WAHMingIt.com

As you all know, we moved from Montana to West Virginia a few months ago.  We’re in temporary housing that is about 1/3 of the size of our home in Montana.  We have left a lot of our things boxed and packed away, but those things that are out are a constant battle.  The space is so small and there are so many of us.  The homeschool/living room/baby play area has been a particular struggle for me.  Feeling inspired my very organized and tidy sister-in-law who is married, has four children and lives contentedly in a two bedroom apartment - I decided to organize this all important area.  It’s our only family “living space” so it really needs to be well maintained and easy to maintain.

This is what I faced this morning…

Baby toys, school books & supplies, and a little post-Christmas chaos. Very unappealing.  Rather shaming to even post really.

It didn’t take very long to get it all sorted out…

Games and puzzles on the top shelf.  Those with only partial or damaged boxes went into zip-loc bags. The next shelf down is school supplies/books/pencils/colors, etc. The larger bin allows for all of the workbooks and folders to be upright and easy to thumb through as needed.  In front of the books (still in the bin) are baggies with various flash card sets. I put the kids lap desks up in storage.  I decided that for the time being they will need to do their work at the table.  The lap desks were taking up a lot of space and are not necessary.

The bottom two shelves are for the little man.  At 15 months he’s busy and likes to get into things.  I separated out blocks, bristle blocks, potato people, etc.  Books in a bin on one side of the shelving unit and trucks on the other.  It’s not perfect, but hey - it’s way better than it was!

I finished some amigurumi dolls:

A snowman I worked up based on The Cutest Snowman Ever.  My son really liked him.

I also made some gingerbread dolls for my daughter.  I purchased the pattern here on Etsy.  They are so cute and were quick to make.  Amis rock in that sense! These dolls also fit perfectly into my daughters new dollhouse courtesy of Grandma & Grandpa.

Sadly, I did not finish the sweater.  When I finished the first sleeve I just hated it.  I hated the way the increases and the color changes looked.  It was too ugly.  After some research I decided to pick up stitches at the sweater body shoulder and knit the sleeves from the top down. This is working out beautifully and I’m much happier with the look of the decreases as opposed to the increases worked when going cuff to shoulder.

I let my son open it anyway and explained that I was still working on it.  He seemed to really like it and was excited to see it finished.  What a nice boy

I am so glad to have these longies finished (pattern available here)! I started them while we were still in Montana.  The move to West Virginia threw a monkey wrench in my knitting and these were put on the back burner.

I knit all but the last few inches of the pants using the magic loop method.  The legs seemed to be taking so long.  Having four balls of yarn was causing me to slow down due to fiddling with the yarn.  I found it went somewhat faster when I put each set of two balls into large baggies.  That made it easier to manage all of the yarn.  [Read more →]