My sister has been purging her house lately and decided to empty the open shelves in her family room and simplify them with just a few things. She is even wishing she didn't have them at all. It has me thinking more about simplicity and my desire to simplify my life. I have always been a minimalistic decorator. I like full busy decor in other people's homes but find it stressful in my own home. I used to feel that it made my home look boring and wondered if I should fill it up more but then a couple from our church came over and began to rave about my simplistic decor. They loved it because of the fact that it wasn't full of clutter. We had just moved in at that time and really had nothing, I have added to our house since then filling it up a little more but I always try to keep it simple. Recently a friend (who I know is reading this) came over for the first time and said my house was "cozy". That is the very word I used to describe how I wanted my home to feel when I was doing some decorating a few years ago. I love that kind of validation. :)
I did a little rearranging of the furniture this weekend while John was out of town. I like to keep him on his toes.
My office seems to be the area where that rule fails me. I did go through this weekend and purge a bunch of books off the shelf but that just means I can now fit the ones I have left on the shelf, still work to be done there. The main purpose of my work in the office was to organize Isabelle's craft area. Clearly it isn't working when she finds things by dumping out an entire bin (or two). The first thing I did was to clear off a bookshelf in Jake's room and confiscate it for the craft area (he had 2 so I figured he could spare one). Then I sorted all the craft stuff into categories and found bins around the house to put them all in. I am quite happy with the results and so far everything hasn't been dumped on the floor.
Oh the new organization always looks so good when it is fresh. Will it stay this way? Only time will tell. I have been coaching Isabelle on putting things away when she is finished with them. So far with my coaching it has happened each time. I guess part of teaching our children discipline is teaching it to myself. I have to be disciplined to remind her and teach her each time so that she develops the discipline to do it without me reminding her in the future. OH the work of parenting. I must improve myself to help my child grow.
So a tour of the new shelf. The top shelf is all the markers, different bins for each kind, crayons, a scissors bin and a paint brush bin. The black box has the dot-a-dot paints and then random craft stuff that I don't have enough of to give their own location. Shelf 2 has white boards and dry erase books on the left, a bin of stickers in the middle and field guides and some other random books on the right. Bottom shelf is coloring books on the left, bin of various paper in the middle and a folder of coloring pages she has made and wants to keep.
I did get her to brutally reduce the huge number of papers she was keeping down to a reasonable amount but would love some thought on this subject. At this point I could just toss to my hearts content and as long as she doesn't see it in the trash she will never know but eventually I should have a system. I did tape a few cute ones on the wall but don't really have a great wall space to do that.
Those of you with children may be thinking that the craft area is lacking a little. Should you happen to be one of the people who purchases a Christmas gift for my daughter, feel free to fill in where needed. I do have paint in the closet but otherwise that really is everything. Sad I know.
Normally I would say that I don't like crafts and that is why Isabelle has so little craft supplies. Truthfully I just don't like to have strange crafts around my house so I don't do them. I am learning to appreciate a few simple crafts and have started a list of projects to entertain myself this year. Be warned, if you are on my Christmas list you may get one of these things next year.
I have decided that since I have a fancy new camera I could probably make this kind of thing happen:
Should take me all year to find the letters I need.
How about fingertip oven mitts. I actually just bought one of these for myself (to put in my stocking) that I found at a craft show. It will be inspiration all year long.
My first idea was the Rice Pillows which I came across while blog surfing.
Oh and at that craft fair they also had those cheap gloves you can get at Target with a little crocheted embellishment around the wrist. My grandma taught me how to crochet a long string which I believe I am capable of attaching around a mitten. Oh the thrill of trying to revive a long dormant skill. I bet my mom could help me if I can't figure it out...
So what crafts are you working on this year?
Crafts, oh crafts . . . I used to love to try to craft, and then everything turned out so un-crafty looking that I now stick to cooking and baking. You will see proof of this when you come to my house. And your house IS so cozy, but it's definitely more than just the decorating! It takes people to make a house truly cozy.
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