Challenge Update: Week 19

Making progress, in little five-minutes chunks of time between scalawag crises.

Challenge Rule 1: Buy No Clothes/Don’t Covet

I didn’t buy any clothes this week, wasn’t even tempted.

Honestly, my new sewing machine kept me busy with little things here and there, giving new life to plenty of items that I feel like I have a closet full of new things!!

There is one thing, though, that I desperately need: a sunhat. I have an old one which is soooo cute, but for some reason has shrunk (I refuse to believe that my head has gotten bigger. I just don’t see how that is possible!) That now too-small hat gives me a nasty headache when I wear it, and I need to wear it because I come from a long line of red-haired, freckle faced people with extremely sensitive skin.

For this reason, I have been coveting people’s hats this week. I just now had the idea that I could try to MacGyver the hat and add a little gusset here or there…it can’t hurt to try, seeing as how it is causing me so much heartache as it currently stands!!

Challenge Rule 2: The Inventory

With the scalawags out of school again due to the shutdown, my “black this, black that” purge was put on hold. I’ll be honest, I am reticent to discard anything right now, since my Buy No Clothes in 2021 resolution has lit a fire in me to refashion so much of my old stuff. It feels like everything is fair game for a refashion these days!!

Challenge Rule 3: Go-To Catalogue:

I’m almost considering retiring this rule. Consistent Mise en Place has rendered it almost moot, however I wonder if when season changes come about I won’t be happy to have a few reminders of things that worked.

Challenge Rule 4: Mise en Place/Plan Ahead:

Yes, I am still addicted. Yes, I want to write a book about this. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Challenge Rule 5: Repair and Mend, Alter when Necessary:

I snuck in several little sewing projects here and there while my boys were otherwise occupied this week.

Also, I did an absolutely useless and slightly stressful tailoring job on my chambray shirt:

Still can’t find it? I shortened the shoulder placket from 5 inches to 4.5 inches. Why? I don’t know. I wanted to try it.

I have big plans for this week in the refashioning category, provided that my scalawags can go to school. My sewing machine is a dreamboat with whom I am longing to spend some uninterrupted time in my Boudoir, if you know what I mean…

Round up

The Challenge is on target. That strange feeling of happiness crept in this week when I looked at how I have managed to keep on track in spite of the setbacks. There is great power in deciding you are going to accomplish something that, while not life-alteringly difficult (like climbing Mount Everest), still requires significant discipline, and then seeing it through. I didn’t expect happiness to be a result.

I was pretty sure contentment would result, but this strange feeling of happiness has caught me flat-footed on multiple occasions. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say without reserve that anything has made me happy before.

In Other News:

My novel writing and querying was put on hold because I had nearly zero working hours to chip away at it. I mentioned last week that I had some paralyzing self-esteem issues: I think that this week away from the ability to query has been a necessary evil so that I could let those issues run their course in my heart.

I have been forced to start defining for myself what success actually means to me. Just that question right there opened a can of worms which kept me occupied while sitting at skateparks watching my boys do daredevil stunts. I wouldn’t have taken the time to start thinking about this if I had had the time to write or query. Like I said. Necessary evil.