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Iryna Federico,

Home organisation, budgeting and all the bells and whistles! Read a little More about me…

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GIVEAWAY CLOSED winners: @_melrusso @chloekerwell

GIVEAWAY CLOSED winners: @_melrusso @chloekerwell and @thatruralmummablog 🎉🎉 Fab news guys, I've got THREE @laurastaraustralia Lift plus irons to give away!! It is the same portable model as the one I own and use to disinfect my entire house (it kills 99.99% of bacteria and viruses (lab certified) and 100% of dust mites so it is perfect for our bed and couch 👏🙌.

All you have to do is follow @laurastaraustralia and my page (@fromgreatbeginnings) and tag TWO FRIENDS who will also win one each 🙌. They must be following both pages to make the winning entry valid. (If you already have one and love it, be an awesome person and tag a few friends so they can enter too).
° 🌸 So, super simple: 🌸
1. Follow both pages
2. Tag two friends who would like one (they will win one each too)
3. Make sure they're following both pages °
🌸You're set! Enter as many times as you like but tag different pals 💖🎉 🌸

The winner will be announced next Friday, the 7th of August and selected via a third party random generator. Australian residents only. This giveaway is not endorsed or sponsored by Instagram.

PART 3: WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO🎉 Honestly, not t

PART 3: WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO🎉
Honestly, not that much 😂. The day after we found out, I was in a bubble of happiness. Obviously the thought of something happening was very much so in my mind but I am all about thinking positive and not worrying until I have a reason to, so I listed our couch and coffee table from the home theatre up for sale. I thought it was take a few weeks to sell but a lady bought it the next day so that was gone. Play room was in the works 😂 🎉.
That was the last of my motivation. The fatigue hit me like a tonne of bricks. I turned into a different person and all the things I used to enjoy doing were of absolutely no interest to me. It actually took a bit of a hit on my mental health because I found no joy in anything and it was going to be ages before chickpea was even going to arrive which was all I was looking forward to but luckily I am surrounded by the most supportive and understanding people ever and it got better and better every day ❤.
I learned my lesson early on so now when I have a good day, I utilise that good day to the fullest, even if it is really early to do a playroom 😂. (When I designed the home theatre cabinetry a few years ago, I did so with the intent that it will double as a play room eventually hence the draft plans in the last photo. Obviously they're not concrete but I made a list of all the things my sisters had as kids and went from there for sizing). I have ordered two shelves from @goldenwhistlerwoodshop
(like the one in our laundry) for my office so I can display all my favourite decor from the home theatre there. Dom and I will combine offices and after I have my screen mounted, I want to have all the carpets cleaned so we can start on project nursery for our baby boy💙👶. (We weren't going to find out but I am impatient, gender neutral got too hard and I was 99.9% sure it was a boy despite everyone saying a girl so just needed to be proven right 😂)
So yeah, think that covers the last few months! Can't believe we have to wait so long to meet the little chickpea, too excited! 💙👶

PART 2: PHOBIA UPDATE 🌸👶 - (first picture un

PART 2: PHOBIA UPDATE 🌸👶 - (first picture unrelated 😂, just didn't want a random photo of a glad wrapped arm on my feed 😂)
After girls night, AKA the stick peeing party ...I was in a happy little bubble of excitement and avoidance for about a week 😂. I didn’t go straight to the GP because I was too scared to give blood so instead I just peed on two sticks a day because I figured if the lines were getting darker and darker, it meant my HGC was going up (someone give me a medical degree, genius).
I have been trying to conquer my phobia for years now. Kids aside, I wanted to be able to go to a doctor and have a general check ups without the trauma that comes with it or not die if I was ever in an accident and woke up in a hospital with needles in my veins, so this has been a priority of mine for years. Last year, I started cognitive behavioural and exposure therapy for my phobia which helped identify the specifics but unfortunately did not help with the reaction.
Every time I talked about it here, I’d receive numerous messages from people telling me that I would be fine once I was pregnant and it would just go away because you’d do anything for the baby. I can confirm that this was unfortunately not the case for me. If anything, being pregnant made it harder because I was stressing about how the baby would react to all the stress my body goes under when I’m in an episode, so I'm really glad I didn't rely on that.
What did help however was the hypnotherapy.
My OB and midwife were absolutely amazing. They actually booked all the bloods for me, spoke to pathology about my phobia and arranged for the most experienced person available to take my bloods. It ended up going through the head of the pathology clinic who’s name was Meredith, so I knew I was in good hands – Dr Meredith Grey knows what’s up 👩‍⚕️.
My friend got me some medical grade anaesthetic numbing cream so I covered my entire arm in it before going in. Of course it didn't kick in til after she was done so it hurt like hell 😂
We arrived and I told her that it wasn’t about the pain for me, it was the location and that I am of sound mind, but my body reacts really weirdly. (Continued in comments)

PART 1: HOW WE FOUND OUT 🎉. Dom and I had decid

PART 1: HOW WE FOUND OUT 🎉. Dom and I had decided to start trying for a family at the start of the year. Then COVID hit which changed everything because I was determined NOT to deliver a baby in a field. With my phobia and very active imagination, the last thing I wanted to do was give birth during a global pandemic so we swiftly pulled the breaks on the whole idea 😂. Around my birthday, restrictions eased and things started going back to normal in Adelaide so it seemed like a good time to start thinking about it again. That month, I peed on a stick every day, a week before my period was due and they were all coming up negative. Eventually I started cramping which I thought was my period so I was like “okay cool, no go this month so I can concentrate on fixing my phobia and also working on the app” 😂.
I had friends coming over for dinner that night and I asked Dom to get the wine down for us and I thought I should pee on another stick just for peace of mind. I was using those first response ones but I had just run out the day before so I all had left was a clearblue one which I’ve never used.
Anyways, I pee on this stick and just before my friends are due to arrive for girls night, I check it and there is the faintest line ever. Dom and I had no idea what to do 😂. We were walking around the house like headless chickens being like “omg is that a line, it’s a line, that’s definitely a line”. Turns out Dom was looking at the control line 😂. I send one of my friends a photo and she confirms she sees a line so it was game on.
I call my other friend who is on her way to our house and tell her to stop and get me an early response test because at least I know what those look like negative.
She rocks up at my house 15 minutes later with a bunch of flowers and more tests. I’m like “jeez, you’re taking this seriously” 😂. Turns out they were actually for my birthday (cute!). So we spend the night peeing on like $50 worth of pregnancy tests and comparing my very faint line to their negatives. Girls night…😂🎉. (If you squint enough you can see the difference in the pics 😂)

Part 2 will be in the next post tomorrow...(with phobia updates)

Bub is not even out yet and it's already a mess 😂🎉. Just getting our practice in before Jan 2021 ❤👶.We're really excited but can't say the same for Delilah 😂.

Ps: it took us ages to make this mess and I forgot the insta ratio crop which hid some of our best work. We imagine when baby comes, we will no longer have an issue with staging messes and having to pull out empty chip packets from the garbage 😂.

I need you guys to assist in a very heated argumen

I need you guys to assist in a very heated argument currently going on in our household: So today, we went for our usual walk to the shops to get lunch from the bakery. We ate said lunch at the park but I also bought a blueberry danish and a cinnabun to have at home.
🌸
Anyways, we get home and while I was out tidying the garage, @dom_and_delilah took two bites out of the blueberry danish. When I got back inside, I saw that he had eaten some of it and assumed that he didn't like it, so I ate the rest. (Like who doesn't eat the whole thing in one go???! 😂)
🌸
A few hours later, he comes into the kitchen while I'm napping on the couch. I'm asleep but I did hear some rustling and whispering.
Turns out, he was back to finish the rest of the danish and when he realised it was gone, a few profanities were whispered under his breath since he was kind enough to not wake me up.
🌸
Then there's silence so I return to my slumber but no ... he is standing directly above me, staring at me because he thinks I'm pretending to be asleep since apparently he saw a smile on my face while he was realising the danish was gone 😂😂
🌸
So, my question is: is it fair to assume that if he's taken a bite out of it and left it on the counter, that it's fair game to eat?
My second question is if he owes me an apology for waking me up?

**photo unrelated to event but I had nothing else to post since I ate the danish and enjoyed every damn bit of it ✌

(Disclaimer: I knew he didn't like the cinnabuns because I've bought them before but in the interest of detailing this event, you should also know that i bought both desserts for myself with the INTENT of sharing. He, on the other hand made the ASSUMPTION that I bought the blueberry danish for him since he doesn't like cinnabuns)

UPDATE: he has now hidden my cinnabun and won't tell me where it is. Petty game is admirable, I will admit.

Second disclaimer: a few very serious responses to this so I am a bit concerned that the humour I intended to write this with did not carry over so just to confirm, neither one of us is actually upset or angry about the danish 😂

One of my worst habits is leaving cupboard doors a

One of my worst habits is leaving cupboard doors and drawers open while I'm in the kitchen. Our house looks permanently haunted 😂. I'm just over 5' so it never bothers me because I glide right under them but @dom_and_delilah has had a few accidents in the past 😂. I chalk this off to: ☝️being lazy, and✌loving all the pretty colours inside the cupboards that I just enjoy seeing them open 🥰.

Anyone else? 😂

#kitchen #kitchenorganisation #organised #platterorganization #homedecor #home #homeorganization #organization #kitchendesign #kitchendecor #platters

Amplify melanated voices. . . . My own content wi

Amplify melanated voices. .
.
.

My own content will be muted til the 8th.

I received so many heartbreaking messages yesterda

COVID COBBS 🙌 has quite a ring to it, hey? 😂

COVID COBBS 🙌 has quite a ring to it, hey? 😂. Normally I would make a big cobb as an entree for everyone to share but for obvious reasons, we currently don't want any double dipping! Luckily, I love mini things and have plenty of individual serving cocottes and ramekins so everyone gets their own individual Cobb! 🎉🙌. Don't hear Dom complaining now 😂😂. We have a cream cheese and spinach cobb AND Dom's famous nutella Cobb for dessert (his one and only) 😂. I made my own bread (standard bread recipe, whatever you like) but you can just use a bread bun if you prefer. 🌸
🌸 Spinach cobb: wilt some spinach with onion and garlic. While hot, throw it in a bowl of cream cheese, a little bit of sour cream, cream and garlic powder. Mix, season to taste and add some cheddar cheese. Fill your bread and put into the oven until toasty 👌.🌸
🌸Nutella cobb: Melt some cream and nutella to make a ganache. Pour into bread and put into the oven to toast. Top with nuts, violet crumble, peanut brittle, peanut butter, whatever you want really haha
#covidcobb #picket #cobb #recipe #cooking #entree #easyentree #easydessert #nutellacobb #nutella #nutelladessert

I'm not going to lie, I have been absolutely itchi

I'm not going to lie, I have been absolutely itching to show you some sneak peeks of our app but the insta world is a bit nuts behind the scenes and we would be so crushed if someone copied the idea we have worked so hard on 😥. I'm most excited to show you the difference between where it officially started on paper (a Google sheets doc from 2017) to what it is today and the live and final version (hopefully within the next few months). The concept never really changed and that makes me happy 🎉. We really, really hope you guys like it 🤞🤞🤞❤. Believe me when I say that we have poured our heart and soul into absolutely every aspect of this and there are a lot of damn aspects as we are slowly learning 😂. I have unfortunately lost quite a few hours at work and am no longer full time however it has been such a blessing in disguise because I've gained so much more time to do something I'm super passionate about and it's a pretty good feeling 🙌🎉. #optimist #organising #homeorganisingapp #picket

@hizeroaustralia cleaning and storage: I get quite

@hizeroaustralia cleaning and storage: I get quite a few questions about how I clean my Hizero and also how I store it when not in use, so I thought I'd share 🥰. 🌸 My Hizero stays in the pantry right next to my Dyson (our bedrooms are carpeted). There is a power point behind both and that is where they charge. Delilah's water bowl is also here so it's the perfect spot because that dog drinks water so violently it's not funny 😂. 🌸Every time I finish using my Hizero, I run a self clean cycle so the roller is fresh. I empty the dirty water and rinse the tank. I then store it on its base with the lid open which prevents any sort of wet smell. 🌸 When I do my weekly house clean, I also give it a proper clean as instructed in the manual. There are also some videos on their insta page if you'd like to take a look. While cleaning it, I like to soak my roller in some water and their detergent so when it goes back in for the week, it's fresh and I can maintain it with the machines self cleans. 🌸 I haaateee cleaning appliances in general but it literally takes me 5 minutes and it's much easier than some other mop/vac machines on the market so I should stop being a princess.
Anyways, let me know if I have missed anything and you have some more questions 🥰. My discount code for this month is FGBMAY20 for those that are interested 🎉. PS: I tried a far lense feature on my phone because the pantry is really narrow and I think we can all agree that it didn't work out 😂

#ambassador #cleaning #organisation #appliancecleaning #twoinone #pantry

I've had so many questions recently about how I ha

I've had so many questions recently about how I have been able to go from 30 seconds of running to 30 minutes and I thought I'd do a post because I finally have a #fitspo photo to go with it 😂😂. (Feeling pretty damn chuffed to have been featured on @lornajaneactive stories a little while ago, chatting about our fridge and pantry organisation). Anyways, here is what helped me heaps: 🌸
🌸 Good shoes: for years I have been wearing boys kids sized sneakers from Kmart because they were so cheap. Don't get me wrong, I love Kmart but they gave me the worst shin splints. I was so against spending the money and Dom literally had to force me to get proper shoes because I was in so much pain. He saw somewhere that @adidas were the best at preventing shin splints so I bought a pair of those and boyyyyy was I pissed when I still felt pain but I realised it wasn't going to go away in a day and within a month... no shin splints 🎉. 🌸
🌸 While you're at it, good running tights with a high waist band and a pocket for your phone - I also used to wear Kmart stuff but pulling them up all the time was a huge energy sucker. My fave are in fact lorna Jane. I even tried the Lu Lu lemon ones everyone raved about and found them itchy (??!? 🤷‍♀️ just me or ..?)
🌸
🌸 Music: absolute game changer in pacing myself. It meant I could go for longer each time because I was running to the end of a song.
🌸
🌸 Fit bit: fab motivation to compete with yourself and be able to track progress. This pushed me every time
🌸
🌸 Track: I worked out a track with markers and knew that each marker was a certain time stamp. This helped me keep motivated and go a little further each time because as soon as I reached a certain marker, I had met my goal and everything else was just a bonus to me. 🌸
All in all, for me, it's all psychological. I hate being uncomfortable, I hate being out of breath and I hate holding things in my hands while running. Never thought I could do it but I'm at the point where I'm definitely enjoying it and that is not something I thought I'd say in a million years 🤣🎉. If you have anymore tips, drop them below 🙏❤

Since we are pretty much all digital, the command

Since we are pretty much all digital, the command centre that used to be in the pantry became a bit redundant for us. Instead, I thought I'd utilise the space for a bit of a 'health station' since we started drinking smoothies in the morning. The spot isn't ideal because the four purple baskets to the right are our snack baskets filled with every kind of chocolate and cookies the supermarkets sell 😂, but it will have to do haha 🎉. I used containers from @pretty.little.designs which fit really well into @ikea_australia photo ledges which I used as the shelves (I painted them pink). Voila 🙌

#pantryorganisation #pantry #organised #homeorganization #isoprojects #pastelpantry #unicorn #pastel

Organising this took an hour. Making the video too

Organising this took an hour. Making the video took a day so I hope it's worth my effort 😂. Dawers: @tanselstorage 🌸 #collab

Labels: DIY with a @officialcricut_anz Maker 🌸

Dividers: DIY with balsa wood from @bunnings 🌸

Product sources are tagged 😘

So we had some doors replaced today and I am lovin

So we had some doors replaced today and I am loving the difference 🎉. The laundry door (which I will share later) was a need as we lost a lot of light in that room when the place next door went up but I thought why not change the pantry door too and I'm so glad I did!
The guy that came to do it was super sweet, he said he loved our kitchen and also said my pantry was a "work of art" 😂. He kept calling me over to make sure I was happy with the hinges and stuff because "he could tell I like things to look nice" 😭😭 my heart hahahaha 😂. Needless to say, he did a great job and I'm really, really happy with how much it had changed the look of the house. I could only upload horizontal photos in this post so check my stories for some more before and after shots ❤ 🌸
Edit: We went through Doors plus. We were going to do this our selves with doors from Bunnings as we assumed our stock standard build would have stock standard door sizes, but we were wrong 😂. We don't have the tools to trim down a door so we didn't bother
#kitchen #home #homedecor #Hamptons

Thank you for all those that submitted fridge ques

Didn't exactly go according to plan looks wise but

Didn't exactly go according to plan looks wise but I can confirm that is by far the best paska I have made taste wise 👌👏 which is all that matters 😂😂. Happy Easter to all those celebrating today ❤
#ukrainianeaster #paska #celebrate #stayhome

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