I have been covered in bits of thread and smelling of puppy for about a week now.
This is not entirely a good thing.
Luckily the Monks of New Skete know what they are doing, and the puppies slept from 10:30-6:30 last night and everyone is happier this morning. Especially me. I tend to get a mite cranky from lack of sleep. Ask El Jefe and the Chick. And did you know puppies are much cuter when you are not sleep deprived? It's true.
As I looked over my Sewing Spreadsheet yesterday, it seemed to me that it wasn't changing at all. I was getting things done and deleting them from the list, but more things kept being added. People have said to me, "Well, wouldn't you be bored if you had nothing to do?"
Yes, I would. But that is what the "future projects" spreadsheet is for. I just want to cross something off and feel the satisfaction of having done so. When I finished redoing the guard for the underskirt on Princess A's purple dress yesterday I instantly packaged the whole thing up and brought it upstairs to put by the door so it could leave as soon as possible. Because as much as I love to see my work completed and displayed on the mannequin (and more so on the person it is made for), I like to see it leave my house. Maybe this is why I keep so few costumes for myself. I have raised/sewn my babies and now they need to leave the nest. Again, and again.
I like organization. I like orderliness. I love to have the Chick come and cut for me (can you imagine? Someone who actually LIKES cutting out patterns?), it drives me crazy not knowing where the stuff I had put on the table went to. She is very patient with me and my OCD tendencies and allows me to move things so I know where they are, and then gets her stuff ready and cuts away. And her cutting is very precise. Which is WONDERFUL. There is nothing quite so great as sewing something that has to be done right away and having all the pieces be the same length, size, etc., and marked with their tabs, etc.
Non-sewing people might not get that, but it is just so relaxing. Especially when you have been in such a hurry you go to serge two strips of fabric together and discover you have created a mobius strip and don't have enough leftover fabric to fix it. (Not a good moment at all.)
I have been in such a sewing haze this past week that I have not watched any TV at all except for date night with El Jefe (Burn Notice, yah baby!), read any books, read any blogs, done much in the way of exercise, really done anything other than take puppies outside, help clean puppy pee, mediate between tired teenagers, and teach them how to hold puppies like footballs, which makes it easier to take two squirmy puppies outside at the same time. I have also had my nose pressed to a serger or a sewing machine, or been meeting with clients. I would not be surprised to reach in my bra and find a bobbin there. I am fairly certain there is thread on my butt.
And now it is crunch time. I have much to accomplish before Costume College and Bristol, which is just a month away. And starting next week the kids are in camp half-days, which means my puppy time increases.
I am taking this as a good thing. It will be good for me to sit outside and read a book while the puppies explore the yard. It will be good for me to get away from the sewing machine and eat something with nutritional value. It will be good for me to perhaps get on the treadmill and watch an episode of Law & Order (ding-ding!).
And hopefully my spreadsheet will narrow down a bit and I will have some breathing room. Which would be nice.
Life Goal Number 54: Make your sewing life just a bit easier. Knowing that cutting stuff out for you takes some of the burden off of you makes me happy. Honest. Because anyone who makes such beautiful things NEEDS an assistant. Or, you know, minion.
And by God, I'm the best minion there is!
Posted by: The Cheap Chick | July 08, 2009 at 03:00 PM
I'll try to come over more often to ease the workload of puppies, and get some pretty girdles and necklaces done for you!! <3 <3 <3
Posted by: Princess | July 09, 2009 at 11:55 AM