19 Days!

Can I panic now?! Flights are booked and we have 19 days before we fly off to San Francisco! I am very relieved that we decided to break up the long journey by stopping in NYC to see family for a couple of days. I’m really looking forward to seeing my family, but most especially my niece who is now a toddler with the cutest cheeks ever.

Packing housewares is the last thing on my mind, which is thankfully (thankgoodnessthankgoodnessthankgoodness) being taken care of by the relocation company. My thoughts are mainly on two things: all my fabric arriving in California safely and what last London activities I want to do.

Most of my fabric will be packed away in a sea shipment, arriving in about two months time (ACK!). That leaves me having to pick a few pieces that I can put on the air shipment, which arrives earlier. I’m choosing what fabrics to pack based on what projects I want to work on once we settle in. I am considering these: Juniper maternity trousers, a baby quilt and some maternity Renfrew tops (isn’t Stitch and Witter’s fab?).

That would put most of my beloved fabric on the sea shipment, hoping they arrive safely to us in California. When we moved to London we took an inventory of everything we packed. But we failed to be very specific, ended up missing items and not remembering quite everything that was lost, which of course made it hard to get things replaced. But not this time. This time we are taking photos and taking great care in writing everything down.

My refusal to walk away from a bargain means I’ve acquired too much fabric. Luckily I keep a spreadsheet that allows me to know what fabrics I have and how much of it. With good record-keeping the money I spent on all my fabric would be replaced if they went missing but really, it would be quite hard to replace them. So here’s hoping nothing happens to them en route! I finished updating my spreadsheet yesterday (I did get lazy and stopped inputting the width measurement) and I am a bit embarrassed at how much fabric I’ve accumulated. I seem to replace 2 meters of fabric with 10 more every time I go to a fabric shop! Ugh. Must sew more and must buy less, yes? Yes.

Having lived in London three times since turning 20, I know this won’t be my last time here. I’ve made wonderful friends from the sewing and expat communities that I look forward to visiting with in the future. But for now I have lots to do before leaving: visit the V&A again (I went to so many paid exhibits I wonder, why didn’t I become a member?!), go for afternoon tea and Sunday roast, photograph my beautiful neighborhood, and visit with friends. And maybe go to Liberty for one last splurge? No, no, no, Mela. No more fabric. One of my best friends is coming to visit from New Orleans for Thanksgiving. We will surely get a few of my London to-dos checked off while she’s here.

*Phew* Now that I’ve written everything down that needs to be done I don’t feel so worried. Blogging is such good therapy.