My quest for a clutter free existence

I like to have a clean and tidy home. Our house is by no means a show home, far from it. And with an almost two year old charging about, staying neat and tidy is, to say the least, a challenge. 

Day to day I mostly keep on top of things; my kitchen is always clean and the worktops are mostly clear. Toys get put away each and every evening after the little crumpet goes to bed. But it's the small piles of things that don't get put away, or don't have a home that eventually drive me to distraction. Piles of mail, a slowly growing collection of hair bobbles and clips on the dresser in the kitchen, my nail varnish and remover that hurriedly got put up on a shelf when my manicure was interrupted by my toddler waking up from her nap. I seem to simply run out of hours in each day to get to these small things. But they grow and seemingly reproduce in other forms of clutter and eventually it feels like they are creeping across my house like mildew on damp walls! Argh!

I would say that the clutter mildly irritates me. Constantly. Then it will come to a head when I cant stand it any longer and I'll go mad and have a huge rant , shortly followed by a frenzied sweep around the house picking things up and finding places for them to go. 

I am vowing to become more organised and therefore less stressed, calmer and ultimately happier. The pursuit of happiness. How cliché of me!

I have bought myself a planner. I list my chores to be done and smugly tick them off once done. I am charting my water intake (not doing well on this one; too much tea is drunk in this house). But I feel that I do need to address the root of much of my stress: CLUTTER. 

After a comment on one of my favourite Instagram accounts, I have ordered this book from Amazon; The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

 'This best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. ' 

I have high hopes! 

Feeling inspired, I had a mini declutter whilst the little one was asleep. Ok, so I did a couple of shelves on our bookcase, but I have two bags to go to charity, a pile to action and a pile to file. Things got put away in their places. I think I will buy some storage boxes, baskets etc, and I have a LONG way to go, but I feel better already! 

Ultimately, I want my home to feel calm, easy to tidy and clean and a place where, at the end of the day, the toys are back in their baskets and toddler is in bed, I can relax, unwind and not have clutter peeking at me from every surface.

I'll keep you updated....

Ikea Play Kitchen Hacks

The little crumpet is coming up to 2 years old this summer and during a discussion about birthday presents with my Mummy group, we got to discussing play kitchens. They can be very pricey, but the Ikea Duktig Play kitchen is a very good bargain. You can either simply get the base unit, for £45, or combine it with the cabinet top unit for £65.

Quite a few people have this kitchen of course, so, in order to make it more unique, there are oodles of ideas for hacks on Pinterest. 

Here are a selection of my favourite.

Painted white, with a dark wood stain on the top. Spray paint the sink, taps, feet, handles and rail coppery gold and immediately you have a very chic finish.

This one is again, very similar. 

Check out the details over at Craftykins

Check out the colourful café curtains on this one from Visual Vocabularie

This one from Bubblegarm has the cutest accessories!

I absolutely adore this mini version of the Grown Up's kitchen!

A beautifully simple kitchen from Sandpaper and Silly Putty:

Oh my goodness, how adorable is this vintage treasure? 

Head over to Little Village to see all the precious little accessories!

Just LOVE the coffee pot in this gem from Two Points For Honesty:

These two are gorgeously bright: 

I love that the worktop and handles match on this one: 

The splashback is stunning: 

see more here

see more here

Pretty in pink for a girly girl:

see more here

This one has lights!

That's more than enough to give you some inspiration and ideas, but there are hundreds more right here if you just can't get enough!

The dressing up box

As a child, I used to adore dressing up. I particularly remember a floaty pink net skirt and purple wide brimmed hat! I am really excited about making some creations for Little Crumpet as she grows up. She already has a small pink suitcase under her desk, which is beginning to fill with the odd few pieces. She is especially fond of her 'crown'! Her pink tutu was the one I made for her first birthday, so is a little small now, but I may just remake it on elastic, rather than ribbon, so it will stretch and also will be easier for her to pull on herself.

There are hundreds and thousands of DIY tutorials for dressing up outfits on Pinterest, but here are a few of my favourites:

This Cinderella dress by Llevo el invierno is just beautiful!

These bird wings by are absolutely adorable. I think I would back them too and hide the raw edges.

I am so making this peacock outfit one day! You can find the tutorial over on Shwin and shwin's page.

This Tinkerbell inspired dress doesn't come with a tutorial, but is super easy to make:

Also on the tutu theme, this flower girl outfit from The Nonpareil Home is simple and beautiful:

Of course headwear is very important too! These crowns are just adorable: 

This one from Stitch 11:

And this felt crown from Small Things:

Every Princess needs a hat too:

Of course, let's not forget the boys! Check out this very cute Peter Pan outfit from Make it-love it:

For the aspiring fireman, what about this airtank from Crayon Box Chronicles:

Head on over to Running With Scissors' page for these gorgeous dinosaur tails:

I could carry on all day! Maybe I will come back with a Volume Two later in the year! 

Over and out x

To market, to market!

Whilst pottering around Pinterest this evening, I spotted a post about a market stall made from an Ikea shoe rack and Ikea wooden storage box. I thought it was really cool, then suddenly thought: "I have those things already..."

After a little rummaging to find out exactly where they were, I created one little market stall for the Little Crumpet to play with tomorrow.

I had absolutely everything already! Wooden, plastic and felt fruit and vegetables, wooden cupcakes and felt donuts, flowers from our Gardening box, Crumpet's till. The little shopping bag is the bag our wooden building blocks came in. I used the frame of the wooden storage shelves on top of the shoe rack for additional shelves. One day, I will make an awning and little sign to go above, but not bad for an evening out the blue!

Under the sea sensory play

I made up an Under The Sea themed sensory box this evening, for the little crumpet to explore tomorrow.

I coloured some rice blue, using gel food colouring, added blue and white pom poms, and some blue, green and silver sequins. I found some blue netting left over from a tutu I made, so I cut that up into thin slivers and added it into the tub too (although when I showed Crumpet earlier, she immediately took it out the tub and threw it on the floor, proclaiming "Not like!". I lined the tub with some blue tissue paper for a crinkly sensory touch.

I added some yellow, green and blue Duplo bricks and some wooden blocks for rocks.

We bought a tub of sea animals when we had our family day to the aquarium in January, so these have taken pride of place!

I've looked out some of her books which are sea linked, so I've put these on her play table too. I hope she enjoys playing with it!

Crumpet spotted the tub laid out on her play table, in the playroom, after her breakfast. She stood at the door, hopping excitedly from foot to foot, calling "Want it! Open door!"

The first thing she did was remove the netting from the tub; "Not like it" She then proceeded to "ooh", "aah" and "wow!" as she discovered all the creatures. She toddled through to the lounge to show her Daddy the creatures she found and then took him one of the books to read.

Invitation to play: flower shop

Flower shop invitation to play, all ready for when the little crumpet wakes up from her lunchtime nap!

It was so easy to put together, I picked up bits and pieces when I was shopping.

Seed packets, flower pots and seed markers: Wilkinsons
Artificial flowers: Ikea
Hand trowel and rake: Asda
Seeds: packet of wholefood seed mix, Asda
Soil: the rice is coloured with red and green food colouring, to make it brown, and a generous sprinkling of cocoa powder. The flowers are standing in chocolate playdoh. You can find the recipe from Anna at The Imagination Tree here.

Beware! It smells amazing so your little one might want to eat it!

The till and shopping basket are both from Early Learning Centre, watering can is from Wilkinsons and the colander is from B&M Bargains. The sorting tray is a card fruit tray that I painted.

Little crumpet absolutely adored playing flower shop! She's still too young for proper role play, but she had great fun scooping 'soil' into the pots and tipping it back out again, sticking her flowers into the playdoh soil, and emptying and refilling the packets of seeds! We spent well over an hour playing together! Our playroom may now have a good sprinkling of rice everywhere, but nothing a quick sweep and hoover won't fix!

Toddler haul!

My latest haul for the little crumpet! I love getting her a bargain!

These wooden jigsaws are currently on sale in Sainsburys, for a bargain at £1.99! I absolutely LOVE wooden toys. I like the feel of the natural material and they are also so durable.

Poundland and B&M Home Bargains are also worth a look for picking up bits and pieces. The little crumpet is OBSESSED with Frozen and absolutely loves her Frozen stationary set and colouring book I picked up yesterday. We also found a pack of Frozen Top Trumps! She doesn't play by the rules of course, but she enjoys finding her favourite characters. 

Stationary set: 99p, Colouring book: £1, Crayola Twistable crayons: £1 all B&M. Top Trumps from Poundland. 

Crayola flashcards: two packs for £1 at Poundland. These have been put away for when she is older.