The New House!

Peace Y’all,

There has not been any sewing. But there have been plans to sew! I moved at the beginning of this month. I moved from a 5 bedroom 2.5 bath 3500 sq ft home to a 3 bedroom 3 bath 1500 sq ft home. I took stock of my life… I lived at the other address for 10 years. When I initially moved there I was married, a Christian, 30, planning a large family and had dreams of pursuing a career that I got myself into severe student loan debt to cover. 10 years later, I am 40ish, righteous, childless, widowed, and I realize that the career I prepared for, I no longer want. There was no reason to keep that house. And I’m okay with it. Life does go that way.

My new home is an older home with a lot of older (1940 compared to 1999) touches. I have hard wood floors. I have never lived in a home with hard wood floors that I knew of. My childhood home had really pretty and ornate hardwood floors. But my mother covered it with wall to wall shag carpet. I didn’t know they were underneath until she sold the house and the new owners wanted the floors uncovered and refinished. My currant floors are thirsty looking and I have no idea how to care for them. The internet is suspect in my investigations. One article says do this another says don’t do it. One product get raves in one search the next search slams it. I am at a complete loss. And my mother is no help. She feels I gave up on the other place. Why is this her business? Does she pay any of my bills? Now Cipher! – That’s “No” for the non-righteous….

Another thing about the new house is… It has a ishtload of windows in places you wouldn’t suspect. The sub-basement, the laundry room, a closet, a basement bathroom and a sun room. The rooms with windows like you would the windows open sideways and some don’t open at all and have bars on them! It’s going to be interesting getting to learn this house.

My ‘sweat shop’ will now be shared with the God’s computer workroom. He does computer stuff and carpentry. I have convinced him to leave the carpentry stuff outdoors. I don’t want that dust on my things. He could also use the sub-basement, but it’s scary and smells moldy down there. The Sub basement is big enough for you to stand, is well light, has windows and a concrete floor. But it reminds me of a place where you would keep hostages or cut up bodies in peace. The computer/sewing room is a big space. I was flirting with making it our master bedroom because it has so much space and a bathroom, but it’s cold. I can’t handle that. Even in GA.

I have been getting excited about what I will sew for spring/summer. Very excited but that is another build. What I need to sew right now, is curtains for all these doggone windows. And they need to be pretty curtains. I was thinking…shabby chic. I bought a sheet set at Dollar General that has the look I am going for…. And they were 50% off. Those will go upstairs in the boudoir, closet and bathroom. I will use the drapes from the other house for the living room and combo space. The sun room will be used as a dining room (Do you know how hard it was to find a small house with a dining room? Are dining rooms luxury rooms?) BUT…. The sun room has 3 large windows, a small window and a sliding door. The irony is, for it’s name and location, it gets very little sun! I have 3 tension rods that are less than an inch too short when fully extended (yet they are too long to use anywhere else!). ARGHH!!!!

The living room has 1 large window that has decorative, though useful bars on the inside of the house which prevent me from hanging blinds. But I do walk around half naked and I don’t want the world to see me or the flatscreen. So my 1st sewing project will be to find some opaque fabric and hang them off said bars. I will have to add tabs and Velcro to attach and close the tabs.

The second project will be curtains for the laundry room and downstairs bathroom. Not so much for privacy, but the view really sucks from those windows. It looks into the neighbor’s yard and that is one nasty looking yard! I don’t want to go crazy on fabric (my new utilities are low, but the move itself was expensive) so I will shop what’s already in my stash. While I was packing I found that I infact have a stash that I was unaware of. So they will become curtains for these “off’ rooms. I don’t want to just make panels. I want them to be pretty. But I am having a hard time finding inspiration. Don’t people use curtains anymore?

All right y’all. Wish me luck! I am very excited about this new stage in my life! Watch I’ll end up pregnant and need to move again for the room!


Peace!

Downsizing.....

Peace…

For the last few months I have been contemplating “capsule wardrobes.” Those are small collections of clothes that can be mixed and matched in various ways. Now, I find myself moving. And the new house is a lot smaller than the old house (hey, it be’s like that!) and that especially means my closet. I now need a capsule wardrobe. The house is a lot older and doesn’t have a walk in closet. It does have a dressing area… and a window (o_O); but that area still isn’t big as my current walk-in. So….. I find that I have to do what I been meaning to do for a minute. Reduce my wardrobe.

The new closet hangs half the clothes the old one does. ***sigh*** It has one shelf above the rack. I have 3 shoe racks, a 3 tier box for lingerie, A bunch of hats in boxes, a bunch of headwraps, a free standing jewelry box and a trunk. I’m a be honest, the space I’m getting is not really enough to keep my stuff. I have 70+ purses that I am NOT parting with. Because I had a walk in closet I stored a lot of things in the closet and relinquished my claim on the furniture for storage. So now…..

This is what I have now.

This is what I'm getting.

This was fine when I was in college/grad school. But I'm a GROWN woman now. With a grown woman wardrobe!

The up side to the depletion is that like most women, I have clothes I never wear. My mother buys me suits every year for Christmas. I use them for interviews, funerals, etc. I don’t have the type of job that requires me to wear suits to work. But I recognize they come in handy and I know she paid a lot of money for them; so I will keep them. It’s only like 5 of them. Also I have white suits that aren’t included in the number. Now…. I don’t know about y’all, but I have the occasion at least once a season to wear an all white dress. So I will keep both suits since one is a summer white suit and looks fabulous on me and the other is a winter suit though not winter white. And I am in a sorority after all. Then suits will always get used.

It’s not the things hanging in my closet that worry me. It’s the things on top of the closet that do. I have a bunch of workout clothes that I don’t use, a bunch of t-shirts and just over all crap. Some how, some way, I will need to get it within myself to get rid of most of my beloveds.

So far, the plan is to hang the most used clothes in the tiny closet, get a rack for the rest of the clothes in the dressing area, and get a real dresser for the clothes that won’t have a place to live.

I need to do some REAL decreasing. There will be tears and gnashing of teeth. But once it’s out of the house and at Goodwill then I can’t get at it. Let’s hope that it goes smoothly and quickly. And think about all that good sewing I will have to do to replace the clothes…..

Wish me luck!


Peace

I Need Some Help Y'all!!!!!

Peace!

I was watching "The Game" last night on BET. The Episode was called "Grand Opening, Grand Closing." Not to giving props to BET, because they play to EVERY damn stereotype they can find. I was paying attention to the 'Malik' character while he was hosting a party for his cousin T.T. at a club. He had on a gray jacket. Now I have been trying to find that image online to no avail. But I know y'all out there in the virtual world have my back. I need to find a pattern that approximates the same jacket. Since I can't show it to you, I will show you a version....

I can't use this pattern. It's OOP.

This is very similar but no cigar. Malik's collar was rounded and shorter, the jacket was a button down and the bottom was more like views B and C. And how do you do the bottom part of those versions anyway? Will I have to buy a Members Only jacket from a thrift store and cut off the bottom to add it to my version or can you buy that?

The God said that he absolutely wear clothes that I made for him as long as they were 'manly'. I'm a little excited about this opportunity.

So I'm requesting aid from all 10 of y'all that might possible read this. Thank you in advance for your cooperation!


Peace!