BBQ Garden Party Styling

A couple of weekends ago I hosted my bestie's birthday BBQ garden party at my house! The moment my boyfriend suggested we host a BBQ for her and she agreed, I knew I wanted to do my best to make the yard look amazing! Right away my first thoughts were lanterns, string lights and bunting. When I caught up with her to discuss it, we had the exact same thoughts which was awesome!

I love the beautiful jacaranda tree in our backyard. It was the perfect backdrop our outdoor seating, firepit and food table. We also used the tree to hang parts of our lights, bunting and lanterns.

We also used our clothesline as part of the styling, by hanging some of the string lights, lanterns and bunting from the line and stringing them from the line to the tree as well. It worked really well!

We used my Fujifilm Instax instant camera to take photos through the party, and so I set up this little 'Photo Wall'. I painted an old pin board (which I now have in my workspace!) and decorated it with washi tape, string and tiny wooden pegs. People took the instant photos and hung them on the little photo wall! I think this would work even better for a daytime party (it got a bit dark later) or a kid's/early teens party.

We had quite a collection of jars in our cupboard, so we put tealight candles in them and set them up around the seating area. Candles always make spaces look more magical. ;)

We didn't spend a lot of money on anything. The lanterns were all cheap, and the solar string lights didn't cost much and are something which we will continue to use anyway, so they are nice to have. The most expensive thing was the firepit, but I've been wanting to get one anyway, and again it'll be great to have for other occasions! The mismatched seating and candles in jars and cushions and rugs we used were all things we had around the house, and it all served the purpose really well. I had SO much fun setting up the space, just working with the few things that we had.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the actual party or the lights and firepit lit up at night that I can share with you guys. I got quite distracted once people were there and didn't get around to taking photos like I intended to, oops! 

Tips:

+ Milk crates make awesome additional seating or table options.

+ You don't need to spend a lot on decorations to make a space feel really comfortable and welcoming

+ Rugs on the ground with cushions and blankets worked really well as comfortable relaxed seating around the fire

+ Good company and good food is the most important part, with a little bit of effort in the decoration to make it feel special.

Morning Office: My Current Desk and Workspace

This is my current desk and workspace set-up! It's in our sunroom, which my bedroom leads into, so I absolutely love the amount of natural light in this space, especially in the morning. 

The desk is a small old writing desk - I'd like to get a large spacious one without the cubby-hole style storage built in. A clean empty tabletop would be really refreshing, but I do like this desk and I am sentimentally attached to it as a letter-writing desk.

The stool is actually from my drum kit! I had a proper office chair, but the cat always likes to steal it, so I started using this stool instead of disturbing her! Haha. Cat owners all know what I'm talking about. Anyway I ended up quite liking the stool, it's less in the way and still pretty comfortable.

I used to play the drums, and this is my beloved drum kit. Isn't she beautiful? I don't play anymore, but I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of the kit. I guess I should at some point so she can be actually used by someone who would love and appreciate her.

Recently I got this old pin board out of our shed and spray-painted it white. It was a ugly grey. It's really nice to have a pin board above my desk to personalise my space more and add some inspiration and prettiness, since we can't hang pictures and put posters on the walls. I had a lot of fun making the bright pink washi tape diamond. My poor little skeleton guy fell over and I didn't even notice when I was taking these pictures! :P

The storage either side of my desk leaves a lot to be desired really. The rainbow drawer craft trolley thing on the right is on its last legs I think. I'd love to invest in some nicer office storage when I get the chance to. But it does the job alright for now. ;) What are your favourite office storage items or furniture pieces? I'm a big Ikea fan.

The chest on the right was given to me by my grandparents for my 21st. It's absolutely incredible! It's Chinese, and carved with ships and a garden/lake scene. It's one of my favourite things. It's filled with keepsakes at the moment.

What does your workspace look like? Do you have a small desk or a large one? Do you have a minimalistic approach to your desktop or do you like to have all your relevant items at hand on your desk?

I'm feeling positive and on track and excited for the future at the moment! I'm actively being productive, positive, healthy, and moving toward my goals! Hope I can pass on some positive vibes, and I hope that everyone is having an excellent week!

Nina xo

Styling Product Displays

Working in retail isn't my dream job. But I do enjoy a bit of visual merchandising, and at my job I've recently been lucky enough to be able to create product displays in our store. It's my favourite part of the job, and I was given free reign to make these tabletop displays my own. (Yay!) I love the challenge of using what you have at hand and working with whatever space you've got to make an effective display even when you can't open certain packaging, or the shelves above the table are very low, etc. Mostly I just love being creative with it and trying to think outside the box!

I apologise about the photo quality. I had to take these on my phone quickly on my breaks. It was hard to get a good picture because of the background and lighting etc., but I still wanted to share them. :)

This black, white and kraft brown stationery display is my favourite so far! I had so much fun setting it up, and it didn't take me long at all because I had a clear idea in my mind. My favourite part of this one is the skull, candle and fake pothos combo. I was so happy we had some fake pothos in stock (real live pothos is one of my favourite indoor plants!). And yes, I've always been pretty skull-obsessed, as you can probably tell.

Here are my first couple of displays. I had a lot of fun with this eclectic polka dot breakfast table setting! I love the cow salt and pepper shakers and the tomato jar. Although I think I tried to fit too much into it, because I was so excited about it. I was like a kid in a candy shop choosing everything to display.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the actual finished product of this desk space display. Everything was neatened up when it was finished, and the photo frame was propped up so you could see the whole picture. My favourite part of coming up with this one was the pretend pin board with the little memos and gold scarf thrown over the corner.

It was so much fun working on these, hope I can do something similar on a larger scale sometime in the future. ;) I love styling, decorating and interior design, so it's something I'm working towards!

I hope everyone has had an amazing start to their weeks!

Nina xo

Simple, Delicious Fruit Infused Water!

Hello! I've been getting more and more interested in healthy living and clean eating lately and have seen a number of infused water pictures around instagram and healthy blogs. I feel like I haven't been drinking enough water lately, maybe because it's winter here in Australia, so I thought I'd make some infused water to encourage me to drink more throughout the day. The pretty colours and nice taste definitely remind me to drink more!

This one is frozen mixed berries with home grown mint and filtered water. The frozen berries make it nice and cold, and I used both regular mint and chocolate mint. Mmmm...

This one is tangerine and home grown lime verbena (a herb used in drinks and teas). I wanted to add cucumber as well, but we didn't have any left, oops. It looks a little murky because I shook it up. I can't believe how infused and how flavourful these were instantly.

I refilled the water after drinking the first jar, reusing the fruit. And I ate the berries and the mandarin slices after/during drinking it as well haha! So the fruit definitely doesn't go to waste. I've also heard of people re-freezing the berries and using them in smoothies!

Finn wanted to be a part of it as usual. He's such a poser! He came and flopped right on me while I was taking photos. I love it when the cats want to be involved.

I'm not sure which is my favourite! You could get much more creative with the flavours of course, this time I just grabbed a couple of ingredients that were at hand and threw them together on a whim. But my brain is already thinking of more combinations for next time. I'd recommend serving this with a spoon or little fork on the side if you want to eat the fruit with it right away. If not, keep refilling and reusing the fruit throughout the day. On a side note, my neighbours must think I'm really weird, lying on my lawn taking photos of mysterious jars and talking to the cat. Oh well!

Colourful Cafe: Pineapples, flowers, dinosaur!

The local cafe I work at has recently been bursting with colour! It really inspires me and brightens my days at work to be surrounded by pretty things. :) 

+ The ceramic pineapples at the top are from our gorgeous local homewares/interior styling store and friend Jack Mitchell! I love them so much.

+ We've recently started selling flowers from local florist Flour And Bloom and it is so exciting when the lovely lady brings a new delivery of beautiful fresh flowers each week! It's always a nice surprise to see which gorgeous flowers we'll get each time.

+ Our new dinosaur friend is from Dino Planters! He it ready to greet all our customers at the front door. I am in love with the blue colour, and the tiny teapot and cup he's holding! I've been thinking about making one of these toy planters myself at home recently, so I was surprised to see one at work! It's on my long list of projects to get around to. :)

Sorry about the quality of the photos in this one, they're all taken on my phone since I didn't have a camera with me. :P I hope everyone's week is going well! I've gotten a cold after not having one all year - even when my boyfriend had a cold! I think that's why I was feeling so flat yesterday. Anyway I thought I'd take the opportunity to post while I'm resting up and getting better.

Nina xoxo

Cupcake Bunting

I bought this cupcake bunting a long long time ago, and found it recently still in its packaging! I didn't know what I was going to do when I bought it, but I thought it was really cute.

I decided to hang it in my office/workspace next to my desk! I think it looks really nice in the sunlight that comes in through the windows.

My cat Stella didn't want to pose for this photo, and she nearly escaped! I love it when she comes to hang out with me in my office space (except when she sits on my keyboard!). :P 

I hope everyone is having a good week so far! It's my one day off today, but I'm feeling really deflated and flat. :( Hopefully I'll get my positivity and motivation back soon! What do you guys do to cheer yourself up when you're feeling down?

Nina xoxo

Simple way to keep your room tidy

Hey all! Sorry it's been so long. This post is going to be a little different to usual, but I wanted to share this!

For a little while now I've been using a really great method for keeping my room tidy, and it's super simple. From day to day of course my room gets messy as everyone's does, and I have to say I've noticed it more since my boyfriend moved in with me! Ha! He's pretty good, honestly, but between both of us, our belongings become scattered around the room; clothes, papers, his work things, my stationery, our shoes, etc. But rather than letting it build up and having a big clean-up, I've found a good way to keep it pretty darn tidy most of the time.

Every day or every second day, when I notice stuff lying around and beginning to get messy, I set a timer on my phone for 10 minutes. I give myself 10 minutes to do as much cleaning as I can in our room. 10 minutes might not seem like a lot? But since starting to do this fairly regularly, I've noticed that sometimes I'll be finished, and my timer still has 5 minutes left on it. Huzzah!

As soon as I start the 10 minutes, the first thing I do is gather all the rubbish. Receipts I don't need, empty packaging, opened envelopes etc, I put it all in a bag (and separate the recycling of course). Usually there isn't a lot of rubbish since this gets done so regularly. But my boyfriend does have a tendency to leave chocolate wrappers lying around... :P

Next I take things out of my room that don't belong there - something I borrowed off my Mum, an empty water glass from last night, the TV remote from the lounge room that everyone's been searching for, whatever. I put them all where they are meant to be.

Next I deal with the clothes - I gather all the clothes from the floor, the ceiling fan (just kidding), wherever they've ended up, and I chuck the dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket I have, and pile the rest on my bed (aka sorting bench). I go through all of it and fold up the clean stuff into piles according to the drawer they go in - all the shirts in one pile, socks in another pile, jeans in another etc. and one loose pile of clothes to be hung in my wardrobe. Once they're all in piles, I put them where they need to go. Except the ones I need to hang up - for some reason I hate that job and I always leave that pile on my bed til last. And I sometimes forget about it, and they'll still be there the next time I tidy my room.... But I highly recommend just biting the bullet and doing it to begin with!

After the clothes and the rubbish and the things that don't belong in my room are dealt with, things are usually looking pretty good! I go to all the surfaces - the top of my bedside table, my dresser, my shelves, and I tidy them up. I put all of my boyfriend's letters and paper work that he usually just leaves hanging around into a pile for him to deal with, I put all my jewelry/hair things away, things into their right drawers. I tidy the floor if there's anything else on it, like putting away my shoes or hanging up bags, etc.

If my timer hasn't gone off yet, I do a quick dust or wipe down of surfaces. And that's it! All done!

I think using the timer motivates me to get it all done and over with in 10 minutes. It's only 10 minutes, right? So just do it! If I haven't finished before my timer goes off, I don't beat myself up about it. I'm usually nearly done, and I just finish it off and it doesn't normally take more than a few minutes extra. I think I got the idea of the timer from Alejandra who does some great organisational videos on her website and youtube. I'm fairly sure she suggested 30 minutes a day, or every two days, but for me, 10 minutes per room is enough (I use 10 minutes to tidy my desk and office space, too, or the bathroom or kitchen). I do a proper clean where I vacuum and do my laundry and dust properly when I have days off and have more than 10 minutes to spare.

Extra tips:
+ Pinboards aren't just for Pinterest! Pinboards or something similar are a great way to keep the odd notes, letters, post-its, decoration, or whatever you need without having junk lying around. I keep things I need to remember, my calendar, things that make me happy, things people have given me, and a few odd bits of decoration on my board (because I can't put anything on my walls). I have made the mistake in the past of keeping everything on my pinboard and it becoming an over-crowded mess so now I go through it every once in a while and swap things over to keep it fresh!
+ Music is always a good motivator - something energetic or fast-paced is good! Just don't spend 3 hours making your perfect cleaning playlist in the time you need for actual cleaning...
+ If you're trying to do a really quick job, my grandma passed down a great tidying secret. The secret is neatly stacking things. A bunch of paperwork you have no time to sort? Just stack it in a neat pile at the edge of your desk until you get around to it. Neatly pile anything you don't have time to organise or tidy up for real. If you've got too much stuff everywhere for piles, and you have visitors on their way... you're going to have to do the old shove-in-the-cupboard trick, probably. :P But really, if the floor is clear, and most of the surfaces are clear (with just a few neat piles on them), it'll look near enough.
+ Light and air. Always a good idea for spaces you live in. ;)
+ Drawer dividers/organisers. I never thought putting some little walls inside a drawer to create compartments would make much difference, but it really does! Especially when it comes to small items - stationery and accessories etc.

Well thank you for reading! Hope this might have been a little bit useful to someone. ;) Good luck with keeping your spaces tidy!

Nina xoxo