New Horizons & Thank You

July 30, 2015 • nat • Letting Go • No Comment

THANK YOU!

I’ve been trying to write this blogpost for a long time.

I teach letting go and know it can be fast but some things take longer or there’s a lag and perhaps it’s also because we have hopes for how something should be or could be.

Sometimes, it also just isn’t.

I am super proud of what we created here. However, this blogpost is to say Tip and I have decided to go our separate ways (professionally, not personally). And this will be my last post here.

And I want to say thank you to you all for supporting us here! Most of what I have to say I have already written when writing a letting go and thank you letter to Apartmentdiet.com in Dec 2014.

That being said, there is one thing that was missing from my thank you letter – and that is a thank you to Tip!

Thank you for our friendship. For your bravery. For allowing me into your home to declutter. Thank you for coaching me and supporting me. Thank you for allowing me to coach and learn from and with you. Thank you for making me a better mother and a better person.

Thank you for all the thinking and writing and content we created here, together. And for being a part of what I am moving towards.

Tip, I can’t wait to see what’s next for you!

And to you all, thank you for being a part!

x Nat

PS You can follow my next adventures here

Featured: Tip’s Home Featured on DesignSponge!!!

July 21, 2015 • nat • Before & After, Happy House Rules, Inspiring, Interiors • 2 Comments

House Tour Alert!

I’m so excited and delighted to share that Tip’s gorgeous family home is featured on DesignSponge today!

If you know about the interiors blogging world then you know that Design Sponge is THE place for interiors. And I couldn’t think of a better place for Tip’s home tour than there!

Too often every day life doesn’t look like the photos we’re being presented in interiors blogs and magazines. It’s styled, things are removed from the image. A stylists adds things that are borrowed to make things look prettier. Photoshop removes cords, cracks…

Not here! Tip’s home in the photos is exactly as it is: gorgeous, beautiful, and a real living breathing space that Tip and her family lives. Transforming spaces into places that are authentic, honest and feel great…and exactly what we’re all about. And of course, did I mention gorgeous?

You don’t need to trust me…off you go and have a look.

PS And just for kicks, here are two before photos so you can see just how much amazing work Tip has done transforming the space.

Natx

Corner Series: Mia Linnman Home Favourites

June 30, 2015 • nat • Bedroom, Corner Series, Happy House Rules, Inspiring • No Comment

Hello folks! We’ve been talking about sharing favorite corners in the homes of people who inspire us, along with their favorite personal “rule” or habit for having a happy healthy home. So we followed our own advice and started it…and now we’re excited to finally share the first results of little passion project. First up, the gorgeous Mia Linnmann.

Just start…with a corner

Happy House Rules™: simple rules to live by

Introducing: Mia Linnman, graphic + interior designer + blogger

We’ve been following Mia for years now over on her blog. She’s “an interior and renovation (restoration) lover” whose clients include IKEA, where she worked on their catalogues. “I also love to paint, mainly horses in large formats.” (You can see & buy them here.) “At the moment I work as a graphic designer and also trying to keep my blog alive. I like to have small projects around the house and I love aesthetic but also cozy (homey) and unpretentious interiors.”

About Mia’s Favourite Corner

“My fav corner for the moment (yes, it changes) is this one in our bedroom space. it’s a new corner since we just changed some rooms and did some refurnishing. As we moved around, changing room for a lot of things we landed our bed in our former lounge area, a quite open space.”

I like it because it isn’t perfect and planned.

“In the messy part of the refurnishing, all our paperbacks ended up on this bench just for temporary storage. But I realized I liked it, I like it because it isn’t perfect and planned. Interiors can be too correct and matched and personally I think it can be boring.”

Mia’s Happy House Rule

My happy house rule is to add something that quite not correspond (match) with the other things or atmosphere in a room.

For example, if you have classy, old or rough interior add something temporary or ultra modern (if you like that of course) and if you have a new, modern space add something old with a history.

And don’t feel afraid to let you favourite personal stuff take place, it shows who you are and makes your home more unique.

But also, even if you have a lot of stuff, let some free space and air in between.

Thank you Mia!

You can find more of Mia on her blog, pinterest & instagram

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Do you have a favourite corner of your home? Post it on instagram “#favouritecorner” @apartmentdiet and show us. And if not, well, you know what we say “Just start, with a corner”. Off you go…and like Mia says, remember it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Powerful Vibrations: Beyonce’s Mini Documentary

February 16, 2015 • nat • Spirit • No Comment

Nanny’s Chicken Soup For The Soul: A Recipe

February 9, 2015 • nat • Food & Recipes, Interiors • No Comment

This recipe is one of the best, most healing elixirs I know.

Me and my whole family got slammed the last week with a nasty flu. It made me think a lot about what we could eat given we all had sore throats

…and of course my thoughts turned to chicken noodle soup.

But you certainly don’t need to have the flu to make and eat it!

Letting Go of “Apartment Diet” – with thanks

January 23, 2015 • nat • Inspiring, Spirit • 2 Comments

“Apartment Diet, it’s been grand but hasta la vista, baby! Mwah. Tipxo”
“Apartment Diet – so long and thanks for the fish! x Nat”

It is with great joy and thanks and “release” that we say goodbye to the name “apartment diet”. It’s been a wonderful journey and we’ve learned great lessons but we’ve outgrown it and it’s time to move on.

It’s likely that we will be back in the coming weeks (months?) with a new, clearer brand. And of course, we’ll let you know of the new name and address we find. or that finds us.

Nat’s longer love letter to Apartment Diet is below. (You know we love love letters – and generally living with grace and gratitude.)

xo Tip & Natalie

Kickstart 2015 with Words, 20 Ways To Start & A Love Letter

January 7, 2015 • nat • Inspiring • No Comment

Hello lovely people,

A note to welcome in 2015. And two gifts.

Tip and I are starting excitedly, energised and also, not in a rush. We’re also thinking of our words for the year…we choose a word, or in my case this year, 3, to hold across the year. My words are FUN, NOURISH, and RELEASE. And I’m looking forward to see how they play out.

We’d love you to join in on that too. Simply ask yourself the question “what word do I want for the year?” and listen to what comes up. Sometimes they pop in immediately other times they take time.

We have been getting a lot clearer around the fact that a lot of our work is about getting you started on YOUR path, helping YOU cut through the noise in your life to focus on what matters to YOU, as well as teaching you how to start DOING IT…whatever IT is. Whether it’s at home, work or your life in general.

How can we help you do that? Many ways in fact, but here’s one you can start with right now.

Unlock our ebook: 20 Ways To Start

Tip and I have decided to offer our ebook, #20waystostart as a free gift for anyone who subscribes. It’s a way, well 20 ways actually, to kickstart any project at home work or life, and guaranteed get you unstuck, move you from being overwhelmed, help you say bye bye to procrastiation and ENERGISE you in 2015…

To get your copy as a gift, just pop your details in here:

And it’ll arrive straight into your inbox.

A Love Letter to 2014: Give Thanks to 2014, bring in your successes and what you love, let go of the rest.

If you haven’t had a chance to take stock as 2014 rushed by, the next best time is now. Take 10 minutes now and write a list of 20 things you are proud and thankful for from last year. Give thanks to the year that was…and take a deep breath and on the exhale let go what needs to be released. Repeat breathing in the good stuff and out the other stuff for a bit if it feels right.

Blessings for a fabulous year! We can’t wait to journey with you!

Natalie & Tip

Happy holidays, a break & a thank you gift from us

December 20, 2014 • nat • Holiday Season, Inspiring • No Comment

As the year winds down for most of us, we want to take the time to THANK YOU for being so amazing and following and supporting us on our journey and wish you and yours a happy peaceful healthy and light holiday season.

It’s been a big year! And 2015 is looking to be a HUGE one. So we’ve decided to take the holiday season as a rest break. We’ll be back with a bang on January 5th. As part of giving thanks & celebrating success Natalie is also writing a love letter to 2014. You may enjoy joining her. Tip is still in her social media hibernation for the month of December. You might consider joining her for a part of your holidays. Or joining us both.

And now, as a gift from both of us:

20 Ways To Start: Our Best Tips To Get You Kick Started in 2015!

We’re known as the starting experts. One of the reasons humans don’t make changes is really simple. They don’t know where or how to start. Tip & I are often called in to kick start people and projects… and along the way, we’ve learned and developed MANY ways to start. At least 20. Yup. #20waystostart! It’s not comprehensive, there are more, but these are the ones that work best for us – as always, let us know if you have more for us to add to our toolkit. Hashtag it #20waystostart!

Starting something hard is no mean feat. Don’t worry, we are sharing our secrets. Our favourite 20 little secrets in fact. Because we love you all for supporting us and wanted to give back. Aaaaah … feels so good.

So next time you get stuck doing {insert time-sucking time-wasting activity here}, might we suggest that you open our gift instead?

Ulimately we imagine this is an app / work book / deck of pick at random type cards (or all 3!), but for now, it’s a little .pdf for you to use. (Because we’re also starting before we’re ready.)

Don’t underestimate the power of starting. Because all things really get done the same way. Start. Repeat. Start. Repeat and ………….. done!

If you find this list useful, please feel free to pass on the gift. And let us know how you’re using it too. We love to celebrate successes with you!

To unlock our gift & learn our best tips for getting started, just enter your details in the sidebar form (if you are already on our email list don’t worry – we will send you the link directly! Keep an eye on your inboxes.)

Happy Holidays!!

Tip & Natalie

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Gifts: Give Experiences, Not Things

December 17, 2014 • nat • Holiday Season • 3 Comments

Co-authored by the lovely Aussie based Korean expat Lucy

By Lucy:

“This is the time of the year when we often think about other people rather than ourselves.

Gifting is one of my favourite things, this makes me feel so happy. I have had 5 summer Australian Christmases so far, and I must admit that I love this gift exchanging culture!

For the last 5 years, my boyfriend and I have celebrated Christmas and birthdays every year, which, even with only 2 people in this household, has meant we were able to fill the place pretty quick, because of getting lots of material presents. While they are all meaningful, it gets harder to maintain your home when there is too much stuff.”

This year I was inspired to give experiences and make gifts rather than going the traditional route.

“Why? A couple of years ago I received the gift a horse riding lesson, and it totally changed my perspective of gifting. Getting experience rather than materiel present? What a brilliant idea! It was like a light bulb moment for me. I must say that it was an unforgettable experience, and I fell in love with horse riding since then. The gift of horse riding for me, it will last forever…The gift of learning and experience can be a gift that will last a lifetime. “

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From Natalie & Tip:

There’s real science and psychology behind this too:

“Experiences tend to make people happier.”

“Over the past decade, an abundance of psychology research has shown that experiences bring people more happiness than do possessions… Experiential purchases are more satisfying than material purchases…”

– Buy Experiences, Not Things, The Atlantic

Some examples of gifts of experience:

Classes / courses / workshops
Something you make / bake – Lucy baked Focacia. Linda Lomelino is making diy edible gifts in jars. (above)
Invite people round for a meal / gift a meal to those without
Music / tickets to somewhere
Pampering: Facial / massage / barber shop (Lucy reminds us not to forget that men like being pampered too!)
Give back – make donations to favourite causes
Give yourself time and space – like this to do list:

PS If you have already bought gifts, don’t despair! We know your family and friends will love them! We would love this to inspire you to having less stressful ‘giving’ seasons and focusing on what really matters to you and your families these holidays. And give yourselves that time and space to enjoy what matters to you. If the to do list is making you stressed, release yourself from your commitments to yourself and gift yourself permission to cross it out and do things that make you and others happy, that are fun. That give you a break.

Happy holiday season! x Natalie & Tip

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Related articles: Apartment Diet: How to let go of gifts you don’t want to keep in 2 minutes / Readers Digest: Make Your Own Darn Gift / The Atlantic: The science behind Giving Experiences

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Tuesday Musing: Power of one, Power of many…

December 16, 2014 • nat • Inspiring • No Comment

I had a whole other blogpost planned, on gifts and what gifts we want to give this season. But then life happened, as it usually does.

Sydney my hometown, was held in fear. Under siege. An awful thing happened. And some people, people like you and me, died.

But some beautiful things happened, and are happening too.

The hashtag #illridewithyou happened. An outpouring, moving, silent memorialising happened. Fear was replaced with well, unity. With hope.

All these things are fleeting. The fear is there. But the collective also breathed together. Stood together. Held together. Rode together.

One lone gunman, one person, did this. One person has power. And the whole has power.

It reminded me of this Cherokee story.

A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them,

“A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves.

One is: fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit.

The other is: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, compassion and deep vision.”

A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The elder looked him in the eye. “Whichever one you feed.”

We do NOT get to choose what happens to us. We do get to choose what we do with it.

We have the power to choose, every day, what we want to grow & nurture. What we want to feed.

Wishing you all a peaceful and light holiday season, the world-over. xNat

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