Fabulous Friday Fun #56…

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  1. Valentine *Conversation Heart* Chocolate Bark… If this doesn’t look totally and absolutely fun for you then nothing will… Go and look it is to die for!!! Seriously if you never want to look at another Valentine goodie on the web… then let this one be your last. It is simply wonderful!!!
  2. Daisy Yellow!!! What a cute find, I found my way here from my friend Julie K in Taiwan and ended up browsing down the right hand column for ages and ages… lots of lovely journal inspirations!!! Lovely, lovely, lovely!!!
  3. Emma Bradshaw declared a Den Building Day… Every day is Den Building Day over here!!! EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!
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    And always next to the book case because there is only one reason for a den and that is to create a Book Nook!!!

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  5. Whip Up has a six week series of Guest Posts!!! 6 Weeks I can hardly wait!!!
  6. I just can’t wait for Celebrate the Boy on Made-by-Rae: I know it’s going to be good because last year was fabulous!!!
  7. I loved BloesemKids Cute Valentines: Watermelon hearts!!! Where have I been, how cute is that!!!
  8. Heart of the Matter is having a Ten Days of Homeschooling Blog Hop: And I only have one thing to say… Lovely, lovely, lovely!!! Everything you ever wanted to know about homeschooling!!! E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.
  9. And the Se7en + 1th Thing…

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  10. This week on The Organizing Junkie’s 52 Weeks: #6 Negative Conversations.

So another week of organizing something!!! I know I said I would do those front hall drawers… but to get started was just monumental!!! First I got the kids to clean out the cupboards under the kitchen sink, they are full of eclectic and needed some serious discarding!!! Then I got the kids to sort the soft toys, which have been sending me to a place called “demented.” One huge bag that didn’t even land in the outbox, it bounced straight out the door before anyone changed their minds!!! We are down to one or two each and their collection of Beanies… I still couldn’t face those drawers. So I got Hood #1 to sort out four years of jamming all his music sheets into one explosive file – or not, because there were literally sheets of music throughout the house on every flat surface – all vital!!!
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We popped the sheets in order: grades, busking, play all the time, scales, sight music, and current faves… into a couple of small folders… quick and easy to pop any new sheets into the folders and move on… Now I had to start the drawers or give up blogging forever!!!
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It isn’t the surface, I can clear that in seconds, it is a chest of drawers after all!!! And those hanging things are supposed to help with quick getaways – they don’t!!! And inside those drawers, our crafty drawers – oh my goodness… My kids have free reign over all that is in there, and they will from now on have free reign over keeping it tidy as well!!! Out went the four rolls of fax paper for the fax machine we don’t own!!! Out went piles of paper that get stuffed in there when we do a quick clean-up!!! It wasn’t so much decluttering as apposed to just putting things where they belong. And doing it nicely… Our strings and things drawer looked like a nest gone bad!!!
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And this is what happens when a drawer serves more than one purpose… this drawer was for tools… any tools…
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That was easy to figure out!!! Stationary tools in one drawer and household tools in another!!!
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After twelve drawers and emptying out the hanging thing I had had enough… more than enough… so we did a garden clean-up of note… nothing like a day outdoors… Twenty-four bags of garden garbage!!! And guests for dinner ensured that the drawers had to get done!!! And it always looks so much worse before you can finish…
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Now, when I started blogging I said I would not buy any new craft materials until we finished what we had… Well I can safely say after two and a half years of using whatever we have I can finally say: time for more felt and our pipe cleaners are officially nonexistent.
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And there you go… the drawers are done. The hanging pockets have a place for things like borrowed books to return, bathing caps – we always need a million for gym, and kites… essential for stepping out the front door in Cape Town!!! And every drawer serves a purpose… paper collage, fabric crafts, sewing, sticking and pasting, beads, postage and so on. And so sorted!!!
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And a certain person has claimed one drawer as his own and unpacks it continuously… so I put his worldy treasures in it and he finally can claim a little space in our house for just his stuff and yes as well as pirates he loves crocodiles and pandas!!!
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Right… that is the craft drawers done!!! All I had to do was start… but in my head I rearranged the house five times and in actuality got so much done by procrastinating!!! The first thing I learnt this week was to get the things done that are driving you nuts… like the soft toys – took about fifteen minutes to sort… seriously I have spent longer every day for who knows how long saying pack away the soft toys!!! The second thing… a boring old thing, but here goes: you cannot store more than one thing in a place. Everything needs to have a place, it’s own place!!! And a drawer can only store so much!!!

Just so you know this week I plan to help my three oldest kids sort their stuff… the time has come to lend a hand to their sorting and shuffling and stuffing and stashing!!! They each have three drawers worth of stuff and all I can say is I am so glad my kids don’t have their own bedrooms and our house isn’t big enough to fit more stuff in it!!! In fact I think I am being way too ambitious and probably should tackle one kid’s stuff a week… Don’t hold me to it though, because I may just rearrange the furniture five times rather than tackle their stuff!!! See I am already talking myself out of it!!!

That’s us!!! Hope you are having a fabulous fun weekend!!!

5 Replies to “Fabulous Friday Fun #56…”

  1. I was just commenting on another 52’weeker about that moment when everything is out and so much worse you wonder why you started the whole thing, and then you finish….aaahhhh… ye that’s why! I am overwhelmed just thinking about your life! You are doing great in my book!

  2. Hi Alley’s Grandma… So nice to meet you from the far side of the world!!! Isn’t that the truth… it has to look so much worse before it can get any better!!! I always want to give up and will spend quite a while in the “lament faze” before I finish up…. I never think I am going to finish, it sure helps to have a deadline and guests coming over sure works as a deadline for me!!! Thanks for the encouragement – you are too kind for words. I hope you have a great week yourself!!!

  3. Hay Emma, Thanks for visiting… Love your “Official Den Building Day…” totally cool idea!!! Hope you guys have a fun weekend!!!

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