On Saturday night at around 9:00 I looked into the girls bedroom (above) and let out a long sigh. What a mess, too much stuff, not enough play. I made an executive decision that we were going to make a change, and fast. We spent the remainder of the evening moving bedroom furniture, weeding through mounds of toys and books and Barbies, and establishing a much reduced pile of play things. We are now at the Goodwill stage, when my living room is full of piles and I don't know how to get them out the door without tears from two little princesses.
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Upon the final sale of a few excess pieces of furniture (including the large white armoire shown above if you're interested) we shall take some "AFTER" pictures...you know, cause I love me some "before and after" progress.

Sometimes the office gets a makeover and Brandon takes pictures of it and I have the illusion that my house is under control and lovely to be in.... then I walk into reality.

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I might scream...

I was completely motivated after posting THIS "before" photo of the office to recreate our office/work/art space as a miniature sanctuary from the chaos of life.

• I found the maps at Mardel for $6 total - the BEST part of the whole space!!!
• We already had the art tables and chair and black shelving.
• I bought the pink file cabinet at Walmart for $45 - pink is perfect!
• I also bought the cute brown and green and white boxes at Walmart for $6 each
• The cracker jars for crayons and Bendaroos were only $3 at Walmart
• And the curtains were $18 (again with the Walmart), which we potato stamped for free
• The cozy winged back chair was my sister's, ready for Good Will (FREE)
• And the little blue table was $20 at the local antique mall (thanks to Grandma for the find!)
• I made the bulletin board, which bowed terribly (darn cheap cork) so we had to lean it on a shelf rather than hang it ($20 for cork board and elastic, $5 for little black shelf)
• The old green chair made for a good bookcase for now.
• The collection of paint brushes fit inside an old pickle jar.
• Everything else we had previously.

Total spent to make our space usable and inviting was about $150...

I love before and after pictures.

Well, mostly the "after" part.

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Unfortunately our home office is one big "BEFORE" just staring me in the face every day. I'm tempted to close the door and forget that the elderly PCs, the CD cases without a song, and piles of old pictures and birthday cards never exhisted. Instead I have now foolishly unleashed this madness into the interweb as a challenge to myself to come up with an "AFTER" shot and quick.

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Nothing like public humiliation to promote quick action.