Gift Taggs

Following on from last weeks article, I thought I would add a few notes on what to store in your gift closet, again from my research I found several themes that I think can be adapted to suit your needs.
Think about how you need to buy presents for.The majority of our friends are in their Thirties who are getting married, newly weds or have young children, we don’t have children so I don’t need to worry about buying gifts for their friends. Family are a lot more varied, from young children to grand parents –  but we don’t have any teenagers to buy gifts for.

As I have just started setting up my gift closet,  I am opting to look for decent items to store – ideally I should have started this before Christmas so I could buy all the gifts in the 3-2 promotions the stores have around then, so instead I am looking to buy items in bulk or take advantage of discount shopping centres and sales.

Bicester Village in Oxfordshire is a great place to start, we tend to do two major trips here one before Christmas and over of the summer. With so many shops to choose from it is easy to get gifts from here.

So far my gift closet, contains some wash bags (brought at the Cath Kidston discount store), Philosophy and L’Occitane bath products (brought in bulk at QVCUK.com), some photo frames (perfect for all occasions), bottle stoppers, (to be given with a bottle of wine for hostess gifts), and some candles.

Further Reading for present ideas

Home Organization Suite 101
Pier 1
Creative Homemaking

Tags: gift closet, organisation

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Gift Closet from Pier 1

I am always impressed with people who are organised with gifts – those that do their Christmas shopping in September, buy the Christmas cards in the January sale and remember where they have stored them or always seem to have the perfect present at hand. My mother in law is one of these people, she manages to buy gifts in bulk or when she sees them, stores them away and the pulls them out just before the person’s birthday or Christmas all ready to be given.

I have been toying for a while with setting up a gift closet, I don’t really have a closet spare but I have an empty shelf in a dresser that I think would be perfect. So I have been researching what makes a perfect gift closet.

All the guides suggest starting with a gift journal to record all the birthdays and special occasions through the year – you can download pages to create on of these at Organised Home. I would also suggest adding some additional information like ages to the name to make sure you don’t miss any landmark occasions. I have taped mine to the door of the dresser.

Ideally I would love a proper wrapping station but failing that I have set up a box with gift bags (especially the ones for bottles of wine – this are so useful), rolls of paper and different colours of tissue paper for more delicate gifts. Then some rolls of ribbon (I use the realms of John Lewis), and a selection of gift tags. Another useful things to include are embellishments – badges and brooches, paper flowers and mini toys can all be used for that finished touch to your gift. Obvioulsy you want to include some scissors, sellotape and different coloured pens to this box.

Next greeting cards, think about all the occasions the happen in a year, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, new babies or home, I like to send a card for all of these. As a crafter, I always make the cards but am so unorganised that I end up having to rush out to Hobbycraft for supplies or ordering online – and I can never find what I am looking for, so the idea of having a box with cards I have already made would be ideal.

The other key thing to include I discovered from my research is some post it notes, to leave notes on gifts or as reminders to yourself – this is a good idea if you plan on re-gifting a present – you can make a note of who sent it to avoid any embarrassment.

Finally, I am including some jiffy envelope and stamps already for posting – so the only time I will have to leave the house to go to the post office to mail the gift.

Next Week, the actual gift inventory.

Tags: gift closet, gift wrapping, organisation

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I cannot believe it is March the 1st already, the weather is even changing here in the London that it feels like spring is around the corner. (My bulbs are even flowering in their window boxes).

I seem to be on top of things in the spring cleaning department due to the Grand Cleaning Plan. After my lack of crafting over Valentine’s day I wanted to make up for it in March! I seem to be ahead of things regarding the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries! However, Mother’s Day (in the UK) is just a few weeks away and Easter is just after that.

So today, I have been looking for ideas for Easter. Instead of buying eggs this year, I think I will make cookies and cupcakes

1. Easter Bunny Cookie by Sweetopia, 2. Spring Chicks by The Frosted Cake n Cookie, 3. Easter Basket Cookie by Cakejournal,

4. Vanilla Easter Cupcakes by mejika, 5. Easter Cupcakes by freakgirl, 6. Easter Cupcakes 2 by rouvelee,

7. Easter Cookies by sweetcaques, 8. Easter Egg Cupcake Cups  by save the date for cupcakes, 9. Easter Cookie Collection by Cupcakes & Cartwheels

Tags: cookies, easter, mother's day, organisation, spring cleaning

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A few years ago a dear friend of our got married in New York, which meant we got to enjoy this amazing city with several of our friends, before we left we did some research on restaurant  and places to eat, each night we enjoyed an amazing meal, good food, good wine and great company.

Upon returning home, whenever we saw these same friend we would end up in either the local curry house, pizza place or occasionally a local tapas restaurant. Although there is nothing wrong with any of these places it seems extremely limited when we live in such a cosmopolitan city!

Enter the “Dinner Club!” Now once every few months we organise a night out in a new restuarent. We have 5 couples in our club – but rarely manage to get all 10 people together at once. Each couple takes it in turn to organise a date, pick the resturant and is incharge of the booking. Planning a few weeks in advance means we all have time to organise our schedules and give those with children and chance to arrange babysitters.

After the meal, we discuss our likes and dislikes about the meal (we were never organised enough to have created survey cards), and make notes of our favourite courses! So now we get to enjoy all the fabulous places to eat right on our doorstep.

Looking for more help on setting up your own dinner club, check out Executive Homemaker’s guide.

Tags: dinner club, organisation, party ideas

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… AKA my love of Ravelry.

Without a doubt my largest hobby is knitting, it takes up the most of my time and it is what I spend the majority of my disposable income on. So obviously, I have a large stash of yarn, hundreds of needles and numerous books. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of it all, where did I stored that lovely ball of pink sock yarn is or remember what book has the pattern for the pretty cardigan.

BR (Before Ravelry), I didn’t really have a system. My yarn was in all in several boxes, my books  neatly stored on a shelf and my needles in all placed in a bag – if I needed a certain sized needle it was a hunting expedition – which normally ended with my discovering the needles where being used in another project.

The biggest problem I had was not knowing what to make with all the yarn I had, I tended to buy the odd ball of yarn here or there – one skein of sock yarn, one of lace weight, some chunky yarn for a scarf – never knowing what I intended to use it for and quite often not having enough for a complete project.

PR (Post Ravelry), all my yarn is displayed on my stash page, with photos, a location of where it is stored  and where I brought it from (I’m too scared to add the price). Most of the yarn is assigned to a project, and those projects are in my queue. 

My Stash on Ravelry

It wasn’t an easy job getting here – it took my a long time to photograph all my yarn, add each entry and locate all the yarn - but now I am in the habit of photographing it once I receive it. Once all the yarn was on Ravelry, I linked it to any future projects, found ideas of new projects or even decided if I wanted to get rid of the yarn.

Now, when I add a new sock yarn, I either assign it to a pattern in my queue or uses the pattern suggestion tab on Ravelry, to look for inspiration, and move that pattern to the top of my queue, insuring that I knit that pattern first and not be tempted to buy more yarn.

Tags: knitting, organisation, ravelry

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I have mentioned before how I think being organised is one of the key features of being a domestic goddess, there are several websites out there that can help, all of them have their own ideas and plans all different. One thing they all seem to have in common is your are not going to get organised over night! It starts by going a little bit every day. These are my top five websites (in no order) when looking for daily tasks to help be organised.

Flylady – Probably the largest website out there devoted to declutter and organising homes, giving you several options to get your daily advice (emails, a toolbar or via their website), Using humour and their own terms, the Flyladies starts with Babysteps to help build a routine, turn your home into 5 zones for you to tackle. Soon you will have put out all your hot-spots and climbed to the top of your Mount Washmore. 

I find the site can be very cluttered and hard to navigate, however daily mission are updated everyday, and displayed on the homepage along with the weekly pampering mission and the monthly task (this month a reminder to Shiny your sink). I also found doing everything in fifteen minutes didn’t suit me, once I have my washing gloves on I prefer to scrub until the room is done not just tackle one area at a time. I tend to use the “sneak peak” section to see all the daily tasks and on them all at once on a set day. 

Organized Home - Not so much a daily guide more a general organisation site. Organized Home encourage it’s readers to have to major deep cleans of their homes, one in the spring and one just before Christmas on their sister site, Organized Christmas.

The reason I love the site is the regular articles, covering everything from re-organising your wardrobe for the season, to handling household papers, and of course the guide to creating an your own Organizer for your home. 

Martha Stewart – For many this is the go to site when looking for inspiration, I love her Organizing Tip of the Day. each day she posts a creative project to help you organise your home, from charging stations for your electronic devices, to a case for embroidery thread, from labelling your pipes to  creating a gift wrapping station.

It is worth noting, the site also has some amazing checklists which also seem to cover everything. They are a little hard to find, but extremely handy as they are printable complete with a little tick box for you to check the items off.

Life Organizers - Putting together a little task everyday – sometimes based on cleaning, other times of planning a date night or family task, this site is great of a mini project everyday.  They also use American National Holidays to tie into the tasks, changing light bulbs on Edison’s birthday to having a laugh on April Fool’s day. The site also has various checklists for moving home, packing for a holiday or what to ask when looking for a new loan.

Tip Junkie - I love the Personal Assistant part of this site, at the beginning of the month, offers a reminder of everything you need to do, in order to be super organised that month, from checking your calender for upcoming birthdays to food storage ideas. If you are going to be a Home Executive you need your own P.A. and this site offers it. All the tasks link in with their sister site, Executive Homemaker.

Tags: organisation

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The next thing I want to talk about in organisation is an address book, I gave up keeping proper address book years ago as I got fed up with all the crosses out when people moved house or changed their email address or phone number… my pretty address book soon looked a mess! Instead I now use a page for each person in my Home Organiser Planner, if any data changes I can just rip the page out and start again. The advantage of using an A4 page is you can add extra information, instead of just Name, Address, Email, Phone Number, you can now add Mobile Numbers, Websites, Birthdays, Spouses or Children’s Names, and of course a Notes section to include information like allergies or favourite food for dinner parties or gifts.

All the guides I have read online encourage you to include more than just friends and family’s details, at first I thought it was a little odd including the number of the local restaurant or take away place, but when you stop to think how many times you look this up in the year it soon adds up, using a folder also means you can attach the menu – so you don’t have to hunt around for that too, When those menus and vouchers get posted through the door file them away in your address book. I have also started adding “notes” to these, listing our favourite dishes or things we hated – useful when recommending a restaurant.

I also keep a digital copy (in Outlook) of my friends and families addresses, the benefits of a digital copy are numerous, you can use mail merge for your Christmas cards (you will be amazed at how much time this can save), most people email change of address or phone numbers details so you can copy and paste the details over. With nearly everyone owning a Smartphone these days you can also sync computer based address book with your phone and suddenly you always have everyone’s details with you always – handy if you have to send a last minute card.

Further Reading:

• Flylady Control Journal - general tips on getting started with your address book.
• Organised Home – General tips and some great printables I love the Restaurant Directory and Emergency Information pages.
• Windows Address Book Template – download for an Access database, with some great features like the greeting card list.

Tags: address books, organisation

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One of the key things to being a domestic goddess is organisation; after all there is no point if sending out an amazing handmade birthday card if it is a month late or a dinner party will be ruined if the main course is ready before the starter.

For a long while I have been a fan of the Organisation Folder system, I started with a Control Journal from Flylady but have since adapted it using ideas from Organised Home and other sites. The idea is simple in the workplace you will have your daily, weekly and monthly tasks, you use tools like Outlook to organised your calendar or address book why not use them in your home.

Our Calender

One of the simplest tools to use to get organised is a calendar. A quick glance of the calendar can remind you of an upcoming birthday, event or public holiday. It is a simple way to keep track of your family members – my husband works shift so when making plans during the week I constantly have to check his work patterns before confirming anything.

I brought this calendar from on of those pop-up calendar shops that are everywhere before Christmas, the his and her columns means we can both keep track of what the other one is doing and is extremely handy when planning meals for the week. I also have a moleskine diary that sits on my desk for more in-depth entries – times of appointments, notes for what I need to do that day.

Finally I use a computer based calendar, last year I discovered Google calendars, by using their shared calendars, first off I would suggest adding the UK public holidays subscription, then look for something relating to you interests, the upcoming cinema release dates, you favourite teams fixtures and finally add family members calendar.

For me the best thing about Google calendar is they synchronization – by installing the sync tool, the calendar can brought together with outlook for an offline copy and then in turn ismy synced to my iPhone so I always have a copy of my calendar on hand, the syncing means I can change an appointment on my phone and it will be updates on all three calendar once I connect my phone to the computer.

Further Reading

• Flylady Control Journal
• Organised Home Notebook
• Executive Homemaker

Useful Tool:

• Calendars from Windows
• Google calendar

Tags: calenders, organisation

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