Quick update

This one is just to let you know I am still here and thinking of sewing.

Just after I came home from Florida my 17 year old nephew arrived for the summer. He has one more year to go in high school and had the sensible idea (he is a highly sensible kid) to spend a summer away working so he could adjust to being away from home before he had to adjust to university too.

As someone who sees kids lose it the first term away from home every fall, I think this is a good idea.

He has never worked so we have spent the last week driving around and applying for jobs. He has just been hired as a bus boy at Swiss Chalet and is thrilled. His training sessions start on the weekend and tomorrow he and I are going to go out and eat at another Swiss Chalet location to do some recon. We will also be practising carrying plates lined up on our arms around the living room. We figure that's go to be the tricky part.

My sister did a real good job with this one. Most evenings he and I have been talking about life and giving each other advice. I like having a kid in the house again and I now know more than I did before about soccer.

Other news is that Miss Scarlett is graduating from pre-school today and is being awarded a prize for the best conversationalist.

That's my girl.

My sewing itch is returning. I had better hop to it to get some summer things made before the window of opportunity closes in Nova Scotia. First day I got back from Florida I actually saw someone walking their kid to school with ear muffs on.

Give me strength.

Too bad the garments I have been sewing in my head are not in my closet, or the posts I have been writing in my head are not on this page.

Life's like that.

More later.

Dreams

You probably have a better brain than I do, but mine is a bit of a recycling bin. The stuff that rattles around in there unsorted is amazing. 

I have long learned to rely on my dreams to spit up interesting insights into how I work to me.

Some of my dreams are best left unfigured out, like the one where my dad's best friend was wearing my mother's dress, but some tell me things.

I woke up this morning from a nightmare.

I dreamt I was going into teach a class, my best assistant from my last job with me, and we took Mr. Rascal into the classroom with us. At the end of the class all the students filed out and we realized Mr. R had gone out with them and was now lost.

We searched and searched all over the hills where my school is but we just couldn't find him anywhere. 

Finally, I went home and explained all this to my husband. In the middle of the conversation we heard scratching at the door and we hoped it was Mr. R. However when we went to the door there were about twenty abandoned dogs in the front yard, I recognized many of them, including my boy Elvis who I sure hope has been adopted by now. They were all hungry and we fed them.

But there was no Rascal.

I realized when I woke up that I had gone to volunteer at the shelter in St. Augustine with the well-developed crazy part of my brain sort of hoping he would turn up there. I knew he was somewhere, but I just didn't know where.

I understood this when I woke up, and understood that in looking for him I found something else.

And I realized Miss Daisy was his last gift to me.

More later, this is just this morning.

A sewing blogger's big question

The big question is this. 

What does a sewing blogger do if she hasn't been sewing?

I have done a bit while we have been here and but been too busy to post pictures. 

If a sewing blogger isn't sewing what is she to do?

Feel guilty?

I hope not.

We are headed home on Wednesday morning. 

We have had a great time here. (We always say great-vacation-except-for-the-part-where-your-mom-broke-her-hip-and-had-to-fly-home-by-air-ambulance out of respect) and it has been busy.

First there was that week where my dear MIL was in the hospital till she flew home. Then the week when my step-daughter was here with her baby. I tried to do as much baby sitting as I could so she and her dad could golf and do those things that none of us get a chance to do with our adult children when they leave home.

My gain. This baby is an absolutely delightful six month old. We had a lot of fun together. I am pretty sure my own kids were not this pleasant at that age, but this round I am not the tired one.

I have also been teaching while I am here by distance and made the mistake of booking two classes. This has meant about 33 assignments a week to mark. Good interesting stuff and I enjoy it, but between two beach walks a day with Miss Daisy, and a round of golf a day it has kept me away from my sewing machine.

This has not meant I have not been thinking about sewing.

For instance.

I will be stopping full time work the end of next August, 2015. After that I will be teaching courses I like either by distance or at the most two half days a week in the classroom, for a few more years.

So I am seeing the end of my working wardrobe requirements on the horizon. 

I realize if I wanted to I could actually work out the rest of my career with what I already have in my closet.

I am completely not going to do that of course, but to be honest I can sew from my stash for the career duration and be fine. There is no need to be buying any more gabardine for this girl.

Since I have been sewing, planning, and fabric shopping for work clothes for 35 years at least this is a real shock. It will take me a while to get my head around that and to retool my needs to more casual clothes. This is in itself pretty exciting. I will actually be sewing and wearing, increasingly, over the next few years, only what I want to. Makes me feel like a kid again.

I have also realized I am going to have to work further on the TNT development.

I have a confession to make. For the first season ever I have bought only one pattern from the Big Four. The stuff is so dreary and I have seen it all before. I figure BMV is spreading itself way to thin, there isn't enough differentiation to keep three companies going without recycling a lot of the same ideas and it shows.

And what is it with all these retro full skirted 50s dresses?

I mean they are cute and everything but are you seeing those around? Maybe on a Saturday in Soho but anywhere else? This stuff was originally designed to be worn with crinolines and girdles that nobody wants to wear day-to-day anymore.

And don't forget when these little numbers were in fashion it was also the age of the "housedress" which means as soon as they could the girls got out of those outfits into something more comfortable.

And I have to ask too, what has happened to Sandra Betzina? I have always thought she was better at construction than design but when she saw these shots she must have had a fit.

Remember that this is being worn on some model who undoubtedly had celery for lunch and has 34" hips and see how this makes her look:

 I mean what gives?

This is the kind of dress you wear if you have just had to give up the farm. Or have black velvet pillows with yellow velvet roses on the horsehair sofa.

I mean this dress could be sold to add thirty years and forty pounds to any body. This is a costume designer's dress not a sewer's dress.

So when I get home and back in my well equipped sewing room I am going to pull out the TNTs and figure out exactly what I want to wear and figure out how to make it, since I am going to have to be doing this on my own for a bit, until patterns start looking wearable to me again.

Before I go here is a shot of Miss Daisy, my happy girl, before she goes off for a haircut. This little dog is doing so well. She has put it all together in her head and somewhere along the line decided that her job is to follow me around and watch everything I do, without fail, almost like someone was giving her a paycheck every two weeks to do it. She has got quite cuddly and every day there is another little bit new that comes out. Only freak out so far was when my husband rattled around the rack for the roasting pan and we realized of course that looks and sounds just like a cage.

The thing about not being free is that once you are, animal or person, it is a one way street. You don't,  you can't go back. No way at all.

I have learned a lot from this dog too. There is no way of knowing how or why some folks survive. I look at her, with all the poor souls I saw come out of those puppy mill situations and I wonder what it was that kept her going and kept her spirit intact. This may sound nuts but this dog has faith:

Finally, finally we are outfitting the RV a bit so things will be ready when we come down again. I got it in my head that this is such a totally retro thing to do that I should retrofit it retro - back to simpler times.

Fortunately St. Augustine has outstanding consignment shops and here is my cutlery. A full set for $4.00

Pretty nifty, eh?

Flypaper thoughts

• Why are there tanning salons in Florida?'
• We don't have in ground sprinkler systems in Nova Scotia
• To the world in general
• Is there a common sense app we can put on that phone?
• This is what getting older is about
• You move back on the stage and do a lot of work in support roles
• This is precisely why this time of your life is when you have to be the main person being good to yourself
• Like this?
• It's how I am explaining that big orange bag and the bronze clutch I bought at the outlets
• Good policy
• You know in the chorus you can wear what ever shoes you want
• My step-daughter and baby have been here for the week
• Smiley baby, really nice mother
• I could be a professional baby walker
• Love those strollers
• We have one more week here
• You will never guess
• My husband went out and bought an RV to leave here and come back to
• You think you are surprised
• I was marking papers at the time
• I think my input was along the lines of "Uh uh"
• Then we marched through about ten of them and I said I liked the ones with the most windows
• This is a man who doesn't sit outside if he sees one bug
• Of course we are not talking my dad's canvas tent and the Coleman stove
• This unit has couches and a washer and dryer
• Speaking of babies
• They are the solution
• To my knitting angst
• And most other things
• Rather than spending a solid month knitting a sweater that turns out to be for Lowly worm
• I am going to practice my skills on mini projects until I figure out how not to mess this up
• Babies wear small stuff
• I am a genius
• Better late than never
• New fabric policy
• Apart from pants fabric that has to be boring to allow the bottom half to be a non issue
• I am going to buy fabric from now on only if it makes me smile
• Look out
• Going to end up with something perfect to match a giant orange purse
• Miss Daisy is letting her feisty side out
• Going to get her a vest that says "Bunny patrol"
• Great to see
• Unless you are a bunny
• Vacations are busy

Thank you

This is a just a quick update before I go back to do some marking for my summer course, but I want you all to know  I have been back in touch with Daisy's foster mother, and had a really good conversation. She is pleased Daisy is doing so well, but as she lives a ways away we have agreed to keep in contact by email. I am going to get my husband to take some shots tonight of the wild running around in the water that goes on at the beach and send them on to her.

I intend to keep in touch too when we are back in Nova Scotia. You are right, she needs to see how her foster dog did and where she went. It is the least I can do for what she has already done for us.

The comments left on this blog really got me thinking. I thank you so much for taking the time to write them. I like this conversation best when it is two way.

More later, there are some pictures of the Lowly Worm sweater coming up.

Having a past

I got a call today.

From the woman who fostered Daisy after they broke her out of the puppy mill four weeks ago.

I found out that until that time she had spent her entire time in a cage. 

Her feet had never touched grass (that's why they are so soft), no one had housetrained her,  (perfect now)  just mucked out her cage if that, and she had never been on a walk, or on the other end of a lease.

The woman today told me what a wreck Daisy was. Terrified of men, nervous, and withdrawn. The foster mother was worried. She wanted to know if Daisy was doing alright and if she could come and visit.

I am learning no one expects a puppy mill mom to do well. At all.

The thing is who I have here is a small dog who doesn't like loud noises it's true, but who walks for hours every day. 

Who chases birds and bunnies. 

Who climbs onto a window sill and waits when we are out. 

Who does leaping laps around the yard when we come home. 

Who has tentatively started to play with toys.

Who comes like a bullet when she is called.

I am so excited to be taking her home next month. I want to show her that big fenced yard and say "this is yours."

Right now I have a dog who runs up and visits with everyone we meet on the beach. Who lets them pat her head, even the men.

What a nice little dog they say. How well-behaved. How friendly.

I have decided to keep her history to myself on these encounters.

I have been thinking a lot about this.

We all have our baggage. Some folks have had things happen in the past that have been terrible and hard to leave behind. Some folks have had far more than their share, for no good reason, like Daisy.

The thing is on that same beach last month I attended an Easter service at sunrise. Whatever your spirituality, whatever it is or isn't, basically the message is simple - let's wipe out that bad past. You're good now. 

Maybe bad times can stop being part of your story.

Maybe sometimes a bit of cancelation is the right thing to do.

Just to go back to where you started, to who you were going to be until that happened.

I was thinking of this tonight on the same beach and I decided Daisy has a right to not have that past anymore. 

She is as good as any dog on the beach. 

The blown dried ones, the ones in dog strollers, the family dogs who have always had the family.

She is a little dog who is just so glad to be alive in this world.

You should see her run.

Really what else matters? 

She is enough just as she is.

Right there.

So tonight I was complimented on my beautiful dog.

"Look how she looks to mommy to make sure it is OK to be patted by a stranger. How smart." 

"Thank you. She was trained to do that."

Daisy deserves the credit.

I'm thinking I will call that woman back tomorrow. 

Tell her how grateful I am for the work she did fostering Daisy until she was adopted. I really am grateful. But I think we are fine without a visit.

She remembers the damaged dog.

We won't.

Flypaper thoughts

• A pause in the sewing this week
• My MIL fell and broke her hip one night
• A new hip and then an air ambulance home
• All is well
• Hasn't had any pain meds at all since day two
• They sure keep their cool that side of the family
• My side makes up for it
• Feeling like I should be sewing more
• Wonder if other sewing bloggers feel that pressure?
• Nothing to show
• Wonder if that's why other bloggers sometimes vanish?
• Not me
• If there is no sewing going on there still is thinking
• Have enough flypaper thoughts to fill a book
• For instance
• Do you ever notice how ugly pelicans are up close?
• And how amazingly elegant and beautiful they are when they all glide in formation?
• Takes my breath away how wonderful they look in the sky
• Maybe we are all like that
• Maybe we are only at our best when we are in our element
• Maybe the job should not be trying to look or be our best but to find that element?
• Take off to where we were meant to be
• Might take some time
• Miss Daisy is coming along so great
• Getting her dog back
• Hope we are her element
• Going to a Willie Nelson concert tonight in the amphitheatre
• Husband and I can't remember the last time we went to a concert
• This may be indicative of our age or lack of pre-existing coolness
• Of course Mr. Nelson is 82
• So tonight may not count in coolness points
• The Lowly worm sweater is now for me
• Turns out the sleeves are even narrower than the body
• Fits me fine although the right length (the only right part) for my 6'4" son
• Christmas after next is the one when he gets a sweater
• Are there people who buy their kids' presents?
• Mine probably wish I was one of those people
• Have been told 50 pairs of socks is enough for any two feet
• I needed a sweater