Sunday, we rearranged some furniture and put Robin’s crib in the bedroom. Once we were done, I bent to pick Robin up and pulled a muscle in my back. I’ve been pretty limited in what I can do this week. :/
Monthly Archives: December 2012
I’ve heard a rumor from some elves about a letter my cousins will be receiving :
Dearest W and P,
As I was making 50 gallons of hot cocoa for the elves’ afternoon snack, my husband, Santa, rushed in the kitchen. “Merry! W and P are moving! Please make sure they aren’t missed!” He was in such a hurry to finish the toys in time for his trip, he used his finger-to-his-nose-with-a-wink-and-a-nod trick to disappear and go back to the workshop! I wish he wouldn’t do that in my kitchen. It gets sparkles in my flour.
Well, I asked one of my kitchen helpers to finish the cocoa while I went to my office. You see, there are so many children in the world, Santa and most of the elves work 363 days a year (two days off for our summer retreat in Hawaii) building and wrapping toys, preparing the sleigh, and keeping the reindeer fit, that I have been keeping track of the paperwork and other chores for the last 30 years. I still prefer to bake cookies and tend to Santa’s suit, but someone needs to coordinate things, like making sure over 1500 hundred elves pack swim suits and flip flops, or that enough sun screen has been packed (winter elves sunburn SO easily!).
Hearing the news of your move, I called to my best friend and assistant, Holly, as I swept into the office: “We have an address change!” We made sure your presents were packed in the ‘Oregon’ part of Santa’s bag, removed your Washington address from Santa’s itinerary, and made sure your Grandma and Pa’s address was marked on Santa’s map with a star.
Now, I don’t normally write to all the children who move close to Christmas – there are a lot of them! But, when Santa tells me himself (usually we hear from the Post Master General) I know this is a very special case!
So, please don’t worry, Santa knows where you are. Please be kind to each other, do your chores, and leave some cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. I worry they’ll waste away from hunger on this trip!
Merry Christmas, dears!
Love,
Mrs. Merry Claus
My Mom, brother and I have a date after Christmas this year. While all of Mom’s Christmas decorations are out, cheering up the living room and kitchen, we are going upstairs to the attic to liberate all of the treasures my brother and I have packed away as we grew. J and I have been asking to get up there for several years now, especially since we both have had our own children, but Mom has been putting us off. “Oh, you have time for that later! … Wait until you have more room! …” It finally occurred to me that, in order for J or I to get our things, Mom has to get her things out of the way! So, we all have a date for sorting through the attic. J and I promised to help Mom sort out her treasures and put them back in the attic and we’ll take our boxes to our current homes.
Until this last week, I’d been mentally cataloging my old toys: Strawberry Shortcake, Barbies, Sea Wees, dolls, dolls, dolls. And the books! My Nancy drew collection, CS Lewis, all those bad ghost stories, the Dolls in the Attic, … so many more! But an errant photo on Pinterest sent me down a trail past a long forgotten pastime: my dollhouse. Oh, Brae of Otterine, and your incredible talent! Why resurrect this long dead dream? Why must I now be cataloging my miniatures: that Chrysenbon bathroom kit, those 3 dozen “Nutshell News” magazines, the new stair set for the addition that I wasn’t sure how to install all those years ago, but now your blog has shown me how? Now, when space and time are the most problematic for me?!
I know it’s up there. I know we’ll be pulling its sheet shrouded form from deep behind the walls and catacombs of my dusty childhood soon. I know the last thing I need is a new major project.
I’ll need to find a place to put it.
I started at this house with my own craft room. It never looked organized, but I navigated it well enough and always had my sewing machines (my Brother serger, my 1974 Kenmore, and my 1954 Elna on a treadle) out and ready to use. Here is one part of the room when it was organized.
And here is a photo showing all of my unfinished projects piled up on my work table.
Phew! That’s a lot of stuff!
When I got pregnant, I thought a lot about how to organize our space. We’ve mostly been living like college kids with our computers and projects taking up the living room, but I wanted guests to feel comfortable – not sitting in a computer chair or a couch immediately behind a dining room table. I also knew with a crawling baby and walking toddler, we needed baby proof space for Robin to spend a lot of time in. Instead of turning my craft room into a nursery, I decided to make it our office and make the front room a real living room that is safe for Robin to play in. Either way, I had to drastically downsize my crafting projects and supplies.
I decided that I would keep out my scrapbooking supplies, since I anticipate doing a lot of scrapbooking about our family as well as a few, select sewing projects (snail trail quilt, doll cloths (when we weren’t sure about Robin’s sex), and yarn and embroidery supplies). Everything else either went to Goodwill or up in the attic. Actually, almost everything went into the attic. Someday I’ll have an even bigger studio and need all that stuff!
Warren and I moved our computers into the what-was-once-the-craft-room and my supplies were haphazardly crammed into the closet and a bookshelf. Here’s the sewing closet. It is approximately 41″ x 21″ and 9 feet tall.
Observe my office area and scrapbooking shelf:
It’s all so MESSY!! I’d like to sew a cover for my household notebook, but I don’t want to get into that closet. And Warren keeps stepping on stuff trying to get to the window to pull the blind. Some day soon, I’m hoping next week even, I’ll be organizing these spaces so they function. And, after all the blogs I’ve been looking at, maybe they’ll look nice, too!
PS: Go buy something from my Etsy shop – I need the space!! 😀