Pod people?

The theories abound.

She's been buried under a mountain of fabric in her sewing room. 

Sort of.  But not exactly.

She's finished her sewing/work room and she's so happy about it that she just sits there staring at its wonderfulness.

Uh... no.  NOT!  I wish. 

Nicole suggested that I'd been taken over by the folks at Williams-Sonoma like a pod person.

Kind of... but not completely.   

The truth is that I've been in hiding... I live in constant fear of being exposed.  Exploited for entertainment value!  Too many people have seen the evidence of my long-kept, deep, dark secrets and now I am being forced to live with drapes drawn, windows sealed and aliases considered.  But more on that in a moment...

Can I wish you a belated Merry Christmas? 

I hope that everyone had a safe, happy, joyous, memorable, wonderful, peaceful, restful, whatever-you-wanted-hoped-it-would-be Christmas.

 
Mine was all of the above. 

My brother was here for Christmas which made my Mom very happy.  No accidents, incidents or anything exciting to report.  Whew!  Nicole and her family had enough of those for everyone.  Just a lovely couple of days visiting, relaxing, laughing and letting my brother "fix" my computer.  (He's very tech-savvy and while nothing was actually "broken", things are working better.) 

I did work a crazy pre-Christmas schedule at Williams-Sonoma.  In the ten days or so before Christmas, I think I had one day off.  And seriously, I'm way too old to spend six straight hours on my feet, running to and fro, climbing stairs, lifting heavy bins off the belt from the storeroom.  Trying to be cheerful for six hours is the hardest part... really, I'm just a big old grump in disguise.  I spend most of my shift on "recovery".  I've teased my managers that this is just their way of keeping me away from the customers lest I tell them that I don't like Peppermint Bark or the Snickerdoodle Quick Bread mix.   

For those of you who questioned this from the last post, I will tell you that I wore this every day...

Most years, the recognition level runs about 50-50.  Meaning, about 50 percent of the people who see it know what it means.  This year, it was about 10-90... as in, only one in ten knew what it meant.  I am taking that to mean that we were all very tired this year.   

It always makes me laugh how many people will say "No L?  No L?  I don't get it.  What does the L stand for?  What do you have against L's?" 

Since Christmas, I have been trying to get my sewing/work room finished... or at least, ready.  I just want to get it where there is enough stuff put away and off the tables so that I can actually start working in there.  It's taken longer than I thought it would but then really... what nitwit thought doing a project like this in between Thanksgiving and Christmas was a good idea?

Probably the same nitwit who is now living in fear of being the focus of a special joint episode of "Intervention" and "Hoarders". 

For those of you who aren't familiar with the A & E television series... Intervention is a series in which people confront their darkest demons and seek a route to redemption... it profiles people whose compulsive behavior has brought them to a point of personal crisis... And Hoarders is about people whose inability to part with their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of personal crisis.

I am not on the verge of a personal crisis.  I just have too much fabric. 

There.  I said it.  I have more fabric than I could sew if I lived to be 847 years old.  At least, I did.  I still have way too much but I've been clearing it out, finding good homes for the excess.  (And yes, there has been a lot of that.)  There are still pieces that I don't know if I'll ever sew but still can't bear to part with.  And kits.  And blocks of the month.  And fat quarter bundles.  Oy vey...

I promise to show some pictures when it's finished.  Or ready.  Or presentable.  The funny thing is, as soon as I actually start working in there ~ finished or not! ~ the room will be a huge mess again!  This is what I will tell you now ~ IKEA.  The Container Store.  Target.  Lots and lots of wire baskets ~ I have a compulsion about those.  (But shhhh... don't tell the Intervention folks.  It's an addiction I can live with.)

See you tomorrow ~ it's Tuffet Day!

Comments

[kathie]

ok, aren't you going to tell us what it means?
please!
Kathie
who can't wait to see the transformation....
no one ever has too much fabric you must be hanging out with the wrong people if they are telling you that!!!!

[helen]

Welcome back! I kept checking to see if you'd posted and nothing! I was wondering what happened to you.

Rest assured that no quilter will tell the Intervention or Hoarders shows about you because payback is hell. And then we would have to face the ugly glare of the camera on our stash too. Doesn't the word stash makes it sound, like, maybe, a manageable amount of fabric? Or is that me in denial again?

Very clever button. I had to think about it for a sec, but then I got it.

[Cindy C.]

I wondered where you were hiding.
How about atleast a little "L" now - it's soon to be 2010, and a fresh start.

Don't forget, we care.

[Jocelyn]

So glad to hear that things are progressing. Yes it will be a mess again, but what a happy mess it will be :-) Love the No L (noel) button. But yes I think we were all really tired this Christmas. Maybe next year we will resurface and regain ground. Wishing you a Happy New Year!

[Live a Colorful Life]

that button really makes me laugh. I want one for next year! and any good ideas for parting with excess fabric? Can't wait to see your sewing room.

[Heckety]

Ha! Ha!
Glad you had a good Christmas though, especially after working so hard beforehand.

[Jane]

Glad you are back. Good luck finishing the sewing room!
Put a t.v. in there and you can live for days watching football!

[Bren]

I love your badge. . . & don't tell!!! Make folks figure it out!. . . That's the fun part! When I was teaching, I would put little word games like that on the board & the first student that could figure it out would get a candy bar of their choice . . . as a reward for 'thinking outside the box'. . . (& really. . . there is enough of a hint in your photo!). It became so much fun for the kids, & even when someone had figured it out & there was a new one on the board - many of the kids didn't want to be told - as they still wanted to figure it out. (I became so proud of them!) They would even form teams at lunch to figure it out. . .!)

I'm also so relieved to hear that you have too much of a stash too. I've been going though mine - (& much of it will be in my booth at the Tucson Quilt Show!). There is some though - that I can't part with & I still have the dream (delusion?) that I will get to make something from it. . . (like my stash of Gingham Rose (3 Sisters). . . sigh.

I wish you a wonderful New Year Carrie (& Rosie too!). . . & can't wait to see you new books!!!!
xo, Bren

[lissa]

If we dont hear from you for a week, should we send a search party??? I have more than enough fabric for a few lifetimes and when I tell myself 'no more fabric' then a lovely email comes along and tells me about a sale :O)))

Happy 2010!
Lissa
Australia

[Linda]

Carrie Nelson - I missed you!! But so glad you got to enjoy your brother and his help, that fabulous brother, that has such good taste in ear rings - do tell us what he brought you this year!!! Every time I checked back, I said little nasties about WS keeping you snowed under other work, when we all knew you wanted to be in your little corner of the world!! I had secretly thought you were biting off a chunk when you started that room and was still blogging every day thru the blog hop, which I'm so glad you did!!!
Can't wait to see the pics of your room and pick out all the containers and rounder-uppers from some of my favorite stores and you can give us all good ideas! I'll be checking in right after my beloved Rose Bowl Parade - the one I really do watch all the way thru!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you, Rosie, and Mom!!

[dianne]

one of the local comedy clubs decorated a little tree for the Colorado Festival of Trees with a whole slew of those buttons back when Governor Lamm was in power - i remember cuz i "got it" and the EXman didn't ... Governor Lamm's wife decorated HER tree with sheep (which should have been clever but was really just kinda sad) ... anywho, i liked the no L tree better than the lambs ...... i thought that i had too much fabric, but then my daughter became a quilter and now we don't have enough - ha ha ha!

[Kim]

Happy New Year! Love your button and "got it" reasonably quickly--I don't think I stared at it for more than an hour or two!

[Ann in NC]

Welcome back! I missed your posts. Glad I haven't seen Intervention or Hoarders for fear I would feel like I was looking into a mirror! Oh the stuff that got moved to make room for overnight guests as Christmas.

[Marianne]

I used to have one of those no "L" aka Noel buttons but lost it to a friend who liked it more.
Now about that extra fabric, don't fret, it's similar to an artist's paint but it just happens to take up more room than their little tubes! Looking forward to "after" pictures of The Room!

[auntie pami]

I missed you. Glad you are back safe & sound and hopefully feeling better about all that you've taken on and completed. Your home sounds wonderful. Ok, so about that "excess" fabric, I'm so bad about my fabric I had to open a store. And, of course, I'm behind on uploading. But, I do resolve (ha ha) to work on a blog and update my store and finish my samples for my first quilt show!

[Nicole]

Ah yes, the holidays...Can't wait til they arrive and then feel so relieved when they are all over. It is going to take me some time to recover this year!

[Kathleen]

I spent New Year's Eve looking through my fabric stash and hat box filled with patterns (there were a really large amount of yours in there!). I was left thinking that I had way too much fabric (thanks for being the first to say that out loud), and I was also wondering if all those pre-cuts that I own are really the best way to go. I guess if you're into "scrappy" that's okay, but I'm seriously thinking I need to move towards finding a pattern I want to make, and THEN buying the fabric to accommodate it...rather than buying all the pretty pretty pieces and hoping I'll find a pattern that will work for them. Or do I just need to buy more "background" fabric and work it from there? Such a dillema! Happy New Year, Carrie!!

[Jonelle]

I'm not too far from you if you want to stash fabric at my house! I was going to beg you to tell what No L means, but the dimwit (me) just read a comment that spilled the beans. Why can't I ever get that stuff?? Have a great New Year!

[Betty]

I can't figure out why people worry they won't get their stash quilted in a life time. Who cares? So what if the stash outlasts us? Happy New Year!!

[Maggie Bonanomi]

Hey Happy New Year, glad your back, I live thru others blogs! I don't really believe you can have too much stuff, be it fabric or wool or other good but maybe unrelated stuff...I do fear one day answering the door to see the Hoarders crew standing there. I told my hubby I wasn't a hoarder but then the path to my ironing board looked abit like one lady's path thru her NY apartment!!humh,maybe one day I will get my workroom in some sort of working order, but then maybe not!

[Laura]

Glad to see you back! Last year in December/January I did the same thing as you are doing and I have such a workable sewing room now that it was worth all of the time I spent getting it that way. I'm sure you will love your space when you are done. Can't wait to see the pics!

AND, at least you didn't have to take breaks to shovel snow since we live here in snow-free Phoenix, unlike most of the rest of the country right now.