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| Note to self: reorganization in progress (chalkboard at Sedbi Design Studio) photo by Nita Lou Bryant |
The thing about writing a blog that's mostly about sewing is that if you're not doing much sewing, you're not doing much blogging. Lately it seems all I've done is make brief guest appearances at the studio. For example, after dining out the other evening, four of us swung by to pick up a small pillow as a gift for an out of town friend to take home to his dear wife who wasn't able to accompany him on the trip to Austin. I'd post a photo of that pillow but apparently I never got around to taking one, which is so unlike me. I usually take pictures of everything I make the moment the last thread is snipped.
What's going on?
For lack of a better word, let's call it reorganization. That's what I wrote on the chalkboard in the studio during one of my brief stops. The words in progress connote forward motion toward a goal, though I'm not at all sure in this moment what that goal is. But for now this chalk note to self serves as a kind of visual anchor in the midst of what feels like a great deal of drifting.
I did literally reorganize the studio not too long ago. I relocated two tall shelving units and their contents, reconfigured my storage closet, repurposed a gift-wrap cart to hold fabric projects. Relocated, reorganized, reconfigured, repurposed...I seem to be stuck on R-words these days.
Well then, you may ask, if not spending time at the studio sewing what all else have you been doing?
Um, rearranging things at home?
I started with something that looms frighteningly large in my home life (see menacing photo, below).
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| Laundry photo by Nita Lou Bryant |
Yep, laundry.
It seems there is always, ever, and forever a basket of laundry sitting around somewhere in my house, waiting to be washed or folded or put away. Laundry on the floor, on the bed, on the cedar chest, on the dining room table--you get the picture. Which is so not the home decor look I am going for! It struck me that if I could simply establish a work space in which to accomplish in one spot all of the folding and sorting and hanging-up that has to happen prior to the putting-away of clean clothes, I could maybe just possibly get the upper hand with my chief nemesis, Laundry.
So I relocated (there's that word again) some shelves from a closet and reconfigured (ahem) some space in the laundry room and lo and behold, voila, ta daaaaaaaaa! An all-in-one workspace.
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| Laundry Room Workspace photo by Nita Lou Bryant |
Other non-sewing things I've been doing are: throwing small dinner parties (my first paella!), hosting out of town guests (more are due to arrive later this month), writing songs and learning to play guitar, reestablishing a regular exercise program derailed for over a year during recovery from ankle-tendon surgery, and researching what it would take to try to make a go of selling the things I sew. For help with this task I turned to a book by Kari Chapin that is, coincidentally, beautifully color-coordinated with my favorite coffee mug. So I've been reading it while drinking my morning coffee.
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| Morning Coffee Research Reading photo by Nita Lou Bryant |
Chapin asks some tough questions of would-be marketers of handmade products, questions to which I haven't yet worked out my answers. (See earlier comment about uncertainty in connection with goals.) A few years back I rushed headlong into starting a small handmade greeting card and jewelry business called Flash Fiction Gems which ended up having to be rather painfully dismantled, so I am taking my time considering whether Sedbi Design Studio will become a full-fledged business or remain more of a free-time pastime.
And then there's the question of returning to writing...
I've been on a kind of year-plus sabbatical with regard to writing and seeking publication. Last Saturday, for the first time in a long time, I attended a writing group in which a timer is set (for fifteen minutes or so) and everyone free-writes until the time is up--after which, if you choose, you may read aloud to the group what you've just written. It's a time-honored method of getting writing wheels turning and, sure enough, for the past few days I've found my thoughts repeatedly wandering to ideas for new stories.
So, let's see: that's cooking, sewing, entertaining, songwriting, learning to play guitar, exercising, and writing. Plus long-distance parenting of a college senior in L.A. Add to that the myriad duties involved in running a modern-day household, for my real job title is actually full-time homemaker. But it seems as though I'm leaving out something that takes up a great deal of my time... Now, let me think, what is it?
Oh, yeah. Laundry. Guess I better resume that task before it gets the upper hand again.
I'll keep you posted on how that reorganization in progress progresses.
