A Quick Thrift!

I have recently gone nuts for bowls, and I blame Jen over at IHeartOrganising! She uses them for all manner of things in all areas of her home, and since seeing the possibilities, my beady little eyes have been on the look out for some to bring home.

So imagine my delight when I found these beauties at my local IGA (of all places!!) for bargain markdown prices!

59c each!!! No way! In turquoise??? You must be joking!

Too cute!

Hmmm, what to fill them with?

And a week later, these 3 little lovelies appeared in a bargain markdown section, for less than a buck each!

Golly gosh, is it silly to have heart palpitations over bowls? Don't answer that!

And just wait till you see where I put these little guys. I just started our laundry makeover (coming soon to SheThrifts), and these guys are going to corral those annoying 'Pocket Findings' for each member of our little family (thank you Jen!). I really wanted to claim the blue bowl as my PFB, but I doubt either of my boys would be happy getting stuck with purple :o( Can't win them all...

Have you suddenly realised a strong attraction toward bowls and their possibilities? Do you already have a bit of an obsession, sorry, love for these useful little hold-alls? They aren't all destined for a life of 2 minute noodles!

xo Cassie

She Inspires!

Nothing makes my day like an inspired reader! Recently I challenged you to get your hands on a problem drawer and make it work better and harder for you, and one of my lovely readers Kirsti took up the challenge with glee! Here's what she sent to me, get ready to be inspired!

Dear She Thrifts,

I just wanted to write to you and let you know your challenge was accepted!!

I tackled (the much overdue for a clean out!) bathroom drawers after reading you blog.

I only ever seem to find the time to get to these kinds of chores at Christmas and Easter. So four months after my last spring clean, this was the state of my drawers!!

Kirsti would not be the first girl or the last to be faced with this during her morning routine!

Another cosmetic nightmare, but look out, this girl's on a mission!

Being Easter Holidays, the shops were not open to source some new containers/organisational boxes, jars or the like....so I turned the house upside down trying to find more uses for things I had!! I still need to find some things to keep my makeup in place! It won;t stay like that for long!

And well....ta da! 

Awesome work Kirsti! It looks like you had a good purge, and maybe even re-housed some items that didn't need to make their home in your drawers anymore!? My favourite part has to be grassy lined trays that you used on the second drawer, they look totally fresh and clean.  And my second favourite, the way you didn't let a little detail like the shops being closed stop you from achieving a small miracles! House shopping is one of my favourite thrifty solutions to an empty wallet (or a public holiday!).

As for your other makeup, Ikea have a great product for us girls who love to have a variety of cosmetics, and it could just be the perfect solution for your top drawer! 

The Godmorgon Box is the perfect solution for all those pesky little tools, tubes and assorted cosmetics that fly around the place. At $20 it is a great investment piece for an organised life! I can even see this being handy in a desk or craft zone! I recently purchased some of the containers from the Godmorgon range and used one of the pieces in my bedside drawer to corral my bra straps.

If you have been inspired by one of my posts or recent challenges, please send me through a message with some before and after snaps so that I can share them. It gives me such a thrill to see the changes people are making around their home to improve their quality of life! 

xo Cassie

She Blossoms

At the risk of a corny title, I had to post about my love of flowers! I rarely have the cashola to buy them fresh, and Hubs is a little slow on the uptake when it comes to flora gifts. But when I manage to nab some at a bargain price, or on a rare occasion where Hubs comes through with the goods, I love playing around with different arrangements and seeing the way they breathe life into our home...

A Valentine treat from Hubs, bought under duress because he knows how much I love fresh flowers. I was so in love with the subtle pink hue of the petals, and the tiny hint of green around the black centres.

The simplicity of a flower in a jar is perfection. Who needs vases?

And after a few of them got a little sad looking...

...they were shortened and popped into my favourite little turquiose jars.

Love.

When fresh flowers aren't on the cards, I love to hunt down a pretty weed!

I had been saving this little perfume bottle for this very purpose!

It has been very rainy and gloomy lately so the colours in this snap aren't fab, but the flowers are!

Heading to a friend's place for dinner, I wanted to give a little something to the lady of the house, so I tied together 4 jars of varying sizes and wrapped them in string (jars+string=match made in heaven) and then set about arranging these colourful blooms in a pleasing way.

Green flowers make so much sense!

Petals are so tactile, it's a shame that they bruise on contact :o(

The centres of these pink flowers were coordinated perfectly with the green flowers. Oh how I wish I knew their names!

Perfect textures and colours!

If fresh flowers are out of your price range too, then grab yourself and old jam jar or perfume bottle, and get hunting for a pretty weed, they are highly under-estimated as things of beauty!

Oh and since seeing quite a few 'faux flowers' gracing my favourite blog homes of late, I am almost ready to give them a chance in my own home, and I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. They really have come a long way from the musty and dusty arrangements of the past!

xo Cassie

P.S. To Mum and Dad, I still love being your 'Blossie'.

She Declutters and Gets a Little Crafty!

The thing I really love about organising (and decorating) is that you can always go a bit further. A few months ago, I thought I had things pretty well under control and looking good. Then I discovered some amazing Organising Blogs, where the lovely ladies behind the posts were going above and beyond to keep their homes in tip top, and gorgeous shape.

Since that eye opening discovery, I have been like a mini tornado, spinning around our little house looking for the next victim area to spruce up. Some days I can't find enough hours to complete the projects I want to do, and other days I can't seem to find my mojo (it's probably hidden in an unorganised cupboard) and things slow right down. 

One thing I can count on, is that after a slow run, the itch to organise comes out of nowhere and has me wanting to scratch madly, much like Baloo!

And this particular itch could only be scratched with some re-organisation in the bathroom drawers....

We have two drawers under our bathroom sink, a Hers and a His (woman on top), and we have always just chucked in some necessities without much thought as to how it all looks. I had made a little effort in my drawer, with some cheap plastic divider boxes from Aldi, and some other random organisers, and therefore mine wasn't a total disaster area. But to be honest, I had pretty much left Hubs to his own devices...until the last 2 months of organising fury!

It doesn't even look that bad in this shot, but that's what I mean about going a bit further! It's easy to think you've got things under control if your home doesn't look like a case straight from Hoarders, but have another look...could it be better? I knew ours could be, so I got right to it!

I cleaned mine out....general grime and those yukky stray hairs!

And then got to work on Hubs' drawer, totally uncharted territory, and even more stray hairs!

Our 'stainless steel' drawer handles were looking pretty stained grrr, so out came my favourite Gumption and Ratty Old Toothbrush combination (I have been known to Gumption everything from tile grout to sneakers!), and although the results weren't amazing...

...it was still an improvement. Left=Gumptioned, Right=UnGumptioned.

With the insides wiped nice and clean, the drawers were ready for something I've been wanting to try...

First I got out my trusty mini measuring tape, and measured the base of the drawer.

Then, mostly because I was too impatient to go and buy something I really loved (but also 'cos I'm 'sposed to be Thrifty!) I settled on this wrapping paper I already had plenty of, to line our drawers!

The first cut was a little off, but some stanley knife action took care of that!

Not perfect (my closest friends can vouch for my annoying attention to the tiniest of details), but I guess the fact that I wasn't totally in love with the dark paper meant that I could care less at this point. I think I'll get some lighter and brighter paper at a later date :o)

This is all of the rubbish that I was able to turf from Hubs' drawer! Empty deodorant can, unused razor holder, moldy old toothbrush, two empty razor refills and their empty box, a duplicate comb, and some totally random screws. You would be forgiven for thinking there wasn't a bin FOUR FEET from this drawer!

Ta Da! The things missing from this drawer that have to go back in: the toiletries bag that seriously needed a fumigation wash, and a new can of deodorant to replace the empty can I chucked out. *Oh how I hate taking photos inside on gloomy days :o( Flash is not my friend*

This is what I purged from my own drawer- broken and blunt nail files, blunt buffer, wedding lipstick mix,very old lipgloss and lipstick that had separated, toothpicks for fixing up nail polish bloopers, yukky perfume sample, and really... it's about time for some not-so-gross toe dividers!

Ta Da! Similar set up, but everything is clean and regrouped, and I still love my old toothbrush holder for corralling my nail scissors, thermometer and nail file!

I dragged Hubs into the bathroom on his arrival home, and I'm sure he thought he was going to get a 'shared shower' or something equally as exciting. Imagine his disappointment when I gestured at the closed drawers instead. 

To give him credit, he did put on quite a show of being impressed and happy with my efforts ;o)

After the efforts on the drawers, I should probably revisit the bathroom cupboards as well......

xo Cassie

A Quick Thrift!

Far too frequently, I am guilty of telling Hubs we are heading to our local mall "just to grab one thing, and I know exactly where it is", only to end up "just popping in" to multiple shops that just happen to be en route to our destination. In my defense, I really can't help it, I am a serious multi-tasker and I just can't let an opportunity to hunt for more thrifts pass me by. But if I didn't put Hubs through this pain process on a regular basis, we I would miss out on bargains like these....

Bed Bath and Table were having 20% off on their Easter decor (despite the fact that Easter still hasn't occurred) and that was just the excuse I needed to nab these gorgeous little birds I'd been eyeing off for the last few weeks! Originally $1.50, I got all 5 for $5.50, absolutely thriftiliscious! Too much?

They are made from some sort of thin cut balsa wood or something, and I'd like to use them as hanging labels for some of my storage baskets. Thinking outside of the intended use for an item is what gives your home those special and unique touches that others will swoon over.

A 'quick look' around Myer saw me coming away with a bargain stapler, which I desperately needed after busting my pink one only days before. See that receipt?!?! 93 cents!! Hell No RRP! I get the greatest satisfaction walking away with a purchase from Myer at a ridiculously marked-down price, considering that Myer is the most ridiculously overpriced outlet I know of.

A turquoise stapler is so much cuter than a pink one!

Yay for heavily reduced RRP, and for hubbies that indulge their wifies!

xo Cassie

She Declutters

Today it is rainy and, some might say, miserable. But B4 and I like to think differently! 

B4 is going to snuggle up on the couch and log some serious 'moobie' hours, and I'm going to log some blog time! The days have been getting away from me lately, and I haven't been able to post as frequently as I'd like to. 

See, my posts are generally fueled by the images I capture, and if my images aren't up to scratch, it takes quite a while to get a great post together, and I often begin typing up a post only to realise that I really need more photos to complete the story. One day I'm sure I'll be far more organised and able to pump out posts like a well oiled Bloggin' Machine, but for now, please be patient with my sporadic bursts of genius. Ha. Kidding.

Today's post is really just a little catch up on something I told you I would do weeks ago, and although I'm sure you aren't keeping tabs on me, I do get annoyed with myself when I don't finish up a project. Especially such a quick one as this! But before I show you, I want you to promise me something. Pausing here for your affirmative reaction... Good, glad you're up for it! 

Today I want you to spend 5 mins (even a little more, but you probably won't need much more) tidying up a drawer. Any drawer really; kitchen, dresser, bathroom or other, it doesn't matter to me. Just pick on that's been bugging you. You know, the one you keep avoiding because when you open it, it's simply to retrieve something you need in a hurry, and well you 'just don't have time right now to deal with it'. You know you have one six? I know I do, because all of my recent decluttering projects have occurred inside a drawer! You'll get to see them all over the next week or so, but first off, here's the top drawer in my kitchen that I said I'd get to way back when...

Remember it looked like this, and I wasn't happy with the right hand side, or the 'spoon' section.

So I pulled out all the bits I wasn't happy with, and sorted them into groups...

On the left - items to be re housed that really didn't need to be immediately accessible, or had simply migrated from some irrelevant area of the house. In the middle - things that needed to stay right where they were, but in a more organised manner. To the right - two useless lighters that wouldn't hold any gas, long overdue for the bin.

Aw, Eggy! The perfect size whisk, and he makes me smile!

One of the main problems with this drawer is how everything slides to the back now matter how many times I pull everything forward. So I grabbed some of this No-Slip mat (available from most cheapy shops in their kitchen section)...

...and cut it to size.

All ready for the junk useful utensils to go back in! Oh and I also got rid of some old baby spoons and smoothie straws from my spoon section for good measure!

This is about as neat as it gets, but at least now I can be sure they will all stay in place no matter how many times I open and close the drawer. The utensils are pretty self explanatory, but for your interest - the chalk is for my chalkboard wall decal and the bamboo stick is for lighting my hundreds of candles, as is the lighter and matches.  Much better! If I had a great photo editing program (I don't have any), I would put a before and after pic together, but you can just scroll up and down to compare the difference :o)

And this is what my kitchen looks like all the time.

In my dreams.

So now, off you go, find a drawer to overhaul and see how it makes you smile every time you open it thereafter! I promise it will take less time than you think!

xo Cassie