Tearing my self away from de-cluttering

Now that I've started, I can't stop. The newly cleared and repainted white space in my kitchen is like a beacon - pouring bright, revealing light onto every still-cluttered corner of my home. I want nothing more in life right now than to fill the trunk of my car with stuff for Goodwill and then clean and artfully display the real treasures that have surfaced. For instance, I came upon a yellowing piece of Japanese newspaper wrapped around something in the back of a drawer. I opened it up and found the tiny chopstick holders that I'd bought in a Tokyo yen store (like a dollar store) when Nicolas and I were there visiting his sister years ago. I can't tell you how exciting this was. I am going to make a Japanese meal next week for our visiting friends from Rhode Island, Persephone and Chopper, just so that we can eat with chopsticks - chopsticks that are picked up off of the table where they will be gracefully resting on these:The kids and I (with some local friends, the Wilsons) ate Japanese food yesterday at an unschoolers' Japanese festival hosted by Beth. It was great to reconnect with the Atlanta unschooling families.

There were lots of happy kids (who have all grown way too much since August) playing with the many surprisingly happy animals - Beth owns and fosters cats, dogs and a ferret.Above is Katie, holding Lucinda, who is named after the sweet girl below (Lucy for short), holding Violet.
There were swings, and football,
a fierce yu-gi-oh tournament to make Jesse's day, despite coming in second to Max:Origami, good conversation, and examples of cool crochet projects - Kimba's leg warmer for Lucy
that, on top the other project that I saw the day before at a more local gathering of friends:could possibly pull me away from more sock knitting. This beautiful blanket was whipped up in no time by Helen. I had to add the second picture so that I could commemorate the squirrel on the shelf behind her head, which was killed and stuffed by that day's wonderful host's husband (and Gillen's hunting hero) Allen. I have never seen this squirrel when we were there, ever. I had heard tales of him while on the phone with Allen's wife, Claudia, when she interrupted her talk of sweet tea to exclaim, "There's a squirrel in our fridge!"

But that conversation was at least a year ago. I have never noticed the squirrel. Or if I did, I don't remember. This is why I blog - to notice the details and then note them down so I'll remember them.

Now, back to unearthing the details in my home.