1. It’s The Onion, but it feels right: Study Finds Owning Cool Leather Jacket More Rewarding Than Raising Children.
2. Not AT ALL related and no, I don’t feel personally attacked in the slightest, why do you ask?
ONIOCHALASIA is shopping or purchasing things as a form of relaxation or stress relief.
— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) October 9, 2019
3. Useful information:
Growing up, my family often had a jigsaw puzzle out on the table behind the sofa in the TV room. I really enjoyed sitting and working on that while people watched TV, in the action but also outside of it. I remember getting lost in the details of an image while you fit the pieces together.
I grew up and moved out and didn’t think about puzzles again until Mom was going through chemo–the cancer hospital here has puzzles everywhere in the waiting rooms (because it’s a metaphor, get it?) and they got tainted with that experience. I didn’t touch them in the hospital and assumed I’d never want to see another puzzle in my life.
But fast forward to the last six weeks, when work has been so busy. I get home so fried I’m not able to sew (because I don’t have the brain power) or knit (because I’m too wound up) and instead just default back to looking at a screen.
So I went and bought a puzzle.
Thankfully, I don’t think too much about the cancer hospital when I’m doing it. I don’t think too much at all, actually, and that’s wonderful. I can still feel productive but I can also zone out and I’m not straining my eyes or looking at things I don’t need but want to buy. Highly recommend.
On Instagram, it seems like everyone and their dog on is making the Wilder Gown by Friday Pattern Company–yes, that’s “Wilder” like Laura Ingalls and “gown” like nightgown, or “big shapeless dress.” Obviously I had to jump on that bandwagon, too.
Pros:
Cons:
Am I happy with this? Yes. It’s very FASHUN and good for twirling. Will I make it again? Maaaaybe in a big floral for spring. But we’ll see what the next hot pattern is for 2020 first.
Approach it with the calm focus of Prince Toby in a sunbeam, making sure his manicure is correct:
1. I’m always up for stories about opera. A Singer’s Journey: From Solitary Confinement to the Met Opera. (They’re doing Phillip Glass’s Akhnaten this season, btw!)
2. It has been a WEEK at work. This sums up my mood after the second rush project came through yesterday afternoon:
(Found randomly but here’s the artist)
Something to remember.
It Is Not Your Job
by Caitlyn Siehl
when your little girl
asks you if she’s pretty
your heart will drop like a wineglass
on the hardwood floor
part of you will want to say
of course you are, don’t ever question it
and the other part
the part that is clawing at
you
will want to grab her by her shoulders
look straight into the wells of
her eyes until they echo back to you
and say
you do not have to be if you don’t want to
it is not your job
both will feel right
one will feel better
she will only understand the first
when she wants to cut her hair off
or wear her brother’s clothes
you will feel the words in your
mouth like marbles
you do not have to be pretty if you don’t want to
it is not your job
Because here are some pictures of magnified sand grains and they’re amazing:
Images from sandgrains.com (which includes origins of the sand, so click through), found via the Dense Discovery newsletter. And here’s that William Blake:
When I re-organized the fabric stash in August, I got to fondle my one precious cut of out-of-print Pegasus rayon (from Anna Maria Horner’s “Fibs and Fables” line) and decided to hurry and sew it up.
“Hurry” in this case meant doing a full bust adjustment (FBA) to the pattern (the Ogden Cami) and then making a muslin to double check the fit, which means this baby got one wear before the weather turned. It’s worth it, though, because: PEGASUS.
I did a one inch FBA (my first, using a combo of tutorials I found online, because it was really confusing) and sewed the straps a quarter-inch wider than called for. That allowed me to put in some strap keepers so things stay in place;
(I used serger thread chains because I still can’t make a nice thread chain to save my life. I guess I could work on my hand-sewing skills for 2020…)
I love this as much as I thought I would–I never thought I’d need to make an FBA but it fits so much better with the darts. Also: PEGASUS! Six-year-old me and almost-forty-year-old me are equally delighted.
We took a long weekend off to originally go camping, which turned into plans for a staycation when the weather didn’t want to cooperate. I had big plans for day trips, taking my nephew out, maybe painting an accent wall–but we only got the first day’s activities in because I got sick.
But what a first day! Our friend told us about a place 2.5 hours north that her brother was bringing back to life: Maple Grove Hot Springs. We went up for the day to check it out and soak and it was just lovely–stunning setting, perfect fall colors, and the best natural (non sulfur!) hot springs.
After we got back home and my head cold hit, I kept wishing I had a hot springs handy for soaking. We’ll have to go back and stay!
