The yarn and the fabric stashes have been tamed, and my sewing studio is nervously making its awkward debut in cyberspace. It's quite primitive right now, but it's a start. It's functional.

The knitting stuff found its way into a set of built-in bookshelves, next to a charming window seat, which is opposite this view. A nice place to sit and have some creative chill-time. (Here's the post about my knitting needle mason jar organization.)

Aside from the gorgeous landscaping, the thing that really sold us on this house were the two wired, modular workshops, which would allow us to separate "home space" and "work space." One of the buildings holds all of our sewing pattern/book inventory as well as a simple shipping computer, and the other building houses my sewing space and Patrick's office. 

When the doors are open to the gardens, the setting is glorious. When the doors are closed (and they have to be unless the outside temperature is perfect) it is rather cave-like. I have just that one small window up there. I'm thinking that the first thing that will happen (after replacing the house's roof, the siding, covering the painted subfloors throughout the house, and fencing in a garden space!) will be putting a big window in where the bolts of fabric currently reside. Looking right out onto the (future) hen house. Of course, in order to start any of these projects, the Money Fairy has to come and fill our bank account faster than the "I'll-eat-everything-you-got" Medical Bill(y) Goat! Hee hee. Darn goat.

Goat or no goat, this space will eventually become exactly what I need, given enough time (and paint); a practical place of work as well as a peaceful, creative escape. A place where I can recharge. I'm looking forward to checking out this book for inspiration. This Flickr group is also a great place to stock up on sewing room ideas.

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Speaking of places to put your craft stashes, my publisher, Interweave, is currently holding their annual Stashbuster sale, and you can find lots of stuff there at great prices (including my first book.) Upload photos of your stashes to the Stash Bash Flickr group, where winners will be selected at random to receive a bunch of free crafting books from Interweave. 

Who, me? Make a giant mess of my diaper while Mama is cooking dinner? Naw. (Wink;)

We finally feel at home in our kitchen. So much happens in this space. Food preparation (both real and wooden), baking, tasting, singing, carrying, laughing, frying, bouncing, dancing, spinning, stirring, pouring, washing, wiping, sweeping, and eating. A whole lot of "ings."

It's such a joy and a challenge to be in the kitchen with young children. I mean - there are moments when it's just so perfect that you can almost hear a chorus of angels singing in the backround - a two year-old pouring and stirring or happily washing dishes while the baby coos and laughs in the carrier. Then there are moments - you know exactly what I'm talking about - when the background music is so hard rock that it makes your head spin and explode. A two year-old whining, a hungry baby, a pot to stir and veggies to chop and something to get out of the oven all at the same time. 

It makes me think about the leisurely days that Patrick and I spent in the kitchen, pre-babies, making excitingly complicated dishes. This day will come again, but probably not until I have gray hair!

I don't mean to bemoan cooking with little ones. It's just a dance that you have to learn as a parent. Every day I feel myself discovering more "best practices" and making note of the things that don't work. One thing that's had to change around here is our la-dee-da attitude towards meal planning. Since we live and work at home, I've found that we have to have all three meals planned for smooth sailing. I took the time a few weeks ago to come up with a weekly breakfast and lunch menu, and it has made a big difference in the flow of our days.  This weekly plan doesn't change; we always have the same meals on Mondays, for example. Simple. 

I do plan our dinners weekly on Saturdays to keep our evening meals seasonal and to keep things a bit exciting for the cooks. I have, however, given up on trying to cook fancy, new recipes very often. We typically invite friends over on Saturdays, a day when both Patrick and I aren't working, so we can do more extensive cooking. 

I was very inspired by the article on batch cooking in this season's Rhythm of the Home, and I'm hoping I can organize something of the sort with my local friends.  This idea (via Pinterest) of doing all of the prep work and freezing individual meals for crock pot dishes is also quite appealing. In addition to making kitchen work more simple, it would also be a great way to preserve the harvest. We always have an abundance of a certain veggie in our weekly CSA share, so I could just look for a crock pot recipe using that veggie and make a few batches to freeze.

Off to make supper!

A hodgepodge to kick off Labor Day weekend! 

I'm loving ...

- this look. 

- this art project. Mosaic stepping stones are the perfect craft for a two year-old.

- Speaking of projects for young ones, I really enjoyed perusing Play At Home Mom which I found via Rhythm of the Home's new Autumn edition.

- using my great-grandmother's table runner, which she made (the word in our family is that I must have inherited a recessive crafty gene from her! Ha.)

- this book.

- and this one. 

- these slippers, which I'll be making for Finn this weekend.

Happy weekending!