The Interior DIYer
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DIY Friday – rescue kit for the unexpected guest

It has happened on occasion where a friend or family member would come over for dinner, wine would happen, we’d chat about all sorts of rubbish into the wee hours, then husband and I would offer our guests to stay in our spare bedroom if they’d like. Since they didn’t bring anything with them with the intention of staying over, on most occasions they’ve had to head home. So in preparation for next time, I came up with a little emergency guest kit to keep in our spare bedroom, should we have some unexpected {but not unwelcome} guests. 

I should say that I didn’t buy anything especially for this kit. I didn’t even buy a new box – I just painted one we already had. Since husband and I do a fair amount of travelling, we usually come home with travel sized stuff {pretty hotel shampoo and shower caps we’ll never use, amirite?}, so it just made sense to put my hoard of tiny hotel stuff to good use … 

What’s in our rescue kit for the unexpected guest:

– a facecloth {or two}
– mini shampoo
– mini conditioner
– mini dry shampoo {god bless dry shampoo. Just sayin’}
– moisturiser
– travel pack of tissues
– a lady item {we’re all grown ups here. Yes. Things happen to ladies.}
– shower cap
– toothbrush and teeny tube of toothpaste {in the long white box}
– nail file
– a small pair of scissors {you never know}

This is just a rough guideline of what to include in an unexpected guest kit. Again, most of the items are things we picked up while travelling. The black and white boxes are from the hotel we stayed on our honeymoon in St. Petersburg. It’s nice to know they’re finally being put to good use. Or at least they’re ready to be, should the time come. 
So this weekend invite your friends around for a couple of drinks, and tell them you’re prepared. Just in case. 😉 xx A

p.s. That bedside table is getting it and soon. I’ve been meaning to give it a makeover for about 4 years now. Its time has come. 

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New project – #OfficeKitchenMakeover

I’m taking a note out of Christine Dovey‘s book and coining a hashtag if you will for my newest project, project #OfficeKitchenMakeover! 
I’ve mentioned a couple times before that during the day I’m an office zombie – an office administrator / personal assistant in the Dublin city centre, to be more precise. While I was working last week, an opportunity arose for me to put my design ‘skills’ to good use. Our office is looking to give the kitchen canteen a mini face lift, and I was asked if I’d like to help tackle the job. Well if you’re going to twist my arm! 
Our office kitchen is a run-of-the-mill canteen. Magnolia walls, greyish-blue lino flooring, builders cabinets, and more mismatched plates and chairs than we know what to do with. It’s tempting to look at Pinterest for inspiration, but as there’s a tight budget, I’ll be focusing mainly on two areas – the walls, and making the storage work. 
In stead of fighting the blue floors, I’ll be embracing it and pairing it with washed out mink purple and black and white. Our office already uses Viking Direct for their office supplies, so I’ll be sourcing most of our items from there. And as it turns out, they have some, dare I say, on trend stuff. Those chairs? Yep. 

THE WALLS

I’m hoping to repaint the walls white to brighten the room since it gets no natural sunlight. Then I’m hoping to add some serious oompf by spray painting a quote on the wall, along the lines of what I did for the Localise Youth Room at Sophia House. Our office deals with sensitive issues with members of the public, so for the sake of my blog post, I chose a strong {and one of my favourite} Dolly Parton quotes as an example. Plus, it rains here in Ireland a lot so we can relate to it literally as well. I’d also like to add a pegboard section to one wall where we can keep all the odd shaped items which at the moment are being crammed into cupboards, patiently waiting to fall on you the moment they’re opened. 
THE STORAGE
I can’t wait to put my decluttering skills {I say that like it’s a real thing} to the test and make the most of the storage we have. Our office kitchen is like any kitchen – everything needs to be taken out of the cupboards, ruthlessly downsized, and put back in a place that makes more sense. And to ensure everyone is on the same page going forward, I’m hoping to label the inside of the cupboards {Mrs. Doubtfire style}. I did something similar using a Dymo machine with the stationery cupboard before Christmas, which has remained relatively civilized since {shock, horror}. So fingers crossed my neat-freakery will be welcomed with open arms in the kitchen. 

1. Graffiti wall quote, painted in the same fashion as the quote I painted for the Localise Youth Room at Sophia House. 
2. 14cent Quartz Heavy Duty Office Wall Clock, €22.49, Viking Direct
3. Transworld Products Preserve Jar, 2ltr, €7.79 each, Viking Direct
4. Linen Cotton Dish Tea Towels Chrysanthemum, €13.40 for a set of 2, ColoredWorld via Etsy
6. Dymo LabelManager LM160P, €38.99, Viking Direct
7. DIY kitchen pegboard, via A Beautiful Mess 
8. Lavandula plant, €8, IKEA 
My next blog post on project #OfficeKitchenMakeover I’m hoping to share some before pictures and a more specific design once it’s finalized. What do you guys think about quotes on office walls? Do you think it works well? Fingers crossed they’re open to the idea of me graffitying one on their walls … Wish me luck! xx A
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Blogtacular 2014

Last weekend was incredibly surreal, encouraging, uplifting, energizing and dangerously inspiring. I took a mini trip to London to attend the first ever Blogtacular and there are no words for how awesome it was.  

When I first heard of it I got in contact with co-blogger and co-handmade-hag Maria about attending Blogtacular along with me. Before long, we had our travel and hotel booked, bags packed, and I was about to meet her in our London hotel lobby. I should explain – we’ve never met before, but have spent years following and inappropriately commenting on each others blogs. So I had a “wait, is she a real person?” moment. What if she’s a 45-year-old man who’s about to murder me with a hammer in the hotel bathroom? Turns out Maria is a real person, and a painfully lovely, quirky, hilarious and easy going person at that, who didn’t resemble a serial killer in any way! Phew. 

Armed with my notepad,  {slightly cringe} Hydrangea Girl necklace and ‘business’ cards. 

^ KEYNOTE ADDRESS with Joy Cho of Oh Joy!
Friday night started with a bang with a keynote address from the amazing Joy Cho. I foresee I’ll be saying this a lot in this post, but there are no words for how inspiring it was. Joy had incredible advice and some serious one-liners to add volumes to your self esteem. I was too giddy / starstruck / fangirling and unfortunately didn’t take any notes, but there’s good news – her presentation will be available online soon is now available for all to see and hear and be inspired! It is well worth the watch, people. 

^ ON VALUE with Anne Ditmeyer of Pret a Voyager

I then attended Anne’s presentation on value. She spoke about her experiences, struggles, achievements, dreams, the opportunities that she’s been offered, and importantly, how to ask to get paid for your work when companies chance their arm at not mentioning money. A small few points of hers that resonated strongly with me were – 

– Do the kind of work you want to be known for
– Learn to use limitations as opportunities to get creative
– Quality work takes time. Work with clients who will respect your work and your time
– Lawyers, doctors and plumbers don’t work for free, so why should you?

^ FROM BLOG TO BOOK with Tilly Walnes of Tilly and the Buttons and Vicky Orchard of Kyle Books

Next I sat in on Tilly and Vicky’s chat about going from blog to book. Setting aside the sleepless nights, going unshowered for weeks, contract stings, and red flags it takes to make a book, they focused on the positives as to how it’s easier for a blogger to take that step from screen to print – 

– Bloggers already have a built audience
– They’ve established an illustrative and visual identity for ourselves through our blog already
– They already have a good understanding and eye for typography
– And more importantly, bloggers are good at dealing with and meeting deadlines, and practice discipline

Some serious inspiration to get me day dreaming about having my own home DIY book! Hah.

^ HANDS ON STYLING with Ellie Tennant  

Maria and I then attended Ellie Tennants session on styling. I found it to be an exciting presentation and it gave us loads of inside tips and tricks for designing in front of the lens. A few key notes were –

– Be conscious of where the sun is and never use artificial lighting. Use light reflectors for dark spots in stead
– Add depth with layers. Three layers is best – background, middle, and foreground
– Less is more. Be ruthless and get rid of uneccessary items
– Practice wabi-sabi: the art of imperfection. If everything looks too perfect, it will look fake

After Ellie’s encouraging presentation, we all took turns styling a small set up based around hoards of beautiful props. Maria and I styled the above picture which perfectly collides my love of stripes with Maria’s dinki dots. And a perfect addition of wabi-sabi – one ‘fallen’ petal.  
CLOSING KEYNOTE with Natalie Lue of Baggage Reclaim 

Natalie spoke at the end of the day, and even though energy levels were starting to deflate, she grabbed our attention, picked us up and finished Blogtacular on a high note. Some of Natalie’s encouraging one liners –

– If you try to please everyone, you will no longer be differentiating yourself from others
– You will have more ideas than time. This is okay
– When we compare ourself with others, we forget who we are. Go easy on yourself. This is your journey
– Dreams don’t work if you don’t

I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of Ellie’s new book, Design Bloggers at Home and Joy’s book, Blog, Inc., followed quickly by dorking out and asked for their autographs. I’m always so torn in such situations – on one hand I don’t want to bother them with something as silly as an autograph, but on the other, it takes all of 30 seconds of their time for something I’ll have on my shelf forever. So I fan-girled big time at both ladies and stole away with their signatures. 

It’s been four days since Blogtacular wrapped up on Saturday evening, and I’m still feeling inspired and energized about all the information, tips and tricks I took from it. That’s how you know it was good. I can’t wait to rewrite all my notes in proper penmanship in my notebook, and more importantly, put them into practice.

Thank you Kat and Kat. It was a spectrum of awesome.