Change is Good

Dot helped me draft a skirt pattern this week. 

Just before Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to acquire a large formal dining table and matching china hutch. It was an opportunity that I really had to consider. If I took the table I would have to use the living room area as a dining room and it would displace my sewing area. What to do, what to do?  

My living area already feels small and cramped, because I downsized to a two bedroom apartment from a house that was much larger. It has been quite an adjustment. My car has taken a beating in door dings, bumper scrapes, scratches and other maladies from fellow tenants who must not know how to drive, or maybe just don't care. Then there is the upstairs neighbor who vacuums the floor after midnight and stomps around scaring Dot. If I was already in bed sleeping that might bother me more, but I am usually up late too.

I decided to take the table and hutch. It did displace the sewing area, but it gave the living area a much better look and somehow made this apartment feel more like a home. With the leaf in the table it is slightly longer than my sewing table. It holds the cutting mat nicely, although much lower than the counter high table. I was worried that it might make sewing more of an ordeal because it would require that I lay out the cutting mat, cut the fabric, then pull out the sewing machines, set them up, sew, then take them down and stow them away, each time I wanted to sew. It has brought a little discipline to the sewing front and really makes me sew with a purpose. Twice this week I have had reason to sew and it really has not been that bad.    

Because my sewing table was made with Ikea Lack tables, I have been able to set it up like a storage shelf unit in one corner of the bedroom. It is grouped differently and still stores all of the tubs that were under it before. The major project for this weekend will be to cull a lot of unused items out of my closet and see what can be condensed into a smaller storage space.

From Online Etymology Dictionary

flexible (adj.) 

early 15c., from Middle French flexible or directly from Latin flexibilis "that may be bent, pliant, flexible, yielding;" figuratively "tractable, inconstant," from flexus, past participle of flectere "to bend," of uncertain origin. Related: Flexibly.

comfortable (adj.) 

mid-14c., "affording mental comfort," from Anglo-French confortable, from conforter "to comfort" (see comfort (v.)); also see -able. Meaning "offering physical comfort" is attested from 1769; that of "in a state of tranquil enjoyment" is from 1770.

comfy (adj.) 

1829, colloquial shortening of comfortable.