Creative Juices Are Flowing

(Editor's note: I was going to warn you that this post really won't be interesting to you unless you are perhaps a grandparent, but then I realized that applies to the majority of my posts, so I'm not going to warn you, just remember this is my journal and you are welcome to be bored to tears.) We are thrilled to announce that Brennan and I finally tackled the den and created an arts and crafts room for the kids. I get my dining room back - yay!!!!

I should have taken a "before" picture, because without that you just won't understand what a feat this was. First of all, clear back in like August when I was called as choir director the former choir director brought a huge filing cabinet and a room full of music. I tried to re-organize the music and put it in big bankers boxes, so then we had bankers boxes, huge filing cabinet and other choir stuff. Then every time we weren't totally sure where to put something, it went into the den. Shortly after that we had our carpets cleaned and because the den sort of hooks onto our bedroom (separated by sliding doors) we put our bedroom couches in there too. We decided we loved our room sans couches and the inevitable clutter that piled up on them, so we left them in the den.

Yesterday we tackled it all. Goodbye old couches, goodbye filing cabinet, bankers boxes, old computer and bags and bags and bags of garbage. Goodbye and good riddance. Since we moved our computer into the family room a couple of years ago, the den has been largely unused except for as a dump. We are so excited to be utilizing this great space with built in desks and shelves and cabinets. We're also excited that people won't walk into our living room and see mounds of creativity piled on the dining room table.

The best part is how excited the kids are. They each have a drawer where they can store their projects and supplies, plus I've promised I'll buy plenty of new art supplies for them now that we have somewhere to put them. The downside is we have hardly seen the girls since, but they have already produced some fabulous works of art. The boys have also spent a fair amount of time in there. It was fun to create such a fun change without spending one penny.

Brennan gets the top shelves for his important things :)

The happy artists

Abby has to bring something she made for show and tell this week and decided she wanted to bring something 3-d, so she came up with this flower in a pot.

Both girls made "pocket buddies" which is basically just a little girl they each drew and then laminated by wrapping it in scotch tape which they keep in their pocket all day. Today they worked on creating homes for their buddies.

The pictures are sideways, but here's Abby's

Here's Anna's