January 26, 2005
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I finally picked up the prints of my Christmas pictures, just in time to show #1 daughter, who -- hurrah! -- is here to visit.
In order to finish up that roll of film, I documented the Great Tidying of the Crafts Cupboard. Here is the messy "before," which had become a source of irritation and frustration. Notice the paper bag containing the shards of the antique plate my husband accidently broke, and which #2 daughter thought we could turn into a lovely mosaic. That hasn't happened yet.
Note also the welter of papers, chemicals, and sharp things spilling all over the place. Is this what you want to see when you go to get your #3 dpns? By no means!
Here is the "during" stage, in which I piled all the stuff on and around the kitchen table.
And here the triumphant "after" stage, when the cupboard has become, once again, a useful and pleasant thing. My yarn stash is in the bright green container on the second shelf. I am obviously a piker where yarn stashing is concerned.
But this is the sort of crafts cupboard to which, if you have a school project or a sudden middle-of-the-night desire to try out a new technique, you can go with a pretty confident hope of finding the stuff you need.
#2 son made the mask on the wall here, by the way.
The Empress and That Man are endeavoring to tidy up the dreaded Back Room at work. It had reached levels of untidiness never even dreamed of by the Crafts Cupboard. They have unearthed lots of stuff, including many wonderful toys which I have been delivering to local childcare centers, feeling like Santa Claus as I do so.
My personal scores from their largesse include a neon "OPEN" sign which now graces #1 son's room, and many yards of canvas. I will have to think of something really cool to do with that.
Comments (7)
I'm impressed by the before and after pictures. I'm ashamed to admit, however, that my stuff doesn't even have its own cupboard in which to be messy - it's scattered every which where. This is, of course probably the reason why I get mad so often 'cos I can't find what I'm looking for. My feeble excuse is that I usually have about 5 projects going at once as well as about 4 books that I"m reading at the same time. I will put down one project or book and pick up another. If I put things away when I finished with them I'd not have time to get everything done in a day that I want to get done. (Of course, I'm also religiously anti-domestic and only very occasionally have errant episodes of domesticity when there is no-one around to see such trangressions - I have spent a lifetime cultivating the reputation of being a lousy housekeeper - why destroy the world view of others at this late stage.)
I was being mildly facetious about the generation-thing. If you are 3 yrs older than your sister then yes, you are a little older than I - your sister and I are about the same age I think. My siblings and I are at the tail-end of our generation - the oldest of my cousins will be 65 this year , my sister, who is the youngest in the generation will turn 41 next month (although she tells me that she will spend the rest of her life oscillating between 38 and 39. She was not happy last year at turning 40).
No I haven't read the book you mentioned, it sounds quite interesting. I'll check out the library to see if they have it. If they do then I can add it to my 3 nonfiction (Merchants of Immortality, The Lopsided Ape, Star Trek on the Brain) books to read while on holiday as well as the3 or 4 fiction books I also intend to read.
wow, it looks great! I love organizing things, unfortunately I don't have the time, nor the money (to buy wodnerful containers!) to get far with my masses of mess!
An entire cabinet devoted to crafts - that's awesome! All our craft supplies (and we don't realy have anything good, I don't think) are scattered willy nilly throughout the house. We've got stuff in the laundry room, stuff in the dining room, some stuff in the hall cabinet, and a large rubbermaid container in the outside storage.
Great organization skills. Martha Stewart would be proud. : ) . I dare not share photos of my mess. The organizer on your door is nice. I'm using a shoe organizer too, but yours looks like it has larger pockets at the bottom. Cool. Yes, I was reading your sock and mitten info and it was very informative. I cast on today for a pair of heel free socks from the Projects for Community Knitting by Cottage Creations. I think they are very similar to the socks in the Kids Knitting book.
Actually, yes, she told me that was her grandfather's name a while ago. Peace.
interesting stages of pictures...RYC: here is a map of the Middle East, Turkey is right in between the Middle East and Europe...
Darn it I meant to answer your homeschool question, then I saw something shiny and forgot all about it.
Did you want to know what sorts of books etc yall should carry?
I like the following in a bookstore: an area where I can turn the 2yo loose for the chance of 2 to 3 minute browsing times for myself... I don't expect to leave him unattended of course, but a semi-enclosed area (liike with one entrance/exit) with no destroyable objects or displays within view of the nonfiction areas of the store is just fantastic. I've never seen it, actually, but man I would never ever patronize another bookstore if I found one with that. I'm half-dreamy just thinking of it... sigh.
As far as what you carry, I like to find an assortment of subjects without too much concern for depth of topic, if that makes sense. I'd rather see as many specific subject areas as possible, even if the selection in those areas is quite limited, than indepth coverage of one or two things to the general detriment of the rest. I guess that's a pretty obvious thing to say, but I get very dispirited by the chain stores with their massive fiction sections and the dearth of good nonfic. I guess that's not exactly homeschooler specific (more knowledge junkie specific) but if I need indepth knowledge after an initial intro to a subject i''l special order it. (my son is trying to climb into my cd-rom drive I really have to close)
Oh and I always buy in the following order: library/school binding, hardcover, paperback (when I am buying books for my children or reference works.) I hesitate to purchase paperback for anything unless I have no choice because they just fall apart so fast. We reread A LOT in this house, and the average book will be read by at least 3 people (adults or teens) at least 3 times. This is not to mention the kids books which get very well loved very quickly.
OK, boy insane, perhaps more later.
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