No More Excuses!

Lately (as in the last several years) I've been bemoaning my lack of progress on sewing projects. For instance, I began I quilt for Elizabeth 6 years ago and I still haven't finished piecing the top. I finally realized that a big part of the problem was that I didn't have a place to keep my sewing machine. Evey time I wanted to sew I would pull out my machine and set it up on the kitchen table and then would have to put it away again before the next meal. It was enough of a hassle that I rarely sewed unless it was absolutely necessary.

For Christmas my wonderful parents bought me this craft table to use for my sewing. It's set up in a corner of my room near the window just waiting to be used. But, as you can see, that corner still looks a bit... unloved. Boring. Blank.

I'm notoriously slow with decorating my home and it was high time to give this corner a bit of attention. I wanted to create an inspirational environment that would fuel my creativity and would make this corner personal and inviting--a place where I wanted to sit down, relax and spend some time. So, I started collecting items from around the house that are meaningful to me but that had not yet been hung on our walls.

I laid the hodgepodge of items out on the bed and tried several different arrangements.

And I finally decided on this one:

I included some of my personal photos that I plan to change out from time to time.

The icons are my confirmation saint, St. Catherine of Sienna, Eric's confirmation saint, St. Gregory the Great, and one of our favorite saints and Gustin's namesake, St. Augustine.

The gold framed picture is a gift from my parents and is a collage of images of Blessed Pope John Paul II--a man I admire so greatly. It's beautiful in that it contains images from the early years of his papacy when he was so energetic and engaging as well as images from his declining years when he suffered so much but with great dignity.

My favorite piece by far, however, is this image of the Madonna and Child. Isn't it gorgeous? Kristin of the Small Treasures blog briefly had an etsy shop where she sold these wall reliefs and when she posted that she was going to stop making them I quickly snatched one up before they sold out.

Here's the finished space all ready to tackle some sewing projects. I'm very happy with it even though St. Gregory refuses to hang straight. See, even a saint who has earned "Great" at the end of his name isn't perfect.