Pretty Filter - An Update

As you may know, at the beginning of the year I vowed to go through my entire house and look at it with fresh eyes - tidy, organise and prettify where possible!

This has sometimes meant purchasing suitable storage which, on a tight budget can be a little tricky.  I've kept my eye out at local charity shops with certain shapes / objects in mind.  This does mean that timing is out of your control - but it does mean that when you see it - you've got to get it!!

Such as:

These fabulous roomy under-bed drawers.  They are actually really large and although they were orangey pine I knew they were solid wood - strong and sturdy.  Plus, at £15 for the pair I felt I got a good deal!

A little bit of 'Cath K' always seems to work wonders...

Another little pretty filter project has been for my bread making ingredients.  I was fortunate enough  to be given a friend's bread making machine a couple of months ago.  Because I've been making a loaf every evening ever since (on timer for lovely fresh bread in the morning - yum) I'd been leaving the ingredients out on the kitchen worktop.  It wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing (it's currently a very small kitchen) but the bread made it worth it. 

 

Until one day I had enough!  I've been picking up kilner jars as and when I see them in the charity shop and decanted some of the dry goods into them - prettier already.  Then, I had a gift voucher for a local garden centre and bought a lovely enamel trug type thing. 

Great - that's better.  Mission accomplished!

Finally, my bedside table was organised as a temporary measure way back here when I did a quick refresh of the bedroom.  It is such a pretty tray table - but entirely unsuitable for bedside use by a messy person like me.  I found that I became frustrated with clutter and medicine covering the surface constantly so this

became this:




You may also recall way back when, I got these beside tables - and sadly, they've been waiting for me in the shed to prettify them since then.  So they finally called to me this week and a makeover was achieved.  Paint that I had in the shed too made this a really thrifty makeover.  Clutter hidden.















Hooray - gosh, I have done a bit of home loving lately...  In the heat we've been experiencing lately I've felt like I've done a lot of lounging.  Maybe the lounging was interlaced with some sporadic prettifying.  Love It.

And what of the stuff I've been culling?  Whilst I love to donate to charity shops and do so when I can - I cannot afford to give everything - if I can generate money from it to put back into the household.  So I've been selling on online auction sites and even did a few car boots recently!

I did two weekends of car boots (making just shy of a much needed £300!!!) and then took the rest that couldn't be passed on to friends or family to the charity shop.  It felt so liberating to free up this space - and although it's strange to say (in a new to me OCD kinda way) - my loft is wonderfully organised now (even for a clutter junky like me!)

The hubby is happy with less clutter, free surfaces and better organisation and I am happy that the much loved things are now visible instead of looking lost amongst the multitude of things!  Now that's happiness in simple things ;0)

The summer holidays will undoubtedly cause more clutter and chaos - but this is a home not a show home and whilst I love the styling in so many of the beautiful blogs that I follow - regrettably I cannot sustain that level of perfection!  I love my home and I find real joy in many of the items that I have chosen, thrifted or been given.  However, the occasions that they are staged beautifully- without the chaos of our everyday life, are fleeting.  But that's OK.  Indeed, I am a firm believer in this poem:

 

Whilst my children are no longer babies... the same sentiment applies.  School holidays have started and we shall embrace family time together.  The hubby has two precious weeks of holiday which started today and we shall visit my family down in Cornwall for some of that time. If my posts are less regular during August I apologise - normal service will return once school break is over! 

Hope you manage to enjoy some home loving over the coming weeks!  Our building work starts in early September and I've been spending a lot of the early part of the summer holidays doing crochet whilst the children have been playing in a variety of parks.  I love the portability of this craft and will be sharing some of my makes next time!

The winners of my goodies will be sent their parcels on Monday so watch out for those!
Wishing you happiness and sunshine in your parts of the world.

J9 x

Today I'm sharing with these fabulous blog parties!!

Share your Cup Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Pink Saturday

From the Farm Blog Hop Friday