Assignment #2: Make a List of Projects

Now here’s an assignment that’s right up my alley. I make lists all the time. For work, for home, for shopping, and for packing, lists are my go-to way to keep organized and stay motivated. I am without a doubt one of those people that takes deep satisfaction from crossing tasks off a list of to-dos.

Unfortunately, I’m also one of those people prone to putting far too many things on my list and then feeling frustrated or guilty when I can’t cross everything off in a day, or a weekend. It’s like when you buy your first skein of yarn to start knitting and naively, blissfully assume that it will be enough for whatever project you choose, then realize too late that you don’t have close to enough to make (or worse, finish) whatever project you had in mind. When you consider it rationally you realize that there was no conceivable way a single skein was going to get you through a six-foot-long scarf, but somehow that perfectly reasonable thought never crossed your mind when you were standing in the store. Likewise, when I make a list of things I’d like to do around our apartment, it’s easy to trick myself into thinking I could knock out a whole room in a dedicated weekend. And that might be true, if I wanted to give up sleeping and eating and had no concern for being smothered in paint fumes while stitching yards of curtains and weaving a rug with my toes.

So I’m trying to take to heart Apartment Therapy’s advice to “resist the temptation to jump in and start cleaning or moving things around” and to keep in mind that not everything on the list is intended to be completed this month. In fact, this list is supposed to be for the whole year; January is just an opportunity to focus on the most pressing needs.

Since home improvements are going to be one of the main topics of this blog, I went ahead and created a page with my list rather than put it in this post. Confession time: as much as I love to make lists, this one isn’t actually new. I created it at the beginning of 2014, and then promptly failed to follow through on it. The desire to work on it stuck with me through the year, though—it was one of the reasons I wanted to start a blog, so that I’d have a place to record my progress and the impetus to see some of the less glamorous projects through (like removing the tape marks on the dining room walls or getting maintenance to replace our broken screen door). So I’m going to keep that list as my starting point and update it if we decide to tackle new projects. And instead of crossing things off, I’m going to add links as projects are completed to the post with project details. Anything that proves unfeasible or boring will probably be removed stealthily. Cool? Cool.

In sewing news, I was the very lucky recipient of 2.6 meters of Alexander Henry’s Christmas Pin-Up Boys from a giveaway over at Did You Make That? Unfortunately it arrived just after I went to visit family for the holidays, so I couldn’t shock them with a pair of pajama pants sporting scantily clad Santa Boys. Now that the holiday excitement has died down, I’m actually really looking forward to making some new bottoms to sleep in, since my favorite pair are too holey to wear in front of anyone other than Justin, and even he’s started giving me a hard time about them. I’m off to take a look at the free Simplicity pattern that Karen recommended, although I’m sorely tempted to use this as an excuse to order Tilly Walnes’ Love at First Stitch. Decisions, decisions.

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