Throwing a party in a very small space

...or how to play Sardines!

Hope you get to start the day with amazing people

Who bring amazing pressies!!

Hope for great weather – but if your party is in the middle of winter– that might be wishful thinking

Hope your tailor doesn’t tell you that the dress you took in to be altered is going to look “dumb” (yes, that word was used…among others) if she does what you ask her to do...

Hope you have a spare dress in the wardrobe!

At least it meant I kept with the pink theme!

Hope your family and friends like arts and crafts – because that skill is going to come in handy for decorating

Hope they more than like it...and can actually do it...otherwise your results will not look like the YouTube channel you googled...

But which ones were ours - hard to spot the difference...I know!

Hope that only four people RSVP – because quite frankly that’s all you can fit around your teeny tiny table, or comfortably seat on your two sofas…and when I say sofas….I mean a slightly larger version of an arm chair

Hope you win the lottery at least the week before, so you can walk in, cash in hand, and buy that big, gorgeous house with the separate formal lounge so you can breathe a sigh of relief if more than four turn up

Hope more than four people turn up - otherwise sobbing in corner of room may commence

Hope you purchased enough alcohol for more than four people

We had enough...phew

Hope you remember friend's warning and don't imbibe too much before guests arrive

Hope your friends and family aren’t claustrophobic, are very comfortable in confined spaces and love playing games like “how many people can we fit into the mini” or “how many people can we fit into a telephone box”…you get the gist!

Hope your friends and family don’t mind leaning against the fridge, the stove, the kitchen cupboards, the walls, the….(insert any available space here)

Hope no-one has an injury and can easily perch on arms of chairs, cushions or survive standing for hours on end

Hope everyone likes to mingle – because in this case, they won’t have much choice or say in the matter

Hope your friends will come to the rescue with ideas on how to increase your space and warm the outdoor area so people can spill out of the cramped quarters and finally move arms that had been pinned to their sides for the last couple of hours…

Outdoor Diesel Heater provided heat later in the night

Hope the people you invite can take better pictures than you…

Apparently Not!

Hope you don't attempt a selfie after a couple of cocktails

Hope that if you did attempt selfie after a couple of cocktails, the results were stunning...

Apparently Not

Hope you serve plenty of food and drinks to your guests and hope that they have come to see you and each other, and won’t care that they are inadvertently playing sardines….

Hope you remember to serve said food and drinks before you knock back your sixth cocktail

Hope your family and friends can fend for themselves when it comes to food and drink because you failed to heed the warnings...

Hope you end the day with amazing people

Amazing friend made amazing cake...

And hope that turning 50 will be made all the more bearable by having incredible family and friends in your life

Warm and inviting doesn't have to cost a lot...

Unloved Spare Room to Guest Room!

While tidying my spare room for up-coming guests, I got to thinking about how little it takes to make a modest space more warm and inviting.  Nothing like a little elbow grease and a fresh bunch of flowers to do the trick. Cripes...did I sound like my great grandmother there for a moment? Not that we're living through the Great Depression...I haven't succumbed to dripping sandwiches just yet...but there is some truth to it. You don't have to spend a lot, or anything at all, to show family and friends that you've made an effort.

When I have friends over, it's always a good excuse to get in a spring clean, if I have time, on a room that sometimes gets a little forgotten.  Otherwise a rapid fire, tidy up session will usually do the job.  This only involves a quick dust of the surfaces and window sills, a fluff of the pillows and a general tidying away of the laundry that somehow seems to migrate there without too much effort from me.  

I have a laundry at the back of my garage, like many small flats.  However as I don’t have internal access to said garage, it can be a right pain in the proverbial to get to it.  And as such, my ironing board lives in the spare room, along with the iron…and the washing basket, usually full of clean items that need folding and putting away.

As for my suitcases, which I usually unpack straight away, these sometimes (nearly always) end up in that room, waiting for me to get the energy to unload the last bits and pieces and put the suitcases away.  I’m great at getting the clothing and the majority of my toiletries out…but as for the rest of the stuff…a stray pair of shoes, power cords, gloves and scarves, the shower cap and body lotion I nicked (hey…it comes with the price of the hotel room), those items just seem to linger on and on until…behold!  It’s time for my next trip away, and I’m chucking those items back into the bag.  So is this a sign of laziness…or me being really, really organized?  Don’t answer that!

And don’t get me started on the wardrobe (where non-seasonable/too tight/never been worn/should part with it because it’s old and shabby or out of date…but love it for some stupid reason...clothing hangs).  If my guests need some closet space, well, that does take a bit of effort to compact the items in there to one end…but I can usually manage to clear a few inches.  At least I can shut the wardrobe doors and virtuously pretend it is a clutter free zone, not Monica’s hall cupboard from Friends.  

So while my spare-room may occasionally look a little messy, it doesn’t take too much work to get it back to a functioning space when friends or family come to stay.

Some fresh flowers and a water bottle is all it takes to add that extra special touch

Now comes the question of guest towels.  I made the bold statement a few blogs ago about treating ourselves, and using the guest towels.  I guess I told a bit of a fib…because try as I may, I just can’t. You see, I hate buying new towels, and truly, some of mine are pretty sad looking.  But I’m okay with sad – because well, it is just for me, and no matter what detergent I use (and I don’t use bleach in my washing machine) over time they all end up looking like something from the peroxide family has got at ‘em.  So those guest towels have remained guest towels only – and I’m going to live with that. Because it’s one less thing to think about if people are coming to stay, and in this crazy, busy world, sometimes it’s nice having to think about one less thing.

Guest vs Everyday (really need to throw out and replace) Towels

That being said, one thing I am always prepared for is the unexpected guest.  As soon as one guest leaves, the bed is remade up in fresh sheets.  Nothing like having to deal with that at midnight, when someone might have imbibed a little too much, and shouldn’t drive home.  I can easily shove the unfolded towels away, but putting on fresh sheets when I too (as hard as it may be to believe) have imbibed a little, is just…well… too much to bear thinking about.

Putting it all together

However, what I have come to learn is that this might not be the case with all folks.  (Not the imbibing…but the clean sheet thing!)

I was driving into work the other morning, and a discussion (heated argument) erupted on the radio station I was tuned into about clean sheet protocol.  Should this even be up for debate, I pondered?  Seriously, do people not replace a set of sheets after one guest has left? Well…that would be only one or two callers with this point of view, surely.  What?  Okay! Hmmm…apparently not.

I have heard the argument before – that it’s only for one night, and what’s the issue.  The way I look at it, would I wear someone else’s unwashed clothes if they had only worn them for one day?  Let me think about that for a minuscule amount of time…and the answer would be a resounding “NO”.  I am curious about what other people think about this one…because if I’m staying at your place for the night, and you have the rather laissez-faire attitude toward sheet protocol – let me know.  I’m more than happy to bring my own sleeping bag, otherwise I will be having bad thoughts about what may lie beneath the duvet!  (I was going to list all sorts of unmentionables here…but suddenly I felt a little queasy!)  

Am I being fair...or a bit of a prig and a 'pain in the bottom'? Am I the norm...or some whiny house-guest who may never get another invite again? And have I just got myself banned from other people's guest rooms for the rest of my life?

I would love to hear your opinions on the clean sheet debate.

When minimalism was a way of life....

Ahhh – the olden days….

When everything was harder, tougher and yet, somehow so much better, especially when we start lecturing the younger generation about how much worse off we were. I remember the time I walked ten miles home in the snow...barefoot...fighting off wild dogs. What didn't kill me made me stronger...blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that was a time!

There was the time when you couldn't buy anything on HP. No-one owned a credit card. That was the time when, if you didn’t make it to the bank by the end of Friday…you were pretty much stuffed until Monday lunchtime.  But even that wasn’t too much of a hardship because the shops weren’t open, and as long as you had stocked up on your cask of wine for the weekend, you could make it through.

That was the time when you couldn't blob out in your active wear because no-one had heard of Lycra, but you didn't have a car so you had to walk or bus everywhere so there was no time for blobbing. That was the time when spaghetti bolognese was some exotic foreign fare and your mum was ramping up the cooking stakes if she threw in some sultanas with your curried mince. That was the time when your father probably threw a bit of a tantrum at the "posh" Chinese restaurant because they didn't serve bread and tomato sauce with the dinner (entire family cringing under the table). Yeah...what a time!

What I do remember, as a child, is how much more frugal we were, which had nothing to do with minimalism but a lot to do with necessity.  There just wasn’t the money to go around, and it seemed to be that case for most of the families I knew.  No such things as takeaways, except for the occasional Friday night Fish’n’chip feast. Who doesn’t remember a white bread chip buttie - yes, white bread I said, because that was a time when no-one knew that carbs were the enemy, because the Hip and Thigh diet wasn't the number one best seller...yet!.

And certainly brand new clothes were the exception, not the rule.  As the youngest of three girls, hand-me-downs were a fact of life, and I don’t ever remember begrudging them, especially if it was an item I had been eyeing up in my sisters’ wardrobes. And it became even better when my sisters got jobs and started buying new, fashionable clothes. Then it became a wardrobe free-for-all (when they weren't looking). But they would probably raise an eyebrow if I started rummaging through their wardrobes, makeup and perfume collections, begging for some pocket-money from them before I headed off on a Friday night now-a-days. Now...that definitely was a time!

Yellow top (why oh why?) by big sister, jeans by big sister, white stilettos by big sister (see the pattern forming?)
Hair by Dynasty and Super-hold hairspray, and home decor by the 1980s

Mending, altering and re-purposing clothing was the norm, when I was young. I think my mother loved the Bay City Roller phase (for all you youngies..that is something you might want to Google – especially the accompanying fashion trends that went with that), because half-cast jeans were de rigour, and getting another year out of said trousers was made easier by adding on that essential tartan border to the jeans.  

"I love, you love, you love me too love...lalala"

Remember those lovely embroidered patches we could add over tears and holes in our clothing? They were the rage, and I am sure a God-send to all parents watching their pennies at that time. And I have a memory of my mum removing the collars of my dad’s work-shirts, reversing them and resewing the collars back on, thereby giving the shirt another year or so of life. Hey Mum, guess what...you were the original Minimalist...too cool!

Nowadays we seem to live in a more consumer driven, throw-away society where mending, altering, repairing and re-purposing is a forgotten art.  But now I am living through this six month challenge (SIX MONTHS I keep reminding you over and over again) of not buying any items of clothing, I have been looking through my closet to see what I have in there that I am not wearing and wondering is there anything I can do to the item to make it more lovable and allow it back into my mainstream wardrobe?

The challenge is to try the item on (even try wearing it out and about for a few hours) and see why it is you don’t wear that piece of clothing.  Is it too small (it shrunk, I tell you, shrunk)? Is it uncomfortable, and you always find yourself pulling and fiddling with the item of clothing.  One of my friends gave me a gorgeous top she had, just because it annoyed her when she wore it.  I loved it and grabbed it off her with glee.  One morning I put on said item, got out the door to the car, turned around and went back in the house because it had already started irritating me. It was just cut wrong and kept falling down off my shoulders, and not it a fashionable way. Not even five minutes in, that top was dead to me.  Girlfriend got the evil top back, and maybe she tortured/teased another friend with it or re-purposed it as a cleaning rag!

Is it every time you wear the item, someone comments on how tired/ill/let’s call the undertaker/how close to death you look.  I’m thinking the colour of that particular piece of clothing is probably not quite right for you. And I'm looking at you Yellow (see photo above) and Dusky Pink...dammit.

Is it every time you walk out the door in that particular piece, you feel fat, or frumpy or just not quite on top of your game.  It could be the shape is not quite right for your figure.

Swing coat that sat in my wardrobe barely worn

Add a zip...and voila...a more wearable jacket more suited to my shape

Once you have worked out what isn’t working, have a good look at that piece of clothing and see if there is some way you could alter it and make it work for you?  Can you dye it (something I haven’t had too much success with) or hem it, or take it in somewhere (here's ever hoping), or add a zip or button or let out a seam (yeah, that's more likely).

Irritating "won't stay closed" cross over jacket

Irritating jacket becomes less irritating with the simple addition of a button

If you have the sewing skills – good on you.  However if not, take it to a local tailor (they usually cost less than the ones in large shopping malls) and see what they can do.  Then you must make the decision as to whether the cost of the alteration is justifiable to the piece being altered.  If this is a piece you know that you could wear many times, making it a basic to your wardrobe, then the additional outlay is probably worth it.

To cut or not to cut...jury still out on this one...tailor says NO!

For me, there is no better feeling than being able to repair a much loved item, or alter something to ensure it will become a complimentary part of my wardrobe.

$25 to repair the heels or $200 plus for a new pair of leather shoes...this one's a no brainer!

As for hand-me –downs?  I still love ‘em.  But now it’s my girlfriends handing them on to me. Just no yellow please, or evil, sliding off the shoulder tops... but free clothes? Now that will make for a great time!



Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Arty, crafty or just plain naff?

What is art to you?

Art can be subjective.  One person's masterpiece is another person's landfill.

One can see the brilliance of the abstract expressionism in a Jackson Pollock painting, others will see what looks like a badly executed spinning wheel painting done by a five year old, high on sugar, at the fairground.  I wonder where mum stashed (I mean, proudly displayed) those works of art we dragged home from the annual fair, covered in straw and sand-flies which seemed to stick to the wet paint, and give the surface a rather "interesting" textured layer.

Art can be expensive.  One person can expect to pay exorbitant prices for their artwork, another will make do with a second hand print of Dogs Playing Poker...and both may love their pieces equally.  I mean...seriously...it's dogs, playing poker...what's not to like?  Go you cheating British bulldog. 

Art can be an investment.  One person is happy to tie up large quantities of money in what they see as a way of supporting their future, another is thinking of how they are going to pay this month's mortgage and asking themselves, how did that painting that looked like something their toddler could produce be worth that much?  Maybe it's time to exploit their two year old's pre-school artwork!

But one thing I have come to believe, as I look around my home at the things that make me happy, however you think of art, whatever you hang on your walls, it should always be for you…not your bank, not your portfolio, not your friends. 

I remember a particular Salvador Dali print hanging above my family home's lounge fireplace while I was growing up.  For some reason, that print scared the living daylights out of me.  As an adult, I can appreciate the beauty, but for me, art shouldn't induce nightmares.

When it comes to art, I have no particular style - sometimes I find it hard to know what it is I do like, but I definitely know what I don't (sorry Jackson Pollock...but hey, if someone was to gift me one...I probably wouldn't say no).  Some may say my choices are bland and safe. But I'm cool with that.  Don't judge my love of neutrals, and I won't judge your love of anything you want to hang on your walls.

No artist greatly influences me...but I have had pieces that have influenced some of my design choices.  I remember trying to decide on what colour to paint my bedroom when I first moved here.  I had brought along a print I had purchased some years ago.  A friend of mine suggested picking up the colours in that picture when selecting the paint tint.  

In that same bedroom there was one old fashioned picture left hanging in the room when I purchased my home.  One lonely picture in an empty house.  I have always felt a warmth to this place, a sense of security, and for some reason it felt reflected in that floral picture.  It still hangs in that room and it makes me happy every time I see it.  That lonely old print and the one I brought with me have a sense of purpose in the bedroom, they give me a feeling of serenity in my safe space, and they have equal billing.

I was fairly broke when I moved in...and that didn't help when buying more artwork...so I become inventive.  It's amazing what you can do with some blank canvases, test pots of paint, old music and ribbon.  These pictures were just space fillers...but I fell in love with them somewhere along the way...so they are staying for the time being.

Last year, while out and about in Auckland, I visited a shop that specialised in second hand/antique Asian furniture and fabrics among other things.  I found an old screen print stencil, loved it, beat him down on the price then brought it home to be framed...then didn't for over a year because of the exorbitant price of the framing.  When I finally coughed up the money, I absolutely loved the result.  It's unique and it has history.

https://www.facebook.com/asiagallerykimonomegastore/

I had a book that I purchased in Italy with my mother, many years ago.  The book was old and had mildew on some of the pages, but somehow I wanted to preserve the memories.  So I grabbed some old frames, painted and white washed them, then filled them with a couple of pages from the book.

A fun tea-towel a girlfriend gave me (what is she trying to say?) stretched over a canvas...which hangs in the kitchen...near the fridge...where the bottles of bubbles live!

It doesn't matter what you hang on your wall, it's what you love, what makes you happy, it's what gives you a sense of peace and calm, it's what excites and motivates YOU.  That is what art is all about.  Now, does anyone have an old Jackson Pollock they want to gift me?  What?  No?  Hummmph!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin


  

"Smoothing" my way to better health...or am I?

I succumbed...

...to the smoothie fad.  "Why" I hear you ask...or maybe you didn't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

A health check is why.  One in which I refused to jump on the scales - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that my clothes haven't shrunk in the wash or been taken in by some gremlin tailor in the middle of the night...every single item!  I know the problem here...too much munching and not enough moving.

However I allowed myself to be tested on everything else.  

Eyesight - that's been pretty rubbish since I was a teen - however who knew getting old would improve it  - long sighted vs short sighted are meeting somewhere in the middle...check!

Hearing - pretty average for someone my age...huh?  What do you mean my age?  Oh, that's right, I'm almost 50, so...check!

Lung functionality - pretty flippin' amazing.  I think I lucked in for genetics...because I ain't no deep sea diver or ultra marathon runner...so yay...check!

Blood pressure - average - and I'm happy with that ...check!

Sugar levels - just where they are meant to be, so can I grab the lollipop sitting on the desk?  Yes?  Fantastic...check!

Cholesterol...come in cholesterol...we are waiting for you...are you there?  What do you mean high?  Is this something to do with the too much munching and not enough moving?   Of course I love meat and diary...what do you mean I need to reduce levels of fat?  I'm not liking this...FAIL!

So armed with new nutri-bullet and loads of smoothie recipes off the internet...I moved (see - I can move) to the supermarket with my shopping list of what appeared to be semi palatable ingredients to introduce myself to the world of meal replacement.  One or two a day...I thought.  Let's see how we go.  Especially as I have just spent a fortune on some pretty pungent green "stuff" - super greens - which may or may not (but more likely may) be the next fad wonder food.  Just like the kale I brought.

Look at all that "tasty" green goodness

And armed with goodies, I mixed up my first smoothie.  Surprisingly it didn't look quite like the one in the picture...

I can't even tell them apart!!!

I tried my first smoothie...on camera.  I think I hid the reaction pretty well, as I am sure that when I took a swig of the spinach/banana/super green/almond milk concoction a part of my soul just upped and left my body in disgust...and I don't think it's coming back until I ditch the seriously bad tasting green stuff.  

Poker Face

Over the course of a week I experimented.  The better the smoothies tasted, the less goodness was going in.  A cup of kale dwindled down to half a cup, down to a smattering, down to...kale? What kale?

Ah yes, kale.  The healthiest food around according to some internet sites.  So I should be embracing the kale craze.  But seriously, hats off to all you health conscious people that steam, juice, grill and crisp kale, because I truly believe if Hell was cultivating a food source, I'm pretty sure it would taste like this.

My taste-buds are trying to process all that green "stuff"!
Now I know what I would look like if I was in shock.

So now I'm in grave danger of knocking back calorific, fructose laden milkshake equivalents if I don't come up with some better green recipes that don't involve loads of kale, spinach, and that super green "stuff".  I don't want to go to my next health check and have my lollipop confiscated.

What I would love is to hear of are some healthy smoothies that won't break the bank or my taste buds.

When people ask for comments and don't mean it...this isn't one of those occasions. Please help me!  Seriously...PLEASE.  I have a little bit of soul that's waiting to come home.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

30x30 Capsule Wardrobe Update

10 weeks and counting.....

I've been re-working my capsule for May - and I have really noticed some gaps in my wardrobe - but as I have banged on...and on...and on to you all, I have just under four months left of my big challenge, that of not buying any clothing for six months.  So I am just going to have to work around those gaps for now (that's a cue for inserting sad face emoji).

The re-tweaked 30x30

I'm sure there are periods in my life when I have not purchased clothing for more than 10 weeks...but for some reason, this seems like an eternity.  Probably because it's a conscious choice...therefore I am constantly thinking about it.  And it takes a lot of effort to avoid shopping, especially when heading to malls for something unrelated.  I find I almost run through the concourse to avoid making eye contact with anything pretty, shiny and new.  Those circulars are still being dumped in recycling without being opened, and I have pretty much unsubscribed myself from all clothing retailers.  But the real question is...has this helped?

Because I have exactly the same
figure as this model!!!!!

Well, I know it's amazing...but i have survived...only just. Because I haven't completely unplugged from all things clothing related.  I watched a vlog the other day (research only...I promise...really...) and eyed up a lovely dress that the very pretty, young, skinny, perky (did I mention young and skinny?) "youtuber" was wearing, then before I even knew it, I was visiting the on-line site.  I didn't even notice my fingers moving the mouse in that direction...it just kinda happened.  Honest!  But the dress was sold out.  If it hadn't been?  I don't know that I can say with absolute certainty that I wouldn't have purchased it then stashed it away for the next four months pretending that little episode never happened, while desperately trying to starve myself to fit into it. I would like to believe my self-control would have stepped in...but I don't know.  

Do I have an addiction to shopping?  That's a hard question to answer.  I'm not suffering major withdrawal symptoms (I don't think standing in front of your wardrobe sighing loudly counts), and haven't had to chop up or freeze the credit card, but I do think I shop unconsciously.

It's that simple but dangerous act of running your hand over a lovely cashmere jumper displayed on a mannequin in a shop, and before you know it you're in the dressing room trying it on, when you only came down to the mall to buy some bread and milk from the supermarket.  

It's that click onto a bargain internet site, and all of a sudden you have a "three pair of jegging" set with "a second set thrown in for free" you never knew you needed (and you don't...trust me, you don't!)

My big concern when starting this challenge was wearing the same clothes over and over, and worrying about what people would think.  I'm pretty sure that unless I've told people I am doing this challenge, they haven't even notice.  Because the truth is I probably only wear 20% of my wardrobe anyway.  As for the rest of my clothing? Some of it is seasonal, some of it is special occasion, and some of it is waiting patiently for me to loose weight, grow taller or morph into the 20 year old that was modelling the item I impulse purchased!  (Remember that young, skinny, perky, pretty "youtuber"?)

On another note, while my halt on clothes shopping is helping me save (so money can go towards debt/mortgage) I do wonder if it's false economy just wearing 30 items of clothing over and over...as the items may suffer from wear and tear more quickly due to frequency of use.  I've also noticed I am washing clothes more often with smaller loads.  That's because if I don't keep on top of the laundry, all of a sudden I literally have nothing to wear.  I'm serious.  It takes one week to clear out over half of my pieces into the washing hamper. It will be interesting to see what state my clothing is in at the end of the six months.

The challenge has also helped me re-evaluate my wardrobe and as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I realise I have some gaps - such as a classic white shirt.  So my shopping list for when I finish the challenge, while not long, will hopefully help me focus on what my wardrobe really requires.

But until September, I guess I am just going to have to be inventive with my wardrobe...and ignore the fact that I am re-circulating some core pieces over and over...and over...sigh...and over again.

The journey continues....till June when I try the 333 capsule wardrobe...that's 33 items of clothing for 3 months...gasp!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin