May Flowers are A-Bloomin'!

This month of April has flown by so fast, it's kind of concerning to me. I am not sure where the days went. When I look back at the month, it feels as if I didn't accomplish all of my goals, but perhaps I did?

I know we have all been on a roller coaster of emotions, swinging from high to low in a matter of hours. It's hard to keep up with. And for those of you in a tougher position than myself, I feel for you 1000%; Those who have to continue facing the world every day because your job is deemed essential; Those of you who have kids that need homeschooling; Those of you who are just worried about bills that need to be paid. I think about you and worry for you often. And I want you to know that you aren't alone - I might not be able to do much, we might live a thousand miles apart, but I am here for you if you ever need someone to reach out to.

There was a thread posted by @alexisrockley that really summarized how I've been feeling personally and how I am sure many of you have been feeling as well. Reading through this post, and watching her IGTV video definitely helped to ease my own feelings of inadequacy over this past month. I have felt as if nothing has gotten done and all my future plans have come crumbling down around me.

I do literally feel like a yo-yo. Some days, I wake up and have all the energy to tackle everything I could ever dream of. But most days, I can hardly get myself out of bed before 9 AM and I just sort of roll through the day trying to piece things together as I go. So if it seems like I am currently more all over the place than normal, it's because I am.

In spite of all the rocking back and forth and feeling like a personal failure right now, I still have a lot of hope for the future. I try to take in little moments of gratitude every day to remind myself that I am fortunate to be alive and breathing and able to make yummy treats and work on things that I am passionate about. I love seeing all the flowers blooming and the birds singing every day. I even spotted a Blue Jay a few days ago and it was the prettiest bird I have ever seen!

I am trying to take this shift in life as a sign to literally shift my own life and be a bit more flexible with my future goals, and kinder to my past self for loading up so many ambitious ideas onto my plate.

Not many of you know this, but right before everything happened, I actually had made a huge, scary leap and put in my notice at Topstitch so that I could focus 100% of my attentions on Homesteading and building up Untitled Thoughts. I was terrified of leaving, partly because I absolutely love everyone at Topstitch and I know that I owe my newfound love of the sewing community and Indie Pattern design to Leigh, the owner. Seriously, she scooped me up right as I was about to abandon sewing for forever and introduced me to this incredible community! I didn't even know that someone could become an indie pattern designer or what sewing testers did or really anything about this community before I stepped foot into Topstitch.

This is the first image I have from working at Topstitch where I learned about indie designers such as Tilly and the Buttons and Pauline Alice!

So, it was incredibly heart wrenching to put in my notice and leave a place that was so wonderful to me for nearly 3 years. It was also super scary, but ultimately the right decision as I felt I was being split into too many directions (something I constantly do to myself).

And now with everything shifting in everyone's lives, I have been thrown into my new role somewhat abruptly and I have found myself having to adapt. Maybe that is the word I should have chosen as my "Word of the Year" : Adaptation. It seems rather fitting, don't you think?

I can feel myself rambling and just dumping all the words I have in my brain onto this page, so I am going to shift a bit and get back on track by looking over what I was able to accomplish in April as well as what I am looking forward to in May.

Here are some things that I was able to knock out this month:

• Celebrated my 5 year anniversary with Arlen. It was a lovely Saturday of relaxing and eating yummy crepes!
• Turned 28. Not really an accomplishment, but it happened and I am hopeful for this new year of my life.
• Sent out LOADS of masks! I lost count of how many I made, but I remember sending a few packages stuffed full of them.
• Started IG LIVE sewalong of the Amelie every Sunday from 7-8 PM EST.
• Released my newest pattern, the Fleur, into the world with a load of fun updates!
• Worked on the Matilda (now the Mathilde) wrap dress. It's still got a ways to go, but I am hopeful that the wait will have been worth it.
• Did a LIVE Q & A with Topstitch on their Maker's group.
• Worked outside a decent amount and checked a few projects off the list!
• Began my 2020 accounting - yay!
• Wrote loads of blog posts, answered a ton of emails and IG DMs, and tried to stay on top of everything.
• Started my first sourdough starter and man is she a hungry one!
• Re-Drew my logo and I love it!

This list probably doesn't seem like much, but it felt like a lot to get through this month and I am happy to know I was able to do it! A lot of my plans for April fell through the cracks as I literally could only look to one day at a time. But that's ok! I was talking to my friend Kari about to-do's and she mentioned that because of everything happening, it makes sense to lengthen all our timelines, which I think I will be doing in the coming months.

MAY PLANS

I am honestly unsure of what May holds for me. If anything, April was a lesson in slowing down and taking things one day at a time and allowing myself grace for the things that couldn't get done.

I know for sure what I will be doing today, on this first day of May: Calculating all of the donations I will be sending to various organizations thanks to the Give/ Receive 28 Sale, Destash Sale, and all the Fleur Purchases you made! I can;t wait to spread the joy a bit further by donating a portion of the proceeds to the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Giving Kitchen.

Today I also plan to put together the paper copy of the Fleur- the mail has been delayed a few days, but I believe those will be arriving today so I can send them on their way!

I also do have general plans for working in our backyard (we've got a long list of things to do!) as well as working on my next two patterns, but I am not popping in a hard deadline for any of those things just yet.

If you made it to the end of this long post, thank you for sticking with me through it. I would love to hear what your plans are for this coming month. And how was your previous month? Did you get to everything you wanted to do? Or are you trying to take it a bit easy on yourself, allowing yourself to be flexible?