The realization hit – we are already almost halfway through May 2026. That snuck up on me. Sudden. I am in disbelief that the year has sped straight past. It has been a sluggish year for me. That is hard to explain. Thus far, I feel like I have been dragged along all year. Truth is, I feel like I am running on fumes. That is mixed with a side of overwhelm. Yet, the year has just kept speeding on whether I am fully engaged with it or not.
Apologies for continued distance
I apologize now for the continued distance. I had so many great plans for this blog and still dream of turning it into an educational platform. Originally, this was about my kids and me; a record for them. Over the years, it has become a place of avoidance. There are a lot of memories here. Good and bad.
The problem has been my ability to articulate life and its events over the past decade. We all carry our demons with us. Some are more visible than others. Mine feel like prominent roadblocks some days. This has been the case for a couple of years now, as indicated by the date of the last post on this blog. I had good intentions, but the desire to execute them waned. “I’ll go back and fill in the blank spaces with reflections” quickly became a well-practiced avoidance tactic.
Looking ahead
This past week has given me a few moments to consider my “life choices.” Do not for one minute think that I have regrets – we all do. Rather, I air-quoted the “life choices” because I use it to loosely attach terminology to something I cannot fully articulate right now. Choices are made. They all have consequences (or impacts), whether good or bad. These choices sometimes do not matter, but there are other times when they do.
Some of my closest followers know that the server I use for business suddenly went offline. No warning. Just gone. This is a hosted “reseller” account. While I do not openly resell hosting services to individuals, I do charge web design customers for their contracted hosting services. Fortunately, it has been restored, but it is not problem free. Hosting will be changing to another service going forward.
What is happening with me at Stacey Sansom Designs?
I have been busy with work. Yes, I am self-employed at Stacey Sansom Designs and can basically work whenever I want to, but there are clear times when I am busier than others. Prom season being one of those times when alterations become more “important” to everyone and more frequent.
I have already invested in what I want the next area of focus to be for my business.
I do alterations because they make money. It is not my love or passion. They simply make money. I am very good at it, but it is not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. That, and I have more and more competition sneaking up on me in the neighborhood. I cannot attest to the quality of work from others, but I do know that more competition has reduced my overall work. I am not happy about that, but since I do not want to do this forever, I feel this is the perfect time to focus on what I’ve been educating myself for anyway.
I have paid for a year of Clo3d which is a simulation software used for fashion design purposes. It can be used to model, test, and ultimately create 2D apparel patterns. There is a learning curve, as I have found out. Life gets in the way and this is not making it any easier to focus on it. I am excited for the new challenge. Between this and my Adobe Illustrator skills, it should be something that comes together reasonably quickly for me. That is the hope anyway.
That being said, the plan is to turn more attention to apparel pattern making at Stacey Sansom Designs. Once a get a few patterns out on the market, I may consider eliminating apparel alterations all together. Frankly, at this point, I would rather be doing custom fit and sewn garments than alterations on cheaply made ready to wear garments off the store racks.
I have also made the choice to once again start teaching sewing lessons. In this case, it will be focused on private and small group lessons. I am trying the mobile teacher thing on for size. I don’t love the idea of going to other people’s houses to teach, but I think it will suit me better than having people come to my house for lessons. Now, I just need students to sign up.
Wish me luck on this one…
What is happening with me and my family?
There is not a lot to say right now about my personal life or family life even if this is ultimately the purpose for this blog at this point in life. I am still happily married, still have 3 adult male children, a daughter-in-law (married to my oldest), and 2 grandchildren (girl and boy).
I have the garden started. It is a long way from being done, but you can look forward to more reports on that. I have said in the past I would share the information here, but never got around to it because “life” happens. I have an incredible amount of encouragement and knowledge to share with other beginner gardeners so I will try to spend some time each week creating some sort of content for this topic on the blog. For now, just sit there waited with baited breath on what is going on in the garden. I will get to it.
Primary focus right now is getting my health back under control.
I started a new asthma medication and so far so good. I will update on that throughout other posts, but just know it is working and the pulmonologist is extremely happy that it is working so well for me. It is an injectable medicine done every 28 days. Since starting, I have eliminated most use of my nebulizer and nebulized medications. I still have to use it if I catch a little illness that impacts the sinuses or lungs such as the random colds or respiratory bugs that have been circulating the area. I have also reduced the usage of my rescue inhaler. Like I said, the pulmonologist is almost beside herself at how well it has worked. I am sleeping better at night and that was almost immediate.
My primary care doctor wants to try me on a different migraine medication in addition to the one I am taking that works – sometimes. The problem is that most medications are not created with chronic migraine sufferers in mind. Those of us pushing 20-25 headache days per month are left wondering if that is all there is for our lives. Unfortunately, she is not certain that she can write the prescription for this medication or if I will need to go to a neurologist (again) to have them write it. If I have to see a neurologist, I will have to find a new one and the process will take longer. The results from the IV infusion medication are very good for most patients with chronic migraine.
Outside of this, I am focusing on organizing and getting the house back in order. It is a little here and a little there for me right now. I do not complete an entire room at a time, but I pick the problem areas. The spots that bother me and cause me emotional distress. These are my focus points. It was the pantry. That is not complete, but it is a huge improvement. At some point we will be redoing the entire pantry because the shelving is bowing and will not last long term. I have gotten the pantry to a holding status until we get to the remodel. I have focused on the kitchen island although right now it is not indicative of these efforts. The garden stuff has taken over. I’ve worked on getting all the sheets and mattress pads together and bundled so changing bedding is super quick. I also have purchased extra of both so I can strip a bed and remake it and work through the washing cycle without stress or rushing.
Right now, I am focusing on my sewing room. It has become an absolute disaster! It has been an ongoing sore spot for me. It actually sucks the joy right out of sewing. I purchased a new sewing machine (for myself and by myself) in December and it is a little too beefy for my current glass table top setup. Ben purchased me a portable blind hemmer machine and it is also too beefy in weight for the glass table tops. More importantly, I cannot get the sewing machine, serger, and blind hemmer across the table while having usable space. It is cramping my style! I have been searching through endless table, desk, and workbench options. I think I have decided on some basic tables at Ikea. I have also decided that the old stacked cabinets I have need to go. These will be replaced with a skinny Billy bookcase with a door. Doing this will allow me to rotate one of the existing bookcases and increase the allowable width for the actual tables. This will impact what my decision is there. The goal is to get the long-arm quilting machine cleaned off (again) and get it running. I have grand-baby quilts to finish.
Wrapping it up
Anyway, that is all for now. I am not making any promises on future updates. I am going to try to compartmentalize and update at least 1 or 2 topics each week. The likely updates will be gardening and sewing. Who knows what else will happen. I am going to go with the flow on this.
Keep the faith and find joy in the every day things.