Two things: your fertilizer number amounts of nitrogen (1st number on bag) might be too high & its encouraging foliage instead of blooms. I garden organically and use monthly during the growing season of roses Espoma Rose Tone (lower nitrogen and higher phosphorus to encourage buds & blooms). I used to have 'Graham Thomas' which looked great initially in the late spring but by summer's end had tons of blackspot! I used to call it my 'indicator rose'. I eventually removed it and the yellow rose now in my garden is 'Julia Child' which is more disease resistant.

Grandmabonnie, I've been reading and watching videos on Design Studio, the Gypsy, SCAL, and just recently heard Make the cut mentioned. I understand that these things allow you to use any fonts or svg designs from your computer and with the last two, you don't have to buy any cartridges. How did you decide which one to go with? I'm not too savy about computer stuff, so prefer something pretty simple. Love the idea of being able to see the design on your screen and being able to weld things together. I have no plans for selling stuff, just like to be a bit creative and make things for myself and to use as gifts. Just seems more special if you can say "I made it myself". ;o) Kathy, I had never even heard of this type of machines until my DIL got hers--then I thought that since I don't scrapbook I couldn't justify buying one. But once I saw so many cute wood signs, blocks, and glass items with the designs and lettering on them, I knew I'd enjoy having one. Since your's connects to your computer, you will be able to make lots of fun things in addition to the signs you make for work. If you go to the Cricut message boards, allot of the gals there offer their svg cuts free. You could use your machine to label boxes, jars, machines, etc. at work and make fun things for at home too. I've seen glass jars labeled as canisters, signs on walls, lots of different blocks--the list goes on and on. I'm really eager to work on more projects with mine--it's easier to do a sign with it than it is when I paint one! ;o) In fact, I might even combine the two! Luvs

Ok- This comes from a teacher point of view as well as someone who has a degree in child development. You can take it for what it is worth: In Classrooms (like daycares and preschools and K room) kids are required to pick up at least two sometimes three times a day. The reasoning being that a. other kids play with the toys and the deserve to start fresh too b. kids can't think in clutter very well and neither can teachers. c. safety in that you can't walk without tripping etc. also is part of the reasoning here. I carry this into my house to some degree. I have three kids 5, 3, and 1+. Two boys and a girl. I let them play with what they want and they can play with how they want provided they are not taking away from each other-- playing nice. And now my home and my theory in practice--- We pick up daily - once before nap I expect everything to be picked up and once in the evening before their father gets home. If everything is picked up and if their father is not home yet, they can watch a video. This works great for my son who is a tvholic. The exceptions to picking up completely are this: 1. if they have some creation before nap- a tent house, a train world, polly pocket home whatever they can leave it out until dinner time, as long as it's out of the way. Not on their bed at nap time for example. At dinner time though, things are picked up. 2. If it is on the train table. We bought a big train table with the buckets at the end of the table. I rotate toys including what is in the train table buckets. - blocks, legos, little people, etc at any given time are in the train table buckets. IF they set up this elaborate train set or a great lego building, as long as it is on the train table, they can leave it there. The train table toys are usually building toys that typically get moved and torn down and rebuilt daily so those change pretty quickly and get put up to make room for other buildings. As for sorting out toys into the right bins daily- I don't do that. We have a big toy box in the front room where they play. Some toys are behind the couch in the plastic shoe boxes. Polly Pockets, etc - those things with small pieces. Those are the toys that they typially pull out from behind the couch, open the box and play with them in their room or on their bed- the little pieces typically get put back into the right box. But I don't worry about it. When we pick up, whatever is on the floor get thrown into the toy box. The kids help me pick up and if they want I do let them put the small pieces in the right bin, but if I'm helping I grab and toss. And because I rotate toys- once a week or every two weeks I dump everything out and the kids and put toys up, resort as needed, exchange toys. This is when the polly pocket shoe that got thrown in the toy box gets put back with it's mate in the right bin. Etc. I have also gotten rid of many toys. As I write this however I can think of train things I need to get rid of because my kids have never really played with it. Sigh. I kept it thinking one of the other kids would like it but so far- no luck. It really is that simple and really that complicated. I just make the time to rotate toys. Everything centers around that. When we rotate toys everything gets sorted out perfectly. Because we rotate toys not everything is out at once and that makes it easier to a. clean house b. pick up every day c. control how many toys are out with small pieces d. organize and make sure everything is in the right bin. As for your daughter dragging things out of the house - we take things out to the car but they stay in the car. When we go in the store- the toys stay in the car. As for all of her flat type creations- I also bought an art portfolio. IT's like a big envelope. I let my son keep all of his papers in there. He keeps every paper he touches. They all go in there. It sits at the end of his bed. When it is stuffed I go through it- sometimes alone, sometimes with him. It works for us. Big papers and small papers go in here. But only paper. We have also done some things like I sat down and whipped up some bags for toys. My two older kids love to fill things with things. A small bin may have five cars, three dinosaurs, four crayons and sixteen pieces of paper. They love to just stuff things in things. I made some bags. I whipped up bags and this makes it easy to carry things around. If my boy's snowbear needs crayons for the day (becaue my boy is like your daughter with an animal whose needs change) - then snowbear puts the crayons in the snowbear bag and off we go. I have probably 10 bags designated for things- blocks, small dolls, etc. I have maybe another 10 bags with drawstrings for anything. They just get thrown in their toybox empty at the start of two weeks and stay filled until it's time to rotate toys. So- based on my usual long winded response here are my thoughts for you: 1. Can you designate a place as a compromise- train table creations are ok, otherwise they go down? Can you set a time that they have to pick up? Daily? I do it when their dad comes home so they know exactly what their schedule is. Can you do it on a set day? Every other day everything is totally picked up? I lean to a daily pick up at a set time so it is routine. I agree that it is the process at this age - the process of making the creation is important not the creation itself. 3. Can you provide your daughter some place for her creations? This ties into question one but also for her small books for blueberry? for the small things he has to have? A bag? An oatmeal box with a string tied to it? an art portfolio? 4. Do you have to have all of their toys out all of the time? And after having said all of that- I think what you are really looking for is not the organizing help but more of the parenting help. Do you allow your children to make creations and leave them? And How do you tackle this as a mother? I'm not sure I helped at all. What I would say to you as a teacher if you came to me is Go for it- encourage the creativity. When you see them no longer playing with a toy or creation show them how to take it down and put the components up. Or if they can no longer play wiht a type of toy because all the pieces are spread apart and put in wrong places, help them sort them out. You are the mother and you know best. Ginger

DS2 has a large toy chest in his room filled with Little People, dinosaurs, balls, swords, etc. In the rec room there is a large rubbermaid tote of Thomas track and fabric tote of Thomas trains as well as a Thomas set up. There are 2 large rm totes of legos(most of which belonged to DH,) 1 large rm tote of transformers(half are the heavy metal collectible ones - DH again,) 2 large rm totes of Knex, plus the ball tower and raging coaster, 2 large rm totes of Rokenbok, 1 steamer trunk of hot wheels playsets, 2 rolling car carriers of hot wheels, 1 toy kitchen with 2 wicker baskets of play food, marble run sets, slot car sets, lots of games, laser tag vests, nerf guns, a 7' air hockey table, and competition sized foosball table. I know the sheer volume seems excessive and ridiculous, but we do give away toys twice a year and at Christmas we have a rule that any box that has not been opened at the end of day 3 is donated. DS1 was the only grandchild on either side of the family for the first 6 yrs of his life as well as the only great grandchild on the one side. He had many childless aunts and uncles as well as our close friends who he refers to as aunt so&so. They all doted on him. My little brother now has 5 nieces and nephews, but DS1 is still the special one.(for Christmas this year LB gave DS1 an LCD TV and wall mount, the others got plastic toys from Big Lots.) Many of the build it toys like legos, etc. foster creative play and imaginative thinking. We've containerized and labeled things as best we can. Someday when DS2 no longer plays with toys, I can clear it all out. I'll cancel my gym membership and move a bunch of equipment into the rec room.