So what happened to the spring cleaning ....

.... well it went out the window. 

I did manage to do most of this place with the exception of our bedroom and a good clean of the kids room but i am happy with what i did for now. We have a couple of huge weeks ahead of us so I am just happy with what i got done. 

There is a ton of ironing though piling up now. And of course there is my new camera to play with. Figured out today that the old lenses from my Grandad's old SLR work with my new baby - so i have gone to having one to three lenses! I just cannot wait for class to start

The playroom .......

I am a couple of days behind the Spring Cleaning Party. Life has gotten in the way and also my hand has been cramping a bit - so you will have to excuse me. But today, instead of going to Mums and Kids I stayed home to tackle the playroom. You probably know that the playroom is shared with my scrap room - it's divided by the couch. We have the mattress on the floor there cause the kids love to jump on it - but it does make it hard for them to play as there isnt much floor space. (we do intend to buy Alexandra a new mattress sometime in the future and we will put her old smaller mattress in here) The toys have been hard to control considering the good storage we have here. So it was a big job - and a 4 year old and 18 month old arent the best of help. 

Here is my before photo

The after photos:

I don't have one of the entire room as my daughter loved the fact I had tidied up all the toys and wanted to play in there straight away. But hey, I have now made great labels - that have been on my to do list for a long long long time. Finally took the time to do it today and happy with the results. 
You can see how happy she is with all the labels on the front - its like i have done something special for her. 
Each box has a photograph of what is inside the box. From top to bottom, left to right: Puppets, Wooden Train Tracks, Barbies, Music, Shopping, Baby Things, Duplo Grocery Store, Make Believe, Wooden Train Blocks, Duplo Zoo and Bus, Duplo house, Cars Trains and Planes.

These look a bit empty but I didnt get to take a photograph before Alexandra took things out. From top to bottom - Little People 1 and 2. Food and Kitchen, Sesame Street, Alexandra's things, Wooden Animals, Dylan's things and the box that is missing is for soft toys
I love this idea I came up with. I have made a drawer each for Alexandra and Dylan. This is for things that don't fit into the other categories, and once this fills up we will go through it together and get rid of things. 

So how is your kids room coming along?

Baby Shower present

Here is a Diaper (well Nappy cake depending on where you are from) Cake I made today for a friend's baby shower. Another friend bought some presents to go on it. I am so impressed with how quickly I got it together and how great it looks. I even used my AC baby pattern paper. I made it in about 30 mins in between the kids screaming. Wondering maybe this could be my new business idea. Have rarely seen this in Switzerland

Spring Clean update:

Not sure what I am going to do today. I am still at a loss as to where to put back some of my things. It is really frustrating and I think I am going to need to wait for a second opinion - or at least someone to bump ideas off.

Spring Cleaning Day 3

Today was an amazing day, weather wise. We woke up to blue skies. Not a cloud in sight. Not the best weather to want to stay in and spring clean. So instead of doing that this morning we went to the park with all our Mums and Kids friends. We had such a nice time. 

But when i got home it was back to work. Today is the first day working on the kitchen and at first I was going great. But as 5pm came and went I very quickly lost my steam and had to stop for the day. 

Here are the before photos:

Looking to the kitchen from the office area. 
Looking to the kitchen from the dining area. 
I have tapped up the "kitchen" section from Simple Mom's e-book. It was a great help being right there for quick reference. 

So two hours later.........

The counter is now spotless - all sorted out and only what i need on top. The outside of all the cupboards are all cleaned too. I started to take out all the food, snacks and baking supplies but i slowly got stuck with putting them back. Can not figure out how I want to do it (as my tuppaware and baking supplies were not working where they were) So I am going to sleep on it and work on it tomorrow morning. 
Another look from the office area. Love how clean it looks!

Spring Cleaning and Eye for Design

So today hasn't worked out how i wanted it to :(. My 18 month old has decided to cry - allllll day long and now has left me feeling drained and tired - so today will be an official break day for my spring cleaning. I have done all the work on the living area so i think i deserve it! Tomorrow starts the kitchen (my worst nightmare - and even thinking of changing out the days of the bathroom and kitchen) 

Anyway, yesterday I did this layout for my Eye for Desing (Color creative) class at Got crafts? with Chritsy Thomlinson. 

The sketch I used was from the Scrap Review (i think). I drew inspiration for my color combination from this ad from Home Depot in an old Real Simple. I used more muted tones. This ad really grabbed me when I was flipping through the magazine and it has been sitting on my bedside ready for me to be inspired to use it. So glad I am taking this class!

Spring Cleaning Day 2

Yesterday I actually worked so hard on doing as much as I could around the house. So after picking up the rubbish etc and going through and decluttering the open surfaces i continued on to the living areas. 

We have a really open living space so the dining, lounge and office areas all blend into each other (The kitchen does too but i didnt touch that yet!)

Here are some before photos - looking from the lounge area over to the office area
The office area is the place where most of the clutter gathers, including our recycling and lots of toys and anything that doesnt have a home.

I almost dont recognize the office space now. Looks fantastic. I am going to buy some baskets to fit into the glass shelves so i can store things better without making it look messy. I usually collect our recycleable papers here. 
The lounge room looks great. I really cleaned and tidied EVERYTHING. Went through all the cupboards and drawers and got rid of things we dont use. 

This is looking over from the dining area over to the lounge and office areas. Looks so great. Wouldnt let the kids play there in the afternoon at all - wanted to savour this clean and decluttered space as long as possible. 

The dining room wasnt hard to do. Just a good clean and dust. I went through the books in the cabinent and got rid of some of those! 
The only thing I have left to do in this area is to clean the windows - any guess what, thats not my job to do! hopefully Rolf will do it on the weekend - otherwise my Father in law (who usually does it this time of the year when we are on holidays!) will do it. Lucky me!

Spring Cleaning Day 1

So today start's my Spring Cleaning. Have you ever been over to simplemom.net? Great blog and she is motivating us all to get on the spring cleaning band wagon!  

My tasks today

- Go through the entire living space of my apartment and pick up any rubbish. 

- Go back through the entire living space and see if I can get rid of anything - Do i love it? Do i need it? If i answer no to both then it goes.  (Thank goodness the dumpster is still outside ready for my junk and the bags to go to charity havent gone yet)

Do you want a before photo? I am a little embaressed at how bad this place has gotten since being back from Australia. We have too much stuff for this apartment. 

Just full of clutter and not a relaxing place to be. So off I go. Wont post any photos from my work today - not sure you will see the difference, but from tomorrow I will

Why is it ....

.... that I always find what i am looking for when I don't go out specifically to look for it. I spent a good part of last Saturday searching for a cute yellow handbag and cute yellows shoes. I dragged my friend Fiona from shop to shop and to find NOTHING. 

But then fast forward to today and I got our babysitter over to watch the kids so I could go to the Physio. I had 1 hour to burn afterwards so just walked around the town in Zug. And I find a ton of yellow bags and a ton of yellow shoes. (I actually went to the camera store to see if they had any new cameras in - they didnt )

So here are my purchases. 

SO SO cute. And a perfect price for shoes I am not sure I will wear next season - but knowing me they will become favs and I wont be able to find them again when i wear them out.
And the bag. Now this is not the type of bag I was looking for in the beginning. But when i saw it I was drawn to it. Its not as yellow but super super cute and I can see me using this for years to come - so an investment right. LOVE IT!

Perfect spring accessories.