Decluttering, or the room of doom

We all have one. It may not be an entire room, it can be a closet, or a cabinet or a table ... but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Our room of doom is our least favourite in the house. Believe it or not we don't live in a big house considering we're seven and we homeschool, so here we are day in and day out all day long, but this room facing west with no stove in use ( the one in there has some problem ) for many months it's just too dark and cold to spend time in there. So from time to time I try to organize it, but then something happens and we're back again, just piling stuff in there. But with the beginning of the new year I felt the urge to de-lazy myself and declutter the house and of course this was the place to start.
So, in shame, I'm going to show you how the room looked at the beginning of january ....

Aaaaaaaaaaargh ! At this point I was almost sure I wanted to simply lock the room and pretend it didn't exist. But I didn't give up and everyday I spent hours every afternoon ( with the help of Jimmy and Gaia ) just sorting things : keep, give away, throw. I filled countless bags of trash, three big boxes of stuff to give away and moved basically every furniture in the room to find the right spot for everything.

Here how the room lookd halfway...

Much much better isn't it ? You see the last picture ? Over the unused wood stove I put all of our looms.

No kidding, I think we have around 15 different looms ! Bigger smaller, round, squared rectangular for beads ... now it looks like an obsession to me ! :) And the craziest thing is that I am the one really obsessed but hardly ever have the time to start, let alone finish, any project. Well when I'll be a lovely old lady I will spend my time just weaving on my looms ;)

But well, fast forward to this morning....

Incredible isn't it ? There's still some stuff around but now we can actually use the room ! Here the three middle kids were working on some english worksheet ( from esl-kids.com ) aftern months of wild unschooling they asked me for some esl work and some table time, so our newest room is just perfect for the task. And Jimmy ?

Jimmy has his own corner, with his table and his basket full of art supplies and a nice black\white board. When the older kids after breakfast move from the kitchen to the 'craft room' he starts cheering in happiness ' we're going to write with the pen, we're going to write with the pen !!! ' so he sits at his table, with pen and paper and writes . From time to time he calls me '' Mom, I am here writing'' and I sit beside him for a while showing my appreciation for his work.

A decluttering story with a happy ending :)

p.s. Caught in the decluttering fever, i emptied a nice basket and i made a winter&wool basket, where I put my hats, gloves and scarves so that I don't have to look after them everytime I need to get out ...

I wish you some happy decluttering yourself !!

Two of many

I could describe myself as a craft-addicted ( and pictures addicted, painting addicted, writer wannabe ... you got the picture ahahah pun intended of course ) but in this right moment of my life I'm kinda working to make all those passion something 'more'. So at the moment I have litterally dozen of projects going on and I happily jump from one to the other without negletting none of them. Of course it may take a week or two before coming back to one of the projects ( depending if I'm finishing one, in case I just concentrate on that one ) but I'm quite satisfied to see all of them progressing somehow and most of all having quite clear in mind where I am going and what I want to achieve. Here two of my WIP.

This is part of a looooooong term project. I need it finished for may and I hope it will turn out as it looks in my mind. I'll try to update my WIP while it progress also to keep track of my work.

This is a colourful blanket I started more then one year ago. I almost forgot about it until few weeks ago when I started a de-cluttering camp and got hold of this lovely basket filled with woolen goodies and included it in my 'stop the pity party and roll your sleves up' plan to better my life.

I can't wait to see it finished. 

:)

Winter & Wool

This morning we woke up at -18. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the frozen snow was glittering and so was the whole world. When it's so cold the air itself freezes and you can see these tiny crystals floating in the air. Birches' fronds covered in frost looked like delicate lace. As a nature lover my heart is full of amazement for the stunning beauty of nature in the very different season we enjoy during the year.
The colder climate inspired me for a new knitted hat and a pair of crocheted fingerless gloves. The knitting always takes longer ( I only learned to knit when I was 30 years old ) but I crocheted the gloves in less than two days. Unfortunately I don't have a pattern to share as I invented either the hat and the gloves while working ( and of course didn't write it ...).

:)