The stockings were hung...but the house is a mess

I am in the middle of a two room renovation.  Books, yarn, craft supplies, baskets and so much more are piled everywhere. The laundry pile is growing exponentially while waiting to be done.  Company is arriving from Holland in two days and will need one of the torn-apart rooms to sleep in.  The whole house must be cleaned and food bought and prepared. So... it seemed like a good time to try and make a mini Christmas stocking! I saw these on  Le monde de Sucrette. and loved them. This stocking was squeezed in during coffee breaks and while helping the kids with homework.  It was good practice for me with working in rounds. I'm not satisfied with my seams, but I think the next stocking will show improvement. I'm hoping to squeeze in 4 more before Sinterklaas day so each of my children and my niece and nephew from Holland can get one filled with small treats.

Now its time to start moving books...

   We are renovating our basement. It used to be a beautifully finished playroom for the children - a full wall of bookcases filled with all the books we loved to read, a play kitchen and table for imaginative tea parties and games of "restaurant", the baby dolls and their cradles and high chairs, the wooden lincoln logs and train set that we loved to arrange and rearrange over and over, the toy tool bench for creating wondrous things and so much more. Many, many wonderful hours were spent in the playroom.
   Then the room flooded due to a big rain storm. The carpeting was ruined and some of the bookcases were damaged along the bottom.  The carpet was replaced.  Time passed. Another flood and the second carpet was ruined and more damage to the bookcases. Now the children are older. The old toys are put away. The basement is being redone as part office and (larger) part creative space for all to share. The walls have been painted a cheery greenish blue (or blueish green I guess). A new, hopefully flood-proof floor has been installed by my hubby. The most damaged bookcase has been discarded and the other two cleaned. We have decided to move the wall of bookcases in the den to the basement and move the two remaining basement bookcases to the den.
   So today I need to sort out all of these books - gardening, cooking, art, crafts, beloved childrens' books that we cannot bear to put away, travel and on and on. This is how I left the spaces last night.  I hope I will have tremendous progress to show you later in the day.
No stocking breaks today!  But I do have to go AC Moore (the local art/craft/yarn store) to pick up art supplies for my daughter's art class tomorrow.  Carol....did you hear that... we need to go to AC Moore...on a husband-sanctioned trip...

The basement before the first of 4 shelving units is filled and organized. Yikes!

Other end of shelving unit. That's my grandmother's table which I will eventually (when its cleared) use as a work surface.

The back wall of the den as I left it last night.  This is where I start today.