DIY: personal tissue holder

I always have tissues on my person, stuffed in my sleeves, shoved in a backpack, or littering my handbag. How much nicer would it be to have my tissues in an organised decorative especially made holder to slip into my bag? I decided to make one for myself, it took less than ten minutes, easy to make takes a teeny bit of fabric, and can be made different ones to match your bag, your stationery, your décor! 

They are so quick to make you could make heaps and give them as gifts or use them to sell at fund raisers and fêtes. If you don’t sew.... and here is a plug for my store... i make these and sell them in my etsy store and via my facebook page and am happy to take custom orders.

Here is how to make a tissue holder for your tissue stash!

Cut two rectangles of fabric, you can use matching or contrasting fabric whatever you want to! I used a bright yellow and orange floral print as my lining fabric, and a blue polka dotted fabric as my outer fabric.

The  rectangles need to be about 16.5 cm * 14 cm(you need to alter this according to the size of your mini tissue pack as some are larger than others!).

• With face side in, sew all around the rectangle with about 0.5cm seam leaving 2 cm un-stitched. 

• Turn right side around, and iron flat,. Ironing helps to keep the project neat and makes it easier to sew as there are no bubbles or creases in the fabric to mess up your straight lines!

• Stitch around the rectangle, to close off the small opening, and to make all the sides uniform. In this example I chose a decorative stitch, however a straight stitch or hand stitching is fine as well.
• with long sides horizontal, fold the fabric in half short sides together to provide a half way line, then unfold it, and fold the left side and right side up to the midway line. Iron and pin to make it easier to stitch.

• Stitch across the short sides

• Then turn the fabric the right way around, and put your small packet of tissues, or some loose tissues you have folded into the holder, and you are ready to use it!

Ideal to make for fund raisers, fêtes, or as a small gift! These tissue holders help to organise your tissues in your bag, and you could make other accessories, such as diary cover and draw string bags for makeup, in matching or coordinating fabric and have a set of items!

I make fabric pouches to hold a small tissue supply, ideal for your bag or briefcase or to stash in your pockets . Listing them for sale on etsy and happy fo take custom orders https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/EmpressBatsEmporium?section_id=17126648&ref=shopsection_leftnav_6

A photo posted by Empress Bat (@empress_bat) on Apr 20, 2015 at 9:10pm PDT

...................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

So long (2014) and thanks for all the fish

This is the last blog post on Empress Bat's Journal for 2014! I would normally make reference to the year flying by, but it has been a long year full of challenges and frankly I am looking forward to the holidays where our office is shut and I can relax!

As it is near the end of the year I would like to spend a moment to reflect on my goals this year, and see how I went with them.

My goals for 2014 were:

1. blog at least once a week: keep writing, creating, reviewing, and sharing
2. schedule/organise my time efficiently so I can fit in designing, making, blogging, writing, housework; with my day job!
3. keep new designs ready to sell in my Facebook store page as well as my etsy store
4. stay positive, keep positive energy and help others to do the same, support small businesses, promote happiness, fight against negative thoughts

1. Blog at least once a week: In 2014 as well as blogging 56 posts on this blog, I created a new blog about Herbalism and alternative therapies, which has 23 posts, and a website on Herbalism called Apothecary Greens, which has 6 posts in the Apothecary Recipes section. So all up that is 85 blog posts for the year!! That equates to blogging 'at least once a week' , (in fact that is blogging 1.6 times a week, but who is counting... oh yes I am..)...as per goal number one! YAY I can tick that one off as successful!

2. Organise my time: I am still perfecting this, but I think I have done pretty well, because as well as working full time outside the home and running my hobby business, cooking, cleaning, and other household errands, I have completed 2 Diplomas and started another! 

I am giving myself another tick on this, however organising my space.. needs work!

3. Keep designing and creating and stocking my hobby store: I have made a number of sales this year, plus created many items for charities to use. Although I have not been as productive with my hobby store as I would like to be, I feel I have certainly worked in the right direction!. Additionally I have created a new range of one of a kind brooches that will be for sale in the new year! 

4. Stay positive and support others: This year I created a Facebook Page to support other small hobby and family run businesses; I have also been involved with  the Documented Life Project to ensure I spend time for myself being creative to help me feel happier. Additionally I have created a project called  Project Funmail where I send cards or small gifts to people at random throughout the year to spread some happiness, I am still doing this. It has not been easy all the time to stay positive or to help others to be positive but I have put a lot of effort in!

WOW!!! How many of you can say they actually STUCK to there new year goals / resolutions all year ?? Feel free to let me know in the comments section how you went with your goals for the year!

I am so pleased that I achieved my goals this year and am currently patting myself (figuratively speaking) on the back!

I have already worked out my goals for 2015, but dear batlings you will have to see what they are in the new year! 

In 2015 I hope to introduce you to a guest blogger or two, as well as bring you more reviews, some fun, and more free printables.

As this year ends, I am reflecting on the challenges in the year, as well as the high points and successes of the year. I wish you all a safe and happy end of year holiday time, and look forward to blogging more for you in 2015!

So long 2014, and to quote the late great Douglas Adams 'Thanks for all the fish'

............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Pegs as creative storage solutions: Part Four of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

In my constant struggle to declutter and keep myself and the house organised, I have decided to be creative with storage. It is more a MUST do, rather than a 'oooh isn't this creative lets do it', due to the lack of spare cash in the household! 

The house is small, we need to use the walls as much as possible to stash things. Cash is limited so we need to use what we have to create a storage solution.

As I have been decluttering the house I noticed so many paper bits: receipts, bills to attend to, memos... lots of bits of paper that may not need long term storage but need to be in the forefront of my consciousness until they are actioned. 

I decided they could be stored on the walls, with clothes pegs. I haven't gone completely insane..yet.. my batlings, stay with me on this.

All i needed was a long piece of picture wire, some nice hooks, and some pegs. I have all those things so no need to buy anything extra here. 

The pegs looked a bit hohum, and as you know I do not like drab and dull.  I looked at my box of washi tape and knew just how to decorate those wooden clothes pegs!

wooden clothes pegs and washi tape, what a great idea!

Covered in washi tape pegs are useful and decorativet!

In case you are looking for some lovely washi tape designs at very low prices, I buy most of my washi tape from Chiyogami Designs , they have an ebay store and I have always found them to be reliable and honest sellers, with an amazingly diverse range of washi tape as well as Japanese print origami paper.

After covering the pegs with washi tape, I then put some small brass hooks into the wall, (you could also use removable adhesive ones if you are renting) and attached picture wire, the wire is taut so it can handle weight of the paper without sagging.

Finished storage solution: I can even put my spare fountain pen ink there!

You may have noticed I have a lot of washi tape, and as I said before most of my beautiful washi tapes come from Chiyogami Designs. Where do I store these?

On a trouser hanger of course!

Decorative tape stored on a trouser hanger

I would love to hear your creative storage ideas for organising and decluttering, please feel free to let me know them in the comments!

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About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers 

............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Challenges and Obstacles to organisation: Part Three of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

I really want to get the house decluttered, organised, beautiful and peaceful. I have been reading a lot of blogs by proud 'stay at home' people who spend a lot of time organising and making things white and shiny. (Their blog photos also show them beaming with fresh shiny faces and not one hair out of place and not a pimple in sight..yeh bitter i may be...)  From what I can tell, as they do not have 'day jobs' outside of the home they can spend a lot of time in this domestic pursuit of organising and beautifying their homes. 

Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying these people are NOT working, I am just saying that as their WORKplace IS the HOME and FAMILY fulltime, they can spend the time WORKING on making the house organised and pretty. I acknowledge that they are working and working very hard.

Additionally the How to Organise your house bloggers all seem to have large houses. One blog I read about making the laundry organised and a happy environment, had a laundry bigger than our loungeroom/dining/kitchen/bathroom combined.  Not to mention a blog I read last week about how to organise a loungeroom;  their loungeroom was as big as our house.

These blogs however are inspiring and motivate me to work out how to make our house an organised, pretty and decluttered peaceful home with what we have; and make me think of ways to overcome the challenges of making the place peaceful and organised, while facing obstacles of:

• not a lot of 'spare' cash, 
• a very small house, 
• a house that was a 'flood victim ' in 2011 with no insurance paid out, still trying to replace furniture
• working full time outside of the home with long commutes (equating to only having weekends to actually do anything in the house).

So let me look at these challenges and think of ways to work with them to success in my declutter/organisation goal.

Not a lot of cash

This means I need to be even more creative by working with things I already own as well as keep an eye out at second hand shops and ebay auctions to purchase things we need at a low cost.

I have been decorating and repurposing old cupboard boxes as storage boxes and I use them for stashing craft supplies, fabric, and stationery. You can read about  my 'upcycling' of old cardboard storage boxes here. 

We recently purchased second hand solid pine shelving unit from ebay, for $40. New it would have been well over $200. We keep an eye out for good quality storage bargains and sometimes we find great things at a low cost.

A very small house

A small house means, keep the clutter at a minimum, THINK before we buy anything (do we need it, where is it going to be stored, what gets donated/discarded to make room for it).

It also means we need to think of storing UP: taking advantage of walls and putting floor to ceiling shelves in for example, and hanging things up on hooks on the walls to clear floor space.

Lost our furniture in the flood

Okay yep I know, the flood was three years ago, but as the insurance refused to pay anything, we have got by with the generous donations from friends, family, and total strangers. We have re-stained, varnished and repurposed the donated shelves, tables, and chairs, and are doing a lot to make the items we were given look refreshed as well as useful. (it is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do)

No time

We have almost a four hour round trip each day to and from work, and then an eight hour day in our workplaces, this means that we are exhausted by the time we get home. In order to get us some time, we cook on the weekends and freeze meals to reheat on week nights. That way husband, his son, and I have nutritious meals to choose form and with the flick of the microwave are eating in less than ten minutes.

I utilise my filofax to keep me organised and allot certain tasks to certain days. I do not put times on the tasks, just assign them to block days so i know that sometime that day this needs to be done.

On the weekends we get the washing done, cook meals for the week, and do the basic housework that needs to be done. We need to be organised with our time so that we can manage to find a few hours to relax in a week.

We also assign small ad hoc tasks to ourselves: for example today I am sorting through my clothes, discarding the torn, faded clothes that are beyond repair (assigning them to car rags), and repairing the ones that need and can be fixed; adding any good clothes that i no longer want to a charity bag, and then neatly placing my To Keep clothes on the hanging device i have for them ( i do not have a wardrobe).

To conquer the 'we have no time' to declutter and organise the house obstacle we need to be in control of our time.

Storage boxes i 'prepared earlier' organised in a shelf

I would be very interested in ideas on how others conquer challenges to keeping the house organised and beautiful. Particularly if you, like us, have a small house and need to be inventive on how to organise the things you need or want to keep.

Please feel free to comment.


______________________________________________________________________________

About Me:
I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers
............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

DIY decorative storage box: Part Two of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

In 2012 I sorted and stashed my craft supplies oh so neatly after my husband bought me an awesome shelving unit from Ikea...... however, with working fulltime, studying, trying to maintain the usual household chores, designing and creating jewellery and other things to sell on etsy, and all the other things I do, my craftroom/study/office/hang out has become sadly neglected.

I decided that if the room looked nice and welcoming, and had plenty of storage containers and shelving,  it would be easier for me to keep it decluttered and organised.

Step one for me then, is to get some nice storage containers..

I looked at the boxes I use to stash craft supplies and magazines in, they are functional, strong, and..oh so drab!

I don't know about you dear Batling readers, but I cannot afford to buy the latest and greatest in new trendy storage crates. So I had a look around my chaotic craft room, and found I have quite a stash of previously used and kept wrapping paper, as well as glue, tape, all sorts of things that I could use to make my ho hum storage boxes look less utility and more..well..me.

I gathered my supplies, scissors, glue, tape, old strong box (the one I complained about being drab), old wrapping paper, and ooooh some Martha Stewart/Avery bookplates I forgot I had!!!(see what happens when you start decluttering? you find cool things!)

I went over the box and its lid to ensure they were intact, and used some thick masking tape on areas of the box that looked like they needed reinforcement. I then painted the box with a very thing coat of Modge Podge that had been diluted in water, to prime the cardboard.

After the coat of diluted Modge Pode (it is basically a very thick PVA glue) had dried, I sprayed the box with spray adhesive and wrapped it in the re-used wrapping paper. (just like wrapping a pressy!)

I used an Exacto knife to cut out where the hand hold holes are in the box, and then wrapped these with clear tape to reinforce them.

Starting to look rather nice.. if I say so myself.

I didn't want the box lid to have the same paper on it, I felt that made it a wee bit too twee, so I hunted around some more in the chaos of my craft room, and found some old wrapping paper in almost the same design but in opposite colours!!

I then prepared and covered the box lid the same as I had for the box.

After it all dried I sprayed a thin coat of semi gloss varnish over it all to help strengthen and preserve the new look box, and stuck the Martha Stewart/Avery bookplate on it.

I am very happy with this box!!! It has the Gothic/Baroque look that I really love.  

Now to do more sorting out of my room!

For inspiration I visit I heart Organizing, a very motivating and informative blog!

If you have any great storage ideas, DIY boxes or anything else that may help me in my goal to declutter and get organised I would LOVE to hear your ideas! Please feel free to let me know about them in the comments section below!

............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Organised chaos? Part one of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

Looking at blogposts and Pinterest images of super organised rooms, amazingly organised handbags, shelves with everything labelled... makes me sigh!  I would love to be so organised that I knew where everything was, and everything was labelled, and it all looked artistically pleasing. I have read books on how to declutter, I have bought filing systems, I have bought well crafted organisation boxes. All to no avail.

What am I missing here? Am i destined to always be a person whose creativity outweighs my ability to actually keep things organised?

I look around my study/computer room/craft room/hang out and am so depressed by the clutter and chaos around me.

The only thing that is organised is my filofax!! Why can't everything else be as under control?

I have had enough of the mess in this room!
I have had enough of the disarray in the pantry!
My clothes (I don't even have many!) are stowed away untidily.

Time to start operation 'Organise and Beautify'

Stay tuned for the next episode in my aim to organise myself! (I manage to keep my filofax organised, functional and pretty... so hey i can do this!)

In the meantime please view these blogs from very organised people:

• Label me organised: blog by a lady who is studying, working, and blogging, and is also extremely organised.

• I heart organising : blog by a stay at home parent who manages to create beautiful and organised rooms, shelves, things .. while maintaining a home and being a good spouse and parent.. please check her blog out!

Feel free to post a comment: hints , laughter...anything


............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

ALPHABET BLOG CHALLENGE: O is for ORGANISING!

Following on from my new year blog about sorting my craft room, today's post is about organisation ideas!

I cannot afford specially made mass produced highly priced accessories for storage, so I prefer to upcycle and make my own storage solutions.

1. Upcycled Food Tin adhesive holder

I have lots of tubes and bottles of all sorts of types of glue. When they are in drawers they leak, when they are on shelves they fall. To solve this, I washed out empty baked bean tins, dried them, and covered them with old gift paper, glued the paper on, then glued on some twine and some other decorative things. I then glued all the cans together to make a connected storage piece.

It sits neatly on a shelf, looks cool and crafty, and holds all my glue!!

Cost to make: around $1 for the whole thing as i reused old gift wrap, and used emptied bean tins.

2. Upcycled jars to hold buttons, spools of cotton, bobbins

I have a heap of buttons, different colours, different sizes, masses of cotton spools, and heaps of sewing machine bobbins. Keeping them organised and in one easy to use area was getting difficult!

I washed and dried old jam jars/ olive jars ...peeling off the labels. Painted the lids in cheerful colours, printed out old style labels and glued them to the jars.

After sorting buttons in colour, and size, i placed them in the glass jars, the cotton spools also were placed in jars, as were the bobbins. They all sit on the shelf near my sewing machine, they are decorative and useful!

Cost to make: maybe $2 for ten, (used tiny amount of paint, labels, glue)

 

What are your organisation ideas?? Please comment and share links or ideas !!

 

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