The Problem That Created Switch Stitch

Being a Leo, fire element...change is very important to my world. I mean, one of my favorite sayings is “the only thing constant is change”. This tendency for change & new shows up in a lot of different areas of my life and even in my home decor. I’ve always loved design and how it brings warmth & energy to my home. And, I especially love how changing the seasonal decor keeps the design from getting stale or boring throughout the year...you other change seekers get what I’m saying. One day, I started to realize that I’m consistently struggling with switching out my seasonal decor in time. Like, it’ll be Christmas and I will still have Halloween things sitting out...and no Christmas stuff in sight. This really started bugging me and I asked myself, ‘why is it such a struggle for me to do something that I say I really enjoy’? That’s when the answer hit me...well it was actually more like 3 key things. 1] I don’t really like the process of decorating, I like the end result of having a well put together space that’s pleasing to my eye & has touches of the current season. The process of changing decorations was a huge task in my mind. It was cumbersome & anything but streamlined. Frustrating. 2) There were always way too many decisions to make throughout the whole process. It seemed like I was spending a lot of time looking through an infinite amount of home decor options and as the options grew so did my confusion on what I wanted. Exhausting. 3] I don’t really like buying things just because they’re cute. I usually like to buy things that have some sort of function or purpose or meaning behind them. I felt like I wasn’t being true to my values when I was buying random meaningless things just to fill space. Pointless. So, there I was, realizing that I really don’t like to decorate or buy random things, but I love being in a well decorated space. Welcome to my life. As I saw it I had two paths to take. I could give up trying to decorate my home or I could try and fix the 3 main hurdles I had with it. For whatever reason, I’ve always loved to solve problems so I decided I would try to fix my struggle with decorating. First, I simplified the process of decorating by creating base items that would stay put all year round and I’d only have to change a part of them seasonally. This, in turn, eliminated a lot of time & decisions because I didn’t have to figure out what goes where. It also prevented me from having to dig through lots of storage bins to find what I was looking for. Next, I decided that I would infuse some of my personal core values into the pieces to make them more purposeful & impactful. I chose to use reclaimed materials as this would align with my lean towards being mindful of the environment, my inclination to make things from what other people didn't want and the creative challenge of working limited materials. Not to mention there’s always a story to share with others when handmade items are displayed in a home. Once I had the plan figured I started bringing my ideas to life. After several non-stop days of sewing, unsewing and re-sewing; I had the start of a system that checked all the boxes for me and Switch Stitch was born. A quick & simple way to switch out decorations so that my space would flow with my current style; with minimal decisions. While using impactful items that have a story to tell; giving my space more depth & meaning. In summary: Inspiring decor that’s purposeful, impactful, tells a story & simplifies my life.