Of course...

I haven't actually accomplished anything yet. I mean - not a single project finished. But! I did take a Sewing 101 class Monday evening, so I feel like that was a big step. Because, really, the hand-sewing ambitions were not going to last me much longer.

At least I now know how to thread and operate a sewing machine. And the foot pedal does not move as heinously fast as I remember it going when I was ten. When the needle yanked the fabric out of my bewildered hands. Oh! Summer camp crafts - 'no experience required'. That moment probably would be long forgotten if my instructor had had an ounce of compassion. I wasn't trying to hurt her precious machine.

Anyway! That's unimportant.

I'll have to post a picture of my practice quilt block. The backside. Who said that seams should all be pressed in the same direction??

Well. I'm still excited and ambitious. I don't mind mistakes. So long as I'm busy learning, that is. If I manage to ruin my Heather Ross fabric, however, I will be terribly put out.

replete

Well, another weekend, another snow day.


It is less and less thrilling all the time. As long as it doesn't stick around, I can live. But for someone who 'still' loves snow, I am starting to get a bit tired of it. Admittedly. Just of the cold and winter in general. Me and B being sick all week hasn't helped.

Although - what excuse is better for drinking a gallon of pulp-free orange juice?

Truth told, the past five or six days have been rough. I've been taking care of him more exclusively than I've had to in his entire five point five months, and he's been sick and I've been sick. I've never been so tired. Strangely, I've also never done so well. With patience. I am so glad. It feels like a bit of a breakthrough - in mothering, and just with myself.

So though I am still exhausted, and my head feels like a canon, today is a sigh of relief.

focus

Everything I see (well, a great deal of what I see) these days gives me itchy fingers. That sounds a little icky, but what I mean to say is there are so many things I am eager to make. I've got fabric for two or three quilting projects (yet to be started), two care packages to put together and send out, and probably fifteen books I'd like to buy because they look inspiring. I spend a lot of my precious free-time planning ways to get to supply stores with a five month old in tow and no car, or reading crafty blogs with heavy image content. (I make that sound like a chore, but really it's quite nice to spend an hour looking at luscious little pictures of handmade goodies.) I want to create things! And give them to people. I also want to spruce up my space but it's so small and crowded already I feel like it would be more wasteful than worthwhile. I hate waste, so... there. My longing for a place of my own with more space that I can do up however I please is another topic for another day, I'm afraid.

But the quilts and the care packages, they will be made! - Eventually. When I learn how to use a sewing machine. Right now, learning to drive comes first.

These are the little snags you come to when you take on new skills. But, a little surprisingly, I am not discouraged. It's good. I'll simply feel more accomplished when I get everything completed. Which I think is part of the reason I am so desirous to teach myself this stuff. It'll be nice to work at something and have tangible (and aesthetically pleasing) results.

For now, I'll just continue trying to capture all the ideas I have in my head without blowing too much money on supplies for projects I can't possibly start right away. And I'll make room for more driving lessons, and do more pilates... eat more almonds, and take care of my best little fellow.

project one

Okie! So I eventually remembered that I started a blog here. And this is the first moment I've had that I a) felt like I had something to write and b) remembered to say it while B was still napping. Both at once. Amazing! (Tho' the nap has since ceased to continue...)

So here I am.

In the interest of moving things along, I'll say that I have been following several blogs lately. (Its been a long time since I've bothered with any.) Specifically, crafty blogs. Actually, I've been reading them for a few months, I think. What I know for sure is that it's been long enough that I can't recall whether I felt crafty first and looked for blogs to induce more creativity, or if I stumbled upon the blog and its associates first, and subsequently became nerdy with inspiration. Either which way, they prompted me to request quilting books for Christmas (which I gots received) and that led to this recent purchase:


Oh yeah.

This is (optimistically!) going to be a play mat for the aforementioned napper. I want to finish it soon, as he's already four months old. Egad. The only reason I haven't chopped anything yet is because I need to wash the fabric, for one, but mainly because there is some confusion as to whether you can use a rotary cutter for handpieced blocks. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to but that is what certain internet literature on the subject has implied. So I'll have to consult my book about it. Which, strangely, is harder for me to remember than this blog despite merely being upstairs in my bedroom.

Wish me luck. ...Its amusing to think that, having no readers, I am pretty much writing to myself. Its a lot like talking to oneself. Especially when I say things like that. But maybe eventually there will be a reader!

I'll have to rally my friends around this blog. So's I don't feel so silly.

But if anyone does happen to read this, do you think it is better to put my pictures on my flickr account and host them that way, rather than uploading them to blogger? Hmm. You'll let me know?

initiative

It's been a long time for me, but I thought perhaps it was time to start blogging again. We'll see how this catches on. Sometimes a facebook page just isn't enough, y'know?

My lack of thoughts/whatnot to share this first time around is slightly alarming, but hopefully I won't be gun-shy for very long. That's no good for blogging! But it will have to do for the evening - I have a baby to take care of.