Today we went on a treasure hunt...

.

. 

. 

.

and this is what we brought back! 

berry clown 

The Living Room-Have a seat!

A view from the hallway. The foyer is to the left and the kitchen is to the right.

sitting pretty 

My painting... .....................................................................................................................................and everything else. 

Behind this couch is Peanut's swing and baby chair. Of course, the chair travels around where ever Peanut goes which basically, is whereever I go! Next to the couch is a wooden box that holds the baby toys. It doubles as a side table. All of Corynn's toys are in her room or in the basement. THAT is the joy of having everything on one level! 

A view from the dining room 

The best for last! My BEAUTIFUL painting. I can't stop admiring it. I have waited a LONG time for a picture that is cow-free and somewhat feminine, and it was well worth the wait. I am making it the Deal of The Week mostly because I love it but also because I got it for such a good price that small framed art 1/3 it's size were MORE expensive than this monstrous painting! Hurray for good deals and for husbands who allow for frivolty every now and again.  

Soapboxes and other avenues of crafting

The next installment of our virtual tour one would naturally assume to be the living room, but I am surprising even myself with spontaneity! I didn't want to post pictures of the living room until I pick up and hang a GIRLIE picture that we just purchased from Kirklands-one of my all-time-most-favoritist-wonderful stores ever! So I was going to move on to the bathroom but it just so happens that today I FINISHED my craft room and just looking at it gives me a great sense of joy. So-we are SKIPPING the living room and detouring to the craft room.

Our home is a three bedroom and so of course, with two children it would work out perfectly for each to have their own room. Except I don't know that that WOULD be an ideal situation. I have always believed children SHOULD share rooms and toys and that doing so will result in several things:

1) You need less toys (and OTHER STUFF) to fill up individual rooms.
2) By having less toys-children learn not only to share, but that they are not ENTITLED to 'their OWN stuff'.
3) They share an intimate bond with one another that perhaps they would not have if they had their OWN rooms to themselves.

Now I realize, that the older you become that things change a bit and there may be a time when individual rooms is GREAT. And especially boys and girls-Corynn and Andrew won't be able to share FOREVER but for now, WHY would we WASTE usable space for a newborn who could care LESS and actually PREFERS to be close to others?!?! This is why we chose (actually Matt insisted-what a guy!) that I have my own craft room. One day, either because our two-bedroom 'shoe' cannot accommodate such the vast amount of children (hehehe) or our children grow old enough to benefit from seperate rooms. Whatever the reason, I know now and will prepare myself to give up my craft room if the need should arise, but let me tell you! I have never HAD a real craft room before-I have always made due with the dining room table and eating haphazardly until my project was done. What sheer joy it is to have a room all to myself! So, without further ado...

My Craft Room

The view from the door!

The bookcase holds all my crafting, gardening and photography books and magazines as well as my scrapbooking supplies. The dresser Matt just threatened to burn because one of the drawers broke. Instead I nabbed it and switched drawers to the bottom to have an open cubby for extra projects. To make it less of an eyesore, I may make a teeny 'curtain' to hang on it to hide the innerds of the open cubby. If I get really ambitious, I could make matching ones to replace the lace in the picture below! 

This gem is actually a kitchen caddy I picked up on the side of the road before we moved. I used the paper towel holder to hold some of the ribbons I most frequently use. The drawers hold scissors, pens, etc. Behind the lace I have stored glue, button tins, paper clips and clothespins. One of the cubbies holds my wax seals and my letter press. Underneath this is a pink hamper that contains my mending pile. 

Here is a picture of the chair I reupolstered and my 'drying rack'. I am waiting to put my antique tacks on it to post my before and after pictures but I just reminded Matt so hopefully, I can get those pretty soon. As for the drying rack, it is from some old shutters I bought at a rummage sale. When I was selling at shows, I used them as a display rack also. 

My drying rack...All flowers I obtain that CAN be dried-ARE dried. When this is full, I either pack them up or make some wreaths! 

Here is the closet, where MOST of the storage happens. I don't have any sort of large sheving unit (which would be ideal) so I made the best with what I had by using bins and then covering them with fabric for different levels of shelving. My problem is, I enjoy SO many different TYPES of crafts, from needleworks, floral arranging, stamping and scrapbooking, to painting. There is SO MUCH I WANT to do, and only so much space! I am just happy to finally have a craft room! (UNtil I have to give it up...) 

Here's a UPWARD view of the closet, where you can see my fabric stash. Standing, the top shelf is hidden by the curtain. The undershelf hangers hold (from left to right) hot glue gun and glue, flower press and materials, extra paint supplies, and Corynn's birthday party stuff. 

One of my 'slow drip' projects. When I was pregnant with Corynn I embroidered a girl fairy sitting on a stone, then embroidered a boy watching a snail. I was going to make Corynn a quilt out of it-but now that I have a boy and a girl DONE and I have a boy and a girl CHILD, I am wondering if I should just continue making gender appropriate fairies for all of our future children as well and then quilt them when I stop having kids. But by then, who would WANT it?  

Since unpacking my craft boxes and uncovering the lost treasures of our family scrapbooks, Corynn has been more than intriqued. If ever it gets ODDLY quiet around here, I know that she is flipping through our albums-AGAIN. As soon as Matt came home from work yesterday, she had to show him all the pictures and tell him all about everyone in the photos. She is especially entranced by our wedding album and often exclaims that when she gets tall, she wants to be a princess too when she gets married. Scrapbooking takes LOTS of time but times like this, when my family values the work that I have put in it, makes it ALL worthwhile. 

Come in to the Dining Room!

Here is our Dining Room. This picture is pretty dark-sorry!
I usually change my tableclothes every week or two-most often using lace ones. I put this DARK one one because I thought it made the bright sunflowers stand out, but I can see now that it didn't help the clarity of the photo.

In this picture you can also see my very favorite part of the house. The huge window! This window has a Northern Catalpa tree just a few feet behind it. It is one of my favorite things to sit at the table and watch birds flutter by and see the beautiful blooms of the tree. Soon, Matt will be putting up a bird feeder right outside the window, hopefully encouraging even more visits from our feathered friends. I would really LOVE to be able to photograph birds upclose and personal.

I made these curtains for our first house together and as you can see, they just BARELY hang low enough on the window. Since being married, we have lived in three different homes and these have been in each and every dining room, so I am GLAD that they work!

This is a view from the kitchen of my 'wedding pretties' wall. Someday I would LOVE a lighted curio cabinet or even a china hutch to display our wedding presents, but since I don't know when THAT will be in our budget, I got Matt to build me the shelves you see here. I just couldn't bear to keep them boxed up-even with kids. They are out of reach but I can enjoy their beauty every day.

I ALWAYS have a centerpiece on our table, I *try* to have fresh flowers-because they are my favorite. Now that flowers are more plentiful, it has been easy. We just go on walks or head out to our yard! I did buy the roses and sunflowers in this picture as the packages were only $3.00. As you can see, I added a few from our yard to 'round it out'. 

Lookie at what we found on our walk yesterday! Looks like we will have about five sources for berries on our walks! After stumbling across the bush and then plucking and popping in our mouths all the ripe ones, we left, knowing we would visit again soon (with a BASKET!) Then, further along in our walk, we found several other bushes! Here's to fresh and delicious berries; our only competition-the birds!