Last week, I shared my list of things that I wanted to start doing in order to get my life a little bit better organized. This week I implemented a few of them as best as I could. I wouldn’t try and implement all of them at once, that would just set me up for failure immediately. Habit changes don’t usually happen over night, or over a week, so I’m okay with taking this slowly.
A few of the things that I started that I thought would be annoying, but aren’t really that bad, are doing a load of laundry every day, making my bed every day, changing the sheets every Monday (it was actually Tuesday, but it’s a start), and cleaning the fridge on grocery day. While I don’t always get the bed made immediately, or laundry put away the moment it’s done, I get them done. And it’s made things a little bit nicer. Not leaving any dishes in the sink is fairly difficult when you have a toddler though. I’m not sure how well that one will hold up. It may have to be revised to never going to bed with dishes in the sink. Then there were things that didn’t get quite the start I wanted, such as spending 30 minutes outside intentionally, which began with me locking Level and I out of the house without jackets. Thankfully, she runs warm anyways, and it was 30 minutes before Ryan got home, so we achieved our thirty minutes even though we were a little unprepared for it.
There were some things that I started, and then decided I hated and would be okay with that sort of clutter. Such as the photos on my computer. I did go through and delete a lot, and I mean a lot, of photos that were of pointless things or that I only needed temporarily. Since I have a mac, it doesn’t matter if I organize things in to separate folders, they still all appear in the larger all photos section. So after about an hour and a half of sorting, and a good crying session for all the people I miss, I decided my energy was better spent in letting this one be what it is.
There were days where things hung us up a bit before we could begin thing, like when Level decided to push Figgy Stardust off of the shelf he was living on. He is now broken in half and I’m hoping I can save him, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m not great with keeping plants alive, but I was so proud of myself for bringing Figgy back to life when I purchased him in such poor shape.
One thing that has been baffling to me is trying to figure out what to do with my fabric stash. Clearly, I want to make things out of those fabrics, but what do I want to make? I’m not a person who wears skirts all the time, but they are a little more forgiving if you gain or lose some weight. Some of the fabrics I have are super cute, but I didn’t have a plan when I purchased them, I just knew I wasn’t going to be back in Japan anytime soon and needed to get them now.
The three above were purchased when I was pregnant, with the intention of making something for my future child, but she’s probably going to outgrow most things quickly. Even if they would be cute. Maybe a pillow? Or a bag of some sort? I’m open to any ideas anyone wants to share. I do think I will make myself something out of the Nyan Umbrella fabric because I purchased that one because I smile every time I see it.
Obviously both the outside fabrics are going to be used for making something for Level. I intend to make myself a pencil skirt out of the one in the middle. It’s so simple and I love that the dots aren’t arranged in a grid. I did knock one large thing off of my fabric list, which was recovering the bench that we have in our living room. This bench has been covered with a grey corduroy for about ten years now, and the cats have attacked it, and it just wasn’t in the best of shape. The bench was originally a wooden bench that my dad had built out of spare wood and added hairpin legs to. I decided to give it cushioning and fabric randomly one day, and it has been a loved piece of furniture in my home ever since.
I found the fabric forever ago and originally intended to make pillows for our previous sofa. I never made them, we moved and got rid of the sofa, and now I love the pillows I have with my new sofa more than I would have loved these. I couldn’t waste upholstery fabric, so after consulting with Ryan, I decided I would make a new cover for the bench. I didn’t take photos of the before and in between process because I have a toddler and she won’t let me do anything. At least this time I took the time to sew the corners rather than just folding them over and stapling the fabric into place like I had done before. I didn’t have a sewing machine back then, so I made do with what I had. Overall I’m pleased with the outcome.
Next week (or this weekend rather) I’m looking forward to cutting down on the amount of makeup and other beauty products I have, going through my storage containers, and working on creating a schedule. If you’ve got any ideas on things I could make with the extra fabric, let me know.
Maus Musings 