Month: August 2023

A Poem About Getting Things Done in the Morning

Karen

In the last 8 months of my new job, I’ve become someone who gets up, gets coffee, and gets an hour or two of work in before the gym. (Don’t worry, I take that hour or two back with my gym break; I’m not working extra.)  If a project needs my brain, I have to do it early in the morning or my focus is shot… so I agree with Jane here.

 

A Day Is Vast
by Jane Hirshfield

A day is vast.
Until noon.
Then it’s over.

Yesterday’s pondwater
braided still wet in my hair.

I don’t know what time is.

You can’t ever find it.
But you can lose it.

Wednesday Essay

Karen

This was Heather Havrilesky’s newsletter for Ask Polly this week, and there was so much that I recognized in it: the conflicting goals among family, the effort it takes, the shame and regret always under the surface. I had a hard time pulling my favorite quote so just go read it:  Why It’s the Hardest to Show Up For the People You Love the Most.

And ironically, the more someone matters to you, the more difficult it can be to stay close to them. Your shame and guilt and regret are activated by how much you care. Your differences feel more painful and aggravating than they would otherwise. Your flaws feel more embarrassing. Your sadness feels more real, more palpable, more like a personal failure.

Merely recognizing all of these difficulties is enough. Most people feel guilty and confused instead. And many people distance themselves from the people they love the most, just to avoid these unpleasant emotions.

Don’t protect yourself from the most important people in your life. Show up in spite of everything. This could be the last time. Notice the heaviness in your bones. Notice the afternoon sun on the grass. Notice the heavy sighs, the darting eyes, the efforts to be understood. Notice the dark clouds in the south at dusk, the dirty plates, the nervous laughter. Let it all in.

Tuesday Project Planning: Hiking “Lite” Pack

Karen2 Comments

When you absolutely don’t need to acquire more fabric or make more clothes, what do you do? Buy a bunch of notions and plan to make a pack.

I’ve had the make your own gear (MYOG) sewing community on my radar for a while and was looking at pack patterns over the weekend. A lot of what’s out there is meant to be made ultralight (UL, of course) and going from my 3-pound Osprey to a 19 oz DIY pack sounded pretty good… but then I realized we just don’t do the kinds of hikes that need a 30L pack. Honestly, the Osprey is overkill for our afternoons up Millcreek, so when I saw Stitchback Patterns’ “Lumbar Pack” above, I thought, “This is perfect.”

It’s big enough to hold snacks, a hat and gloves, and a first aid kit (my non-negotiables) and it has that chonky hip belt and pockets for water bottles. I still have Ottertex outdoor fabric from an order two years ago, so my pack won’t be ultralight–but you know it will be color coordinated:

Notions shopping was FUN (because shopping!): I found colored buckles and webbing at Strapworks, and the khaki accents and even orange spacer mesh at Rockywoods.

As soon as my $50 in notions and shipping arrive, I can get started on my “free” pack!

Golden Hour

Karen

Doc had his last free Friday afternoon before going back to work full time so I logged on early and left at 3:00, so we could get a golden afternoon up Millcreek.

We didn’t really hike, just visited my favorite stretch of stream, the one that always makes me think of Schubert or The Wind in the Willows. That August light is really something.

All Quilt, All The Time

Karen

Like I said last week, I decided to push through the king size quilt I’ve had in progress so we can have it on the bed by the end of the year. I also decided we needed matching shams, so that meant I had to make a trip to Harmony on Saturday for more fabric (and, oops, some sock yarn):

Then I cut all that brand-new fabric up into smaller pieces and arrange it:

Then I sew the smaller pieces together, cut them up again vertically, and sew them all together again to get a block that’s smaller than the piece of brand-new fabric in the first place. (Sometimes, modern quilting makes no sense, but in my defense I ran out of big enough scrap pieces months ago; the mask making of 2020 really put a dent in my quilting cotton.)

Anyway, this is all pretty money- and labor-intensive. I wish I’d started tracking time and expenses but now I’m just going for it. I did have a moment, though, thinking this entire thing wouldn’t even look good. I grabbed the blocks I had 100% finished and laid them out to see if this was going to work… and it is. Sometimes you gotta get some distance and then you can see the patterns emerge.

Yes, that was a Quilting Metaphor.

Friday Links

Karen

1. Paul Reubens died this week. Here’s a 2016 interview about his comeback, his early years, and his favorite Walgreens. This is such a perfect artist statement:

‘‘I didn’t have jokes, and I wasn’t good at improvising,’’ Reubens said. ‘‘I was good at mugging and finding weird stuff.’’

 

2. More history: the origin of calling the remote a clicker was because the 1956 invention actually clicked. (I did not know this!)

3. This could have been my July. Right now August is looking less hot, at least.