Gratitude and Putting Things in Place

While I'm being thankful, I never said thank YOU for the wonderful words and support that you sent our way after our big announcement.  The hubby and I couldn't be any more excited - he comes with me to all of the doctor appointments, and we love hearing the little heartbeat every time.  Now that I'm almost 6 months along (wow, really??), I feel the baby moving and we've both felt a few kicks.  I'm desperately wanting to start nesting and organizing baby stuff, but I don't want to be too eager - so I keep a lot of it to Pinterest. ;)

As I mentioned before, work has been really busy.  We've had so much going on, and I think knowing that I'll be out for a little while on maternity leave, I want to make sure everything's buttoned-up before I go.  We're also trying to get the house in order.  Moving rooms around, consolidating, cleaning and purging... it's amazing how much you can accumulate!  A major area of focus has, of course, been my craft room.  I had been saving small scraps of fabric for unknown projects, hoarding patterns and all the while, not making a dent in anything by actually making anything.  So, I decided a deep cleaning is due.

The 'before' shot of my pattern storage (aka, everywhere) and some of the larger pieces of fabric.

After the cleanup. Patterns are now contained to just three bins. Fabric scraps have been incorporated to shelving (freeing up three tubs that were under my sewing table).

First things first, I went through all of my fabric and looked at what I would really use in the long run, what scraps could become something, and which just had to go.  I considered doing a giveaway for some things, but there wasn't really enough to amount to anything garment-wise.  I've actually decided to donate a lot to RAFT, a local organization that provides various resources to teachers.

All of my patterns, sorted by designer.

Then, the dreaded bins of patterns.  I started with two bins for patterns, which quickly became three, which then became any available spot I could find to tuck them into, random containers, squished between fabric bolts on shelves... you get the picture.  So I pulled them alllll out.  And sorted them by brand. And decided which could stay and which needed to go.  I even found some duplicates!  What does this mean for you? Well, I split the patterns into three piles, keep, sell, and... you guessed it... giveaways!  So watch out, because I'll have at least a couple coming your way, just in time for the holidays!

My stacks of vintage patterns that will probably be sold. Still need to assess the condition of them .

Now that I have done the cleaning, I just need to start sorting through the vintage patterns that I'm going to list on Etsy and get them ready to go, and I need to start on a few crafts that I've had sitting on the table for a while.  In particular, an advent calendar (that I'd love to complete before this Christmas!), an Amy Butler bag that has all components and is just waiting to be assembled, and my crochet blanket that I've been working on since last November.  It's almost done, but it's just so big that it's a little unwieldy to work with.

So I haven't been completely unproductive! And I've been trying to check in with my blog reader at least once a week.  So hopefully you'll start to see me commenting on posts again and also updating my blog a little more regularly.