With the boys out of school, it’s been really difficult for me to get in my groove, but I have been able to pick away at some organizing projects.  Organizing is the kind of project that can be done in pieces between building Lego’s (I’m the “piece finder”), Ukulele practice, “snack picnics” and playing Creationary.  In the past few days, I was able to get my linens starched, ironed and organized for their next use.  The drawer looks so pretty now!

And I’ve been working on my office shelves.  As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m moving my decorating books to our home office shelves, but I don’t want all of the spines to look too busy, so I’m wrapping them in brown paper.  Brown craft paper is pretty thick for this kind of project, so I’m actually using a roll of the thinner brown paper that’s sold in the painting aisle with the drop cloths.  It’s used to protect floors during painting and renovations and it’s perfect for projects like this.

While I’m moving things around on the shelves, I’m thinning out the accessories and making sure everything I move back into place is something I really want to keep, not just something filling a space.  The group picture is of my Oma’s kindergarten class and the Civil War mini-balls were collected by my Opa in Petersburg, VA.  (He used to ride a pony through the tunnel leading to the crater before it collapsed.)

You know how I feel about scales and I have a soft spot for binoculars and opera glasses as well.   I’ll probably swap out this scale at some point, though.

I’m mixing in a lot of ironstone as well, since it’s my very favorite thing to collect.  I filled these square ironstone bowls with wooden spools and some darts out of my Opa’s attic.

Another shelf shows off another family photo as well as some ironstone and wooden croquet balls.  As you can see, I’m keeping things neutral, but adding some color with boxwood topiaries.

Of course, with organizing, it gets worse before it gets better…

Tomorrow is a very exciting day…my new Pottery Barn sofa is being delivered!!  I can’t wait to see how it looks in the space, but I’m also looking forward to having a comfortable sofa again (and so is my back!)  I’ll share pictures tomorrow.

Today, I received the order of antique hemp sheets for the online shop (and some of my own projects) and the new lighting for our videos.  I have several planned upholstery, painting and slipcover projects lined up to make some new video tutorials and now Jeff will be the cameraman and editor.  Yay!  Exciting things…