Long Weekend Lessons!
Have I mentioned I am moving to Maine and selling my home in South Carolina?!? ( insert panic face) To say I have a mountain of things to do is a gross understatement. We are on a budget and a timeline, neither of which are very flexible! So on this past long weekend you could assume that I got all kinds of things done off my to-do list. But do you ever have a task that you have to do, and it looks so simple written on your sweet fridge magnet to-do list in pretty purple letters, but when you get down to it, there are so many layers to that task that you never realized!!! At the end of four days off, I was hoping to have ALL of the lovely fabric you see above printed and ready to send off to a new opportunity for my work. I mean, how time consuming can it be!? To do the fun part of my to-do list, but boy oh boy, did I learn a big lesson this weekend. Several big lessons actually. Let me break them down for you:
Lesson #1: The process of thinking through a project is hard work, and often takes longer than the project itself! When I got the call asking to send a collection of my work to a store for selling my first reaction was pure joy. Screaming happy words at my husband, waking up the kids, late night breathless phone calls to my mother/BFF/brother JOY. I was so excited (and still am!!) but then the overthinking started! The following days were spent in several fabric stores looking for just the right combination of colors and video chats with my sister to get her opinions. It took me a week to get the combinations just right, shop around for all the fabric I needed then Iron and Cut it all. AND I HADN'T EVEN STARTED PRINTING.
Lesson #2: Mass Printing is different than weekend afternoon print sessions. This seems like a no brain-er to others I'm sure, but when I love an activity I tend to file it away in my brain covered in fairy dust and unrealistic expectations. Like when you are a kid and are trying to convince your parents to take you to the mall: "Mom, you can just drop me off, My friend and I will run in and buy some jeans, and come right back out. 5 minutes: Tops!" When its something you realllllly want to do, its hard to see the harsh reality that surrounds it! When I started the weekend I thought I would get through it all AND have time to attend two memorial day BBQs AND have time to get ready for the work week AND pack up a room or two. Spoiler Alert: It didn't all happen. I did work hard, several times late into the night, but i's taking so much more time to print all this fabric than I allowed myself to map out. I decided last night that I am going to seriously look into screen printing with my designs for speed purposes, but that's a whole other post :)
Lesson #3: Downtime is important. The one thing I feel like I did well this weekend was balance down time and productive time. I worked on this little business venture for several hours each day this weekend. Some more than others, but I was diligent in making progress. That being said, I also balanced some family fun time in there. I am the kind of person who tends to take alot on, then get overwhelmed easily, but I was determined not to let that happen this weekend. So, when it was time to celebrate my husbands birthday with a BBQ I did so without guilt of what I needed to do at home. When I felt overwhelmed, I called up some friends for an impromptu pizza a game night to help get me out of my funk. I would say I got through a little over half my printing without going out of my mind. SCORE!
This is going to be a big week with end of school celebrations and deadlines on the house coming up, but I am feeling positive that I can get the rest of what I need to done and sent off! Moving Forward I will need to make sure I wipe away the fairy dust and keep realistic time frames in check, but I am so excited about all the wonderful things happening right now. Moving back home, summer is around the corner, and new exciting opportunities to share my art with the world!!
