Bird

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson

Kaiaua

Grant is home for two weeks, hooray! He arrived on Friday night and it's been so nice to be together as a family. We've had a relaxing weekend just chilling and taking it easy. We've had glorious weather - summer seems to have arrived and it's shorts, t-shirts and jandals (flip-flops) all round!



We did take a trip out to Kaiaua (a 35 minute drive) and found a secluded bit of beach to enjoy. The top of the beach was made up of stones and was nicely sheltered with a bit of late afternoon shade. Closer to the water was sand with some rocks. The boys played, I read a bit and just relaxed listening to the shush of the water, and Grant tried a bit of fishing.

As this is an east coast beach it did not have black sand or breakers and surf.

You can see our car here, and the steep bank we had to climb down.



















Grant said the water was really warm. That and the fact that the ground slopes very gently into deeper water and there is no surf makes it the perfect place for the kids to swim, although we hadn't brought swimming gear with this time.

Succulent

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."

- Victor Hugo

Master closet and jewellery organisation

I thought I'd share how I organise things in our various closets and drawers, starting with the walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom.

We have some shelves at the left hand side, a shelf along the top and hanging space.





Starting at the top I have my favourite Ikea plastic tubs filled with clothes in a size that I am too big for. I need to lose my emigration weight (when life settles back to normal) to fit them again but they are ready and waiting for me.





The hanging space straight ahead is Grant's. Of course, some of his clothes are with him at college at the moment but not a lot.





In case you are wondering why I have such a bright church bag, it's one from Time Out For Women (there are a few of us at church who use them).

The hanging space on the left is mine.





The hanging space was single-level and meant for long items but I wanted a double rail for shorter items (my long items are in the boys' closets which you'll see later) so I added a portable hanging rail at the bottom.



This is the corner at the bottom. It has the shiatsu massage chair thingie (don't laugh, it's awesome) and the flood-and-fire-proof safe which holds important documents.



Okay, on to the shelves.





There are only two library books in the plastic tub at the moment because as I finish them I put them straight into my wheeled shopping bag ready to return to the library.

The very top rail holds my cuffs and biggest bangles on little hangers I made out of jumbo paper clips:



As detailed above, the baskets hold shorts, swimming trunks and hats. Hanging below are my bracelets and bangles on hooks made from paper clips, with my necklaces on the right:







You can also see how I hang my hoop earrings - I am wearing the other pair I have:



The necklaces hang from Ikea curtain clip hooks:





Below that hang some bangles, again on hooks made from paper clips:





The top two shelves have short necklaces hung on them:



And the second-from-bottom shelf has long necklaces and spare clip hooks hung on it:



You may have noticed the little plastic boxes to the right of my shoes:



They are bead boxes and store my earrings, toe rings, pins and pendants:





The back of the closet door has hooks which hold belts and light scarves. My woolly scarves languish in a big plastic box in the garage along with our winter hats, coats and gloves. We didn't need them this last winter here in NZ as it didn't get cold enough!



I hope that was interesting and / or helpful! Let me know if you are interested in seeing how I organise other closets and drawers in my home, or if there is anything specific you'd like to see organised.

Little curtain

Our ensuite has a window that is visible from the neighbour's house. It has obscure glass that provides privacy during the day but at night with the light on inside it isn't quite as private as I'd like. I needed to add a little curtain of some sort.

As a renter, a tension rod was the perfect solution ... except that nobody in New Zealand seems to have heard of them! I looked at so many places and asked around. In the end my lovely friend Rebecca in the UK sent me one - it was around £2.50 on eBay. (Thank you, Rebecca!)





Here it is in place. For those who don't know (ahem, my NZ friends, LOL) the two halves of the rod rotate and it extends to fit the recess. It is slightly spring loaded. The tension / pressure keeps it in place.





I whipped up a little curtain by folding a piece of hemmed cheesecloth over and sewing a rod pocket across the top. Voila, privacy for me and a protection from seeing my naked form for the neighbours. Win win.





I was going to add some navy blue pom-pom trim along the bottom but my local haberdashery doesn't have any in navy so it will just stay plain.