Welcome to my website ! My name is Ellie and I am passionate about homemaking, as well as vintage design, electronics, & appliances, and the intersection of these passions. I'll be posting updates related to those topics if you were interested in following along. There is also a guestbook down the bottom of the page if you wish to leave a note !

To-Do

I thought I would have a to-do list here, I was going to call it The Daily To-Do but I can't promise I'll update it daily ;)

Today's To-Do list date is March 17th 2026.

It's a busy day today ! I'll see how much of it I get done.

This Week's Meal Plan

I'm actually trying meal prepping instead of just planning this week ! I like to try different systems for things like cooking, to do lists, etc, as I find if I stick to one for too long then I get bored of it and stop following it at all. This way once I get bored of one I can cycle through others. Here's some excerpts from this week's (5/1/26-11/1/26) planning process:

Journal Updates

March 17th 2026

I went to a lovely event on the weekend ! It was a homemakers' swap, where local homemakers bring along five things they've homemade, handmade, or homegrown, and then take home five things others have made. I brought five framed pieces of art I'd drawn, and I brought home a focaccia, pesto, tomato relish, banana bread, and a basket of squash. It was a delightful time, lovely to get out and about in the fresh air (we were in a park under a giant shade tree and everyone set up picnic blankets) and also to meet other local homemakers, connect, and build the 'village'. There were lots of mums of young kids there who seemed in their element in a space where they didn't have to feel awkward or othered because of the kids. The swap is going to be held once a month and I'm so keen to go again !

January 18th 2026

One of my favourite rituals I want to get back into is making my morning coffee. I have to do decaf as I'm caffeine intolerant and get quite sick if I have over a small amount. I have my own decaf beans, manual coffee grinder, and drip coffee machine, and its a nice ritual to put it all together and wait around while the drip does its job. It's also a good opportunity to get a couple of quick tasks done around the kitchen while I wait (usually its dishes needing to be put away !).

January 8th 2026

Welcome to the new year ! I've been using the fresh new year's motivation to do a big reorganise of my kitchen, specifically the food storage (pantry, fridge, and freezer). My pantry was so cluttered and crowded that I couldn't see or get to anything in there properly. It was making me feel bad because I felt like I must have so much food in there but couldn't really access it and it felt like a waste. So I'm in the process of organising it properly and its such a better feeling already ! I know what's in there now (I'm building a digital inventory of all the items as well) and can actually see and access things. The layout makes much more sense as well, with the top shelf being carb-type ingredients (pasta, noodles, potatoes, oats, etc), the middle shelf snacks and drinks, and the bottom shelf bits and bobs.

September 20th 2025

This photo is a bit old but I wanted to share the curtains I made for my kitchen cabinets ! They're made out of a vintage sheet I'd gotten from the charity shop which has provided a bounty of fabric for various projects, including a headband, a watchband, an apron, and these curtains. I find vintage sheets the perfect fabric supply because they often have groovy patterns, don't contribute to the consumption of buying new, and are much more affordable per square metre. The curtains look a little wonky in the picture (which they are, a little !), but I like the imperfection, and the fabric goes so well with my window curtains. I used a bit of extra trim from the window ones (which I didn't make myself) to make a trim for the sink ones.

August 6th 2025

My planner for the next two years arrived today ! It's the perfect size to pop in my purse and take out for writing down appointments, and the design of it is so cute and nostalgic. I'm also thinking of getting a wall calendar from the same designer, and saw you can get a nice wooden frame specifically for it too which I think would be lovely. Here's my current planner next to the new one !

July 9th 2025

I've been getting more active again recently to help with my chronic pain, weight, fitness, mental health etc. It's good for all those things which I seem to forget every time I stop doing it and have to relearn ;) I like the advice that the best exercise you can do is the one you enjoy doing, because you'll feel better in yourself doing it, and are more likely to actually do it consistently rather than forcing yourself to do something you resent. One of the exercises I really enjoy are these fun online ones from Retrosweat that are styled like 80s aerobics videos. Here's a snap of the opening screen from the other day when I did one.

June 24th 2025

I'm doing a general tidy of the house today for a bit of a special thing. The local news is coming to my place to interview me about the state budget. Sounds a little odd ! To explain, I'm a regular listener and texter-in to the local radio station, and they got in touch with me to ask if I was interested in sharing my thoughts on camera, as they're looking to get ordinary locals' perspectives on how the budget will effect them and their communities. I'll be talking about it from a disability perspective as that's my main frame of reference. It's pretty exciting and I'm also a little nervous so am doing a tidy up of the place to help settle things. Added in later (6/8/25): Here's a pic of the TV news on a different topic, it's not the bext picture, but I always like having one to put in each entry. My interview went really well and I got some friends recognising me on the news ! It was very fun and a good experience to go out of my comfort zone.

June 22nd 2025

I got this beautiful plate at the markets for $1 ! I wanted to properly display it so I got a little plate stand for it too, and now its in pride of place on the new dining room cabinet (picture of that to come...). It had had a sticker stuck to the front of it but it easily came off with a bit of hot water and scrubbing, and now is good as new. There's also a much older sticker on the back with someone's name in lovely handwriting, which I decided to leave as a tribute to them. One thing I love about vintage items is the history behind them, and I wanted to keep that bit of history with my plate.

June 18th 2025

I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for ages ! I replaced all my mismatched plastic coathangers with a nice set of matching wooden ones. Re-hanging everything was a good opportunity to cull things I don't like/wear or don't fit, and I now look forward to opening my wardrobe to pick the day's outfit rather than getting annoyed at the cluttered plastic hangers. I still need to do a declutter of the top and bottom sections but the hanging sections are much better now.

June 14th 2025

The dining table has been Ellie Clutter Simulator 2025 for too long, so I decided to finally declutter and dust it off so it can be used for its intended purpose, i.e., dining ! I'm planning to eat more meals there to make use of it and eat in front of the TV or computer less, and also have the occasional communal household meal. I cleared off all the clutter and set it with some favourite placemats. It had actually still had the Christmas placemats and table runner from 2024, so I switched the placemats out and flipped the table runner for a more neutral pattern. I still want to declutter the corner behind it which has become a kind of repository for spare placemats, table things, brooms, etc.

June 11th 2025

More rearranging ! Turns out the record player was a bit in the way of the typewriter which needs room on either side for the bar to go back and forth. No problems ! I brought the long coffee table back in and swapped the TV onto it from where it had been in the same spot but on a smaller table. Now there's room for both the record player and the TV on the long coffee table, and I have plenty of room to type. The lamp that had been on top of the TV is now on the desk, which actually makes the light softer as its a bit lower down. The TV is also a bit closer to me as I moved it forward and can now see things a little better. I might actually start wearing my glasses to watch the news of an evening !

June 10th 2025

A couple of days ago I decided to rearrange my bedroom a bit. I do this every so often as it helps keep things feeling fresh, and I get a bit restless if it's been the same way for too long. What I did this time was rearrange the corner under the window. There used to be a coffee table there which originally had my record player on it, but which had come to hold not only my record player and records but also a bunch of other random clutter which didn't need to be there and was making the space look crowded. So I decluttered everything off the coffee table and switched it out with my writing desk which had been in the living room. I'd been wanting to move my writing desk into the bedroom for a while so I would use my typewriter more. I hadn't been using it as much when it was out in the living room, partly because it wasn't close at hand, and also because I didn't want to be making loud typing sounds in the main space all the time. Since moving it in here I have indeed been using it more, and it's really nice to have a view out the window while typing. I'm also looking forward to putting a record on while I type, which I think will be pretty atmospheric, if the banging of the typing doesn't make the record skip. ;)