Our Play Room - a place of order and beauty for the little ones and Mamma!

    I recently realized that I haven't posted here in over a year! My, how the time flies! This past year has been a crazy one. We were displaced from our home for 5 months after Hurricane Isaac nearly destroyed the house were living in. We spent two months in medical housing at Tulane. (Yes, our family of four was living in a dorm!) Then, three months at a furnished apartment. All the while, our furniture and most of our belongings were in storage. We had to pack quickly, and we didn't know where a lot of things were. I can't describe how stressful those first two months were. I literally had no time or energy to do anything except get through each day.
    Moving back home was such a relief!  In the weeks before moving in, I literally lost sleep imagining how I would set up our new home. Not having a dinner table or a real indoor or outdoor space for my children to play for awhile was a real challenge for us.  So, when we moved in, I quickly set out to make this house a home.
    We ended up moving from the upstairs unit to the downstairs unit of the house, which has many advantages.  There are no stairs to climb, an updated kitchen (with a dishwasher!), and a third bedroom. Additionally, because of the closed off bedroom and the fact that we only have one front entrance instead of two, we have a lot more wall space.  This allowed me to make one large front room  our "play room."  I bought shelving to organize the boys' toys and I found a wonderful storage unit of cubes and baskets from IKEA to store all my crafting supplies. It feels so great to finally have all of that organized instead of piled up everywhere!  I even has room to display some of my photos and "pretties."
    I have been obviously inspired by Montessori and Waldorf principles, so the room reflects that with lots of natural materials, baskets, low shelves for the kids, and a general sense of simple order and beauty.  The boys' musical instruments, puzzles, hand-made toys from their grandpa, and Aiden's board games are all displayed and easily accessible. There is a place for everything and that makes it easier to keep everything in its place!
    My craft table is no longer stacked with stuff, so I have a lot more work space. I even sort of inherited a sewing machine and am learning how to sew!  I'm looking forward to some new crafting adventures.

   So, without further ado, here are the pictures!