Okay, so I know that this is a bit off topic from my normal posts here, but I thought that if I am going to keep up with my blog well, that I'm due for some not so "boring" posts.
I am a mother just like 99% of my customers and I'm sure many of you can appreciate some of the mothering "comments" that may follow.
I sat down today to better organize all of the things on my list of to-do's, for my business, my family, and for my job. I started with just a plain list of things I need to do each week around my house, for my daughter, and for my husband. Then I got my list of things for my business, including customs that are on my table, ones that are waiting in the wings, and also projects that need to get done for making in-stock items.
A good friend of mine, and actually one of my fellow admins on Bitty Fluff Congo, gave me some very great tips on organization of my life. I really needed to write everything down in one place and start to schedule time for everything that needs to get done.
Well, my daughter, Emily, is now 2 and 1/2 years old and basically runs the house and my life. I could schedule until the cows come home (no I don't really have cows), but at the end of the day, she tends to have conflicted with my strict plans. As all mother probably know, what would take a single woman 10 minutes to accomplish can often take an hour or more for a mother with our "handy-little-helper" around. Emily is now at the stage of wanting to do every single thing that Mommie does and have her little nose in everything.
When I need to clean up the kitchen, she is happily helping me by removing all the forks and spoons from the silverware drawer. When I need to clean up her toys, she is immediately taking things back out as though they BELONG on the floor. I pull out the vacuum and I get a "rider". I am switching over laundry and have to keep removing a child that's halfway in the dryer trying to "save" her favorite animal or shirt.
At the end of the day, I am exhausted and look around wondering what exactly I got accomplished today. Somehow in the midst of taking care of a house and a child, I am also making time to sit at my sewing table and create things for other people and their children. Yet, I can't remember the last time I made something for myself or my own family. Every product that comes off my sewing, tries to be claimed by my daughter. She wants to put on every bag and every article of clothing I make. Unfortunately, everything I create right now is far too small for her. She wants to put on all of my newborn sized hats and gets very upset and frustrated when they don't fit.
Finally a couple days ago I sat down, cleared off all my work stuff, and made my daughter a shirt. The very first thing I have made for her in over a year. How sad, right? Well, it was just a plain t-shirt, nothing fancy, but I used a strawberry shortcake knit that SHE had picked out. When she woke up the next morning and saw it she got a little excited. When I told her it was for HER, she cried. "For EMILY??", she said. "Yes," I said, "for Emily, from Mommie." She was SO happy and going crazy over this little thing I made for her that it brought tears to my eyes.
I guess that is the part that I will always MISS by sending things to people I'll never get to meet. I never get to see any reaction when they get it. More often than not, I never hear from them again. I never know if they loved what I made or even if they hated it. I don't get to see the joy or the excited from a child recieving something new made JUST FOR THEM.
I suppose I wish I could hand-deliver everything...
Anyway, as I go off on a tangent...
I am always searching for my 30-hour day to accomplish all the things I would like to do and making all the things I would like to make AND wishing that a little more often I could enjoy the excitement that one of my crafts might bring to someone else...
I will always enjoy crafting things for all of my fantastic customers, but I just hope that a few more would let me know how they enjoy their stuff. I know I can't ask everyone to send me a smiling picture, but they are always appreciated if they were to come!
Thanks for listening, if you got this far. I promise not to babble too much between updates. Just thought someone might care to hear a little more about the life away from my sewing table!
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