Where did the week go? How is it Sunday already and I haven’t closed out last week yet??
Late last week, my son’s teacher sent a message asking for a few “fairy helpers” to make flute cases for the class’s Choroi pentatonic flutes.
And I thought: Oh, I can do that.
I’ve sewn a lot. I went to a Waldorf school myself. I still have fabric left from the COVID mask-making days. It felt like a good project for me and, honestly, I was pretty inspired to do it.
How hard could a few flute cases be?
Well…
The teacher sent a sample home with my son on Monday so I could figure out the dimensions, and immediately my brain started going. What’s the best pattern? How should it close? What would actually work well for the kids? I wanted natural materials, all cotton, something pretty, something that felt special.
I could have done something much simpler.
I know this.
But that’s just kind of not me.
I wanted them to be beautiful. I wanted them to be pretty. I wanted them to be right.
Then I looked at the fabric I had and realized we were woefully under the amount we would actually need for 30 pieces.
So: Facebook Marketplace to the rescue.
I found a random warehouse getting rid of fabric left over from making textile sample booklets for different companies. My aunt and I went to check this random warehouse out and looked through fabric. We didn’t find a ton, but we found enough for some lining. Better than nothing.
Then, after pickup the next day, I took my two kiddos to the fabric store to pick out more fabric for the outside.
Meanwhile, the week was disappearing.
By Thursday I was finally sewing prototypes. The first case? Way too large. The second? Better, but still too big. So I adjusted again. And again. I messed with the sewing machine because the bottom thread was looping. I ironed. A lot. I figured out that ironing is, in fact, super important. And eventually I landed on what I think is the right size and the right pattern.
I had also ordered the little pieces I wanted to use for the closures on Amazon with same-day shipping because, of course, by this point I was trying to make up time.
They did not arrive on time, in fact they got canceled after being delayed a few times.. so I adjusted again.
So now it’s Friday afternoon, and I’m on my way to pick up my daughter, and this project has spiraled into something much bigger than I initially anticipated.
And I’m kicking myself a little (maybe not a little) because I haven’t done much for Small Moments · Full Life this week.
Life has been full. Very full. But the business? Not so much.
And then I realized: Hey. This is exactly what it’s about.
This is Small Moments · Full Life.
Not the perfectly planned version where I sit down at my desk, create something beautiful on schedule, check it off, and then go live the rest of my life afterward.
The actual life.
The teacher asking for fairy helpers. Saying yes because I know how to sew and it sounds fun. Digging through old fabric. Driving to a random warehouse with my aunt. Letting my kids help pick the fabric. Sewing a case that is completely the wrong size. Sewing another one. Waiting on urgent deliveries that end up not showing up at all.
And somewhere in there, making something useful and beautiful for a classroom full of children.
I think sometimes I get so focused on the thing I said I was going to accomplish that I don’t give much credit to what actually filled the day instead.
That doesn’t mean every distraction is secretly important. And it doesn’t mean I’m thrilled that I didn’t get the business work done that I wanted to get done. I’m not.
But “I didn’t do what I planned” and “I did nothing” are not the same thing.
That was the part I needed to hear and realize this week.
YOUR MOMENT FOR TODAY
If you’re getting to the end of the week feeling behind, maybe don’t start with the list of everything you didn’t finish.
Just look at where your time actually went.
What did you make? What did you solve? Who did you help? What did you care for? What weird little project became much more complicated than you thought it would be?
You don’t have to turn it into a gratitude exercise. You don’t have to pretend it was all productive.
Just don’t erase it.
For me, apparently, it was flute cases.
Thirty of them.
And they’re still not finished. (5 down 25 to go)
But now I’ve already gone through the too-big prototypes, the measurements, the pattern questions, the fabric hunt, the sewing-machine issues and the closure experiment. I finished the sample batch and know the final version actually works! yay! I’m going to share the pattern, measurements, materials and what I learned along the way.
Because that part feels very Small Moments to me too.
I can go through the whole ridiculous project loop, figure out what works, and then hand you the shortcut.
Here. I did the annoying part. You can start here.
Link to Downloads for Flute Case Pattern!
And now it’s the weekend, and I am finally writing the thing I thought I had failed to write.
The flute cases are not all finished. The house is definitely not caught up. And this is still a draft.
But the week was not nothing.
It just wasn’t the week I planned.
YOUR TURN
Did a small project completely eat your week? Hit reply and tell me what it was… Especially if it looked very simple before you began.
As always, thank you for reading and being a part of my journey!
XO,
Gloria
