Back on track

I have had quite a busy six weeks but the smoke has cleared now. Mr. Rascal is better and DH and I have all that time freed up that we spent hovering. I am back from my family visit, a suitcase and a half of fabric flew back with me, and another carton picked up from Canada Post yesterday. Northwest Fabrics in Winnipeg is wonderful for weird stuff - mostly I bought diaper and baby related fabric and some fake leather to make purses.

Have you seen the price of purses lately? I tore around to buy a navy purse to go with a suit for an event a few weeks ago and could not believe the price of handbags. As far as cost goes fake is the new leather it seems. I appreciate vegan, and commonsense sensitivities taken into account, that leather does not appeal to a lot of younger shoppers (I have been thinking about a young vegan who told me she doesn't eat anything with a face - that got to me since animal faces are important - we are compromising with free range and hormone free meat that our local ordinary old grocery store now carries) but really a plastic bad shouldn't cost this much. Also I see the patterns are better than they were, more fashionable finally, so my next dumb idea is that I am going to start making handbags, probably mulitples, I will keep you posted on that.

I so sporadic about my sewing interests, when I was at Northwest Fabrics I actually loaded everything to make a ton of bras into my cart twice and then unloaded it all twice. They had the elastic really cheap, and I have made bras years ago although I didn't really like the seam in the cup under my knits.

Where do I think all this time is going to come from? After all I brought home 25 meters of diaper flannel and I am booked to make all-in-one diapers before this baby arrives, not to mention the diaper covers that if I knit take me about a week to make each and if I make them out of rainwear/fleece on my serger will be a lot faster, assuming of course that I actually get started on this.

And I am gearing up for the Wardrobe-in-a-week contest at SG for August.

Not that I haven't done some sewing the last six weeks. I perfected my straight skirt and sleeveless blouse patterns at the end of May (will post those pictures later) and I made my daughter two pairs of maternity knit crops, two wraps and three work tops in June. And I knitted two pairs of baby soakers. I need to get over to her house for a photo shoot.

I also dealt with a lot of job pressure (think our major project is amazingly going to be ready for submission this week) and the distraction of an election to work on and a couple of very well-paying extremely high-pressure and boring job offers to walk away from with considerable angst.

I am just not an administrator, and yes if I took these jobs I could retire early but in the end I decided I would rather start living now doing things I like than defer it all. If it means I keep teaching part-time as an older sewer that's OK.

I also realized that it is useless to spend any time thinking you should be living someone else's life just because they have gone so far and done it. 

At my mom's I had some time to reconnect to where I came from and to think about who I actually am. 

Bottom line is I am a maker of things. I have had projects on the go my whole life, a lot of them are still in the cupboards in my mother's basement 40 years later, I like to muck around at home, I like to make things with and for kids and the work that makes me happiest is when I am preparing a new course for students. I like creating a course, teaching it and having the students get something out of something I have made for them. There is a beginning and an end and I find that very satisfying. I just don't have that same satisfaction in jobs that involve going to meetings which the farther up you go is what you end up doing.

And I just need time to walk Rascal in the woods to cheer him up when he needs that and to go to the beach with my daughter when she is off this summer and to sew diapers.