sweet spaces

Yes I will admit it. The other day while Akilah was napping I definitely had a grand ole time playing with her dollhouse and putting some finishing (although am I really ever finished?) touches on her room. I have been in the purging process, ridding our house of excess "stuff" for the past few months now. So far 25 bags of excess have left our 990 square foot home. The basement (what a dear friend once referred to as the "stuff purgatory"), still has yet to be completely overhauled.

Since we have many family members (well, basically everyone) that live so far away, I thought I would give a little virtual tour of our home, starting with Akilah's room. Her space used to be my massage treatment room, so it is painted a calming blue. Still digging the color!


The clothes "dresser" used to be an old computer armoire. It is way to large (as I am also trying to limit the amount of clothing she has), but serves its purpose. The sole reason for the basket that is presently sitting on top of the armoire is for me to put "things" in as they make their way out of the house. :) This past autumn Akilah made the lantern that hangs from the ceiling.

The doll cradle was made by a Great Uncle when I was a child. The blanket inside the cradle was, of course, knitted by my every so crafty Mom. And Mazzy the Waldorf doll was made by my Mom and I for Akilah's third birthday. So sweet!

This hanging quilt was made by Akilah's Great Aunt when she was born:

I framed this Mama's day card from Akilah (with the help of my Mom):

The bed is covered with a lovely blue and green quilt that was handed down to us from Akilah's Grandma Linda:

And on to the play corner! Since our house is so small and in the spirit of less "stuff", we are also trying to limit the number of toys, books, etc. There might still be too much going on here, as the dollhouse usually lives in our living room. But while there is still half a shelf worth of books, we have made huge progress (that entire shelf used to be full and overflowing)! (We now also have four small bins, one for each season, stored in the basement. That is helping scale down the number of books available at one time through a seasonal rotation.)

Each bin on the gorgeous bookshelf (made by my Dad) holds specific items.
One for wooden trains, one for wooden and metal musical instruments that we scored at a pre-yard sale:

one for clothes pins and silks (a few old sarongs we used for bug protection during our OB days, one dyed with goldenrod by Akilah during this past school year, and two sent to her by her aunt):

one for a few of A's favorite miscellaneous fabric items:

and one for an assortment of wooden blocks:

I love this wall hanging made by my Mom when my brother was a boy:

This batik was made by a dear friend while she was traveling the world:

After Akilah shattered two different ceramic piggy banks, my Mom made her this non-breakable one that resembles a paint can:

A greeting card that I framed. Perfectly lovely for sleepy time!

A dear friend helped me feng shui our house last autumn. I am incredibly grateful and we are still delighting in all the changes. I learned so much and enjoy continuing to make small meaningful changes around our home.