I've been put on notice...

That's right avid readers, I have been put on notice by my husband.  For the next year I cannot make gifts for anyone except myself and my son.

No this does not mean I'm closing shop for the next year.  I can still take orders and accept money for the goodies that I create...I just can't gift anything out...Which I had a hard time accepting.

Here's what happened, every year (for the past five years or so) I've made gifts for people.  Afghans, scarves, stuffed animals, etc.  And every year around Christmas I start to stress.  And I dont mean normal people stress I mean like saving the world stress.  Projects wouldn't get done and the ones that did wouldn't be up to my (stringent) standards.  It's horrible, and this year Matt has had enough.

I didn't take it too well either.  But that's what being married is all about, being able to be completely honest with the other even when it's something you know the other person doesn't want to hear or accept.

However, after a "full" nights sleep (Lucas and I are still working on the sleeping through the night business, although we are getting close), and a morning of working on a project for me I started to get excited about knitting and crocheting again.  Something that I can now admit I haven't been for quite some time.  When I was pregnant I thought it was my hormones that were making me hate crocheting and knitting, but then even after I had Lucas and life got back to normal (or moved into a new normal) I hated picking up my crochet hook.

This made making my friends wedding gift especially difficult.  It wasn't that I didn't love her dearly, I do.  She is one of my best friends, but it was the day of the wedding and I was still working on the doilies because I hated doing it.  I had to get over that guilt about hating it pretty quick since she loved them so much (which I'm so glad about!!!).

So, all of this being said, I finished my gifts for my family (and not the gifts I wanted to make - but that's another story), got them in the mail today and as of now can no longer make gifts (at least for the next year). Which - to be totally honest - has relieved an absurd amount of anxiety off my shoulders.

Now, I can do other things that I've wanted to work on for a long time.  Scrap booking pages for Christy, essays for the travel journal that my aunt made for me, embarrassing hats for Lucas, and inventory for my Etsy shop.

So really I haven't been put on notice, I've just been made to look in the mirror and finally see the truth, that I need time to be selfish. :-D