Beautiful paper crafts

The Scrap Shoppe Blog

I'm an addict. Yup. I said it. I'm addicted to Pinterest. Completely. I have always been a real internet browser... I love to browse. It gives me ideas, it makes me happy. I see so many things that are pretty, or affordable while being awesome, or funny, or useful. Some of my best meal ideas have come from the internet. (A seriously good thing, as I'm not exactly the world's greatest chef). But Pinterest, it's new, it's awesome. It's not a totally new idea, similar to several other sites, but it's clean, it's simple to use, and I love it. Facebook is now way down my list of time absorbers.

Nature of Crafty Things

I love to browse the latest pins, and pin things I come across that I find in the blogs I read, or from FB posts. Or more often than not, I pin the things I have discovered by following links from the blogs I follow, and come across some really awesome stuff.
I used to get a bit sad though, as I there wasn't an awesome way to record where I found the awesome things. 

Bride Goggles

I used to bookmark them, or save the pictures. Saving the pictures was great as a visual thing (I'm a very visual person), but I couldn't go back to a tutorial, or check out other stuff from the same blog or site.
Bookmarking was great, that gave me the link, but often I couldn't find the one page I wanted, or I couldn't remember what I had bookmarked, as it wasn't easy to see.

Twigg Studios

So that's one big reason I love.
Pinterest. I can go back and look at the beautiful things. I can also keep up with all the new cool stuff on the internet!
Here are a few things I have pinned, that I love, that you might too. Beautiful things to do with paper. (and cardboard). I love paper as a medium to work with, there are so many awesome papers available. You can buy endless types of paper, you can make your own, something I remember being really fun, but that was years ago. I should do that again.

Road Kill Rescue

Anita  xoxo

Crafty and organised :o

Right, so getting started on my task list, and I've ticked off a few things! Still plenty to go, but these aren't all to be done in one day, thank goodness.

I've been in to the bank and changed over to my married name, hurrah. The last of the more important name changes to be done.
I have set myself some aims as well, look at me go! I aim to do some study days for work, I'm waiting to hear back from my applications now. I think they will all give me some valuable information. I also aim to complete the next level of professional development, that involves a bit of work, plenty of paperwork, and in the end having an updated portfolio, and as a bonus, a pay increase.
I also aim to give my creativity an outlet, not just toy with my imagination. I will create one mixed media painting a month to put in my Felt store, plus 10 sewn items, and 10 other little treats. Start small and work my way up. I also want to let myself make stuff for me, that's right. I so often make things for other people, and forget to keep some for me, and then I can't show people the sorts of things I make. I am also working on a cross stitch for my awesome little nephew, of Noah's Ark. I started off by looking around to see if I could find a pattern for one that I liked... but to no avail. I checked all the craft stores I could think of in the city, and also online. None where quite what I had in mind. That's when a little light bulb went on, and I thought if I could find a picture I liked and made my own pattern, I might have better luck. I did! Google is definitely my friend. However I have set myself a rather mammoth task with this one, it's A3 sized! So I'm now aiming to have this finished for his 5th birthday, that's just under 4 years away.

Also, Yay!! I have a tidy house. Well, half of one. Over the weekend the husband and I organised and cleaned our way through the kitchen, dining area and living area. That's our whole upstairs area, and where we spend most of our time. 

We started in the kitchen by clearing off the bench, filling the dishwasher and washing the odd bits that had accumulated. Also did a nice hot water and baking soda clean out of the thermos, no faint, strange smells now.

We moved onto clearing out the fridge of UFO (unidentified fridge objects), such as the other half of the sweetened condensed milk that I hadn't dated, but didn't seem off. I just couldn't remember when I put it there.
We then organised the cupboards and pantry, identifying what we use frequently, and what we don't. Those that are less frequently used remain in our teeny tiny kitchen, but are instead on top of the pantry unit, rather than stealing our precious limited shelf space.
Then we arranged things to make things more accessible, and less frequently used items further back, or lower down.
In the dining area we cleared the table (we often use this as extra bench space as our bench gives us enough room for one chopping board... and that's it. Silly little kitchen. Then we cleared the floor. There was a crockpot still in the box, that is now above the pantry, (we have 2)
We also finally put up photo frames and art work! It looks like a home now. I had been apprehensive about hanging them due to quakes, but we will see how they fare.

As for now, time to hang out with the lovely Alexia!

Ciao, Anita

How-to: Make an Organised Anita

Hello again!
So, in my last post I said I wanted to be more organised this year... and I've mentioned that to friends and family. Also asked Simon to help me out with this. Most of my friends have laughed, and said that it won't last long. They do know me well. But I am determined to be more organised and less scatterbrained. I imagine that if I have things organised things will have a home, and therefore I will know where things are, giving the appearance of a less scatterbrained Anita.

I know that organisation is an important thing, and something I am capable of... I'm VERY organised at work. I make a time planner every shift, and extra tasks are written down. I have tick boxes and at the end of the shift I feel as though I have achieved something. I can also check to see what's next, especially if I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed.
I have started off by looking at a few organising books, thanks Martha Stewart, and the Christchurch City Libraries. I also follow iHeart Organizing who shares different tips, and organisation projects that she and other people have done in their home. There are so many great ideas. I also stumbled on an Declutter Calendar from My Simpler Life which is a great idea, but isn't quite right for me. So, I have made my own!
I am a great fan of Google products, and own a Google Android smartphone, use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Documents and Google Maps. They are all so easy to use, aesthetically clean, and fantastic for my OCD tendencies! So in trying to figure out how I wanted to do my own decluttering I realised I didn't want to have events in my calendar, with strict times for me to complete my tasks only for them to sail past and then have me feel like I've failed. Being a shift worker, setting daily tasks isn't always possible, and I really don't like knowing I should have done something that I haven't yet achieved... even though I set the task myself. That had an idea spark... Google has a task feature in Gmail! So there it is now looking at me everyday when I check my emails is my task list. Even more fantastic, I can access this on my phone.

So I am starting off by continuing to have my shifts recorded in a little diary that is always with me, on my Google Calendar, and also on the weekly planner we have on the fridge.
This weekly planner is now expanding to be a meal planner too... tonight we had homemade pita pocket pizzas... yum! (see the last post about wanting to eat healthy and cook more... this is how I'm doing it)

One of the next on the list is to learn how to use my camera well! But for now I'm off to work for a night shift.

<3 Anita

A new year, a much needed new start

So the year has started and it's going to be a good one. The last year was certainly an eventful one. It saw some horror, but still had it's share of joy. 

January saw me turn 25, and being on my new ward for a month (that's right, I'm a nurse). 

February saw our city being shaken to bits with a 6.3 earthquake, I don't think anybody got away with not knowing about that one. That caused my husband work building to be evacuated, and never returned to, they were able to relocate. My ward was also evacuated, with patients moved to different wards within the hospital, and myself and the other displaced staff were then absorbed into the pool staff, and worked all around the hospital. February also had my brother need to postpone his wedding because of the earthquake.

Photo from steve-malley.blogspot.com

March we escaped to Melbourne and had a fantastic time away

at Mt Dandenong with my man, Simon, on a beautiful day

catching up with friends

March also had Japan have an earthquake, with a tsunami, and so much devastation and loss of life. It had New Zealand hurting so much more knowing that dear Japan had it so much worse than we did.

May had a trip to Hokitika for a friend's 25th, was great fun to surprise her! It also had my brother have his postponed wedding!

Mr and Mrs!

In June my ward reopened, but at a different hospital. It was great to be back with my workmates again, but starting up in a new place had more than a handful of challenges, some have resolved, others are still being ironed out. We hope to move back to the main hospital by the end of the year, but I don't think that is realistic, but we will see! We also had another decent shake over 6.

In July I got my restricted licence, a few days before the magical snow we were delivered. 

 Not quite Narnia, just a stunning Christchurch

In August we escaped to Queenstown and Wanaka. Such a beautiful part of our country

Lake Wanaka

October had me see a digestive health specialist nurse for the first time. I'll most probably babble about that at some point, but it was great. 

In November Simon and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a little camp out at Klondyke  Corner, near Arthur's Pass. 

In December I went on an offroad bike ride with an awesome bunch of people, 25km in to a hut,  then 25km back out again. Had a bit of a sort butt after that! but it was fantastic, and I'd love to do it again.  December also gave us a few new earthquakes to deal with, but we had Christmas none the less, and I think for Christchurch it was a special one. We have all made it through so much, and there is a renewed appreciation and love for the people we have in our lives.

Now we have a new year, and a fresh start. The ground will continue to shake, we know that. 

As for resolutions, I'm not big on those, I hate setting myself up for failure.

What I do like is the idea of a fresh start, a new page, a new book to write in. I have an idea of where I want the story to go.

This year is the year I will be

• eating more healthily, but I've had a headstart on that
• exercising more regularly
• saving money for our OE
• being more organised
• improving my photography (err, learning how to use my SLR)
• cooking more
• blogging!
• crafting more, to sell, to gift, and just to create
• reading more
• procrastinating/being lazy less

I really like this list, as for the most part I love doing these things... as for cooking, I will learn to love that.

But for now, it's time for me to go to bed! Goodnight!

with love, 

Anita