Okay, it’s not perfect but I have a corner. Baby Bug says it’s okay that I keep my crap in her room because my crap is interesting. Especially the cup of 52 Sharpie pens. That’s her favorite. Good thing those caps don’t come off easily because she likes to play 52-Sharpie-Pick-Up every day. It’s her favorite game, right up there with eating crayons, messing up the television and climbing up on top of her toy box. Phew, it’s fun being a mom.

I don’t work much in this corner yet but I will on Friday when Super Sitter Number Two comes for a visit. I’m so excited. I shouldn’t be. I should not work. Why do I like to work so much? Toby says I should just design for fun, not money. Which I do. Right here on this blog. But I still like to work because I like to buy cute little outfits for Baby Bug and somebody has to pay for all those grande lattes from Starbucks. Not mention I have grand dreams of getting rich quick and buying a house with a washer and dryer AND an office just for me.

This morning I was wishing I didn’t work because I had to do my resale taxes. I hate doing my taxes. My taxes are easy and I still hate them. I just hate forms. I don’t sell anything other than my non-taxable labor so I just put zero zero zero down the form and send it off with a prayer. But still, just trying to read the form gives me hives. I should just work for free. I’m getting rid of my resale license pronto. It is way more work than it’s worth and I don’t need it anymore. I’ll miss doing flowers for weddings but the paperwork is not worth the hassle. If any bride wants me to do flowers, she can buy them herself and pay me to show up.

I’m rambling. Blame it on that second cup of coffee I’m sipping. What I wanted to blog about is my new inspiration corner. I like it. It’s nice. You don’t see it until you’ve walked all the way in to Baby Bug’s room so it doesn’t really clutter up our house. What? I’ll explain.

I have a Bren Shui rule that I always follow. I blogged about Bren Shui way back in my non-existant archives… maybe you remember. The rule is: everything must look good from when you’re standing in the door. All is well if everything looks okay from there. You can have piles of paper, dirty laundry, shuffled boxes of crap—I don’t care… just don’t put it in view of the door. Hide it in a closet or behind a sheet covered chair, anywhere. Just keep it out of sight. I want to be able to walk through my house quickly and feel as if things are in order. What I can’t see, doesn’t exist. Out of sight, out of mind etc. etc…

The inspiration corner is a nice surprise that you see once you’ve walked into the peaceful serene baby’s room (um, after I’ve picked up all 52 sharpie pens and the other miscellaneous toys of course). Baby Bug likes it too. She always wants me to hold her so she can examine each little piece and if I’m not watching closely so she can snag a push pin and eat it. Mmmmm, push pins are so delicious and pokey and sharp. They stab you in the throat when you swallow them. Don’t worry, she hasn’t swallowed a push pin yet. Cat kibble, yes. Push pins, no.

All of your ideas for space were great… but well, a lot of them won’t work. Mostly because Toby and I are lazy and stubborn and we don’t like change. Or Toby doesn’t like change. You get the picture. The garage idea… fantastic but we’ve already thought about that one a lot and there are too many hurdles. The crazy landlady, the fact that we don’t want to put money into our termite infested tear-down, the crazy landlady who wants to raise our rent, the mice that eat cords, the crazy landlady, the lack of a functioning door and on and on I could go. But feel free to come over and discuss it further with us if you like.

For now I’m holding onto my last little corner in Baby Bug’s room. And I’m also going to work work work and get rich quick so I can buy a real house.

I’ve been thinking… (yep, that smoke you smell would be the cogs going around in my brain) It’s been a year that I’ve been a mom now. I’ve been pretty much in survival mode all year but I think I’m ready to ease into something else finally. I’m not going to be any less of a mom but I think I might have some room left in my brain for other things too. Especially if I get a babysitter to come over for two hours twice a week. (Which by the way, Super Sitter Number One never responded to my very polite but delayed email but Super Sitter Number Two did and she’s lined up for Friday. Yay!)

I’ve been thinking about my freelance business a lot and I need an office. I don’t have an office any more. All my office stuff is in Baby Bug’s room but I can’t work in there any more because when I get a chance to work she’s usually SLEEPING and the sound of me tapping lightly on my laptop always wakes her up. Always. So I’ve moved my laptop out to the breakfast bar in the kitchen and it works pretty well there…except when I need to scan or print something. When I need to scan or print I just cart my laptop back to Baby Bug’s room and squeeze out whatever I need to do while she clings to my legs begging me to pick her up. It’s okay, it mostly works.

I miss having an office space though. Most of all I miss having an inspiration board. Thanks to OMSH for making me miss it even more. Unfortunately there isn’t any other cubby in my house that I can set up my office in so I was thinking maybe I could just cart my office around with me in a stylish basket. But I’m not sure where to put my inspiration board. Should I convert it into a virtual board in my computer? Should I cart around a three ring binder? What do you guys do? Does anybody have any hints for a mom who is used to having her own space but doesn’t have any space to herself any more?