Just like Martha Stewart..?

When I was in confinement after giving birth to Armand, I used to wait in anticipation for the 11.00am The Martha Stewart Show on ntv7. "Apa agaknya dia nak ajar masak hari ni..siapa agaknya celebrity guest dia..". I was actually thrilled that ntv7 brought the show here. Martha Stewart (despite her short-prison-time stint) is STILL the "domestic goddess".

I love to hound over Martha Stewart's website too. I love the pictures, colours, tips and info available there. Ahhhhh. If only I could *all at the same time* know how cook (very well), clean, bake, plant vege and stuff in the backyard, be super-crafty etc etc like her too..

Then I realized that in some areas, yes, I am quite like her...

Well, I still don't *have no interest to* bake but I can cook-lah, simple dishes for my family's daily meals. And of course I can clean the house too..except that I have a maid so she does most of the cleaning now.

Labels on Stuff

Martha Stewart loves to label stuff. This keeps things organized and keeps her organized. I love labeling stuff too. A few years ago I had a maid who ALWAYS "mixed and matched" our clothes when arranging them in the closet, even after a few months of working with us. So to save my sanity and to ease whoever else working with us in the future, I pun labels in the closet.



Of course stuff in my SOHO have to be labeled too, I think this is normal-lah for everyone.



I also label plastic jars in my pantry cabinet e.g. Tepung Gandum, Tepung Pulut, Tepung Beras etc..ye lah takut lah kalau maid nak buat cekodok pisang jadi cekodok lepat pisang pulak.

SO, in order to make my need-to-label-things easier, I was thinking of buying a LABEL MAKER. Like this:


But ..is this REALLY needed..? Like, is this really a life-and-death, do-or-die "requirement"? I didn't think so, too. So I just continued making handwritten or printed-out labels (using PowerPoint and printing them our using my printer) and paste 'em on the item with double-sided tape.

On a related note, for all the shoes that I keep in the storeroom i.e. the ones not worn everyday, I paste the photo of the shoe on the shoebox. I saw this some time ago in Oprah and other reality shows featuring wardrobe makeovers. But I didn't learn to do this from watching these shows..I learned this years and years ago, from my mother. She did the same thing, too :)


Organizing Stuff

I'm a neat person. I used to be super-neat before but with four kids now, the house just can't escape the occasional dust and clutter i.e toys and books sometimes are not where they're supposed to be. Even my in-tray is always full now. I used to sort it out everyday. Oh well.

So one day I was doing up a gift basket and I noticed that even after many many times sorting out my ribbon box, it goes back to being chaotic. These are my ribbons which I just arrange in a 13" x 13" x 7" fabric box:


These are what I found at Martha Stewart's website a Ribbon Dispenser and Ribbon Organizer:



I like the first one better, the Ribbon Dispenser. How cute is that..? The website has instructions on how to make it but I'm not a DIY person so I'd rather buy a few of these. Time to google around :)

I may be neat and want things clean (I think all of us do..!) but I'm not a cleanaholic, and I don't have obsessive-compulsive-disorder (probably just a few of the traits). I bersyukur yang I bukan macam orang-orang yang kat Cleanaholic (channel 733, Discovery Home & Health) & I pun bersyukur I bukan macam kat cerita Monk and also like the leading man in the movie As Good As It Gets, yang Jack Nicholson berlakon tu. It's just hard on them..they need professional help..just because they are TOO clean..!