Yesterday however, I am proud to say, I spent the better part of the day cleaning out the mountain of chaos in my garage also known as my sewing/crafting/decorating "stuff". DH and I have been slowly plodding away on organizing the garage. It used to be home to most of my grandmother's worldly possessions and therefore was a magnet for all the junk we accumulated but did not know what to do with. Periodically we would donate items or have a garage sale but then it will just pile up again. This time we invested in some inexpensive shelving and bike racks to help keep the clutter tamed. We have tried to purge everything we do not use. So all the camping, repairing, painting, recreational, musical, and other stuff used by the entire family now has a permanent place. But that still left my mountain of mess which I was hoping would somehow organize itself.
Once I resigned to the task, I managed to fill an entire trash bag with fabric scraps not big enough for another project as well as a trunk full of things to donate. I discovered I had enough clothes that needed mending to fill and entire laundry basket (that's tomorrows project). I placed all like items together and was amazed at how many materials I have to use. I have been fortunate to inherit much of my mother's and grandmother's sewing supplies and really had no idea what all was there. I found some felted Christmas stockings my mom had started and never finished. There are four, one for each person in the family I have created, (which also means my mom most likely started that project before I was even born...I'm 37 uhummm). I plan on finishing them and using them in some fashion in our Christmas celebration this year. Fun!
I feel very grateful to have so many materials at my disposal. I also realized that materials are worthless if you cannot find them easily when you want to use them. For example, I found three measuring tapes yesterday. Just last week I was wrecking the house in an attempt to uncover the one measuring tape I knew I owned. Well I never found it when I needed it and resorted to measuring with a plastic ruler. Then yesterday, not only did I find mine, but obviously my grandmother's and mother's measuring tapes as well. Now they are all safely tucked in their new home, a little organizer tray for the sewing stuff I use regularly. I also had just purchased elastic for some of the many pairs of t-shirt shorts I made for my boys this summer from The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. Much to my chagrin, I found enough elastic to fill a gallon size ziploc bag. The bad news, if I had organized sooner I would not have had to purchase new materials. The good news, I have lots of elastic for future sewing projects and I know exactly where to find it. Probably my favorite discovery was the vintage lace and trims I uncovered from my Mom's and Grandmother's sewing baskets. I'm not sure just how I will use these lovelies yet, but when I do, I'll be sure and share them here.
With all these amazing materials at my disposable I am anxious to create something fabulous in the near future. I am hoping I find the time to craft and sew amongst the busyness of this season of life. Which brings me to another point I really stopped to think about as I was discovering "new to me" materials in my mother's sewing stuff. I had never paused to consider how invested my mother had been to creating things during this same season of life (thirty something). It made me wonder why she stopped and if I too will stop one day. I must confess the idea made me more than a little sad. I hope to always be doing something creative.
And while I am typing this, my ten year old has decided to don a makeshift Batman ensemble along with lego created Batman weaponry. I am happy to see that ten has not squelched his creative need to play dress up. Maybe I too will stay forever young:)
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