The slump and grind

So where have I been?  I hate to get all boring with details but since this blog is supposed to be about me getting on top of my procrastination problem, I'll spill it.  I've been in a slump and grind.....by that I mean a slump of finishing projects and the grind of getting ready to list our town house.  We are so ready to buy a house just not ready to sell yet and yes one MUST proceed the other.  

The GRIND

We have a few repair projects to finish to get the town house ready and of course the holiday season is not the time to list.  But I've mainly been busy on the project of making the place look HUGE.  By that I mean, we are a family of four, with the stuff of four in the town house most likely to sell to a family of 2, maybe 2 plus 1.  And our "stuff of four" includes a confessed clothes collector,  fabric hoarder and an avid CD, movie and game board collector (not me)...oh yeah, and kids toys.  Oh it all fits, but a nice newly-wed couple would never see themselves fitting their stuff in the closet if I can't even fit in the closet.  Remember, I took over the loft as my closet.

So I've been undoing all the things I've done to make the place work for us.  Such as putting linens in the linen closet instead of his huge CD collection.  He needed to see the CD's not the sheets, so the sheets went into the top of the kids closet.  A buyer needs to see where the sheets will go.  And just because I cook huge meals like a crazy Southern mama, doesn't mean that a normal person needs to store all their pots underneath a table in the kitchen.  The cabinets have to look like they will fit the average cook's supplies.  And they will, I am just not the average cook, with all my cast iron and pressure cookers, and stoneware.

I had to take up the living room rug to show the laminate floors.  Remove all the stuff I love that someone else might not.  Box up all my fabric in my overstuffed sewing room.  It has to look like I could actually sew in there....you get the picture.  So now I have boxes stacked everywhere, like we are about to move but no for sale sign in the front yard.  It was the only way to do it, you can't get it ready without moving the excess out but you can't move the excess out until you have a place to move it too.  Yes, we'll get a storage unit but not till the last minute to avoid the expense.  Who knows in this market, we could wait months before a sale.  Why store before we even list?  Besides it gives us time to really give all this stuff some thought....do I really need three huge boxes of pots, besides the ones I still have in the kitchen?  Right now, absolutely!  Ask me again later.

The SLUMP

So enough of that....we are working on getting ready to sell.  So what about the project slump?  Well I am proud to say, I took several evenings and matched up fabrics, picked out patterns as needed, and cut out around 60 projects.  I decided that a big part of my problem was getting so excited about a fabric, and then delaying the actual project until I figured out another fabric to go with it, or a pattern to use or taking the time to cut out the pieces.  The actual sewing is the quick and easy part.  And I also realized that I was very hesitant to actually cut up an item.  I always want to be super sure of where I am going with a piece and save that waistband or neckline, ect.   Therefore the hoarding.

Once I came to grips with that, I decided to just do it.  I matched up a ton of items, actually some of these a friend had helped with a long time ago and I never got back to them.  Then I pulled out my patterns that I was most likely to use.  I don't always use patterns but I have a few that I rely on for basics like bodices and pants.  Then I started sketching ideas for each project.  As in, these two skirts will be a sun-dress, this one the skirt and this one the ruffles.  Once a sketch put the purpose in writing, it didn't matter that the one skirt could also be a dress.....it was now easy to just let it be chopped up for the ruffles.  I felt so liberated.  Crazy huh?  I cut out projects for days.  And it is funny....what took up boxes before, ended up as a nice little stack to be sewn.  Of course I have a huge bag of scraps for future projects but the actual projects are a very small part of what was taking up tons of space.

So anyway, what happened to those 60 projects?  Well, I broke the auto threader on my sewing machine and I am as blind as a bat, so that was one delay to get it repaired.  Then the serger started snagging a thread here and there so I had to take that in for an adjustment.  And then I had to basically unload my sewing room to pack up all the fabric.  And did I mention that I am half packing up my entire house?  So anyway, I have 60 blog posts lined up, ready and waiting details and final photos. And hopefully this blogpost to get me back in there sewing....who knows maybe I'll actually sew through the 15 or so boxes of fabric sitting in my living room now before we have to store them....

welcome back!