from somewhere in my imagination

Suzie Homemaker Me - Featuring the Tefal Steam Iron

A few months back I was having a quick cuppa with a friend when, being an excellent multitasker, she asked if it was okay of she got on with her ironing while we chatted.  I sat, mesmerised by her steam iron in action.  I think I even went home and declared my desire for a steam iron to replace our poxy old one.

Steven raised an eyebrow, we've been married for more than 11 years, he knows how little ironing I do.  However, now that I am working in the grown up world again.  In a corporate environment, by contrast with the boots and jeans uniform of a mine site, my need for the ironing board and a decent iron has increased.

When the lovely people at Nuffnang were looking for a few bloggers to try out the Tefal Steam Iron and put together a Product Talk by Nuffnang I couldn't email back fast enough to say 'pick me'.  I was pretty chuffed when they did.  Seriously?  I got excited about an iron, I must be growing up!

Steven picked it up for me on Monday but I didn't even get a chance to open the box until sometime after the kids were in bed.  My ideas of putting together a vlog with Steven doing the ironing went out the window. Doh.

Tuesday night, after not sitting down all day other than to eat or drive, the last thing I wanted to do was even think about ironing when I put my feet up around 10.  Such is life for a mumma sometimes.

Finally, tonight, Sebastian asked if he could get the new vacuum cleaner out of the box.  I managed not to laugh to loud, I didn't want to dissuade him from showing an interest (at least) in ironing.  I said know but told him he could watch while I tested it out.

I pulled a few items from my wardrobe.  The kinds of things that often hang there for months at a time because they require such heavy duty ironing to get them back in to a wearable state.  Removed the iron from the box, set up the ironing board and got to work.

Filling the water well is easy enough.  You can just use normal tap water in the iron, it has a built in anti-calc collector (as well as an autoclean function...yippeee to anything that cleans itself!).

The retractable power cord is another winning feature.  No getting the power and steam cords in a tangle.

Once I had it filled up and plugged in I took the time to skim the instructions.  Then, I handed them to my sister to read.  Switched it on, waited for it to heat up then called it some names when it started spitting water everywhere when I was hitting the steam button.  Thankfully there is a troubleshooting list on the instructions which suggested the spitting was normal behaviour for first time use.

I promptly got stuck in to the ironing but continued getting water everywhere.  This prompted more careful reading of the instructions, revealing that it takes two adjustments to get the temperature/steam balance right.

Once I had this sorted things went smoothly and before I knew it I had nice, wrinkle free clothes back on their hangars.  Winner.

I can honestly say that the Tefal Steam Iron makes much shorter work of the ironing with a better result than a run of the mill standard iron.  It's heavier to work with, and the location of the steam buttons (there is one on the top and one on the underside of the handle) will no doubt take some getting used to.  I found myself inadvertently pushing the top one from time to time.  Oops.  I do like the weightiness of it though, and the bursts of steam make it glide across the clothes you are ironing.

The steam lasts for much longer than I expected.

The iron locks onto the base, giving it elements of safety from tipping and security against falling off when you are moving it.  Or maybe that's just me that needs that?  I'm a touch clumsy.

I'm looking forward to spending some more time getting to know my new Tefal Steam Iron, but first I need a new ironing board to replace the old poxy one that goes with the old iron!

All in all I can happily reccomend the Steam Iron...so much so I'd still love to vlog it in action if you think you might like to see it?  I'll wait for a day when I don't look quite so tired as I do right now!

I'm off to bed!

Tatum xx

 

 

Open Studio

So...more than a couple of days later my Studio is finally approaching a point at which it finally feels organised....what better time for a tour!

My room is a touch over 3m wide x 5m long.  It was the only room I really planned out in my head before we moved.  I didn't want to overcrowd it with furniture and for the most part I wanted to keep it uncluttered.  Difficult when you have as much paper and fabric as I do but I'm pretty happy with my organisation right now.

Furniture is pretty much all from Ikea...the drawers were in the kids' rooms but they all have big built ins now so I claimed them to replace the sideboard I'd been using for the past 4 years and now takes pride of place in the hallway.

I have 2 long tables, one old and one new.  A 4x2 expedit which was surplus to our needs inside and 2 new 2x2's

We had 4 billy bookcases all in a row in our last 2 houses but we can only fit 3 in a row in our new house so I grabbed the spare (sorry Lauren & Jess).

The sewing table is out original kitchen table, $99 including 4 chairs from the reject shop in Mt Isa, it has served me well over the years!  The table cloth hides a paint & glue splattered, slightly beaten looking tabletop.

Steven, having painted the long side wall cream to replace the rather overwhelming red colour it was, has not yet been coaxed back into the studio to put a few screws in the walls.  I'm particularly waiting for him to hang my thread rack for me so I can get rid of the shoebox that is currently holding all my threads.  I'm also yet to track down a powerboard to plug in my sewing machines.

The 'rainbow bowls' on my table are $3 glass salad bowls from Kmart that I am using to sort my 'bits' into.  The leftover bits with no homes are always my biggest barrier to a proper clean up job.  One of the classrooms at the kids' school has textas and pencils sorted by colour in jars along the window and it makes me happy whenever I see them...that was my inspiration for the bowls.  Steven is troubled by the 'wasted space' underneath them.  I told him not to worry, it's not his concern and to kindly stop rearranging them.

A cheapie wooden tray (also from Kmart) is home to a bunch of pasta jars I have been saving for several months now.  The Woolies Select ones are a great shape with a wide enough mouth that you can fit your hand inside.  I have sorted pens, pencils, tools, brushes and more into them and filled the rest of the tray with tape, adhesives and other tools.

I've set up my painting and fabric cutting mats at one end of the table, invested in a new paper trimmer and marvelled at the sheer quantity of patterned paper I have collected over the past (nearly) 7 years.

I've got a few little artworks here and there and will collect more to hang although I want to keep the long blank wall mostly blank.

The hanging rack is all set up ready for me to start hanging things on when I fire up the sewing machines again.

The hideous pink chairs need to be replaced, all in good time.

There is room for 2 to scrap without any reorganisation and I could happily fit 4 with a bit of shifting around.

All in all I'm pretty happy with how it is looking at the moment.  The drawers still need some organisation, but I'll tackle them one at a time.  At the moment I'd say 5 of the 12 are organised, but they all shut ;)

Looking forward to spending time working and chatting out there, enjoying it and making it my own.

Tatum xx

 

The Studio

This post is RocketFuel sponsored

One of the things that had me smitted with our new house before I had even walked through the front door was the fact it had a separate studio outside.

In the months leading up to our move the studio was the room that I spent the most time 'mentally' arranging furniture in.  It's only slightly larger than 3m x 5m and I wanted to leave myself with some room to move.

I attempted to get rid of some of my 'stuff'.

I had visions of some thing clean lined and minimalist.

Hmmm....here's the right now photo.

Fail.

This weekend's challenge to myself is to get this studio sorted out.  To get it functioning and flowing.  To perhaps even cull some of my 'stuff'.  Maybe.

One thing I do know is that I do have the bones in place for some great organisation.  With the exception of my sewing table, which was our very first dining table, my room is decked out...head to toe in Ikea.

Where were we before the Expedit, I ask you that?  How many do you have in your house?

Until we moved we had something from Ikea in every single room.  They are the affordable, storage solution kings are they not?

Ikea have just released their get organised campaign.  There are some great solutions in their workspace video...I see a visit to Ikea in my future for Sunday.  Playspace, cheap lunch and some new organisational tools....yes please!  (Did you see that magazine rack on the wall?  I think they might be pefect for paper....and the Ekby Alex shelf drawers, yes please!)

So...on Sunday night I should be sharing some photos of my perfectly organised, uncluttered studio.  I've put it out there so that means it HAS to happen right?

Ikea have also released organisation videos for Kids Bedrooms, The Laundry and Adult Bedrooms

Great aren't they!  Plenty of ideas in there I can put into use in our house!

Hands up...who's off to Ikea this weekend?

Tatum xx