Be our guest...

If you have family or friends staying with you this Christmas, make sure they feel truly welcome. If your guest bedroom has become the household 'junk' room, set some time aside to plan, declutter and organise the space.

1) Envisage what you want the space to be - a retreat for your guests after a long journey. Remember this will be their home away from home.

2) Remove any boxes or clutter, turning it back into a bedroom rather than a storage space. Throw out or donate items you no longer need and things to be kept can be stored in containers under the bed.

3) Don't forget the wardrobe. Ensure there is some hanging space for guests clothes.

4) Put fresh linen on the bed and leave enough towels for each guest.

5) Leave a basket of comfort items people forget to pack - toothbrush, moisteriser, floss.

6) On the bedside table leave a bottle of water, magazine, notepad and pen and a vase of fresh flowers.

7) A nice touch if you have people staying for more than a couple of nights is a folder of tourist information about your area.

Remember they're there for a good time - not a long time...

Images from marthstewart.com

A Less Stressful Christmas

For a less stressful Christmas, start your meal plan now. Work out a timeline and work backwards. Anything that can be premade and frozen will mean less to do on the day.

Start purchasing items now like napkins and condiments to spread out the cost. Also, if you start planning now, it's easier to delegate when people offer to help!

Interior Design Sarah Richardson style

Sarah Richardson would have to be one of my favourite Interior Designers to follow. Her designs are so sophisticated and I always adore her colour palette. She always thinks outside the box and really utilises the space.

Foxtel IQ is my friend

Yeah yeah, I know I should be advocating watching less television, but anyone who knows me, knows I'm a reality and design show junkie ...But that's why I love Foxtel IQ!
I can set up my tapings for the week (use the 'series link' so it automatically records the whole season) and whenever I have free time I can view to my heart's content.

I actually find this a great time management tool as I don't ever dictate events around a favourite show's time. I save time sifting through tapes or DVDs as it's all on a hard drive I can access with the click of a button and it's also a great space saver.

Now my only challenge is to stop recording anything that ends with "I'm sorry to tell you, you have been eliminated..."

Funky kids beds

One of my many current projects at home is looking at different options for my son's bedroom as he's ready for his first 'big bed'. I came across this website furnish which has fantastic solutions for incorporating a bed as well as storage and sometimes either a trundle or desk as well. Floor space is definately key real estate in a kids room, so I thought these were great!

Clever labeling

I found this image on the Martha Stewart website http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/clip-on-tags and thought it was a clever way to label baskets. I love that you could change the cards so if you needed to change the items in storage seasonally it wouldn't be a drama!

The simplicity of yesteryear

I just adore historic towns, so on the weekend we decided to escape Sydney and visit Berrima. It's such a quaint village where shop owners are happy to chat about nothing in particular. The buildings are beautifully restored sandstone and one (Harper's Mansion) is owned by the National Trust. It now acts as a museum of life in the 1800's.

It makes you realise how much simpler life was then. The home was considered a mansion, but is small by today's standards. There are no shelves piled with paperwork, toys or clothes. They merely lived with what they needed for daily life, or items of profound beauty (e.g. hand embroidered linen). Their time was spent keeping house or entertaining guests with tea in the garden.

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era...