All images courtesy of Curbly.com

I’ve mentioned it in passing, but I’ve been part of the team over at Curbly.com for a few months now.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a series of weekly DIY room makeover round-ups, along with my Foodie Friday contributions.

If things get a little quiet here, it’s probably because my attention is over at Curbly.

I’m still trying to find the balance between juggling both blogging duties, my freelance work, social media and being the primary caregiver to my family.

Years ago while holidaying in London I was paging through a decor mag, in it they reviewed a book called “Fast Decor: Creative Ideas for Instant Decorating” by Annemarie Meintjes & Karen Roos.

I called up EVERY bookshop I could to locate a copy and trekked halfway across Londontown to buy one, for an inordinate amount of money I might add. It was breathtaking, it still is. Crafty ideas that allow you to dress up or down a space without spending a fortune, and in some cases, nothing at all.

Imagine my surprise when I found out both authors were South African and the book was published in SA by Struik. I was floored, and truth be told also a little annoyed at having bought a book in London only to bring it back to SA, its birthplace, though I must say the UK edition has a much nicer cover.

Thus began my introduction to both of these wonderful ladies, each with their own stories. Karen now of course owns the amazing Babylostoren and Annemarie has her fingers in hundreds of creative projects, including deputy editing VISI, as she’s done since 2001.

How amazing is that cover! It’s something I’ve always loved about VISI, always progressively pushing the creative envelope on not only a local, but global scale.

This special issue is packed with creative DIY ideas, pulled from the past 12 years of back issues. They’ve graciously allowed me to share a few images from the issue with you below.

All images courtesy of VISI

Dry wall partitioning is banal at best, why not use your old magazines and build up your own internal walls.

All images courtesy of VISI

So you know that new fandangled electronic appliance you bought, wondering what to do with the ubiquitous preformed polystyrene inserts it came with? Why not spray paint them and style your own gallery.

All images courtesy of VISI

Upcycle your old milk bottles into bird friendly feeders.

I, and this blog also get a neat little mention in their “32 Reasons to Always Love Smart Ideas” features, thanks guys!

It’s in stores now, go buy a copy, they even have a digital option for those who prefer paperless mags, though good luck pushing a needle a thread through your iPad.

I’m a night owl, this cycle was set in motion 14 years ago when I left my diploma in Graphic Design to take classes in Desktop Publishing.

Anyone who has been in the industry long enough will embrace the nostalgia of Photoshop 5, Quark Express 4 and Freehand 7 (in South Africa we hadn’t even heard the word Illustrator!).

Since I was working during the day I attended night school 3-days a week and used the remaining days to go into college to complete my course assignments, this went on for 3-months and that cycle remained to this day.

Adding a marriage, kids and being a Stay-At-Home-Dad to the mix had further forced me to maintain that schedule as it was about the only time I got things done, or rather conceptualized them, though I’d failed to execute many of them, hence the second part of the above equation.

Of late I’ve been hitting the hay at around 10.30 – 11pm, which is a full 2-3 hours ahead of my norm. I’m finding being woken up 2-3 times a night by a 4-month old toddler doesn’t do wonders for my beauty sleep and so I’m trying to get in a few more minutes of shuteye by getting to bed a little earlier.

It’s made the WORLD of difference! I’m still up between 6-7am with both kids, but I’m more alert, it only takes a single cup of coffee to get me going, a nice hot shower and then I’m dressed and ready to make breakfast for everyone, starting the work day at 8.30am, which used to be around 10am.

I find it much easier to execute creative ideas now and have bought myself more time by hiring a childminder.

For the first year of Nathan’s life I was a Stay-At-Home-Dad, but in his second year I had help 1 and then 3 mornings a week and this year I decided to take on our childminder 5-days a weeks, 8.30am – 3pm to help with both kids.

I’ve reclaimed my garage workshop and have a home office as well for writing/admin/e-mails etc.

I’d thought about renting a small space close by, by decided I’d rather put those added costs into having help 5-days a week as working from home allows me to be around the kids, take breaks to play with them and they know I’m literally in the room next door if they need me.

Also having help here 5-days a week relieves pressure on me as she cleans and irons while the kids have their respective naps, tasks that would have originally fallen on getting in a cleaner or doing it ourselves.

Sure, it’s meant that we’re spending more each month with the added childcare, but given that I now have a more time to work I can, and am generating more income to offset the added costs.

How do the rest of you find that balance as self-employed creatives? Have any of you made similar moves or are thinking about it? What’s stopping you?