What Ana Does

If there's one thing I take away from this little sabbatical as a stay at home mom it's this: I really enjoy creating things with my hands. When I was a working full-time, driving kids around, stressing about dinner and passing out at the end of each day, crafting was very low on my daily priority list. Weekends were about spending time with family, maybe painting a wall and reading. Not much else to cram in there. But now that I'm home all day and have gotten some really big house projects done, I'm able to indulge in just crafting to craft. And with the holidays, I have the best excuse to create holiday decor things for family members and to pretty-up the house. I forgot how much I love to make things. I have bins and bins of crafting supplies that I've been collecting here and there but never had time to sort through and create. Now free time is finally here and I'm totally indulging in it ... and feeling sincerely grateful for it. Anyway, here's ...

I'm convinced mischievous little elves go through my junk drawers every few months and scatters everything I had organized. The Craft Drawer! Yikes!

Again we hosted Christmas with my family and again I was frustrated that we have a large space -- the basement -- that we couldn't/didn't really use. Sigh. In discussing plans to finish the basement, it became clear that we won't have the funds to do it in the next 6-8 months, at least. And maybe not at all this year. (It's a lot harder than you'd think to prioritize house projects/improvements.) But, I have to do something about it or this icky feeling of having a space in my house that I can't use will eat at me. So, I'm gathering my goals and figuring out some ways.  Goals Lego Land:  The girls use the basement as their Lego playroom. We've thrown Ikea tables and pieced together some rugs down there, along with some lights. I need to maintain that and maybe make it more comfortable. ( Note: the neighbors came by this weekend and moved a majority of legos back to their house, but I have a feeling they'll be back. )  The Home Gym:...

I'm working from home tomorrow (as I now do most Fridays), so I should probably clean off my project table in the office. Ugh! The "Project Table" in the office. No wonder it takes me so long to finish a project. What a mess! 

Pom Pom Wreath I started this pom-pom wreath as part of a playdate for Leah and her friend. The glue wasn't working on the Styrofoam very well, so they got bored with it fairly quickly and found something else to do. Then, I sat there for another hour, wrestling with glue and getting pom-poms everywhere. I eventually gave up and packed it away. This was in December. Ever since, it's been sitting on my desk in the office half-done and taunting me. I bought a hot glue gun in April, with the intention of finishing it, but I never got around to it. Until this week! I only had to dedicate 30 minutes of my time, and the tender flesh on my thumb and pointer finger (that gun was HOT), to finish it. But it's now done! Happy dance!!

Nana and I worked on a project for Ever in the living room. With help from the kids of course. It looks like a small tornado came through.  Hurricane Crafting