Consulting the Oracle

My husband's grandmother was a very accomplished seamstress and while I never had the pleasure of meeting her, she did pass her skills for all things sewing on to her two daughters - my husband's aunts.

So, every so often when I reach a bump in my sewng skills road, I have to go and consult the oracles.

It's really nice and I feel as though I am startign to get that little crafters bond going with them.

I am in the process of making a skirt - my first true garment made from a purchased pattern.

When I had a spare 5 minutes today I sat down with the pattern to cut the pieces out, however when it came to the cutting guide for the skirt waist band and interfacing I got all confused by the was the pattern instructions said to place the pattern piece on the fold of the fabric and I needed further instruction.

It seems to be worked out now but the proof will be when I piece it together and see what it looks like in the end.

The comments on my blog don't seem to have been working up until this point - thanks to Kirsty for pointing that out to me! I seem to have the problem fixed now though!

I am hanging out to get to the fabric store next week (not until Tuesday!) because I am really into the quilt I am making for my friends baby and I need to get the final bits of fabric for the quilt top. There is also a bag project that I am going to get some material for.

Right now I have an old gift box housing my fabric stash but I can see that is going to get too small pretty soon!

I read a great thing today in the current Notebook magazine about a woman who took a photograph of somethign she was grateful for in her life, every single day for 1 year. It was such a lovely story about being present in the moment and appreciating the things and people in her life. I was especially enchanted by the part in the story where she told of her daughters becoming more present and 'aware' because she had, and them bcoming more appreciative of the things and people in their lives.

This is something that I would like to see in myself. I will be the first to admit that I am bad at saying thank you. I say thank - you of course but I feel like I never do it with enough sincerity or in some situations (When It is called for) excitement. I think that I would like to be more excited about certain things in life and respond to them accordingly on the whole. I mean - I can be self conscious about even saying hello to people in the hallway at work or smiling at times. This is a part of me that I would like to work on. I have been listening to the CraftSanity podcasts at night while I have been breastfeeding Harris and this is something I notice about many of the Americans that Jennifer interviews. They are all really sincere and grateful, thankful and excited about what they do. Many of them seem to have a realy Joie de vivre for life and I think that I need to find a little bit of that in me. It's not that I don't enjoy life - I do - I'm just not very good at expressing it. I need to work on that. I think that being able to rediscover crafting is helping me a lot with finding out things about myself I had forgotten. I am very grateful for being able to reconnect with parts of me that needed nurturing. I am so excited about the prospects of all the things I can make and be crative with. When I first finished up working to go on maternity leave, I felt incredibly unconstructive, but sewing and making things has allowed me to feel like I am accomplishing things each day - that I am productive with my time. That is important to my psyche!