Light Touch 2018 - The Kitchen Whatnot

Hi my darlings.  Hope you're keeping fit and healthy.  I really hope you're not down with the nasty flu virus that seems to be all around us this year.  So many have come down with it and they have my sympathy.  We only have flu once or twice  during our lives, fortunately, and when it hits us we certainly know that we have the full-blown flu, eh.

I stayed indoors most of the weekend, monitoring the breaks in the rainy weather for the briefest of walks around the block.  I find that this time of year, I'm not looking for scenic, it's too cold and wet for that.  I just was some fresh air in my sinuses and a stretch of the old arthritic legs.  A quick walk around the hood is the fix I need.  Which makes this an ideal time for those little jobs around the house.

I do love how kind I have been to myself so far this year.

You may recall that I'm on a journey of little life improvements, taking a light touch to the challenges I meet.  I'm not beating myself up with huge amounts of work and tight deadlines, like I've done previously.  A light touch approach has a chance of success, at least for me.  So I'm keeping the jobs bite-sized and allowing myself the whole of the year to complete them all. 

It's a win-win.  I'm being kind to myself AND I'm setting myself up for success with this approach.

I've gone around the house, identifying the little improvements that could make life nicer, more pleasant, more organised.  Then I'm updating my list as I complete tasks.  So satisfying.

At the weekend I light-touched this corner of the kitchen.

It's a very useful old "whatnot" from Ikea.  I don't know what else to call it.

It stores my spices and herbs, sugars and rice.  I use it EVERY day.   I loved the exposed dove-tail joints, but it added yet another type of wood to the kitchen and that was one wood too far, it needed reining in.  So I emptied it all out, scrubbed the boxes and washed all the spice jars and bottles.  (I wash the glass "jugs" each time I refill them).

Then I gave it a couple of coats of paint.  Fortunately, I still had a little bit of paint left from when we painted the kitchen units in Farrow & Ball's Slipper Satin, back in 2010.

Within the blink of an eye the whatnot was back in place and delivering on usefulness again.

It's home is the hot beverage area, the place where the kettle and mugs hang out, along with the Ovaltine, Horlicks, teas and coffees and coffee mate.  You will notice from that list that we now enjoy "milky drinks" at bedtime.  I think that makes me officially old, even more than the grey hair! 

TP started on the Horlicks to help his insomnia (it's working, BTW!) and I started to realise what a nice little ritual it was, having a milky drink in bed.  Mine's the malty Ovaltine which I drank as a child; it's the "add water" type as 1) I don't like the richness of hot milk and 2) I'm not too good latterly with milk generally and I don't know how it would work warming up my soya milk.  Any experiences you can share on that, readers?

OK, I've fessed up to it now - my name is The Pout and I like having hot milky drinks at bedtime!

Do you have milky drinks at bedtime?  Have you got to that stage in life yet?

Oh how I digress.  Let's get back to the whatnot.  It also stores the truly huge mugs, the ones that would totally dominate the mugs cupboard and shove aside all lesser mugs.

So these big bruisers have their own space, neatly tucked on top the whatnot for ease of use through the day.

I thought I'd introduce you to them formally today, as I'm absolutely smitten by them.

I fell for the Magda from Habitat the instant I saw it.  I adored the shape and this colour.  

They come in stripes and spots too.   I'm a stripey sort of gal so I went for the stripes too.  I didn't expect them to turn out quite so big though, but hey ho, fortunately I like my coffee big!

These beauts were on my 2016 Birthday/Christmas list but weren't picked by anyone.  'Aver, occasionally Habitat marks them down substantially from £8, but only for the briefest of periods, so I "stalked" these mugs and swooped sometime last year when I spotted the discount.  So pleased that I did, they are indeed generously sized (massive!) and perfect for those who like their coffee BIG.  If you do too, I suggest you start stalking the Habitat site.  Now!

Stop the bossing and the digressing, Pout, back to your Light Touch.  Please!

OK, so now that I see the finished result I'm so pleased I went the painting route.  The whatnot doesn't fight with the woods of the countertop and floor.  This small tweak of just a couple of hours has made such a difference to this little area of the kitchen.   

It's lightened up the dark corner.   

It now looks like it was planned with the kitchen (it wasn't!). Sometimes all it takes is a little splosh of paint to make a big difference.

Yup.  Another successful Light Touch for 2018.

Have you been doing any home improvements lately?

Maybe you've made exciting big changes, like dear Vronni who's installed a multi-fuel stove and new windows and doors in the last few weeks.

Maybe you've been making little changes, just a moment's work, like my whatnot painting?

I'd love to hear.

A la perchoine.

Light Touch 2018 - I Find A Waistcoat !!

Hi again, darlings, so glad you popped back again today.  You're a glutton for punishment!

Yesterday we talked about decluttering and Death Cleaning -  here's Part II of my  shaggy dog story.

Christmas came along and the bathroom tidy was put on hold, with me scratching my head over where to store towels and toiletries.  Fast forward to the first few days of this year.  Time to return the Christmas decs to the loft.  Yeah yeah, nothing to do with bathroom tidying, I hear ya!  But it does.  Read on ...

  I'd seen a blogger post of decs nicely stored in see through boxes.  

I had storage envy.

So out went the battered old cardboard boxes.  In came these beauts and things were looking good.  Apart from TP declaring that there was no floor space in the loft to store these beauts.  Thus early in January we found ourselves clearing a space in the overfilled loft.  A loft that has only existed for eight years, yet is filled to the gunwhales.

Obsolete luggage, lampshades ... you get the picture; charity shops and dump people don't know what's hit them!

Creating the space for the boxes also necessitated the clearance of a pile of wood we'd forgotten about, absolutely new wood which had been used to pack the kitchen we installed in 2010.   The dump man told us it just gets thrown on to landfill (a real shame), so we decided it would be perfect for shelves.  Shelves for the bathroom cupboards, declared TP. 

You see, the cupboards running under the eaves have no shelves.  So they have attracted the wrong sort of clutter.

Without prior notice TP decided to start on that little project last Saturday.

Of course, we first had to clear the bathroom cupboards of their, err, carefully curated items.

No nice way to put this bit, chaps.  Picture the bathroom floor covered wall-to-wall in old towels, curtains, cushions, yaddayadda, oh and toiletries, ca. 2010,  the year the cupboards were built.

I didn't take photos.  That upset me for all of two seconds, until TP responded with "Would you really like your readers to have seen the mess?!"

And he was right of course,   It was just toooo embarrassing.

I expect what I've learned at this point is that when you put stuff in a loft or a storage cupboard that isn't used frequently, things get forgotten.  Then they get so old (or out of date) that you don't want to use them by the time you do eventually become 

reunited with them. 

Fast forward to Friday just gone - almost all of the contents of the two cupboards have been dumped or taken to the GSPCA, save for a handful of cushion covers (and a few other choice pieces!), which I've laundered.  Shelves have been built.  Lighting has been installed.  Oh TP is a wonder DIY'er!

Storage boxes have been filled with towels, PJs and in-date spare toiletries.

 



It's all there bar the inside painting.

I am sooo excited.  It feels like storage cupboards have been magic-ed out of thin air, because they just weren't used properly previously, so it was like they didn't exist. But now that they are shelved and lit, they've identified themselves as what they are, very useful storage in a very small house!

And all because The Pout wanted to store her Christmas decs neatly in plastic boxes.

Now, I did promise you a shaggy dog story in Friday's post and I think you'll agree that this certainly is such a story.  Because at the end of this lonnnnng post, there is a link to the cinema outfit.  For, in amongst the mess in those eaves cupboards I found my few choice items, 3 suede skirts and a waistcoat.  So I threw them in the washing machine.  Yes, suede, thrown in a washing machine!  You see I had nothing to lose as they'd previously been wiped from my memory banks anyway and thus didn't exist.  And they've come out just fine.

And that is how I was able to wear a brown suede waistcoat to the cinema, peeps!

Decluttering is a First World problem.  I get that.  Declutterng this house has always been a "when I retire" sort of project.  But when I started to fear that someone might have to clear up MY mess, spurred on by seeing TP organising the total clearance of two houses (mentioned yesterday), well, the time is now and Death Cleaning has commenced.

And following my Light Touch 2018 approach, I'm dealing with one area of the house at a time, then moving on to the next on my list. It's light touch, little tweaks ...

So now I just have to ask you, what's your take on decluttering?

Is it not needed because you keep on top of things, ongoing?

Or do you have lightning speed purges?

And have you started thinking Death Cleaning ...?

A la perchoine.

Please note that the writer does not recommend washing suede and cannot be held liable in the event of laundry mishaps.  She washed hers because she had nothing to lose as the items would have otherwise been dumped.  Only chance washing suede if that's your situation too!

Light Touch 2018 - The Bathroom Tweak

I chanced upon an article by Margareta Magnusson in last week's Time magazine.  It's about Doedstaedning. That won't mean anything to you unless you're a Swedish speaker.  She translates it as Death Cleaning but I think it's translation is broader than that, like Death Placing or Preparing.

Anyway, semantics over, I had great empathy with her article as I've found myself of late looking around the house and thinking that I don't want someone to have to clear up my mess, you know, "when I'm gone".   And it seems I'm not alone in this.  It's something we do.   It must be similar to that surge of cleaning and organising one's supposed to have just before giving birth.  Instinctive.  Primeval.  Only at the other end of life.  And without the pain.

In the last year or so I've had a few surgettes of decluttering and organising but they were just that, little surges.  What's kicked off a more serious approach, the Death Cleaning, is a situation we found ourselves in last autumn, when TP by default was charged with the clearance of the two homes of a departed relative.

The experience took my concerns for Death Cleaning to a whole new level.  So I've walked through the house, identifying the areas of mini-hoarding which need decluttering, cleaning and re-organising.  And there are a few!  But my Light Touch 2018 approach allows me to make this an easy and hopefully pleasant journey, tackling one area at a time.

Without any real planning on my part, the upstairs bathroom was the first area to get my attention before Christmas.





 We hadn't used it that much in recent years; the area was without organisation and, as you can see from the pic on the left, a bit of a dumping ground - towels mixed with spare toiletries, spare toilet brushes mixed with toilet rolls.  So without any real game-plan. I tidied up the area as best I could.

I tidied up skin care items into a basket, and after this pic fitted a toothbrush arrangement on the wall.

This was but a bathroom tweaking, a light touch tidy up.  There's a bit more sense to the room now.    But I still needed to find a home for the towels, seen here stored in cubes.  I realised that the under-eaves cupboards would be perfect for towels and spare toiletries, but they were, errr, rather full, but more on that tomorrow!  Yes my dearies, I fully appreciate that your lives are busy and you've probably had your fill of me by now, so I've split my post in two.  I'm keeping the second part of this shaggy dog story until tomorrow.  

Come by again Sunday to find out what was in those innocuous looking storage cupboards.

And I'm sorry but you'll have to wait till then to find out why I was wearing a suede waistcoat to go to the cinema!

A la perchoine.

Take One Grey Skirt

Well, it's started peeps, and I did warn you.  Those berry boots are being worked 

After all our storms, deluges and sea flooding in recent weeks, the golf course has been out of action.  So today I benefitted from this misfortune.  TP arranged an impromptu lunch with our golfing buddy.  Just a meal at our local but I saw the opportunity to try out my new boots with a skirt.

When TP told me we had a date with our golfing buddy, I said excitedly "Yipeeee, something to dress up for!".  He was quiet for a moment and I'm sure I felt the shock waves from his quivering bottom lip, then, rather dejectedly I thought, he said to the cat "Well, mummy could dress up for us too if she wanted ..."

And TP is of course totally right in what he said in his conversation with Bertie.  I We can smarten up for any day, any occasion and for no occasion.  I personally feel better when I do.  Of course, my defence was to say that on most days at the moment we are doing dirty work, decluttering the attic or stuffed-to-the-gills eaves cupboards.  So on many days I am wearing ripped jeans or a pair of old leggings.  But on less strenuous days, and especially at this time of the year when we need all the bolstering of ego and id that we can get, it's no real effort to dress up a bit more smartly and feel a little bit better with our day, eh?

But back to the plot, folks.  Dressing the Granny for a pub lunch.  And having fun with those boots!

Today my focus was on pairing berry with grey and seeing where I could take that combo.



I chose a basic grey wool and lined piece from an old M&S work suit.

First I went for an easy look, picking up the colour of the boots in a berry long sleeved t shirt top from Next.  I added a fave scarf from Accessorize, as I realised this grey scarf picks up the berry colour in its pattern.  Good spot, Pout.

I also realised that this old jacket is a perfect match for those boots.  Ooh, everything's coming together now that I've found these bargain boots!

I think the skirt's jacket looks a bit too serious for a lunch at our local.

I accessorised this look with my gorgeous silver and freshwater pearl strands, super pressies from special little people.

The knee boots are just the right length for a below-knee skirt.

I then took my basic grey skirt and poshed it up a notch with an ivory loose-layer top and the same berry jacket.  Looks a bit "workish" for a Monday lunch.

A long cardi in grey brings this blouse down a notch.  Still a bit workish though.

I then made a twinset with the cardi paired with shell top, both cashmere merino from Woolovers.

I pulled out some East necklaces and first accessorised with a chunky one in a similar colour to the boots to tie them in - it's just enough to break up this grey column.  Light touch.  

I saw this combo as a definite contender for my lunch date with the boys.

Lastly, still keeping the look warm and wintry, I simply wore the skirt with a Woolovers cashmere merino polo neck.  Again, I picked up the colour of the boots with an elegant-line glass lasso necklace.

Well, what do you think ladies?  Grey and berry - a success?  I think the berry boots have just the right amount of colour to perk up the sombre looking grey, and they add a touch of class too!

These are very simple outfits but they fit in with my day to day.  

I kept them light touch to showcase the boots.

I liked linking an unobtrusive top to the berry boots then zjooshing with some classy silver strands.

I liked the idea of the grey columns linked to the boot colour with one piece jewellery .  

Keeping the linking of colour to the boots to a simple light touch works for me.  Does it work for you?  Do you link in footwear to necklace and keep the bit in between easy and column-toned?

I have designated 2018 my year of Light Touch and I like how it comes through in these outfits ... and I love my amazeballs berry boots!

Oh and we both chose the berry top outfit (phew!) and I was date-ready.

Dressed up for our golfing buddy, and for TP and the cat.

A la perchoine.