Less than PERFECT is OK!

Wow, it has been more than a month since I last posted something! In that month, I have worked on getting the alphabet series to the next stage (more on that in my next post), but I have also done some traveling - a girls' trip to Cancun and a relaxing vacay to the mountains in Red River, New Mexico.

Other than that, time just seems to be slipping away... so here's what I have been working on:
- Staining a bookshelf white
- Choosing fabric and sewing curtains

Both of these are projects for the nursery, and they are self-imposed by my "need" to control the aesthetics of my environment. (I mean, let's be honest, the baby is not going to care what the bookshelf or the curtains in the room look like.) Both projects also turned out to be lessons in letting go of perfection.

Now I don't claim to be perfect, in fact, most of the time I feel FAR from perfect, but that doesn't seem to stop the constant striving - which can be good (in school) and stressful (in real life). So, I did what I usually do - I researched the options, researched the methods and processes and decided I could go the DIY route to achieve what I want at a price (my husband) approved. The problem is, I am not okay with things LOOKING "bad."

So with no prior experience in staining furniture, I decided, after reading tips from pros, that I could do it - turns out I can, as long as I am willing to overlook small imperfections in corners (which no one else will notice). So after multiple hot, humid mornings of painting on and wiping off white stain and a couple of incidents of stain drying too fast and needing to be sanded off, we have a white bookcase that looks great in the room and will eventually be filled with books and toys, hiding and bits that I find lacking.


Sewing curtains is nothing new for our family. We sewed half curtains for the majority of our windows when we moved into the house. (Turns out my engineer husband was much better at sewing consistent straight lines than I was.) So I went into this project somewhat dreading the need to sew multiple two-yard straight lines.

In this case, sewing is not a process I enjoy, and I was not doing it to experience something new - I was doing it because I wanted curtains that looked good in the room. The pressure was on! I have to say, I took my time, made careful measurements, spent an afternoon folding, pinning and ironing before I started any sewing. On the sewing day, I had to tap into my meditative breathing so as not to give myself a heart attack from the stress of "the straight line," but in the end, everything worked out just fine. I could point out all the flaws I saw while I was sewing and looking at the curtains from about 10 inches away, but now that they are hanging in the window, no one will see those flaws.

That is the thing - the baby won't notice and anyone else looking at the room will only see the big picture - the colors, the toys, the patterns and the fun. The imperfections are not from a lack of effort or trying, but from a lack of practice and experience. If I had not let go of the perfection, I wouldn't have a finished bookcase or a new set of curtains. I would be stalled by the FEAR of what might go wrong and never move forward with what could go right - the 85% that is GREAT would never have happened because of the 15% that could use more practice.