The kids and I stayed home yesterday and organized their toys & rooms. I like doing this a few days before Christmas so that I don't feel overwhelmed and annoyed by the new toy mess that is heading our way. After we were finished I felt obligated to organize my own toys. Here is a view of my sewing room that is about to be converted back to the guest room for my parents coming this week.
I spent some time in photoshop labeling my items for you to see and maybe to help me stay organized in the future?? we'll have to see about that since this room looked like a hurricane had been swirling around in there before my clean up and I am wondering how long I can keep it up before it goes back into chaos. I am always after the kids to pick up their toys and when I look at my sewing room I realize I maybe I am not setting the best example? hmmm.
It's true, I am a terrible organizer but I do have a method for keeping and using my scraps that has been helpful. I color coordinate in bags as you see on the middle shelf. This makes it easy and fun to use them for projects like this and it was nice to just grab the green bag to make this pillow a few weeks ago without having to search through ALL my scraps.
In our cleaning of toys I gathered up this basket to put away for awhile…
Ah, the birthday and christmas presents of the past. I love them so much and for years I have dutifully lined them up on the playroom shelf. Included are Archie, 3 Olives, Chloe, Ruby Doll, & a flower toy I made up for Anne's 1st Birthday. Also unseen below in the basket are a couple of wee bunnies, and a molly monkey. These toys are what really got me into sewing. So fun to make and such a pretty result. Well, to be honest, Chloe and her friends (who were gifts for nieces) gave me fits, but she is so cute it was worth it!
I really want them to play with my handmade toys but as I was cleaning out other toys I realized that a once loved store bought toy loses favor and I easily toss it in the goodwill bag hoping another child will be happy with it. I am not giving away my handmade toys but it makes me feel sad to look at my dolls, sitting peacefully on the shelf, while the girls chose the barbie bin again and again. So these are being put away for awhile and maybe next winter on a snow day I'll bring them out for a fresh thing to play with. Goodbye(for now) my pretties!
UPDATE- Elsie just caught me putting these away and said that she MUST have Archie and Chloe because they are essential to her games. So there you go, right?
