IdiosynCRAZY!: Perfection will not mean Procrastination.

Earlier I stated that I consider myself a half-ass overachiever. Let me expand on that. I have an endless array of projects and goals on my imaginary to do list. My plan of action and my blue prints are all in my head. They are of grandeur. Most of them stay in my head with the hope that one day they will just spontaneously generate. No, not really. I am not delusional. Well maybe I am with somethings. A little delusion is quite healthy.

My projects don't get off the ground because I am a perfectionist. Not the kind that will work on something forever until it is just right. I am the kind that will procrastinate if it is not absolutely perfect in my head. The worst feeling in the world for me (besides finding out I was lied to) is disappointment. It is beyond aggravating when things don't work out the way I envisioned them. When I have a project in my mind I NEVER take it one step at a time. If I think that step 11 is not going to be possible for "X" reason, I refuse to go through step 1-10 to leave it unfinished. The fear of having a halt in my project prevents me from starting one in the first place. I guess I have to weigh my options. I mean what's worst? Procrastinating or having unfinished projects?

As I am writing this I have an excellent peripheral view of a headboard project I started. I keep looking up at it because it is incomplete. Neurotic? I know right. I need to learn to enjoy the completion of every step and avoid being so hard on myself that I am not ready for the next. I almost had a melt down while starting off. I saw this upholstered headboard on this blog. I fell in love with the fabric and the concept of the squares. Before I decided if I could actually do it I did endless hours of research. Once again neurotic right? Research to make a headboard? Well as much as I LOVED the fabric I was not sure if it was the perfect fabric. I looked through hundreds of fabrics online. Once I found a fabric I liked online I decided to go to my local home fabrics store. They had the original print I liked but not in the color I liked. They had other fabrics that I liked. I couldn't make up my mind! I literally had a different fabric in my cart when I made the final decision and chose this one.

This is one of the finished squares. Disaster struck when my mother-in-law was helping me cut the fabric. The print was not symmetrical and I wanted the design to be centered on each square. Also there were wide and narrow designs and I wanted the wide ones only. My mother-in-law cut out the narrow ones by mistake. So now I had uneven, non-matching squares. I almost scratched the whole project and was about to go and spend another $30.00 on new fabric. I told myself to stop freaking out. FYI I internally freak out. I didn't let my mother-in-law see my apprehension. Instead I decided to just go with the flow. Assembling the squares was another mental freak out.

The board I bought to make the 10X10 squares were not 1/4 mahogany underlay like the tutorial said. In spanish it's called "carton piedra"; if you speak spanish you know that piedra means rock. That should have been a sign. We asked the guy at home depot if we can staple through it and he said "yeah". He lied, partially. The staples did not go through with ease. If you plan on completing this project, do not use this type of board.

The same guy also cut out my 10x10 squares. There were some that came out as rhombuses. That was aggravating. If you are a geek like me you know that a rhombus does not have right (90 degree) angles. I overly stress the little things. I started assembling the 24 squares. The first day I only completed 10 because I was using a manual staple gun since the automatic was not doing it's job. I took a 4 day rest because my hand was so sore. Just yesterday I finished all 24 squares. Voilá!

I am planning to mount it this week.

This blog is another project that won't get lost in my mind. I want it to be visually captivating but that won't deter me from maintaining a steady pace. I'll try to post at least once a week. I'm starting to accept imperfections in my life. This blog and this headboard is only the beginning.

UPDATE: 7/15/2012
I did mount the headboard that week but I wanted to finish more decorating projects before I posted the pictures. Since I finished the headboard I have also added a wardrobe, some frames, and a chest. None of those items are ready for a reveal. But here's a pic of the headboard mounted. I need some decor on those empty walls!