This is belated, but….yahoo! I won.
I can’t figure out what to do with my 5 free yards. The options are staggering…

I’m trying to learn CSS since my web design skills are still in the dark ages. Lovely and functional, mind you, but up to this point I’ve still been laying web pages out in -gasp!- tables. After reading an article that said people like me were the scum at the bottom of the web-design pond, I decided to re-educate myself.

Some day I will wow the world with my fluid, accessible dynamic CSS layouts.

I didn’t like this last night but today I do.

This post is dedicated to all of the friends whom I’ve ever told “You’re house is always so clean!” and they’ve sighed and shook their heads disagreeingly. It’s also dedicated to every friend who’s ever said that to me about my house and I’ve done the same. It is certainly not true.

I’ve been reading a book that my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas, “Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life“. It’s been very helpful to me so far, and made me think alot about the pace of my life. Today it was discussing how we sometimes commit ourselves to things for the wrong reasons, and I started to reflect on what, if anything, I do for the wrong reasons.

The first thing that immediately popped into my mind is cleaning my house. I’m not a super neat freak or anything, but there is something in me that just feels better when the house is clean and orderly. Being a mother of two very small children, my house is now rarely clean and orderly at the standard it once was. I try to keep things as unsticky as possible, and the dishes get done every night, but I’m always feeling badly about the state of the house in general. A little guilt, a little shame. Especially when somebody comes over unexpectedly.

Oh, if I know you’re coming, I will clean and put everything in it’s place. The floors will be swept. The bathroom sink will be shiny. I will not let you see our “real house”.

Herein lies the problem. Our houses need to be cleaned at times, and I think it’s appropriate to try to take good care if what you have. But why the pride and shame connected with it? With me it is an act that is done “to be seen by men“, and I don’t like that. I know that I’m not the only one who worries about the way their house looks to other people.

So I felt the need today to take pictures of all my rooms, in the state they were in at 3:30 this afternoon, and put them here. I unashamedly (sort of) give you…my messy house. Not the worst it’s ever been, not the best, just a typical day. Feel free to show me yours. Maybe it will make us feel better.

I’m working on an image that will be incorporated into a dress by Rachel for a little girl who loves a moose.

Here it is.

Once I had a dream that I owned a vending machine, and in it I sold something called “Crab-cake Crab-cake Cakes”. No, that is not a typo.
And with that, I will leave you and Mr. Sandy-knickers in a very happy predicament.

Mr. Sandy-knickers has found himself in an unlikely but happy place.