Second Wave on Etsy

Trying to play catch up a bit on here so I can start posting more regularly on this process. I have SO many categories to go through. It's Overwhelming if I actually start looking at it. Which I must do this next couple weeks.
The second thing I put up on Etsy was the sewing patterns. Another thing I inherited that cost me actually nothing but the time and effort of storing and moving them around. Once again, Simple shipping. Easy storing them while waiting to sell. Amazing the actual number of them I have. Honestly though both of my grandmothers and my mother were excellent seamstresses. They had a knack, and a patience for it that I simply do not. I can sew, and have on many occasions out of necessity. but I find it extremely frustrating. The last thing I made was a doll dress for my friends vampire doll that I finished that my mother had started. It drove me to tears on more than one occasion, ripping out imperfect stitches. And so, this was an easy category to start on. I still have dozens of doll patterns to add at a later date. The regular and craft patterns have done amazingly well. And I am truly happy that they are going to places where they are wanted.

My mom's mom was a professional seamstress at one point for Singer. And she won awards from Vogue patterns for her outfit designs. (Another thing going up on the Etsy soon will be stacks of Pendleton Wool plaids that she got from Oregon back in the 50's or 60's. Gorgeous, but I have no use for them.)

My dad's mom also sewed probably 90% of her outfits, clothes for everyone in the family actually. When I was in the 8th grade, I became really fashion conscious and upset that our family couldn't buy the ultra popular Jordache jeans. (Annoying in retrospect. But that was a Very awkward time for me) My Grandma Verla set about making a to the stitch and Emblem pair of light blue Jordache knock offs, with unicorn logo. They were perfect. I still have them in storage. I actually still have a number of items they made, for me through the years, and for themselves, that I will probably keep forever. There are some things that just aren't a part of the De-accumulation process. Or at least not till the very end. I have way too much on my plate to begin with to focus on, but I guess we shall see towards the end.

Accumulation Challenge Part One

I'm going to backtrack a bit with this post. One of the very first steps I took in my declutter process was to start with something small and easily manageable. So I picked the vintage valentines collection. Both sets of grandparents had kept every little bag of valentines, my dad, my mom and my aunt had received in school. I've loved and kept them for years. I have an unabiding love of vintage graphics. (They kept boxes of greeting and get well cards too, And more cards and ephemera dating to the turn of the century, but that's a later upload) These were something I had to make some real decisions on. And yes, I did keep a stack from the listing, maybe 25 or so that I just enjoy. Maybe eventually they will go later. But for now they are enough. I have sold many many of these thankfully, there are maybe 30 left listed. I picked them because they were small and the shipping was simple. I have a nervousness about shipping. It's the one thing I do not enjoy about this process. Especially when we get to the breakable items.

Time for a New Post

It's been while, and a lot has been going on. I keep saying I really need to start blogging more of this, especially the processes I'm going through right now. It might be interesting to look back on one day.

First of all, the things I have been working on for the past 6 months or so (unfortunately have very little to do with the art. I'm still trying to paint a little, a couple nights a week. But it's had to take a back seat for the one thing I've decided to focus on big time until I resolve it. And quitting it would mean certain failure as far as I'm concerned. The art is still here, I don't think I could quit it even though it pain me to have to shift focus.

What I've been working on the last year, but only in actual form 6 months is the getting rid of 4 generations, 6 to 8 other persons as well as my own, since it all became my own, melding with my own collecting issues. It's an an accumulation, a hoard, a mass of collections, endearing heirlooms, clutter, Story filled items. Whatever you want to label it. I kind of like the term accumulation. I've always known that eventually it would all come to me. And in fact it did and I've held onto it for a long time and had it at a much earlier point than many of my peers. Mostly due to the early deaths of my mom and her sister. And then the conclusiveness of my grandmother's death in 2013. My other grandparents, great grandparents before that.
I resolved that I'm going to get through this. My daughter is NOT going to want to have anything to do with any of it really. There's so much that I honestly cherish, that it makes none of it have much value to her. I want to change that. And the only way to get to that point is to let the things go. They've taken up too much of my world.

And so I left my job of almost 12 years, over 20 years in the business. And because of what I have been gifted this is the Only point in my life where I could take advantage of this time to get thing to new places. I am taking full advantage and trying to become good at getting this done. I do have opposition that's driving me a little crazy at times, as well as other projects that are going to cut into it. But I can't quit. I can't go back. It's kind of everything to me at this point to get this done. I'm determined to have happiness in my life and my home with out all the things that have taken over. I'm trying to think how high the percentage is of how much of it I don't even, and never did want - maybe 80% maybe 75 if I'm honest. I just always knew "inherited" the knowledge that it was worth more than just donating to charity.

And that's the crux really. It's not junk. I made sure that the truckloads of junk actually never made the 40 mile trek to my home. And then finessed down the other things that were already here. My grandmother was a hoarder of things and papers. And good things, things that she got for a quarter at a garage sale back in the 80's that are now worth anywhere from $20 to $250. So it's a long road. I have decided to research the antiques, the toys, the glassware, china, jewelry, tchotchkes each and every one and list them on my ebay and or my etsy. And I will admit to my own collections that will go as well. All my toys, collectibles from high school and then to my daughters toys etc. As a single mom, I simply stacked it all up from her infancy on. turning in clothes at times, giving them to needy families. But the mass majority of toys and books. Still here. and in superb condition. All of that has to go too. She always got too much, and if there was a kind of toy, she had to have one of every in the set. And because of her limitations, she really barely played with any of it. In fact I kept packaging, after a point because I knew it was going to be opened and just sit there. It's kind of criminal actually. But it wasn't my choice. I've tried to work around the mass toy influx every year. And get the things that would be used. It's all only added to my WORK. So I'm going to try to make something out of it.

I think I'm going to start blogging about it here. The things going to new places, what they meant to me, to us. And how it's helping me on my journey to some kind of minimalism. I don't see myself ever being one of those stark white boring minimalists, I have too much I enjoy as art for the love of it things. But I dream of having a regular house, garage, studio etc. And I'm on my way.