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Here are some things that happened to me today:

• I found that, like me, everyone else likes to look at other people’s messy work areas and that most people are divided into “oh my god how terrible” or “mine’s WORSE”
• I did a big clean up of the house (alas, not the aforementioned messy workroom) and took pictures of Jack and Emma’s rooms to document it. Jack’s room is a mess again already, how surprising. I will post the pics soon. I love their rooms but they are rarely tidy.
• We had one of Jack’s preschool friends, Mohammed, over to visit for the first time (hence the aforementioned clean up of the house) and his mum and two little brothers. It was very nice with the kids all playing and hardly a tussle over toys. I don’t know his mum terribly well (we small-talked at preschool a little bit) but I think maybe we could become friends.
• We discovered that the aforementioned preschool friend lives literally a hop, skip and a jump away from us. How cool is that for the kids? They are off to big school (kindy) in, gulp, a week and a half and I was suddenly imagining the boys walking to school together when they are older, with Mohammed picking Jack up on the way and then dawdling their way to school while talking the nonsense boys of that age do when they get together.
• After their visit, we then walked them home to see just how close they were to us (and noticed that they can see the corner of our house from a spot in their front garden) and were amazed. Then Mohammed’s mum Hannan, offered for Jack to stay and play while I went and did a few things I had to do (go to the fabric shop for green ribbon) and leaving him by himself at a friend’s house made me realise that with Jack off to school soon, I will really need to start letting go of him. sniff sniff. I’m sure there will be a more emotional blog entry on this on the 6th Feb.
• Just before going to the aforementioned fabric shop I tripped up on my own thong - haha! say the Americans as they all fall about laughing hysterically, but no, you lot can translate that as “I tripped up on my own flipflop” instead. I fell really hard on my left hand and skinned my knees, and because I like to be a big sook when I hurt myself I now have my wrist bandaged up. Poor me. I seem to be managing to type though… better not show Paul this long entry so I can get maximum sympathy. Coincidentally our cat also has her arm bandaged as she dislocated her elbow, but that’s another story (with pics) for another day.
• At the aforementioned fabric shop, while chatting with the sales staff at the counter, I suddenly heard a huge screech of tyres, and turned around to see the automatic doors just closing and FREAKED, imagining Emma had just run into the street and been hit or nearly hit by a car! As I got halfway to the door I heard the staff calling that Emma was right where I had left her, playing with some toys they had given her. That was a horrible feeling.
• After calming down from the aforementioned incident-that-wasn’t, I happened to look at their sewing classes brochure and then asked them if they wanted someone (me) to take a Handbag Sewing Class and they were very interested. YAY
• That’s about it - my aforementioned hand is hurting quite a bit now.
• If you are bored you can guess (or count) how many times I said “aforementioned” in that post and then you can work out how many letters that is and then work out how much less my hand would hurt if I hadn’t typed that word so many times. It was fun though.
• And here’s a pic just because:

I took a lot of pleasure in seeing some revealing shots from Tree Fall of her very messy workspace. Too much pleasure, I think.

Then I began to feel a strange desire to share my messiness with the world as well. I really don’t understand why I have this compulsion. I have been resisting since yesterday but today I found myself documenting my mess. So here it is…

When I set this room up, I had intended to use this bench to do paper craft things like journal making but unfortuanately it has become a dumping ground. I still have hopes of cleaning it up one day and it actually remaining free of clutter so that I can use it!

Top shelf - old magazines including Black + White, Oyster, Cream, Colors,
Adbusters etc

Middle shelf - old photography magazines on left and lots of great photo books on the right. Red folders contain useful photocopied articles from still more photography magazines that I borrowed from the library . I told you I’m a hoarder.

Bottom shelf - crafty. Left to right: altered books/journal making/collage then some handbag making books, Japanese craft books, red folders with printouts like tutorials from Craftster and other places, inspiration photos, some quilting books, then magazines including Studio Bambini, Vogue Kids, Martha Stewart Kids, Kid’s Rooms, Ottobre, and then some books on the end. Printmaking books shoved on top.

Yes, there are more books in little piles around the room too. I know, I know. I just want to own everything. I think that when you know that everything you buy is a tax deduction it can be dangerous because it’s a great justification to buy things.

The blue drawer unit contains paints, stencils etc. The table is just piles of fabric that fall over every so often. I am seriously trying not to buy any more fabric this year and just use up what I have!!! This is the cornerstone of my Make More Money This Year Plan.

My cutting table. I use this all the time, obviously. Sometimes I dump crap all over it which then has to be cleared off in order to make things.

I hope you took as much pleasure in seeing my mess as I did in seeing Tree Fall’s mess. Now, come on. It’s your turn! You know you want to…

There are still more workroom photos and pithy descriptions of the pics in my Workroom set over at the lovely Flickr.

I found a new blog today, with the charming name of Snotty Mommy which has a great “rant” about why we like to stay home with our kids:

“I am really tired of feeling like I have to defend my choice to stay at home and raise my kids rather than working outside of the home. I love what I do every day. I love that we “make a band” with crazy instruments almost daily. I love reading them tons of books every day. Most of all, I love the cuddles and the funny stories that we make up. Or maybe my favorite is seeing them smile and laugh at each other. Wait. Maybe I love hearing ridiculously funny things from [them].

So anyway. Even though I truly love what is one of the most taxing “jobs” on earth, I feel like I have to explain it to so many people. I recently overheard one woman in particular telling someone that when she has kids, she will just go crazy sitting in the house all day. She said she will continue to work to save her sanity.

Now, I admit that there are lots of days when I feel my sanity is in jeopardy. But give me a break, this woman’s job is getting coffee for her snotty boss. Oh, and answering phones. Now, not to put down that job, but does it really give her the sanity she craves?! Maybe it does. Who am I to judge what keeps her sane? I am just tired of explaining that we don’t “sit at home all day doing nothing”, and that I do get out and do things for myself. I am tired of patiently telling people that there is something incredibly rewarding about seeing how happy my children are, how well they interact with other people, how active their imaginations are, how considerate they are, and on and on. ”

I think we can all relate. Thanks Tammie - you’ve got a new reader!

Here are my treasures, being silly and then insisting I take a photo to show everyone on the computer! Emma is being a puppy (one of her favourite games, she even fetches things if you throw them) and Jack is being… I’m not quite sure!

Thanks also to Karkovski for adding me to your links - I love your blog too!

I want to keep this article where I can find it again - and you might like it too. From Knitty.com, a great article by “Felting King” Rob Matyska:

Felting is huge. From books to patterns to projects and blogs, it seems that nearly every knitter has caught the felting bug. Or have they?

It turns out that what most of us who are knitters are doing is technically known as “fulling”, which uses spun yarns to created a dense, durable fabric.

So now you know the difference between felting and fulling. Yes, you remember - felting uses that fluffy wool roving stuff and fulling uses a thrift store sweater! The article goes on to tell us lots of great information about fulling in the washine machine and by hand. Personally I have had no success trying to felt (no, I mean full) sweaters in my front loading washing machine. I guess I will try again.

Anyway, that excerpt was just a teaser - read the rest of it at Knitty.com.