I did it ! Well... sorta almost...

 

Current Mood : Very, very tired - but again, excited about tomorrow ! Plus, we're supposed to get snow ! 

 

I gotta start off with a 'thanks' - I really appreciate all the encouragement and praise ! I'm not sure who's more pleased with my 'new' Lab, ya'll or me. It's like we're discovering it together ! And also, here's a confession - my asthma's been really bad since yesterday. I mean, wake up every half-hour gasping bad. If I don't move around a lot, I can breathe, but even carrying one of the crates five feet has me gasping. So I've been taking it easy, and taking my time with lots of breaks.

 

But I can't stay out of the Lab for long ! I want sooo much to have it all done. So today, I started with the fabric. And folding it didn't take a lot of energy. Just a long time. And a couple hours later, with a few last-minute donations, it was done. The eight overflowing crates became four...and a half. (sigh) I just couldn't get it down any further, and I was tired of scrapping so much. Seriously, the recycled contractor's-grade lawn and leaf bag I used to hold the fabric-only donations is not only huge, it's stuffed full, and I can't lift it. So I stored the last ‘keeper' bits in an emptied shoe box on top of the crates. I'll just have to use it first ! Oh, and the white plastic basket on the other crate tower is all UltraSuede. Not getting rid of that, no way ! I'd always intended to just replace the basket when I got it all folded and assembled from the get-go.

 

Still, I can't help but be a bit proud of m'self. Two months ago, the very idea of scrapping half (maybe a bit more) of my fabric hoard was ludicrous. I bought and paid good money for every stray strand of all that, and I wanted every bit ! Two weeks ago, I was starting to see how having less fabric would be better than having too much. Yeah, I spent good money on pretty much all of it - but letting it continue to control me would be a greater misuse of a far more limited resource, time. And it's not like I had to ditch everything - just all that came between me and the pieces I really fell in love with.

 

And, as with most clean-outs, I was inspired all over again, just seeing all I had to use. I'm still not sure how I let it get so ridiculous, but I did, one dollar and one yard at a time. Hopefully I'll have learned my lesson this time. It says something that I haven't been to Hancock Fabrics in months, and they've had holiday sale e-mails every day this month. But after two days of sort and store and toss, I still don't find any sense of loss in missing those sales in me. And this weekend, I didn't have time to notice until Monday that I'd totally skipped the Flea Market !

 

Once the fabric was finally dispersed, and after a movie break with Beloved Hubby, Dearest Son, and the brownies my guys made while I toiled away in my Lab, I attacked the cluttery spots. Turns out there's plenty of room under the desk for stabilizers, the craft tote of sewing tools, and a few other storage boxes. Yaaay !

 

Once the Lab clutter was stored, I got the last box of misc. I moved to our bedroom while furniture was swapped around. Most of it's now placed, but there's a clutter-jam of dolls by the Castle and I still have to go through the larger doll furniture storage and the carpet / backdrop storage areas, but for the most part, the Lab is darn near close to finished. I may move the windowsill dress form / sewing machine collection to orbit the crescent moon lamp. The area under holds the Madeira thread Treasure Chest, but I can still use it to stage doll photos, which would be so cool. I even sat at the new desk and mimed sewing ! Oh, it was so nice...

 

I'm hoping to actually sew tomorrow. Since we're having Christmas dinner at Aunt's house - her first holiday without Uncle - I'm hoping to embroider some fleece scarves for everyone. It's a good way to test out my new setup !