Corners of my home

I've been reading the archives of a fun blog by a crafter in Maine, and I've really enjoyed a flickr group she started called "Corners of my home" where she and others post photos of lovely, loved corners of their homes. I've been in a real funk, home-wise, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mess that two children under the age of four (plus two adults and a nine year old) can make. For a little while, I've just thrown up my hands and let the mess go. But as I looked at those lovely little pieces of other people's homes (crafty, vintage, lovely) I was struck with the feeling that I had NO corners that currently inspire me. Which is a problem. So I've finally been motivated to give the house some attention, slowly but surely. And so here are a couple of little corners of my home that at least don't widly irritate me right now! (Okay, that's not the greatest recommendation ever!) It was really rainy today, and I did this in the late afternoon, so the light isn't the greatest.

My bedroom drives me crazy right now because ALL of the children love to play there and make big messes. I make my bed (almost) every day, and it gets unmade, rumpled, crumpled. It's not as though we live in a tiny house that lacks for play room, so WHY do they insist on playing in the one room that is theoretically adult space??! But I do love my pretty little LL Bean end tables and try to create a nice little reading and listening spot there. There would be a basket of knitting on the lower shelf if Little Guy wouldn't, well, eat it or something!

The dining room is one of my favorite rooms visually -- I wish we used it more! But it's one of the fun rooms to decorate... when we decorated for Halloween during family home evening a couple of weeks ago, we found we were out of spider web, so Big Guy went to town creating his own with black yarn, and I think I like it better than the pre-fab stuff!

This corner of the living room is a favorite of mine because of the old wooden icebox, which after many years of hints, outright request and begging, my dear sweet Mom gave to me. It was in my house when I was a small child in Maine, and I remember opening the doors and playing with it when I was tiny. When we moved to St. Thomas it went to live with Nana for many years, then down to Florida with Mom when she left the island. So it is my favorite piece of furniture anyway, and then combine that with the fact that it my yarn storage, and it becomes my absolute favorite! (I have this fairly silly notion that I'm going to keep my stash no bigger than what can go in or on this icebox... we'll see.)

Finally, a few pictures of the kiddos.

Miss G at gymnastics (inside on a rainy day through a window, so please excuse the horrible picture quality!)

Big Guy channeling the spirit of Jack Benny. (Okay, it's very late at night and for some reason I can't get the picture to stand up for me. So forgive the crick in the neck I'm giving you!)

Little Mister.

See you later!