Goal Setting

I have one major goal for Pretty Jane in 2009:

It comes with a bit of a story behind it. In 2008, I hired some sewing ladies to work for me, in order to increase supply to meet demand, and hopefully grow my business. They were amazing, and one especially taught me a lot about what I want and don't want in the products that I create and put out for sale. They weren't cheap, though. Yes, I increased my supply. Yes, I was able to meet greater demand. I was also more anxious about meeting deadlines and spending a great deal to have these women stitch items that I still had to design, cut out, ship, market, and sell. I was saving time sewing, for sure, but that's part of the fun of doing what I do! My profit margin was shrinking alarmingly and the hours I was investing were actually GROWING.

I started my company because I love my family, and I want to make them my very top priority. I want to have time to be with my husband, in our home and on vacations; I want to be the one caring for all our children, day-to-day; I want to cook our meals and clean and clothe; I want Family Movie Night every Friday and Lazy Day on Sundays; I want all of ussitting down to supper cooked from scratch each night and able to have real conversations with one another. I liked the idea of growing my business, having success and making a little more money for us, but the cost was higher than I anticipated, and the anxiety it was producing was taking away from what I most want: my home and family as #1.

Fortunately, I have no business debt, and paid these women cash. Through Beehive's Warehouse Sale I was able to clear out my unsold inventory and am able to look at 2009 as a new year to determine how I want to structure my business operations. And the decision was easy: in 2009, I won't be using any sewers. I'm going back to my original business model, in which I stitch every individual garment by hand myself. Yes, there will be fewer items. Yes, it means more sewing for me. But the results will be exactly what I expect, there will be substantially less anxiety since I'll be only my boss again (and not anyone else's), and I can stay focused on what matters most. Besides, with things going well at my fabric shop, and teaching two or three classes a week at Beehive while the kids are asleep, scaling back a little will allow me to continue to design while balancing all the other things I have in my life--personal AND professional.

So, the Three. My major goal for Pretty Jane this year is to maintain my production rate at three garments per day, on average. Some days will necessarily be devoted to design, others to R & D, others to cutting, and only some exclusively to stitching. But on the whole, I hope to average 3 garments per day over the course of each week. I'm aiming for now through April as the major test of the system, since the Inman Park Festival is in late April and I'm hoping to display solo there for the first year.

I'm keeping it right above my workspace to keep me focused--so I won't spend all my time checking email and drafting blog posts!

Happy New Year, everyone!

**The sign is made from an Ikea cork board, a fat quarter of Robert Kaufman's Iota's Garden vegetable print, two scraps of quilting fabric, and some WonderUnder. Took maybe 25 minutes total to put together, and will be repurposed at M's #3 birthday next summer. Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment creation!

35 Before 35

A number of other bloggers have composed lists of Things to Do Before One Turns 35. As my 35th will come in September of the dawning year, now's as good a time as any to make MY list and then endeavor to complete it in the next nine months. Lofty ambitions, to be sure.

Again, these aren't resolutions--we all know how I feel about those. These are GOALS for my 35th year of life. Hold me to 'em, folks!

My list:

1.  Organize the master closet--oh, the shame!

2.  Get back into my size 4 pants I bought a month before I got pregnant this last time--the tiniest size I've ever worn, and it only lasted a few weeks!

3.  Make some clothes for MYSELF.

4.  Display Pretty Jane in a solo booth at the Inman Park Festival.

5.  Set up my bookkeeping the way it OUGHT to be lest the I R S come knocking and find shoeboxes of receipts.

6.  Publish an eBook.

7.  Complete 500 sales in my Etsy shop.

8.  Take a great vacation with my husband--again.

9.  Repair the leak under our kitchen sink that has been making me insane for five months.

10.  Send my sister the most amazing gift package she has ever received, to make up for the fact that I am a crappy, crappy gift-giver and she is the greatest.

11.  Teach my 100th student in my sewing classes at Beehive.

12.  Have my little company featured prominently on some really famous blog.

13.  Lose the extra 14 pounds I'm still carrying around since our baby was born.

14.  See our eldest perform in her first school play.

15.  Buy a minivan.  Say what you will, I've embraced the minivan.

16.  Design one really great tween dress.

17.  Cut back on sugar--I think it makes me ornery when I have too much!

18.  Get back to running--I'm so out of practice that thinking about running makes me short of breath.

19.  Give myself permission to relax each night with a novel for a few minutes.  It's my way of sharpening the saw, but it feels so indulgent that it must be wrong, right?

20.  Have a weekly date with our oldest so she won't enter her angst-ridden teen years thinking her mother has forgotten her.

21.  Print out the best of our digital photos and create an album to display in our living room.

22.  Begin some sort of really cool summer tradition for our family--everyone has holiday traditions, but we can do better.  Suggestions graciously accepted.

23.  Incorporate my business, and admit to myself that I am an Entrepeneur--well, Momtrepeneur.

24.  Get business letterhead. And matching envelopes.  Oooh, yum!

25.  Always shop Etsy first when gift-giving opportunities present themselves.

26.  Take my vitamin EVERY DAY, and not just when I remember to.

27.  Have an ENORMOUS yard sale and finally, finally win the war against the Garage That Ate Atlanta.

28.  Drink more water.

29.  Have the ring my parents bought me as a 30th birthday gift reset so that I'll actually wear it.

30.  Call my grandmothers, while I still have them.

31.  Visit my sister before she has her second baby.

32.  Keep the flowers in the terra cotta pots on our front steps alive, so that for one summer, just one, my husband won't "tsk" me all season long.

33.  Publish a series of sewing patterns, available for download.

34.  Convince my husband that another baby is a GOOD idea.  And SOON.

35.  Chill out, for heaven's sake, and realize that my life is so far beyond my expectations that even if I accomplish NONE of these things I am blessed beyond all measure.

OK, only nine months to go!  Keep me honest, everyone.

Balance

I tend to assume that sickness is an indication of a lack of something, rather than the presence of something.  This is why I didn't go to medical school: I see not the presence of a virus, but a lack of sleep or nutrients.

We've had a LOT of sick at our house lately.  First, M was icky.  Then my Sweet Husband got it and gleefully passed it on to me.  Lots of hacking coughs, way more mucous than you want to hear about, just gross.  We worked so hard to keep baby O from getting it, but in the end, he did.  He's so tiny, and it hit him hard.  By day 3 we were at the pediatrician for our third visit in a week, and he needed breathing therapy and prescriptions and I was wringing my hands and convinced we'd broken our brand-new baby.

He's on the mend, thankfully, although the cough still lingers.  And all the good work we'd done getting him to ease himself to sleep--no more crying!  dozed off after a few grunts!--was in the toilet.  So after waking up gagging on nastiness for a week, and me being exhausted from caring for him, he spent this past week struggling to go to sleep.

Today was the day, the day I was sure we were going to turn the corner, and all would be well again.  Right up until M projectile puked on the basement stairs as we came up from the garage.  And her temp was 101.4, and her eyes went all glassy.  Mommy wants spring to come soon.  SOON.

(Sigh.)

My analysis?  There's been a lack of balance at our house.  I've spent a LOT of my time focused on my work, and I love that.  These past two weeks have for sure been more about a focus on my kids.  And I NEEDED that.  In some ways I missed posting, preparing photos to share with y'all, working on little projects and big plans.  But at the same time, I recognized how much I wanted and needed to have these days to just care for my kids.  It reminded me to care for ME, and gave me time (at 4 a.m. usually) to look at the lights on our tree with no interference and be thankful and quiet and still.

Here's hoping this last round is just a 24-hour thingy, and that the peaceful moments of the last weeks stay with me.  It's time to get back to work, but only as long as it stays in its place.

Let the Holiday Craziness Commence

December? WHAT?? How did THAT happen?

Now that Thanksgiving is officially behind us, there is no denying it: the Holidays are HERE. Our tree went up yesterday. And down today, when gravity toppled our vintage spruce right to the floor. It's in recovery status at the moment; photos when we're out of the ICU**. 

I was out of the house Saturday morning and Sweet Husband, E and M did all the unpacking of decorations and arranging and general holiday-ing up. I got to come home to lights and ribbons and wreaths. It was awesome. I love that the lights are draped in coils on the front porch rather than wrapped around the handrails.
I love that the tchochkes are all mish-mashed on the bookshelves and tables, running into one another like a Christmas boxcar derby.
Mostly, I love that my family did all that for me as a surprise.  See?  I'm not the only one who gets all squishy around here--I was having a tough morning Saturday, too, so this was an awesome way to come home.

And I spent some of my day making for them, too. I had a chunk of this silly Sesame Street print in the stash, and am embarking on more Brother/Sister outfits. Clearly, I am a woman obsessed.
M's got done first, as it took the least thought:

She insisted on wearing it right away.

Next is E's, but we'll need a new tee for her--that last one was an XS, since she is in fact extra small. But their idea of XS is a little, well, trampier than E's idea of XS, so we're getting her an S as she goes into Beta on this whole matching outfits thing. O's will be last, since the Thanksgiving outfit juuuuust fit, and once we sent it through the hot dryer didn't fit at all. He'll need a whole new pattern, so I'm putting that off a bit.

Am also thinking of gifts to give, and who'd like what. My family have largely declared they'll not be exchanging gifts with the adults this year--my sister, my parents, even some of our friends have cut back and are focusing on the kids only this giving season. I, on the other hand, wisely neglected to mail gifts to my sister and mother for the past two Christmases, always thinking, "I really should send those..." And so we have plenty to share this holiday season. See how procrastination can often be in one's favor?? Clever me.

Still, all the little ones would love to have something handmade under the tree this year, so my dance card is filling up with ideas for them. Stay tuned this week as I work my way through sewing projects to give and get.

**I suppose I'll know I've become a true blogger when rather than shriek in horror when I get out of the shower and see our Christmas tree lying sprawled on the living room floor I rush not to rectify the tragedy, but to my camera to document it, instead. Sorry to cheat all of you--us, really, and posterity--out of that image. Will do better next time.

Thanksgiving Recap

Our parade

Our weather

Our kids

Our baking

Our newest tradition

Our favorite tradition: A Christmas Story begins its non-stop screenings on Thanksgiving Day.

A Week of Gratitude, Day 3: Home, Sweet Home

Taking the WHOLE week off to spend time with my amazing family. Am auto-posting a series titled "A Week of Gratitude" while we're off doing cool stuff like baking, digging out the Christmas decorations, jumping in piles of leaves, making final visits to the playground before the weather gets too cold, visiting with the relatives, taking looooong drives all in one vehicle, singing songs loudly, and anything else we can think of. Be back in a few days! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. This year, let's be glad of all we have...

A Week of Gratitude, Day 3: Home, Sweet Home

Believe it or not, it's been over a year and a half since our ill-fated flirtation with building another house and selling the one we currently own. Those were hard, hard times, mostly because trying to keep the house clean to that degree for that long will kill anybody, I don't care who you are.

But what it cost us is so little compared to what we learned. About our marriage. About our priorities. About our desires and dreams. About how to take two people who are driven to achieve and mesh their goals together to create a FAMILY. I guess every couple does that their own way and in their own time, but the whole house-selling-house-building experience was a huge crucible for us and really refined what we'd already discussed and knew in our hearts to be true:

Our home goes with us, and has nothing to do with our house.

Our house is the safe place that we call home, and cannot be disregarded in its importance.

Our desire for the home we dream of is only and always as strong as our desires for our family.

Our love for one another and our children is the driving force behind the goals we work toward each day.

Not too shabby for a year and a half, huh?

Switching to Cloth

(Sigh.)

Today's the day--I can put it off no longer.  Today, we switch to CLOTH DIAPERS.

OK, maybe I'm being melodramatic.  I mean, both the girls were in cloth, and it was easy.  Well, maybe not easy, but not as hard as you'd think.  We kick it old school around here, too: unfolded bird's-eye weave and vinyl pants, none of these modern Velcro thingies.

Part of the motivation is thrift--at $10 a pack, a pack a week, the kid is peeing us out of house and home, not to mention blowing my grocery budget.  Also, I hate filling up my garbage can with human waste and then putting it out on the curb to be deposited who-knows-where.

But really, as with all my other decisions that seem altruistic but are really self-preservation, it's that they have yet to make the disposable diaper that can hold O.  He is the baby that diapers cannot conquer.  He gets a change at 10 when he nurses, and again at 5.30 when it's decent to awake--he eats once, maybe twice in between but I have a hard and VERY fast rule that we do not disturb slumber under ANY circumstances, certainly no to change a diaper.  It is a matter of survival, people.  Unlike the girls, though, O pees--and pees, and pees...  He's always just slightly damp by the time I change him, as if the dam burst at 5.20 and THEN he awoke for his morning feed.

So, in hopes that the old double-nighttime-diaper trick will work, we are switching to cloth in an attempt to stem his itty bitty tide.

That is, AFTER we get home from our Thanksgiving travels.  I am, if nothing else, practical.

Ten Things I Love Right Now

Leaves changing

Tiny baby hands

Fresh bread coming out of the oven

Playgrounds and parks, one last time

Learning who my daughter is becoming, bit by bit

Hearing music through the house--played live, and with verve

A clean kitchen

Catching up with faraway friends and learning only geography keeps us distant

Family movie night on Fridays, all of us together on the sofa with fresh hot popcorn and a PG rating

Waving goodbye in the crisp mornings, looking forward to some peace and quiet.

Sort of.

Hope this is the start of a great week for all of us!

Brother and Sisters

Last post: the Corn Fabric.

This post: Some background.

First, you'll need to know that I'm a lot of different people. I taught school for a long time, theatre and English. Most recently, I was an archaeologist. Really. I have a graduate degree and everything. Wrote a thesis and was offered big fellowships to fancy schools. I studied acorns, mostly--I'm not making this up. My focus was paleoethnobotany, which is just a swanky way of saying that I like food, and I like learning about how food was used in prehistory. And there is simply no way to study prehistoric food in the Americas without studying CORN.

I have some pretty strong feelings about corn. Even as I type that, I am well aware of how crazy cakes it makes me sound, but there it is all the same. I feel powerfully strongly about CORN. So when I saw this fabric with my friend Erin four or five years ago at Jo-Ann, I had to had to had to grab two yards of it. I guess I intended to make a blouse for myself? But this is a much better use of this particular print.

Brother-Sister Outfits.

I used to be one of those moms who sort of "Ewwww"ed when I saw or heard of brother/sister outfits, but maybe that's because I never had a brother, or because sister/sister outfits are so easy and obvious, or because I didn't have any boys. It might be because most of the time when you find a brother/sister outfit set, they're insanely traditional and usually involve smocking and insipid embroidery and probably lace and ruffles (for the brother AND the sister). Not really my style, and not something I aspired to put on my children.

But CORN brother/sister outfits?? Well, now. That's a WHOLE different story.

A quick overview:

For O, a teeny tiny little button-up shirt. No cuffs, since he's still too itzy bitzy; the sleeves are open at the ends. But it does have a shirttail hem and a structured collar, lots of menswear detailing.

And it looks so great under these babywale chocolate overalls. They have a sweet button closure at the crotch for quick diaper changes--this kid can make some poop, it's like Chernobyl in his pants half the time.  I think the red flannel lining and the teeny pockets really make the whole outfit.  And I should point out that this shirt represents the first (and maybe only) time I've made a garment without a pattern of any kind--I totally eyeballed the whole thing.  So, if he tries it on and it doesn't work, E gets new clothes for her dolls, I guess!

For M, a pretty jumper with gathers and a contrast band on the CORN skirt.

Buttons here and on O's whole outfit are coconut ones Sweet Husband and I brought back from our honeymoon in Hawaii.  I even put in pockets on the side seams for all her fall treasures she's sure to collect on our nature walks in the cool weather.

For our big girl, E, an athletic-styled tee with a CORN applique

All this needs is a little freezer paper stencil for humor--I want it to read, "Howdy, Pilgrim," but I loaned out my brown fabric paint at an inopportune time of year. If only I were good enough to do a teeny John Wayne on the sleeve...

We'll need to get a lot of use out of these this next week to make them worth the trouble I went to, but I am crazy insane in love with this silly print, and can' wait to get shots of all of them in their little matching outfits.  Hoping your holidays are cooling off and that the gifts of America's bounty are soon to be on your table!!

**Just for the record, corn is NOT a theme here.  It is a "unifying element."

Two Words: Stuffing.

Thanksgiving, believe it or not, is SO soon. I get excited, since here in the Deep South, that means it might get cold soon. Maybe.

Last year at this time, my Sweet Husband was still in Iraq. I asked my in-laws to put up their Christmas decorations over the Thanksgiving weekend so that we could shoot a video to send to him that looked like Christmas morning for him to watch and feel, just a little, like he was there with us. It was a pile of work, and worth every second, and he was so happy to have that little piece of home out in the desert.

This Thanksgiving, we get to be together, and I can hardly stand how excited I am to have this holiday with my amazing husband. I know, I write about him a lot and say all these sappy things--but truly, he's so great, and even though being happy is boring, it overflows out of me.

In preparation for long walks among the falling leaves, and football games on the wide screen, and six kinds of pie, and a (hopefully) moist bird, the first ever cooked in our little house since we're staying home this year with our new addition--in preparation for all that, I've gotten a little excited.

About this:

Next post: where that sick excitement has taken me. It's yummy.

Football Season

Alabama football takes center stage at our house from August to January (we hope!). I made my Sweet Husband a seersucker shirt in red and white for the first game over Labor Day weekend, but the details made me a little crazy, and I didn't really love how it turned out.

Too cold for seersucker now, anyway.

So, I altered the pattern and combined it with some details of another that I liked partly and hated partly, and am planning to use some mini-houndstooth babywale corduroy from the stash. I'd better get moving, though, if I want him to wear it for more than the championship game (y'know, the one everyone in my house will be a WHOLE lot happier if we make it to?  that one).

Oh, football.  You are a fickle and cruel mistress.  But at least we can be well-dressed, both in winning seasons and...not-so-winning seasons.  May the latter be few and farrrrr between!

Sandra's Surprises

I've written before about Sandra, from whom I purchased my sewing machine adn serger off eBay a few years ago. I mentioned I'd post about some of the other treasures I located in the boxes and boxes and boxes of things her son included in the sale, and I've let that slide for too long.

So without further ado, just a few of the tools bequeathed to me by Ms. Sandra that I use every day. Maybe, if I plan well, I can post some of the sillier treasures, too, but these were the ones that made me tear up a little when I recognized just how wonderful Sandra must've been.

ironing ham


I've seen hams before, but had never purchased or used them. Knowing that Sandra had one made me think, "This lady was Old School for sure," and it made me wonder if learning how to use 50s era tools like sleeve boards and pants rolls was worth the trouble. Lemme tell ya, it IS, especially if you work with smaller crafts regularly, or if you've ever found yourself hunched over a too-big ironing board struggling to get the cap of a puffed sleeve pressed just right. These bad boys are awesome in teeny situations or on curved shapes, and I keep mine on the end of my ironing board all the time now.

rotary cutters


I knew that rotary cutter were out there, but I assumed they were just for quilters, which I translated as "old ladies with bad taste." I have been so insulated, and as my eyes were opened to all the cool stuff that can be done with quilting techniques, and the work that some of the newer, more modern quilters are doing, I looked into it more. Once I did that, I began to see the real appeal of using a rotary cutter: many, many layers at the same time with no fatigue, compared to cutting with shears which makes your hand want to fall off. I love love love my rotary cutters now, to the degree that I've covered my entire cutting table with mats so I can use it anywhere.

expanding measure


As if I actually knew what THIS was when I dug it out of one of the dozens, literally, of crowded boxes I received when I purchased my Sandra Machines on eBay.  I thought it looked kinda cool, so I figured I'd use it for marking buttonholes and making my pleats even, since that's all I could think to do with it.

About two months ago, one of the children discovered the instructions for this little gadget in the leaves of a book of Sandra's.  Turns out I was using it right, but overlooking some of the other recommended uses: portion slicing and spacing seedlings, to name a few.

bobbin holders

Did anyone else even know these amazing little inventions existed??  I've been buried under stray bobbin threads in my sewing box for years and had no idea anyone had come up with a solution.  They pop right over the thread end to hold it all in place, so it won't unravel and waste a whole bobbin.  Sandra, you genius!

bobbin boxes

And to prove that Sandra was, in fact, either a sewing savant or an EVIL genius, this is how I found the bobbins (the ones that corresponded with the 400 spools of thread I received) organized: in teensy acrylic boxes designed for that purpose and sorted by color family.  I sincerely pray that Sandra used her powers for Good while on this planet, because this level of organization and foresight could take down a lesser nation than ours.

I'll show more if I can get my act together enough to get photos of them--Sandra was FULL of surprises.

Big Haul

Beautiful fall night in the Southland. Great night for tricks and treats...

We handed out goodie bags to the toddler neighbors we play with, full of fruit snacks and Play-doh.

M finally gets it. "Free candy, really??"


Baby made his debut--and promptly fell asleep. No candy for him.
It's hard to tell here, but he's wrapped in a flour "tortilla," has a tomato on his head, and there are some wisps of shredded cheese hanging out. The guacamole was tucked inside...

Daddy had at least as much fun as the kiddos. At least.
Here he is, at M's preschool Halloween Parade.

And here, crossing the street for "one more time trick or treat, Daddy."

Mommy didn't even stay home to hand out candy this year--I'm growing! I wandered the cul-de-sac with the rest of them, neighbor kids included. (I was dressed as a Burrito Stand, or "responsible mommy." Same clothes as usual, but with more baby carrying.)

Our teen ran off to a trick-or-treat sleepover at the very last minute and escaped before photo ops!! Can you imagine? Somehow her "murdered prom queen" morphed into "vampire schoolgirl." As long as there was fake blood involved, she was happy... But still. Ditching your family and "Hand out the candy, honey" duty to go watch scary movies and eat loads of candy with your friends? What's that? Oy, 13.

And a blast from the past: this is Halloween 2006, about 12 weeks after I gave birth to baby #2. I was feeling pretty good about myself. Still am.



Happy November, everyone!

Where Did Baby's Bumpers Go?*

After writing about O's applique crib bumpers, I thought I'd drop a little note about what happened to M's pink floral bumpers once they were retired so she can move to the toddler bed.

We found this fantastic toddler bed on Craig's List for a crazy reasonable price (mattress included). Better than Ikea, since it doesn't require a special size sheet, and she has plenty of pink and flowered ones that Baby O won't use. We moved her curtains to over her bed when she and O moved into the same room, and I wanted to reuse the fabric I covered her bumpers with as a comforter.

I ripped the covers off the bumpers, used a rotary cutter to trim them to size, and patchworked them together in sort of a modified log cabin design. The solid pink is the fabric I used to cover the diaper changing pad (which never quite got stitched--I just wrapped it around the pad for two years!).

It's still a little bit of a Work In Progress, but I really like the way the fabrics are coming together, and am so pleased to be able to re-use what we've already got rather than run out and try to find just the right thing at the store--I always have a picture in my head and can never get just what I want when shopping, so I might as well make it happen this way!

*The title is an homage to one of my all-time favorite Golden Books, "Where Did The Baby Go?" by Eloise Wilkin. Did you read that one when you were little? I even love the images of the clothes--soooo 1974.

Trick or Treat

Yummy. Hope y'all get as much good candy as I will tonight. With three kids and only one of them old enough to know better, my Sweet Husband and I are all set to tramp the little ones out for free sugar.

Take your glow stick, and see you on the other side!

Ubiquitous Sweater Refashion

For whatever reason, every Wardrobe Refashionista seems to do a sweater refashion of some kind. The most common is the crew-neck-to-cardigan refashion, although I aspire to something like what Sommerset posted about recently.

I bought this oversized red wool sweater to turn into a maternity sweater, back when I thought I'd still be pregnant right now.

It's good quality, and looked great, so considering I was going to cut it apart and adjust it anyway, I went ahead with my plan--just lopped off more than originally anticipated! I needed a new red cardigan, anyway.

Took out some under the arms and at the side seams, and sliced down the center front.

Applying tear-away stabilizer along those edges made it easier to install button holes and to stitch the fronts without distorting the shape too much.

Stabilizer is a fantastic invention--if you're not sewing with it now, go get some and play to see what's possible. It's perfect for doing appliques on tees, to prevent the fabric from shifting. You can also use it along with the scallop stitch setting on your sewing machine, if your machine has one, to do a scalloped edge or a picot edge along the hem of a garment. (Tutorial on that coming soon!)

I stitched red floral embroidered ribbon along the edges I'd cut, to allow me to add buttons and buttonholes through the ribbon on either front panel. This embroidered rib bon is from the stash and has been waiting for a home forever, but since I only had half a yard, it's been tough to find just the right project. Here at least it'll get seen!

I used the rolled hem setting on my serger to give a neat finish to the fronts--I hadn't used the machine that way previsouly and was really pleased with how easy it was to get a clean, professional finish with a little bit of a decorative aspect to it. I stitched the ribbon right on top of the serged edges, rather than wrapping them as I originally intended. This made for less bulk and allowed me to show the whole ribbon without losing any of the design to the backside of the front edge.

Fits well, super warm, and already been to the cleaners. It does need some adjustments at the underarm, but since I currently spend most of my time getting spit up upon, I'm not doing any runway shows, so I'm putting off completing that step. New sweater for me before the cold gets here--am just thrilled with that accomplishment!

Delayed Reaction

As my original due date approaches, I'm having strange urges. Nothing creepy, just...nesting. I assumed it'd be all gone, taken care of when the birth took place, but what I'm finding is that my internal clock hasn't registered O's arrival yet, and so I'm right on schedule with the unexpected, the subconscious, the instinctive urge to prepare for a new baby.

My linen closets were FLAWLESS homages to Martha Stewart right before M was born, two years ago. Now, I admit that I've had a closet fixation for some time, and that in the Years Before Kids I organized based on length of garment and length of sleeve, in that order, and within those categories based on weight of fabric. I admit this. It's my little OCD secret, but it made me very, very happy. I felt soothed by that level of planning and, let's face it, control. One friend frequently threatened to rearrange my closet when I was out--and it scared me. My books were on the shelf organized by height. My CDs (back when we used CDs) were arranged in alphabetical order and chronological order, in that order, so Van Morrison's Astral Weeks was before Tupelo Honey. The universe made sense.

Then I had children. Our oldest, as a crawler, liked to take the CDs out of their jewel boxes and rub them on the hardwoods. The toddler likes to take books off their shelves and read two pages, then cast aside. With a new baby in the house, I'm grateful I can pull SOMETHING out of the dryer that's been laundered, and have little time to concern myself with keeping the linens on their assigned shelves.

That kind of lax attitude leads to this:

And this:



And, God help us, this:

Dear heaven, the SHAME. I'm really glad my mother doesn't read my blog regularly--maybe by the next time she drops by this will have fallen down to the bottom of the page and she won't notice? I'm generally a very tidy person!! And still would be if it weren't for those meddling kids!

It's time to break out the big guns, people. It's time for Fall Cleaning.

It's like Spring Cleaning, except in the spring it's designed to clear out all the dust and mustiness of the cold weather in preparation for the sun to make its annual return. In the fall, this level of Deep Cleaning is meant to preserve one's sanity over the course of those cold months so that all family members are still alive to SEE the sun return.

My productivity is blocked. I MUST NEST.

I just hope this urge passes once the closets are set to rights. I really, really don't want to clean out the garage.