Monthly Milestone Photos

A few months ago I found this idea from a blogger on pinterest; take a good photo of your child and add all of their monthly milestones to it!  I loved the idea, mostly because it's easy and fun to make.  I found the idea when Magnolia was 4 months old, and created a photo for each month, even though it was hard to find photos that offered space to type.  For her 6 month birthday I did a photo shoot (basically dressed her in something cute and took a bunch of photos), chose one that I liked that offered space to type, and then waited until the end of the month to fill it in.  Magnolia will be turning 7 months old on the 5th (where did the time go?) and I'll do another photo shoot for her pretty soon.  I hope to create a frame for all of the photos, maybe for a year, or maybe longer; we'll see...

Where will we go from here....

I started Hip-Threads.com back in 2003-2004 with the help of my good (saintly) friend Heather who created my website for me.  And before Hip-Threads.com came into light, I sold my handmade patchwork clothing at concerts, festivals and shows across the Midwest, and Colorado.  Once my website was up and running; I continued making patchwork clothing and accessories; eventually I started making jewelry, then soap, hats, knits, and more.   These new items kept getting added to Hip-Threads.com and with each new craft came new products until I started to feel like my website had a lot of stuff with no theme behind it.  My sales had dropped and I wasn't seeing quite as many hits to my site or inquiries.
Then last year, when Josh was offered a job that afforded me to quit my job and focus on my business and I was thrilled!  I had visions of sewing all day, cutting all night, cooking, gardening, blogging, and all the 'free' time I'd have.  But somehow, it didn't work out that way;  and even though I kept creating, my sales were slow and I wasn't succeeding as I had hoped, and it's really made me re-think this business and what I need to do to make it successful to me.

Consideration, Organization, Procrastination

Since giving notice to my job about 2 weeks ago and making the decision to quit, I have felt much more free.  It's a wonderful feeling and I am so excited for this new opportunity!  But now, I keep thinking of all the things I need "to do" to start working from home full time.  I need to clean my sewing room, my horribly messy, cluttered, dusty, sewing room.  Need to clean out the downstairs desk to store all of my cancer registry supplies, manuals, files and reference guides and get it set up for working comfortably.   I need to organize.  I am not great at organizing and even worse at keeping it that way.  But I am determined to be organized this time, hopefully it will keep me on track. 
At about 3pm Monday afternoon, I started taking everything out of my sewing room, grouping things together by projects; soap supplies, knits, cardstock, hair making supplies, etc etc etc...and don't get me started on all the fabric that is crammed into that room, and the spare bedroom downstairs.  I hoard fabric.  
By 7pm I finally had everything out of the room, and mostly got all the projects organized in their own basket or box, and I will put each basket/box onto a shelving unit on the wall and off the floor.  (purchase & install shelving units added to the "to do" list)   

Next there is the problem of all this fabric, I have fabric like girls have shoes (which I also have a ton of) or clothes (ditto).  I love all things fabric and have accepted a lot of fabric that has been handed down to me, and lots of clothing that I want to upcycle too.   By 9pm all of the fabric is out of the room and the room is vaccuumed and dusted really well!  It looks really inviting, but all of the stuff is outside of the room.  Now I need to get all the stuff back into the sewing room and still have it organized, inspirational and ready for crafting.  This is where the procrastination comes into play.  I don't know how to organize it?  I need to make a decision and move forward, but I keep thinking that having a comfortable workspace is pivotal and I really need to get it right the first time.  

I really need a new desk and found the perfect desk on craigslist and it was only $20.   It even had two slots for cords that my serger and sewing machine could come up through, with a wide enough space to put them both and work comfortably.  However, the seller hasn't emailed me back and I am beginning to wonder if the perfect desk is gone...so I will keep looking.  I am going to get the shelving this week and hopefully Josh and I can install it on Saturday.  
Maybe TLC can just show up and surprise me by re-doing my drab craft room into a organized/inspired room, complete with small flat screen TV and dvd player to watch all of the cartoon movies I love so much, mounted to be seen by my sewing machine.  A girl can dream, can't she?


More to come on the craft room saga...complete with photos. 

Consideration, Organization, Procrastination

Since giving notice to my job about 2 weeks ago and making the decision to quit, I have felt much more free.  It's a wonderful feeling and I am so excited for this new opportunity!  But now, I keep thinking of all the things I need "to do" to start working from home full time.  I need to clean my sewing room, my horribly messy, cluttered, dusty, sewing room.  Need to clean out the downstairs desk to store all of my cancer registry supplies, manuals, files and reference guides and get it set up for working comfortably.   I need to organize.  I am not great at organizing and even worse at keeping it that way.  But I am determined to be organized this time, hopefully it will keep me on track. 
At about 3pm Monday afternoon, I started taking everything out of my sewing room, grouping things together by projects; soap supplies, knits, cardstock, hair making supplies, etc etc etc...and don't get me started on all the fabric that is crammed into that room, and the spare bedroom downstairs.  I hoard fabric.  
By 7pm I finally had everything out of the room, and mostly got all the projects organized in their own basket or box, and I will put each basket/box onto a shelving unit on the wall and off the floor.  (purchase & install shelving units added to the "to do" list)   

Next there is the problem of all this fabric, I have fabric like girls have shoes (which I also have a ton of) or clothes (ditto).  I love all things fabric and have accepted a lot of fabric that has been handed down to me, and lots of clothing that I want to upcycle too.   By 9pm all of the fabric is out of the room and the room is vaccuumed and dusted really well!  It looks really inviting, but all of the stuff is outside of the room.  Now I need to get all the stuff back into the sewing room and still have it organized, inspirational and ready for crafting.  This is where the procrastination comes into play.  I don't know how to organize it?  I need to make a decision and move forward, but I keep thinking that having a comfortable workspace is pivotal and I really need to get it right the first time.  

I really need a new desk and found the perfect desk on craigslist and it was only $20.   It even had two slots for cords that my serger and sewing machine could come up through, with a wide enough space to put them both and work comfortably.  However, the seller hasn't emailed me back and I am beginning to wonder if the perfect desk is gone...so I will keep looking.  I am going to get the shelving this week and hopefully Josh and I can install it on Saturday.  
Maybe TLC can just show up and surprise me by re-doing my drab craft room into a organized/inspired room, complete with small flat screen TV and dvd player to watch all of the cartoon movies I love so much, mounted to be seen by my sewing machine.  A girl can dream, can't she?


More to come on the craft room saga...complete with photos.