It’s been a beat or two since I posted anything here. It’s not for lack of writing. I just haven’t liked anything I’ve written well enough to post it. So it goes.
It’s all just a phase.
Category: creativity
A Very Scrappy Holiday.
The theme for this year’s handmade for the holidays gifts was ‘using the stash’. With the exception of some necessary new items, every handmade gift was made with something from my stash or sourced from the local creative reuse place, The Scrappy Elephant.
This is 54.
I turned 54 yesterday. Birthdays seem like the perfect time to take stock of your life, for no matter when they fall in the year, they are the start of your personal new year. It’s a time to stop and celebrate being you. Only this year, I didn’t much feel like celebrating me. I’ve spent most of the last year spinning in a mid-life crisis, not at all sure what my place in the world is anymore. I’ve had a huge lapse in my self-confidence, the likes of which I’m pretty sure I haven’t gone through since high school and my teen angst days. It’s unnerving to say the least. It’s not *just* this empty nesting and menopause business that’s had me spinning, although they are both still factors. It’s been three years since Edie girl went off to college. You’d think I’d have figured out by now what I want to do with myself now that I don’t have to focus on being a mom all the time and yet here I am.
Things I’ve made recently.
It started last fall when I got the itch to overhaul my wardrobe. I wanted to find a few basic patterns that I could use repeatedly for a uniform of sorts. This resulted in my spending quite a bit of time perusing patterns online, both the big four (McCall’s, Vogue, Butterick and Simplicity) and indie patterns (so many indie patterns!). I didn’t want a lot of components in the pattern as I’m a lazy seamstress – I’m in awe of you who do these complicated, beautiful garments, but I much prefer something I can make in an afternoon. And so, after a lot of internet surfing and falling down some hashtag rabbit holes on Instagram, I ordered myself Lotta Jansdotter’s Everyday Style.
Methods of Procrastination
I had a fall gardening article due and somewhere between feeling inspired to write before everyone else got out of bed and actually sitting down with my laptop Sunday morning, the feeling disappeared. I suspect it was in the middle of getting another cup of coffee and actually walking up the stairs to grab the laptop.
Handmade for the Holidays.
I aspire to Becky made gifts for most everyone on my Christmas list annually, but this year felt like the first in a while that I actually succeeded in doing that, beyond handing out jars of pepper jelly and pickles and jam. Although this year, I outsourced most of the jam to my friend Daniel the jam god. Between the great canning jar shortage of 2020 and the dire straights of most small businesses this year, it was a no brainer way to support one of my favorite local purveyors while also handing out handmade gifts. Not only is he able to source things like Damson plums, he may be one of the only people I know who is at least as picky about where his food comes from than I am. I know, right? I honestly don’t know why I haven’t outsourced to him before, but I’m totally doing it from here on out.
Continue readingA Shawl for 2020.
I have this thing about being productive – at the end of the day, every day, I like having something to show for myself. I’m not sure if this is related to how I have a hard time sitting still, although I’m sure people that have known me for a long time who have complained for years about my need to be productive/inability to sit still /certain level of constant energy would probably say these things are in fact, entwined.
Early June Garden
When I last reported on the garden, we had just gotten a truckload of wood chips and it had been too cool to plant summer veggies.
There have been a few changes since then.
Continue readingRandom musings.
The Pink Notebook
Ten years ago this month, I started this blog. It was more of an experiment to see if I could keep my creative mojo around after one of my more rather alarming dry spells than anything else. The idea was that I’d make it a record of things I made, but somehow, keeping the record became yet another creative outlet for me.
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Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 