i’ve been thinking about doing a “confession sunday” series for a while now, where i talk about unfinished projects, random thoughts, projects that may have seemed loved but are now discarded, my messy sewing space, that kind of thing. the photos will be mostly unstyled, the posts will be short, and it’ll happen just every so often, but i think it’ll feel good to get things off my chest. sometimes blogland (my blog included) is maybe a little TOO “perfect,” and we all know reality is anything but.
in some instances, these confessions might even motivate me to clean/organize/do better!
(EDIT: people’s blogs are their own personal spaces, and if you care to only show pretty finished projects i’m TOTALLY cool with that – that’s how i am too, most of the time! i read blogs for inspiration, and i crop out messes like crazy. but lately i’ve felt like my blog was missing something, and that’s what this series is about. i hope you understand i’m not being judgy on either side of this issue… okay, carry on!)
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today’s confession is a case of “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” and see? you even get a grainy sunday morning photo! i’m trying to let go a little with these posts. hehe.
Em has simple ikea curtains in her room, because as much as i love the idea of beautiful handmade curtains, i hate sewing large things with long, straight hems even more. her ikea curtains were floor length, which didn’t work since her bedroom furniture has to overlap the windows a bit. it just annoyed me that they were all bunchy every time i tried to open them.
one day, on a whim, i just cut them with my sewing scissors to get them the right length. i cut them while they were hanging up. this was months ago, and i’ve never bothered to take them down and hem them. i’m sure it would take me less than a half hour to do it…but i don’t.
that’s my confession for today. jagged, unhemmed, cheap-o curtains in Em’s room. got anything to “confess” and care to join me? i’d love to hear it! feel free to comment or link up in the comments. it may be a little embarrassing, but it does feel good…and now i REALLY want to get those darn things hemmed.
have a happy father’s day!
skirt as top 
I’m sitting around on a Sunday reading blogs in my underpants? Does that count?
HAHAHAHA, YES! aren’t we all, though? 🙂
Oooh, yes! There are confessions to be made… and yes, the blogosphere can make everyone else’s life look neater than mine!
My confession: I leave pins, threads, scissors, and rotary cutters all over the floor… I like sewing, not cleaning!
good one. i’m the same, especially with thread. that’s a post for a future sunday, for sure!
This made me smile! I honestly thought that in America everyone had a perfect life with beautifully dressed children playing in sun dappled meadows and houses that could feature on ‘ideal homes’. My blog lists my cursing at my sewing machine and my amateur creations. I’m SO glad that I’m not as terrible at everything as I thought! I’ve had a dress cut out for a month now and can’t be bothered to start sewing it…. 🙂
haha…yeah no…i think it’s just more fun to show things that way. it’s easy to show hems that aren’t so straight in a photo!
I have been thinking about having a day when I just write about random things too Kristin. Sometimes, when I look at my own blog I feel almost like a fraud because I have made everything look picture perfect when there is a big mess right outside the camera lens!
same here! yes, you should do it! sometimes just posting finished projects feels like i’m leaving TOO much of my regular life stuff out, so maybe this is a good step towards a little more sharing?
If I get a really clean finish, I’ll always post a photo of the interior, which I think makes it look like I’m some kind of huge seam finish nerd. In fact, some of my projects that have gotten the best response for the outside look like I was sewing with a buzzsaw if you peek inside.
Ha ha, love it! Well, at least your ikea curtains are up. In our bedroom, we have ugly blinds, a curtain rod, and two packs of ikea curtains that have sat for months because I’m too lazy to iron and hem them. So you are two steps ahead of me! 🙂
NICE. i don’t think i ironed these before hanging them…i did prewash them though because they were all stiff and i wanted them more flowy.
haha… laughing at your post AND Rae’s comment. Love it.
Gosh. So much isn’t perfect…. especially at my house right now with a newish baby and and my hubs working all day/all night… my confession today is: the past 3 days my children have not eaten a true square meal. Not one. We’re talking… a chocolate covered donut for breakfast, maybe some goldfish for lunch if they’re lucky….some greasy pizza to cap the night off… Not a vegetable. MAYBE some fruit…I have completely given away any healthy hopes in lieu of “whatever makes ’em happy!” cuz it’s been that kinda week, okay people?!??!?!!
that’s freakin’ awesome. good work. it was a rough week this week, i totally agree. something was in the air i think.
hahaha! Oh, my “confession Sunday” list would have to be “confession January-December” to encompass it all and even then, well…. I did a confession-y post probably two years ago and even posted a picture of my laundry pile, it still haunts me that it taints my pretty collection of blog pictures. For me, I don’t claim that anything is perfect or pretty all the time (or any time), but my blog is a little space where I can go for reprieve from the perpetual disaster around me. Those unfinished projects are ridiculous, aren’t they? We cut and stained molding for our bathroom mirrors 2 1/2 years ago and it’s still sitting propped in our closet waiting to be glued up. RIDICULOUS!!! 2 1/2 YEARS!!!!! Will that do for my confession today?
oh you are so right, stef! i want my blog to be pretty pictures too (and i disabled pins on this post, MWAH HAH HAH!). i know a lot of us feel that way and the pretty stuff is what we read blogs for, but for me sometimes it’s nice to have a glimpse into the rest of it. i think i just like “behind the scenes” stuff. i need to go find your laundry post now…and believe me, i’ve got quite a few more lined up in my head! this is the tip of the iceberg. 😉
ha! love this post. I hemmed Ikea curtains once…don’t ever want to do it again. I appreciate that they give you “more” for your money, but seriously, who has 20 ft long windows?! all that to say I don’t blame you at all for skipping the hemming 😉
hahaha! oh man, now i’m demotivated again. they look fine as is, right? 😉
Haha this is funny. I love your idea for confession Sunday. I guess I pictured your place to be pretty perfect, but it’s so true that in blogland we mostly show the pretty parts. I do aswell. So it’s refreshing to see this unfinished curtain edge. It makes me want to share that my “”sewing nook”” is actually half the lounge room, cordoned off by a couch, and sometimes I find things in there that the kids have thrown off the back of the couch, like yesterday a chicken nugget.
chicken nugget!!!! oh yes, we definitely need to see your funky little sewing space. please post ASAP.
what? you’ve ruined my image of your life:)….well, you know my sewing room is a disaster. the one time it was clean was the day that i moved everything in there. but at least there is a pathway from the door to the sewing machine.
sometimes i don’t even have a path. that’s when i know it’s truly cleaning time. 😉
This is too funny, I was JUST thinking that I was going to do a blog post about the state of my house, but the fun we are having outside. I mean that’s what summer’s for, right!? I absolutely love being real. I can’t ever hide my feelings (blog or not!) So I’m really glad you are being bold and doing it! 😉
totally what the summer is for. woohoo!
That’s what my bathroom “curtain” looks like, except that it’s just a section of a bedsheet that’s been lopped off at the bottom and now that it’s been in the BR so long, the rod has added a detail of rust spots along the top, oops! Sometimes I think about fixing it, but it hasn’t happened yet 🙂
so, so easy to let those things go, isn’t it?
Awesome! I did the same thing to the black out liners on my curtains. The curtains in the kitchen are crooked and I haven’t fixed them in 2 years. Also, dinner won’t be ready until 9 pm tonight (eek) and I haven’t done dishes in a few days, which is rare, but my hands are paying for it.
yay, a curtain-cutting companion! 🙂
I loved reading this blog more than any other I have read on the internet, because it makes me feel “normal”. I had this silly idea that you all lead these incredibly organised “perfect” lives and it just made me beat myself up about how I rarely “finish” any of my projects. I love knitting, sewing and crocheting, but as for the finishing off, like sewing in the ends and even putting things together, I hate that bit – so I don’t do it (well not often enough)! Isn’t it funny how we all like to present ourselves to everyone else as being much more perfect than what we all actually are? Anyway, thanks again, I will be kinder to myself now, and hope everyone will be kinder to themselves!
oh thank you, tania, i’m glad you enjoyed it! i’m good at finishing the projects that i LIKE to sew, but definitely procrastinate the ones i don’t really care about. yes, do be kind to yourself! we all have enough on our shoulders.
Oh man, I wouldn’t even know where to start! Every photo I take has a pile of junk lurking in the background (blurred out by a shallow depth of field!). I love to look at beautiful photos, too, but it’s good to talk about reality once in awhile!
gotta love the ol’ “shove the junk outta the way” trick. 😉
Oh I’ve got a good one… I let it all hang out here… my messy work space…
http://creatingbitsofenvy.blogspot.com/2012/02/office-makeover-yes-its-done-with.html
It was so freeing to post it… and a good motivator to get it organized…
But… I have to confess… It kind of makes me feel good to see your not perfect ether 😉
***Jennifer
yes, thanks for linking! you did a FANTASTIC job of organizing. totally inspiring!
I have the same ikea curtains cut haphazardly hanging behind my dryer. I was worried about the floor length curtain catching fire or something, and happened to need a piece of white fabric for a project. I just gathered it into a handful and chopped it off. 🙂 You can’t see the cut end, but it still feels a little shameful
nice! we’re twinsies. you can’t really see my cut edges when the curtains are pulled back either, but WE KNOW, right?
Giiiiiirl, you don’t even want to get me started on my “confessions.” If I did, there probably wouldn’t be any time to talk about things that actually DID get done. Anyways, super fun idea. Can’t wait to see more 🙂
little bits at a time. i’ve got a stack of these puppies!
love this kristin! It’s really awesome! I love reality, sometimes it’s just is too much to stare at beautiful projects, stuff that’s too expensive, and the thoughts of people that have way more time than I’ll ever have. I’m looking forward to your sunday posts.
aw thanks, anna! i think “how i steal sewing time” will be a future post for sure.
too funny 🙂 as far as curtains go… we’ve not a one in our entire household, save for a terrible valance in B’s room purchased long ago from some chain store. oh, the shame 😉
sounds awesome. we mostly have miniblinds too. my mom sewed curtains for Em’s nursery (now O’s room) before I knew how to sew and before i knew what i was asking of her. thanks, mom!
I’ve bought fabric three different times to recover a chair and I’ve never finished the project. Last week I gave up and just gave the chair away. That probably counts as an utter failure, but man it feels good not to have that unfinished chair staring at me anymore!
oh that has to feel good, though. i hate the projects staring at me forever. sometimes it’s better just to move on, then your’e not “blocked” anymore.
Yes, my husband just roles his eyes now whenever I start a project… based on my track record of finishing things in a timely manner or finishing them at all! I bought a beat up antique headboard/footboard to refinish into a bed for my daughter months before starting Project Run & Play. I didn’t finish it, and then PR&P happened, and then it still took me a month to finish. The bed looks great, but I haven’t taken pics of it for a before/after because I haven’t boughten new sheets or made the new pillows, etc. etc.! It’s never just quite perfect enough to share! I should probably just get over it and share anyway 🙂
PR&P is great for clearing a lot of projects stuck in your head (so is KCWC), but i’m the same with home projects. i’ve still never photographed either kid’s full room, our room, etc. even though i mean to! i’d love to see your bed, though! hope it’s a future post. 🙂
Oh, I just love the straight up honesty of this post! Sometimes it’s easy to feel as if everyone has it WAY more together than you! (though I’m still pretty convinced that you’re a sewing genius with what you manage to produce!). I don’t have any current unfinished projects, but mostly b/c I’ve been too lazy to even start! I bought wool yardage to make a quilt for my daughter’s bed two years ago now . . . and it’s still in the bag it came home in the store from! There always seems to be a more fun ( and quicker!) clothes project that takes precedence.
Thanks for this series . . . I’m already looking forward to it!
haha, thanks lucinda. i just REALLY like sewing so i make time. agree that the quick and easy projects like to step in front of the more important or more involved ones though, that happens to me a LOT.
Just do what I did when I had 6 panels of Ikea curtains to hem, invite your mother over who loves to sew and eventually she will offer to do it for you when she gets tired of them sitting there bunched up on the floor 🙂 Haha, and my confession would be all the burnt out light bulbs in my house I can’t seem to find 10 minutes to replace. The light in my son’s room has been out for a month, good thing it’s still daylight when he goes to bed and daylight when he wakes up! Oh and the fact I’ve had no headboard in almost two years, and our bed is NOT up against a wall. Phew I feel better! But I also confess I do really love all those pretty pictures in blogs!
HA! good work! lightbulbs are the worst.
I’m going to photoshop your face so it looks like you are leaning out of a confessional and wearing a bishops hat. It can be your button. You can also be beckoning people creepily inside. Ok, I probably won’t do that, but I’ll get Rachael to do it. She does basically whatever I say. Not really.
Also, I’m perfect so I can’t relate.
yes, you are!
Haha! More like delusional.
PLEASE make this. i need a popemobile though. can you do that?
The bottom of the curtains in my son’s room look like that – I cut them and actually ironed them up with that iron-on tape stuff, but it fell out. There is a lining that is hemmed, but it has a car print on it and I’m dreading changing it out when the room becomes our daughter’s.
i never trust that iron on tape stuff…now my mistrust is confirmed. haha, i’d probably leave the lining (or just switch out the curtains). 😉
I love this idea for a series. It’s reassuring to see all is not perfect in other people’s homes. We finished an extension last Feb (2011) and there are so many things we still need to finish and 2 rooms that we shut the door to when people visit. I would much rather be sewing than sorting it out though. Looking forward to the next confession:)
thanks! we still have unfinished projects in our basement remodel (technically completed 18 months ago).
Too funny! How about I just wrote down how many projects I have that are unfinished and projects I have the fabric and pattern for and came up with about 35?! That is waaaay too many. That means I really shouldn’t be buying more fabric for like a year! ;0)
oh dear, i shouldn’t even try to count those! my stash overflows as well…i just like to have options on hand! practical, right? 😉
love it! I have tons of projects with jagged areas I haven’t had the energy to go back to when a fresh idea is on the horizon.
I totally do this too.
me too. not TOO often, but it has definitely happened.
Oh my….love this!
Might need to join your Confession Sunday bandwagon.
You’ll be glad to hear the blackout shades in my two year olds room are still unfinished blackout fabric hung on safety pins…over a year later.
gotta love my unfinished curtain buddies – apparently it’s a common affliction. hehe.
I LOVE this post, blogland is too perfect and I need to do more of this type of post too. It’s funny when you do this type of post too, people feel the need to reassure you (that’s what I’ve found, and I do it too) – we have a hard time accepting the less-than-perfect sometimes, huh?
Ugh, what could be more boring than hemming curtains? Our curtains came with the house and I have no plans to change them out at this point. Don’t even want to go there! I wouldn’t even know where to begin with the confessions. Let’s just say NO ONE would call me a neat-freak, and I live with people even more slobby than me. When it comes to kitchens, gardens, and sewing nooks, I prefer the term “hard working” to “hot mess,” thank you very much. 😉
lol! awesome idea for posts, Kristin! I’ve been thinking about doing the same!
Thank you for this. My Ikea curtains are hanging up in the dining room with the pins in them because I have not taken them down to hem them (1 year later).