What a crazy couple of weeks. I have been a little MIA lately - I've had a few lifey things happen recently which have taken the front seat.
On the weekend I took some time out from the craziness and attended a "Spring Wellness" workshop run by Tammy, personal trainer / lifestyle coach at Vis Novo Health, Sam Efraimsen, yoga instructor at Adelaide Yoga Flow, and Dana Bell, a goal setting coach. I feel so inspired and motivated to make a few changes to my lifestyle (blog post on this up soon.)
Also look out for a couple of blog posts coming up soon with tips on how to create the best atmosphere for your yoga practice and creating a relaxing bath environment. These are the 2 things that have gotten me through craziness of the last couple of weeks!
A few weeks ago I purchased a couple of products from the Tony and Guy hairstyling range to try. One of them was the Spray Gel for Curls and I have to say it has been my go to product for the last few weeks.
There are a couple of things I really love about this product. It gives the hair amazing texture by separating the curls and making them look more natural, and it keeps the curls in all day / all night! I have also found my curls still look good the day after using. One of the main reasons I love this product is that it feels like there is nothing in my hair. I do not like products that make your hair feel stiff / dry / oily as I feel like I have to wash my hair straight away.
The spray gel is so easy to use. I have thick, long hair, and 4 sprays is more than enough for me. All you need to do is spray in your hair and scrunch until you have reached the desired look.
This little guy cried until I brought him into the bathroom with me - Mummy's boy!
Have you tried out this product or do you have a similar product that you love? Let me know!
What I'm Wearing
Floral Miss Shop Top (Myers - last season) // Emporio Armani Watch (Birthday Present)
I first learnt about this amazing organisational system after reading this guest post on The Organised Housewife and instantly fell in love with the idea.
In short, bullet journalling is a system of bulleted lists that enable you to fully organise your life.
Here is a basic overview from the creator of the Bullet Journal
There are a few things I really love about this system.
1 | Everything is in one spot
The bullet journal is essentially a diary and a list maker all in one. This is great for me, because it means I only have to carry around one book instead of a diary and a book for my lists.
2 | It keeps you accountable
I love the "migrating" feature of the bullet journal. This means if you do not finish something you can move it to another day. I go back at the end of each day / month and see what tasks I have not completed, and if they are still relevant, I add them to the next day / month. This way, I am not forgetting tasks I may not have completed.
3 | It is easily customisable for your needs.
I will run you through my version of the Bullet Journal system below, but I love how customisable the bullet journal system is. One system will not work for everyones needs, so it is really important to find a system that lets you make it your own.
My Version
Here is a look at my bullet journal and how I have adapted it to suit my needs.
First of all, I chose to use this journal from J. Burrows. I love the cream colour of the pages and the fact the lines are 6mm apart - this gives you more space! I also love the pocket at the front of the book. This is where I store my monthly calendars and tabs. They suggest using the Moleskeine notebook as the ideal journal for the Bullet Journal system - but they are really expensive!
I also purchased this pen and these tabs. I chose this pen because it has 4 different colours (much nicer than the old black, red, green & blue!) so I can use different colours for things such as events, bills, appointments etc. As you will see below, I am not using the index system, so the tabs will help me to be able to quickly find what I need.
The first page of my journal is my key. I based it on Dee's from decade thirty. I ended up basing a bit of my journal on Dee's because I love the way she set everything out.
On the next page, I included a yearly calendar - these always come in handy! I found mine at Life Your Way. I attached it to the page with wash tape (on sale at Spotlight)
Now we move into the monthly tabs. At the beginning of the month I have a monthly calendar (also from Life Your Way) this is where I record events / appointments and also bills. On the next few pages I list my tasks for the month. Like Dee, I have included a margin on these pages to make it easier to migrate / prioritise tasks. At the beginning of each month, I look back on the month before and see what tasks I have not completed and I merge them into the next month.
After I have listed my monthly tasks, I move onto my weekly tasks. Each day I write down any relevant tasks, appointments and events I have. As I move on to the next day, I check on what I have not completed from the day before and migrate them to the next day (if they are still relevant)
At the back of my journal I have general lists (in the Bullet Journal System these are referred to as "Collections.") Like Dee states in her blog post, one of the main pluses of having these "collections" at the back of the diary this is that the monthly and weekly pages can flow on from each other.
After using it for just over a week, I am seriously loving this system already. I have definitely been more organised and a lot more productive.
Let me know if you are using this system and what tweaks you have made!
I went for a walk along the beach after work today and saw the most beautiful sunset (unfortunately iPhone photos could not do it justice!) I sat on the beach for a while and thought about how thankful I am to live in such a beautiful county. With all of the bad that is currently happening in the world, sometimes we need to stop and take a step back and see just how good we have it.
I encourage you to take some time this weekend to stop and think about what you are thankful for.
This dress is my second garment from my Love at First Stitch book by Tilly Walnes. It is a combination of the Megan dress and Clemente skirt. You can find the post on my first Megan dress here.
I made a few changes to the Megan top including making the top longer and replacing the dart tucks with straight darts. Originally I was just going to take the darts out all together, but realised the top looked frumpy and had no shape, so I decided to add in longer straight darts.
I love the gathers in this dress, however because this material is quite stiff and the Clemente skirt has a lot of material, the skirt was very flouncy. I decided to take the skirt in slightly which made the it sit a lot nicer.
After undoing this zip 3 times I decided it was finally time for an invisible zipper foot! As I have an older style Bernina, it was harder to find the right zipper foot to fit my machine. There were a few stores in my area that stocked them, but I wasn't prepared to pay the $50 they were asking! I finally found this one on eBay for $27 (including postage) and received it within a week.
I am so glad I finally invested in one as it was so so easy to use. I used this great instructional video from Craftsy (free!) to install the zip.
Tilly always stresses the importance of finishing off your garments properly. By going that extra mile to finish off the raw edges, press the garment and hem it neatly, it will always look like a professional job.
I am really happy with how this dressed turned out! It will become a favourite during Spring and Summer.
Have you made anything from Tilly's book? I love how easy it is to customise the patterns to suit your needs.
There are always a few yoga challenges floating around Instagram. They usually consist of a different pose each day for a month. These are great for improving your practice and getting you out of your comfort zone, however once the challenge is over - that's that!
I was really excited to see the yoga challenge set by Rachel Brathen (aka Yoga Girl.) This challenge is very different to any other yoga challenge I have seen. The idea of this challenge is for these things to happen after the 21 days are up. They are a starting point for changing your life for the better.
If you read my Yoga Goal post, you will already know I have been trying to include yoga more into my everyday routine. These challenges will continue to help me change my lifestyle.
I encourage you to give Rachel's challenge a try and if you are not into yoga, try and relate the above to your everyday life. I believe the things listed above are things we should all be trying to do everyday.
You will have noticed from this post on cleaning up my craft supplies, I am trying to get a bit more organised with fabric, wool, general craft supplies and patterns! I have just finished organising the paper / printed sewing patterns I have so I thought I would share what I did with you.
A friend recently posted this article from Craftsy on my Facebook and after reading through, I found it had a few really good ideas for organising and storing your sewing patterns. I really liked the first and second ideas, but space wise decided that the first idea of storing patterns in a folder was the best one for me!
I had a look around for the expandable sheet protectors (you can find them here or here) however I found they were quite pricey. Instead I opted for these Premium Sheet Protectors from Marbig (I purchased mine here.) They are a lot thicker than normal sheet protectors and worked well for me!
To make things easier to see, I made up a cover sheet for each pattern which included a picture of the pattern and the items that are needed to make the item (i.e. fabric, zips, buttons etc.) This allows me to quickly refer to what I need for a pattern, without having to get the instructions out.
I find that having them in the folder makes them really easy to flick through, and saves me a lot of storage space.
How do you organise your pattern stash? Are you a fan of PDF patterns or do you prefer traditional paper patterns?
