The room has been conquered!

After several days of hit-and-miss cleaning/organizing, we finally settled in yesterday afternoon and worked methodically on the room.  We already had the closet cleaned out and reorganized, and both the cabinets were filled and in order, so we started in yesterday on the bookcases.  After reorganizing all three of those we began working down the wall that holds the sewing machines, their tables, and the file cabinet; periodically working on the ironing board as it kept being a catch-all.

I even did a little decorating.  These bears,

most of which were given to me by the girls or

my step-mother, along with the old laundry stuff

(yes, people have told me the old Clorox bottle looks

like a whiskey/moonshine bottle :D), used to be on

the mantel in the den of our previous house.  Since

we don't have a mantel over our current fireplace

these have been sitting in a box.  I thought it was

high time the place was more than just utilitarian.

T.Lynn wanted to take a picture too.

Instead of buying another shelf or cabinet, I

bought this basket to keep some of the prettiest

pieces of fabric in.  I think it looks right nice on

the cabinet by the computer table.

A clean sewing table encourages one to work

so much more than a disorganized one. I even

found the dust cover for the machine. :)

While we were at all the cleaning and reorganizing I went ahead and reorganized the school desk/cart for next week.  It kind of made sense, since the tall bookcase (the one with the bears on it) has a lot of the extra school stuff in it and I wanted to move over some things that we would be working on.  Now we're all set to start school again.  Just three this year - I'm still marveling over that just a bit.

Miscellaneous stuff:

Play clay I made for the two youngest on Tues. They've been asking me to make it for quite a while.  They've also missed out on some one on one time with mom because I've been so busy, so I set aside a couple of other tasks and worked with them on the clay.  They especially loved helping to mix the dye to get the colors.  It was a little hit-or-miss since the clay darkens, and sometimes the red/pink dye comes out more as it cooks.  The best things about this homemade clay though are: 1) It's cheap - the cream of tarter is the most expensive ingredient, but I buy it at Aldi when I find it there, so it's not that bad. 2) It doesn't smell bad.  I REALLY dislike the way store-bought play-dough smells.

If you've never tried making it the recipe is:

1 &1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 c. salt

3 tsp. cream of tarter

1 &1/2 c. water

1 &1/2 Tbls. vegetable oil

food coloring of your choice

Mix the dry ingredients together in a pot; stir in the water and oil; add food coloring (remember, it gets darker/brighter as it cooks); cook over medium heat until it all comes together and doesn't stick to your fingers when you pinch it. Turn it out on the counter to cool a bit and then knead it until it's smooth. Store it in zipper bags or other air tight containers.

I always buy the cheapest ingredients I can for this (after all, they're not eating it) except for the oil.  I didn't want to buy a whole bottle of oil for just a few tablespoons, so I used the olive oil I had on hand.  I thought it might alter the color some, but it didn't.

One of the sunflowers in the corner garden.

Tomatoes growing over onto the deck.

Cukes too.

Now I'm off to cuddle the littlest one.  She still needs some prime mommy time.

Becky