Chaos... in a good way?

I bought the solid white fabric I needed. But I couldn't bring myself to purchase solid browns to go with my scrappy top. The fabrics were wrong, and frankly, the thought of buying fabric I didn't absolutely have to went so against my 'buy less' plan that I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

That said, what I did instead might have been a big mistake.

I have bolts of yardage purchased when a fabric store was relocating. And several of those bolts are mostly brown -- so it seemed like a win-win. Use fabric I already have, spend less, still accomplish the goals all around.

I didn't figure on how loud dots can be.

I fought wind and snow to get this much of a photo, so it's going to have to do.

And truthfully, I think it looks better in the photo than it did in my mind's eye... so maybe it isn't quite as bad as I thought... But in person, I'm afraid it's a bit overwhelming.

The brown dot on white is printed at a bit of a slant, so if the fabric is straight, the print isn't. That makes working with it in large pieces an extra challenge.

In person, I'd have said the brown/white was okay and the brown/orange was not. In these photos, I kind of feel the other way...

And there's a lot of the dotty fabrics -- though of course I could cut it down a little. I probably will. I was aiming for a generous baby size, and wound up with about a twin! Since I'd like the scraps to go back to being the focus, cutting it down might be the 'right' choice. But, I'm going to let it percolate a while before I decide.



Obviously my mind was not on my work. But I'm going to let it rest for a few days and perhaps I will like it better next time I look at it.

Where was my mind? Somewhere between a toddler who desperately wants to be outside and does not understand the concept of 'too cold' and the kitchen re-do project. I did the math last night and I'm removing about 11 cabinets and putting in 3 (1 base, 1 upper, 1 pantry). I'll eventually also put in some other 'pantry' style storage, a small island on wheels, and a china hutch type piece.

It feels like a whole lot is going out -- and it is -- but I really think we're going to gain a lot more usability. We're losing 6 drawers -- but 2 of them used to fall out and crush toes, and 1 hasn't worked right since we got the new stove. Three of the cabinets were corner pieces accessible only through other cabinets or from the living room instead of the kitchen. Hopefully we're correcting a lot of issues... but it's a lot of work and a lot of guesswork right now!