spring cleaning!

Since I had to wait for the cable guy to rehook up my cable, I decided to do some spring cleaning. I mopped, vacuumed, blocked some socks, tidied up my teaching bookshelf, tidied up my "former" dining table and moved everything into the office/craft nook/den and now I'm attempting to catch up on posting as well as blog reading. It has been quite a week. I haven't stayed late at school since my first and second years of teaching! I had been staying at school late because my fiance had dropped me off at work and sometimes it takes him longer than I expect for him to pick me up due to traffic. We've been attempting to carpool.
Back to my cleaning. While I was cleaning, I decided to look for 10 new things I own that I have yet to use so that I could participate in Robyn's contest! So here are my 10 items:


1. lip balm which I got a couple of months ago from woolgirl. 2. lotion I'm a bit of a collector of lotion and since knitting makes my hands so dry, thought I'd try this stuff out. 3. beach mat I bought this when my sister was first going to move to LA. We're not really beach goers but I think I can find an everyday use for this. 4. soothing balm I got this the same time I got the lip balm. It's supposed to help soften my hands. Guess we'll see. 5. project bag I have three of these. One was given to me my sp11 upstream pal and I bought a couple more. I have to try to incorporate project bags into my life as opposed to ziploc bags! 6. spray bottle Being the cleaner that I am, I got this a few years back and have yet to use it. 7. monkey bread mix This I saw at Wild Oats and thought of the Gosselin family so I had to try it out (not really knowing if this is the monkey bread they eat! 8. white hat This I got a couple years ago. I'm going to try to wear it for our hikes with the kids. 9. candle I used to collect candles. Now I'm not into them so much. 10. marie antoinette dvd I've seen this movie and liked it enough to want to own it. Now I just need to watch it again.
If you're interested in joining Robyn's contest, you just have to find 10 items in your house that are 'new', post about them and attempt to use them by March 22nd. To guarantee your entrance into this contest, you have to link your 10 items to Robyn's post.
Now I know you've all been waiting to see some pics of this new craft area I've got. Well, I was finally able to take a couple of pics. :) Please note that it's still in development! This shelf is holding my stash (most of it!) along with some magazines, a globe, and some other knitterly things. This shelf has all my knitting books. I tried to fit in my binders with all my patterns but unfortunately, the binders are too tall for this shelf. No worries. I'll just keep them in in my teaching bookshelf for now! Here's what my little nook looks like in its entirety. And do you see the beach mat?? I'm going to try it out there and see how I like it. I have yet to really hang out in my knitting nook since work has taken up so much of my time! We still need a few more things for the room-like a radio and maybe a comfy chair or something for me to sit in and a trash can but it's slowly coming along!
On the knitting front, I'm working on a sheldon. The body is all done and I've started on the limbs. :)