Mr. Wonderful and My Dream Worktable

 I saw a hack about creating a worktable with storage underneath long before I married Mr. Wonderful. I thought it was pretty darned cool, but I didn't have a way to put the thing together.  I used a drop leaf cutting table that was small, didn't have any storage, and was a bit wobbly. 

Today, a dream came true. I got all the parts and the total cost was less than $400.00.  Mr. Wonderful put the thing together for me. I finally have a cutting/work table with storage beneath it. Yahoo! Celebration! Much rejoicing! There is joy in Mudville! 

This thing is large. My current cutting mat does not cover the entire work surface. I'm using the additional area to host my cutting rulers and my pattern weights. I've got several cutting mats that I could put around my main mat to extend the cutting area for dressmaking. For quilting, I've got more than enough area to work on. 

TLDR: I got a worktable that I've been dreaming about for years. Mr. Wonderful built it for me in one day! 

Moved to Arizona

I left on a Thursday, November 16th. The movers had finished up around 1:00pm, and after I cleaned the apartment a bit, at 2:00 pm Bon Bon and I hopped into my truck with a few boxes of my craft things that I didn't want to trust to the movers. I took my new sewing machine and many of my sewing notions. I drove 2,500 miles and arrived in Kingman, Arizona at about 8:30 pm on Sunday. 

I'm still waiting for the moving truck to catch up with me. It will be anywhere from three to five more days. I can really start moving into the house. I will have my furniture and the rest of my wardrobe. I'm also waiting for the kitchen things. Pots. pans, and foodstuffs. 

In some ways, I feel like a newlywed moving into their first place with a spouse. I've done long distance moves before. Each one has been different.  Unfortunately, there is a slight similarity with this move and my move to the apartment in Leesburg. I've got a nasty cough and low energy.  All I really want to do is laze on the sofa. I kind of want to knit, but mostly, I just want to surf and play games. Knitting takes up a lot a brain work and I just don't feel like braining. 

Furniture Wrangling

 I have two work tables that need to be put on their legs. I have one dresser that I use for fabric storage. One of the work tables will be put on Singer treadle sewing machine bases. This is something I long dreamed of being able to do. Fantasy furniture? However, there’s only me to get this furniture moved. I’m no longer able to fling these pieces around. Perhaps after I get over this bronchitis, I can do it. But not right now. I’m not even sure that I will be able to get this stuff out of my truck and into the apartment!

This is a bit depressing. I wish I had more faith in my ability to deal with things that require physical strength. I used to just do things, and not doubt myself. The little old lady inside my head doesn’t want to admit she is older. 

Downsizing and Decluttering

 These two words are a smoking gun for many people. Getting rid of things? Why? Because they serve no practical purpose, they carry emotional burdens through negative memories, or they are taking up space that is needed for things that will improve life. I no longer have the space to store things that are of little to no practical or positive value in my life. I have plenty of room for the good stuff. Not so much for things that hold less positive vibes. 

Some things are tools. Tools act on supplies. Knives cut, rulers measure, wrenches adjust.  Perhaps tools are duplicates, low quality beginner tools for a craft or hobby I tried and hated. Or they could be the starter set for a hobby I enjoy. But they are tools. It’s easy to decide about tools. Do I use them? Would I replace them if I lost them? Could I donate or sell them if I don’t keep them?

Other things are supplies, like paint, fabric, glue, or thread. Thread doesn’t keep for years, it ages and becomes brittle. Paint dries up. And, tastes change, along with fashions. Remember the age of the chevron? That fabric with the zig zag stripes isn’t going to make a fresh, cute pillow anytime soon. Many supplies have gone out the door. 

As a quilter, I am aware of the pressure to save every single itsy-bitsy scrap of fabric. That pressure is ridiculous, and in my opinion, unhealthy. If one person’s trash is another’s treasure, it is still trash to half of the people. It isn’t worth the time, energy, or space for me to save scraps. 

Sanctuary

 I am attempting to create a sanctuary for myself. A place where old wounds can heal and new dreams can grow. The ideal sanctuary that I created in my dreams is far away from where I am right now. I’m renting a one bedroom apartment that leaves a lot to be desired. The floors are not level, the place was horribly filthy when I moved in, and so on. There is no magical creation of a good space to be. I have to clean, sort, unpack, put away, and make sense out of a chaotic pile of random boxes of stuff. 

I packed in a bit of a hurry, and many items were not packed in an organized way. Fabric got wrapped around dishes, towels got wedged into boxes of books. It kept me from having to purchase packing padding, but it makes it hard to be systematic when unpacking. 

I’m also still downsizing and decluttering my things. While I have long needed to do this, the amount of mental effort required is sucking a lot more energy than I had thought it would. I have reached a point where I just can’t face another box that I will have to sort through and make decisions about. It isn’t making the decisions, I’ve figured out some very effective ways to choose what to keep or not. It’s just that making those decisions over and over again takes energy that I have run out of. I need to be doing something that restores my energy. I need to be creating something. 

Because I’ve had to focus on the basics of kitchen, bedroom, and bath, I have zero space set up for working with fiber. In order to create, I will create food to eat. I have been mentally designing skirts and sleeves, but I can’t do pattern work now. I’m going to make bread and prepare ingredients for future meals. It won’t be freestyle cooking, the way I used to, but I’m hoping it feeds my creative energy a meal as well.

Naming My Trials and Tribulations

 I have found that giving things names that point out the silly side of them defangs them a bit. I can recite the silly name, sigh, and keep moving. 

Getting out of the house where I am staying isn’t a simple task. I have no ‘dump spot’ by the door and I am often carrying more items than I safely should. I have declared the task to be the equivalent of crossing a river with a wolf, a sheep and a bale of hay. That is an old logic puzzle. You have a rowboat that will carry you and one of the three items. To succeed, the wolf can’t eat the sheep and the sheep can’t eat the hay. Think outside the box, I’m sure you can find the answer. 

Three Moves Equal a Fire

My mother said, "Three moves equal a fire. You need to settle down," to a co-worker that kept hopping from apartment to apartment. I know Mom understood that from having to move repeatedly as a child. Anyway... 

 Later this week, I will be loading a bunch of boxes into a U-Haul trailer and taking them to Burke, Virginia. I am moving out of Wisconsin. Yes, me. Myself. I. Not we or us. Just me. Sigh. Not a fire, but almost as good. I've gotten rid of all sorts of things. Still not quite as much as I would like, but I have sorted out my sewing stash into three different stacks of materials. 

Stack number one is the stack for quilts. I've got one quilt that's an actual kit and another that's a pile of well-chosen fabrics. This is my smallest stack. 

Stack number two is the stack for clothing for me. It's a larger stack than I thought, but the fabric is all stuff that I want to use for items I already have the patterns for. I don't plan on needing to purchase clothing for myself for a long while. 

Stack number three is the stack of stash that I can turn into items for sale that will become cash. This is the largest stack, but since I was able to connect with several women in the throes of their own de-stashing fits, it cost at most, $2/yard. For really nice quality fabric. An entire armload was free. I have been poking my toes back into the craft show scene. Mostly I do domestics as in kitchen towels, bowl cozys, grocery bags, and the like. Even better, I am getting the patterns from YouTube, so I don't pay for them. I've been collecting them into a book so I can grab it and look up the dimensions I need to cut to get sellable product from each piece in the pile. When I have a more permanent address in Virginia, I'll register my business. For now, in Wisconsin, I fall into an exemption class and don't need to do that. 

If the fabric doesn't fit into one of the three stacks, I don't really want to keep it and in most cases, I haven't. However, fabric makes great packing material. Pun intended. I am using fabric instead of paper to cushion my fragile items. I really enjoyed watching my delicate tea set get safely packed away at the same time a heap of fabric got used to protect it. I didn't have to pack the fabric, I used the fabric to pack.