already do this with things like travel and socialising but totally need to take her advice of treating myself to a decent pen!)
• Practice gratitude and mindfulness in everything from food to spiritual matters.
• Make time for your passions (if you don’t know what you’re passionate about, ask yourself what you did in your spare time when you were 10 years old).
• I need to try to forget about results and enjoy the process.
• Growth is more important than achievement. I am constantly growing in my professional life but I need to cultivate the same atmosphere in my personal life.

Summary

I’m not into the woo-woo meditating brand of finding happiness so I was delighted to discover someone tackling this big topic on a practical, every day level. Her Happiness Project was not about running away from her life to some exotic locale on a soul-searching mission; it was about finding the pleasure and joy in the moments of daily life.

Like Gretchen, I’m not unhappy, but I often find myself losing patience easily, being too hard on myself and focusing too much on ‘getting things done’ at the expense of enjoying the moment. Most of all, I am such a goal oriented person that I have trouble enjoying the process.

I have a lot of similar personality traits as her so I found her struggles very relatable (almost uncomfortably so at times!) but she does share other people’s experiences too to give a broader relevance.

I didn’t necessarily agree with everything she advocates (e.g. keep an empty shelf and a junk drawer) but everything is presented in a non-preachy way that encourages readers to find what works for them.

The only minor issue I had was that there were a few too many Lists of Things in Title Case (12 Resolutions, 12 Commandments, Secrets of Adulthood, Splendid Truths, True Rules…). The wisdom in these were great but there are so many I can’t possibly remember them all which loses some of the effectiveness.

It was gratifying to find that some of the recommended actions I was already doing (maintaining relationships, getting enough sleep, fighting right, asking for help, making time for passions) however there is still a lot of room for improvement in a bunch of other areas (ahemexerciseahem).

While I don’t have any plans to do some kind of formal, documented Happiness Project, I’ve been given some great ideas to try as well as the methods and motivation to get me there.

The Happiness Project was one of those books I can see myself re-reading year after year gaining something each time.

Buy this book if you:

• Find yourself just ‘going through the motions’ and want to experience more joy.
• Know that you want to improve yourself but aren’t sure how to go about it.
• Are going through an upheaval or transition in your life (e.g. bereavement, graduation, career change, break-up, empty nest, retirement, children, marriage).
• Are generally happy but want the best out of life.
• Are a person. Any person. Read it.

This book may not be for you if you:

• Are looking for a book with advice about depression.
• Are looking for spiritual guidance to find happiness.

Buy the book here!

Have you read The Happiness Project? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

Post contains affiliate links.

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Have you ever had a decorating epiphany?

Sure, I often get ideas for the house but they’re usually after the realisation that there is actually something wrong with the space, followed by careful consideration. It’s never before come as a bolt out of nowhere.

The other day I walked into our bedroom – which I had not even been considering redecorating – and it hit me: These walls should be navy.

It came totally out of nowhere and now every time I’m in there I think, yep, this would look so much better in blue. With gold accents please.

I still really like the actual wall colour we chose – and I adore how dark it is – but now I think it’s a bit too much brown with all the timber furniture and brown curtains. I’m not in love with our bedroom furniture (the bed in particular I would definitely not choose now) but I think the honey tones would look lovely against a dark blue wall.

I have zero time to repaint right now (The Man doesn’t even know I’m considering this – um, surprise!) but I can’t shake the idea. It wouldn’t take nearly as long as it took to paint the first time because the hard work (surface prep, ceilings, trim) is still all fine.

Apart from the effort involved, my other hesitation is that I’m worried it’s a bit much colour since most of the house is bright green. In the not-too-distant future we will be moving on from this house and I was conscious of trying to give the whole house a more neutral and cohesive colour palette – not less!

The photos above are from a little while ago (too dark to take photos right now) but apart from switching up a couple of accessories it looks the same now.

So what do you think? Am I crazy to be considering repainting a room that we only painted a couple of years ago or do you reckon I should go for it?

And if the latter: what do you think of my colour choice?

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Hello and welcome if you’re new here after reading the newspaper article in The Advertiser!

The other day I had my first newspaper feature! They got my blog name wrong and didn’t even mention what my blog is about which is a bit disappointing, but hey, you know what they say about exposure.

You can click on the image to read the full article from The Adelaide Advertiser or you can read the online version.

The other crazy news is that I was filmed for a television interview yesterday!! It was my first time on camera and I was so nervous (don’t they know that’s why I’m a blogger, because I prefer hiding behind a computer?!). It’s for a local tabloid current affairs program and I’m not sure when it will go to air yet.

So yes it has been all a bit bizarre around here this week!

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