The Storm before the Calm

Not much crafting going on in the All The Good Ones household.  But there has been quite a bit of tidying and reorganising going on.  Must be autumn.  With growing kids, it is inevitable that as the seasons change, their clothes need to be weeded out, and too small items removed to be passed on.  Check out the pile on the right!  No wonder they couldn't fit all their clothes in their drawers anymore.

I've also attacked our wardrobe, which explains the pile on the left, as well as this pile... hmm, what to do with all those quilts?

One of the joys of living in a very small house, is that storage is at a premium, and whenever you tidy one area, another area will become untidy as it absorbs the overflow.

Some of the positives.
* I love my open plan kitchen, dining & lounge.
* I accept that it is not a showhome and that we live in this room 24/7 - it's comfy, cosy and practical.
* Bonus, we have finally got the lighting adequately sorted that I can stitch at night and actually see!

It looks especially lovely when it is tidy and relatively clutter free.  But there is still a pile of books under the table...

And the cupboard above the TV has become a knick-knack dumping zone...

 The start of winter means the fireplace gets cleared off and assorted plants positioned as far away from the heat as possible.  But I do miss dumping my handbag on top of it!  And we've still got the puzzles out from the holidays...

OK, now for the wardrobe... as the top shelf is out of my reaching comfort zone, I take no responsibility for it's state.  But other than that, I'm pretty happy with how it is looking...

And I've even got space inside to store my upright vacuum... which has sat in various locations throughout the house for the last three years... usually in the middle of a room.

Now this has been todays project - a new cubby storage shelf, in the entranceway/laundry (and if I could change one thing about my house it would be that visitors didn't enter through the laundry... although to be honest, we don't have all that many visitors - maybe that's why??)... to store all my lovely books, including the pile that was under the coffee table, and highlights some of my lovely decorative pieces - reducing the clutter on the entertainment unit.  And yip, even space for the handbag and library books at the bottom... and look, room for even more books.  Woot!

I have been doing "things" in my sewing cave too, but it's still in the "looks worse before it looks better" stage.

Arriving in my letter box lately have been some pattern purchases... even the envelope looked suitably chic...

And the pattern I need for one of the classes I'm taking at Taupo Symposium.

All this tidying might mean that some real sewing could occur during the weekend... wouldn't that be nice???