Mar 1, 2017

I tried this new thing today and woke up before 9am. (Ok so I don’t always sleep in quite that late, but it’s about as often before 9am as it is after it. I 1000% blame pregnancy.) It’s actually not uncommon for me to wake up around 6am to pee, but usually I make myself go back to bed even if I feel like starting my day because I’m too afraid of crashing a few hours later. It happened more than once in my first trimester and eventually I decided it was better for me to sleep in when Bryan was home to help get breakfast and school lunches made than for me to crash a few hours later when it was just me and the kids. 

But this morning I got up. I woke up to go to the bathroom and then decided to just give it a try and came downstairs. I already read scriptures and now I figured I’d write on my blog and see if I couldn’t get my whole list out of the way before Bryan and the kids get up. Plus, Olivia made a wise crack about my sleeping in so much the other day and alluded to the idea that I don’t even really know what goes on around here in the mornings (which, ahem, is a little bit true), so I thought I’d show her what’s what. And as proven by the past few days’ blog posts, I’m just as likely to have nothing to say at the end of the day as at the beginning of it, so I might as well write in the morning while I can at least still think straight.

I also selfishly wanted to get up in the hope that I could possibly carve out some more time somewhere in my day for working on the quiet pages some more. I thought I was good to go with the nine I was going to offer in the pattern/kits, but then last night I decided to switch one out, so now I still need to try out some ideas for another page.

Once I finalize my plans for the 9 pages I’m going to offer in the set, I’ll try to start designing them on the computer. I’ve messaged back and forth with a few of my sewing pattern designer friends and the consensus seems to be that I should try and just do it myself. Which is good and way more cost-effective and probably a much better, ya know, life experience, but there’s definitely still a big part of me that wishes I could just explain my vision and needs to someone who’s a lot better and faster at using the programs and then, voila, have a finished pattern all ready to go. But I don’t really have the money and I do have the time, so I guess I’ll try and do it myself.

I’ve handwritten rough drafts of the instructions for most of the pages as I went, so I have an outline of the text I’ll need, but I still need to actually type up the instructions and decide which ones need little line drawing illustrations to go along side them for clarity’s sake. Then in Illustrator I need to do all those little line drawings as well as drafting the actual pattern pieces. Then, once I have all that ready to go, I think I’ll bite the bullet and pay to extend my Adobe program subscription to include In Design as well so I can do the general text/illustration/title photos/pattern pieces layout there. After talking to a few other pattern designers who use it, I think it’ll (hopefully) make things easier in the long run. They say it’s not too hard to learn and that I don’t need to necessarily take a class for it (though this one was recommended to me), so hopefully all of that is true.

We’ve started reading The Long Winter in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series and in the chapter we read to the kids last night Ma was asking why Pa was in such a hurry to get the crops in and be ready for winter and he said he couldn’t explain it, but that he just felt hurried. (Which, spoiler alert, is a good thing because in a few more chapters they’re going to be basically on the verge of starvation and literally freezing to death, so it’s a good thing Pa gets as prepared as he does, not to mention moving the family into town before the super crazy blizzards start which results in him peaceably forcing Almanzo into sharing their grain so the whole family doesn’t starve to death. Man, I love these books, but reading The Long Winter is stressing me out. I mean, the part where all the school children are inches away from missing the town buildings in the blizzard and wandering off into the prairie to become human popsicles?! Agh! Ok I’ll stop.)

Anyway, point is, I feel in a hurry to get these quiet page patterns and kits ready and I think that, like Pa knows the animals on the prairie and can sense when change is coming, I know how unpredictable good days are during pregnancy and how rare personal time is with a newborn, so I’m trying to get as much of this prep work done now while I have the time and energy. I don’t know that I’ll necessarily be able to get everything done and ready before the baby’s born, but if I could that’d be great. And if not I at least want to get as much done as I can.

Ok, well, somehow I lucked out and have been up for almost a whole hour without anyone else waking up yet, so I’m going to quit while I’m ahead and try to, ya know, actually be available while the kids eat breakfast today. Wish me luck!