Hurdles to jump

I realize that besides my questionable history with craft projects, there are a number of obstacles I'll have to overcome if I'm actually going to learn to sew and keep on sewing.

First of all, I don't really have a place in my house where I can set up a sewing area, which could seriously affect my day-to-day motivation. If I could leave my sewing machine set up on a table and have my current projects available and ready to be sewn, I'm sure I would be much more likely to work on them when I have time. But if I have to drag everything out and set it all up every time I want to sew a few seams, I wonder how often I'll actually do it. I haven't yet discussed this with my husband, Don, but I know exactly what he'll say: "We'll put it in the office!" That is his answer anytime I say, "But we have nowhere to put that!" Our 16' x 5' office already houses three large desks, a computer, two printers, a bookcase, four guitar cases, and lots of assorted junk, with barely enough room to access the storage room and bulkhead on either end of the skinny basement room. Don has finally admitted that our 5-drawer filing cabinet just won't fit.

Space issues aside, I also have a very active toddler. Taylor is 19 months old and, of course, gets into everything. She still takes a nice long afternoon nap, which is probably when I would have to do a lot of my sewing. I suppose this new hobby will end up being just one more distraction from my housework, which, I must admit, makes me want to start sewing immediately...mwa ha ha.

I also have a baby girl due at the beginning of June. My goal is to really get familiar with my new sewing machine and complete some basic projects before the baby arrives. I'm sure that sewing, along with the rest of life, will be put on hold for a while once I'm juggling an infant and a toddler. But if I can get back into the swing of things, it would be nice to already know what I'm doing so that my little bits of free time can be used for actual sewing, instead of manual-reading and pattern-interpreting.

I have been trying to get a few small projects cut and pinned so that when my sewing machine arrives, I'll hopefully be motivated to actually sew them together. My hope is that finishing some easy projects will keep me interested, and maybe I'll take a stab at something more challenging. We shall see...

In other crafting news, my mother (who is staying with us while Don is out of town) and I finally tackled the painting of the wooden letters for Taylor's bedroom wall. My mom bought the letters when Taylor was first born, and we never painted them or hung them in the nursery, so now we're painting them to match her new Backyardigans bedroom. We painted the first coat during Taylor's nap today, with the intention of doing the second coat after we got her to bed. But we're both too tired, so we'll just do it tomorrow. Really, we will! I guess "procraftination" runs in the family.