graywings has good information for cleaning up the mess. Spot Shot (aerosol) is a powerful solvent. I've removed crayon from the leather seats, plastic/ vinyl, and carpet of a used car we bought. For an ivory wool rug, I would carefully test an inconspicuous area for colorfastness first. For the crayon, marker, and paint on fabric bedding, possibilities are - hydrogen peroxide or Oxi Clean recommended dilution (FULLY dissolved) -- but this seems to work best on organic colored stains, and marker is certainly not organic - citrus solvent like Goo Gone - Spot Shot (might be easiest to just try this first) - Oops -- this powerful solvent mixture of naphtha, toluene, xylene, and ethyl alcohol will remove crayon and marker. I just mention the others because as a principle it's best to try gentler, less toxic cleaners first. ALWAYS test an inconspicuous spot first. Clorox bleach is another possibility. I had always assumed it couldn't be used on colors or prints, but many are colorfast. Always dilute Clorox as recommended, and always test first. Sometimes bleaching will fade the print a little bit, but sometimes uniform fading is preferable to stains or dirt that can't be removed any other way. If this were my bedding, I would carefully test each thing I listed, just because I'm a bit cleaning-obsessed and it would be interesting to learn what works. You might find one product works gentlest, while another works faster but fades the print a bit...and you could choose what's most important to you. I personally would not put anything precious, hard to clean, or unprotected in a guest room. An ivory wool rug, no way. Guests who are conscious of how nice, expensive, and hard to clean it is, won't be able to relax. Guests who aren't conscious of it may wreck it. Lose-lose. For my guest room, I plan to put a Smartstrand bound remnant or maybe Flor carpet tile (the high-traffic, washable fibers, with some extra tiles for replacement). For sheets, I have nice (400 tc pima cotton), but not precious, white sheets that I will bleach if necessary. This is where you want Costco, not Neiman Marcus. The first time my sheet set was used, they got stains from castor oil that they are using to treat a scar on my niece's face that's healing from stitches. They bandage it, but some oil obviously leaked onto the sheets. Stuff like this is unavoidable, so you just need to be able to clean it aggressively. The bed also needs a waterproof protector because young kids and senior adults can have accidents. Etc. When my nieces and nephews visit, I tell them the rules of the house. It's my house so I can have whatever rules I want. And I supervise them. They can't use any writing implements without supervision. Then, it's at the kitchen table with butcher paper down. I don't have or give them any toys that could make a mess, destroy anything, or annoy me (noise). They can't run in the house, or stand, climb, or jump on furniture. (I had to enforce that last one with my 5 yo nephew repeatedly.) My sister probably doesn't have the same rules or enforce them in her own home, and maybe thinks I am uptight, but she does support my rules. Lest I be only the taskmaster aunt, I play with the kids as much as I can. I have found that spending time playing with them is probably the most memorable and appreciated fun you can give them. Close runner up is to make my world's best pancakes, chocolate cake, and other treats for them. When they heard I was coming to visit them, the 4 yo exclaimed, "Yay, Aunt S___ will make us pancakes!"

sjarz, for the doll head only, which is what I want to make, the directions say: arrange and glue doll hair on head. In this same craft book, you can also make the entire Raggedy Ann doll. It also calls for knit doll hair loops, but it says: arrange hair loops on head and "stitch" in place". I really have no idea what they are talking about when they say knit doll hair loops. What I think of are the loops we used to make potholders with years ago. Kind of looks like those in the pictures. It says nothing in the directions about wrapping the wool around a ruler and then sliding them off, or anything else. Only what I have listed above.

As per usual you have great suggestions from the local talent, floral, toys, bathroom items, etc, the two others I might suggest is shoes or laundry? I have a basket by the back entry for tossing in shoes when we come in the house, its actually used for the shoes we wear out to the back yard, or take walks in, gardening shoes etc, and the grandchildren use it when they come in and out. Its in lieu of one of those boot trays which is also handy but holds less. It would make a lovely laundry basket, you could use it for gathering laundry, looks like it would hold a whole load of clothes and towels, and then delivering it, and its pretty enough to leave out in the laundry room rather than a plastic basket although not as stable since it rocks, the handle would make it easy to carry.

Kim - You mentioned things I was worried about! lol You can put rugs (cheaper kinds) in the washer? I never even thought about not being able to shampoo a rug on top of the hw. Duh. :) Our driveway is stones so that wouldn't work either. I guess I really need to check into if there's a place near us that does professional carpet cleaning and see how much it is. Tina - That's cute your dog wipes her feet. Growing up we always wiped our dear Butch's feet. He was smart, we should've thought to train him with that! If we got hw I was thinking oak, mid range color, and less shine would be best. I bought a wool/silk rug for under the DR table back in October and didn't realize you shouldn't use a beater bar on it . . . For two months I ran my dyson over it often! I don't believe there's an adjustment for the suction. I now use the attachment and I find it to be somewhat of a pain. Doesn't help that the rug is mainly black, the cats like to sleep on it and the room gets a bunch of light. Our LR gets a bunch of light. That being said I don't think I'll ever buy a tufted rug again. It's not too bad since it's only one but I believe future ones will be cheaper synthetic or I'll go the hand knotted way and be done with it. But I think I'd feel better when something happened to them if I didn't spend gobs of money as accidents happen, iykwim. Heck, I've never had hw. Maybe I'll like it without rugs. Wouldn't that be easy. :) So as long as there's a good protective finish on there my cat's occasional hairball being there all day while we're at work should be ok? Honestly as far as cat hair, I'm not bothered by our vinyl floors. Well except by the side door where we're always in and out. The tiny stones get on my nerves. Oakley you're right as far as it sticking to the furniture. I'm forever running the sweaper on it. I thought it was pretty good until this morning when I was reading in the bright morning sunlight! Eek. I wouldn't trade our cats for the world but I've about had it with all the fur at the moment. I'm leaning toward hw I just needed to hear some thoughts. I'm nervous to spend the money and possibly not like them. I'm sure there's an adjustment period like anything else. Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I really appreciate it.