It's Done for Now!

It's as done as I am going to get it for now and I'm loving it!  This is my computer/craft room that I started cleaning up last week.  It's a small room ( 8' x 12') off of the family room by the extra bedroom and downstairs bathroom.  Whoever designed this room is so in touch with a woman's need for her photos, scrap booking supplies, a computer and desk, and so much more. My husband put in the cabinets and shelves like we had seen in the models.  I was an avid scrapbooker when we first moved into the house and was in heaven leaving my stuff out ready for the next day when I would come back and finish my pages.  As you see in the before photos, the extra stuff around the house had taken over the counters and this had bugged me since after the first of the year.  How did I go so long with such a mess???  It feels so good to have a clean room.  When we painted in September, we said we'd paint this room that next week and didn't do it....so it still needs painting sometime soon.  I store some of my seasonal wreaths and larger decor on the top of the cabinets.

So here's the same view of the room(which is hard to get a shot of, by the way!) all cleaned up!

This is the before...what a mess!  I am embarrassed!

This is another after.  I need to find a new lamp.  That one is an old one I need to get rid of the painting on the wall is one my son, Dallas painted in art class.  It's really pretty and looks so great now that I framed it.  This room has little touches of my children all over it.
This is another before..the handpainted calendar is from my tole painting days.  I can't get rid of it.  The photo boxes on the shelves are full of photos by year.  I am going to go through them this summer and really weed out the bad ones.  I have so many I've kept and for what???

My hubby wanted an area to put some of his things so they are not on the counter in the kitchen.  This is his little space with some of his books, etc.

I am redoing the wall above this area and haven't totally decided what to do...the framed article is one of when we were featured in the local newspaper in an article about how parents support their children in alternative sports these days however, our son Dallas got his story told of how we never supported him in his dream to be a pro skate boarder(he didn't really have talent on the skate board and was a very good student so we fully supported his education--sending him to a private high school instead) but fully supported his brother, Dustin in his motocross career.  Dustin raced for 2 years and had hopes of turning pro but soon realized it was a long hard road that he really didn't want to take.  We all had fun while it lasted and had many fun family times riding our motorcycles and quads in the desert.

Another messy before photo.

After~so peaceful!

Another after~see the wreaths and stuff on the top of the cabinets

 and a nice clean organized counter!

Some of the books I've started this year and need to sit down and finish.  My stack of CD's I don't know what to do with.  The candles are from my bathroom and I'm thinking about spraying them black.

I bought these three baskets at Pier One to hide some of my electronic things beside the plug in and to store cards I have for any occasion.  A friend gave me a set of cards from Hallmark with dividers for each type.  I forgot I had them so I thought if I get them in plain sight, I would use them.

Here's a close up of a card and the dividers.

Another before...more shelves with photos, craft supplies, photo albums, etc.

Here's the after...I still need to weed through some of this but it's better than it was.

This is the before looking into the room at the computer desk.  A country bench still sits along the Wall of Fame!

The cleaned up computer desk with the new iMac.  The child's painting

 on the wall is a self portrait of my son Dustin when he was in elementary

 school that I had saved and framed.  I love it!

This is Dustin's Wall of Fame!  This wall is a photo from all of his races and a few of his plaques and awards he received along the way.  I bought the photos in the beginning.  I began taking photos at the races and I started to get some good shots that I liked better than the ones the professional photographer took.  This wall has lots of good memories!  This room should actually be renamed my memory room.

These treasures are items my children have made me over the years in their art classes.  The snowman cup, Ariel, the little bowl and the handprint were all made by Danielle over the years. She always made such neat items.  The brown tea pot was made by Dallas his Senior year in ceramics class and is so special. 

I completed one part of my spring cleaning and it feels so good.  Hope you get some of your cleaning done and enjoy the memories along the way like I did!  Enjoy your day!  SMILE!!!