My Craft Room

You know those Christmas letters people send you.  You know the ones, they tell you about how their child found a cure for a wretched disease.   And their 10 year old is going to college.  The kind that make you feel like the most incredible mediocre family in existence.  I hate those letters.  I am so tempted to send one out telling our story!  How my son has had his cell phone taken away for almost the whole school year because he refuses to turn in work.  Or how my 17 year old will sometimes spend an entire day playing some sort of Zombie game.  He tells me he is just preparing for the day when we will have to actually fight them. Oh, and when he isn't fighting zombies he is tormenting the 12 year old.  And how the 12 year old just keeps going back for more.  And how as much as I love and adore my 10 year old daughter, I am glad she can now facetime on her Ipod, so she has other people to talk to, and I can have a moment of peace.  There is that one kid of ours.  The one serving a 2 year mission in the Philippines!  He's pretty perfect right now!

Sometimes I get those mediocre feelings when I am surfing the net, looking at blogs. I visit quite a few blogs that sometimes feature craft rooms.  They are always so amazing!  And I find myself getting very jealous.  I wish I had an extra $1000 I could drop on cute cabinets or a huge counter/island in my craft room.  I wish I had the desire to look for old furniture I could transform into a thing of beauty.   I wish I was a neat freak that would keep an amazing craft room looking tidy and unused.

There are rooms like this one...

and this one...

and this one...

But alas, I do not have a magical amazing craft room! I do have a craft room and feel very blessed to have the space. I wonder if there are other people like me. Other normal every day women that look at these sort of pictures longingly. Dreaming of what it would be like to work in a room like that. Surely the things I would create in a room so perfect would be magnificent. And if my craft room looked like this it would be sure that the rest of my house would too. Right?

Against my better judgement.  I have decided to share some photos of my craft room with you. I do this with the hope that it may make you feel better about the space you have.  My craft room has become more or less a dumping ground.

The Couch - this couch was supposed to make it's way up to the bonus room, a year ago.  But the old beat up falling apart couch has never been removed from the spot where this one is supposed to go.  There have been moments, when someone could come in this room and sit on the couch and visit with me. In fact it wasn't that long ago that this couch was completely empty of stuff.  I'm not even sure where it all came from.

 

My work table.  Now you understand why the couch is once again full of stuff.  I will many times hand something to a child and say, "Go put that in my office."  This is where it usually gets put.  You may be wondering - If this is your work table, where do you work?  That's easy, the kitchen table. Which actually explains the couch situation.  When it's time for dinner the kitchen table has to be cleared off!

And to show you that I am not completely lacking in organizational skills.  There is sometimes order to this space.  I promise my mother did her absolute best in teaching me to keep a clean and tidy room.  But as I have learned as a mother myself, you can't make them want to do it.

Another feeble attempt at organizing.

My lovely desk.

And a few years ago I started following this blog.  And I fell in love with this wall.

It just so happened I had an empty frame and some chalkboard vinyl. So I made a cute chalkboard frame like hers.  Then I started gathering things I could put on the wall above my couch!  I was getting excited to have a fabulous spot in my not so fabulous room.  So far this is what I've got.

Yes, they are laid out on the floor, and have been there for a week now.  I have come to the conclusion that I get bored/distracted very easily.  And I tend to start a task and never finish it.  And you know what, I'm ok with it.  A few days ago on a blog that I really like C Jane, she wrote about all the things she has on her plate. 

In between writing a book, making meals, swaddling Erin and taking the others to the park, I had time to whip up a Deseret News column.
(HOW DO I DO IT? I am comfortable with mediocrity...)

I can totally relate!  I have people say that silly thing to me!  I just don't know how you do it?  I usually respond that my house is a mess, and I make really unhealthy dinners for my family.  They just laugh as though I am joking!  But I'm not!  I decided at some point that I would rather spend more time doing the things I enjoy (which is sometimes nothing) than stress about not having a perfect house!  Please notice I used the word house, not home!  Because in our case, our very lived in, sometimes messy, sometimes chaotic, almost always noisy house, is the perfect home for us!  

And I am comfortable with mediocrity.

ps - please be kind with comments.  And PLEASE do not offer any service with helping me in my pathetic situation!  I am totally capable of taking care of this room, and there are even people that have seen it in order!  I just thought a realistic blog is sometimes a good thing.