Pause

The morning greets me with a sunny smile. A humming bird hovers around the sprinkler shower. Nestled in the green leaves of an old oak tree, a scarlet cardinal ornaments the branch. Swallows flit in and out of their apartment building.

Breathe in, breathe out. My soul is filled with joy. A reminder that it is greaat to be alive!!!!!

To Do List, Again

The Wednesday "to do" list is long. The tasks are big. Will I accomplish much? What do you do when you are overwhelmed?

I have to be careful not to waste valuable time fretting about "how am I ever going to get this all finished?" Unproductive. So I remind myself to start, move forward, just do; soon I will see progress and that will inspire me to do more.

Ahh, I'm off to start doing. This is not a day for nothingness. And I'm thinking of you, my readers, with your own "to do" lists. Good Wednesday!!! We're all in this together and will get through it together.

"Senseless"

That is the title of today's poem from Kelly Letke, my favorite poet. Her post is so perfect I can't say anything that would add to the feelings of helplessness and despair all are feeling after the news of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Please follow the link to read her words.

"I, [too] am hungry for a rainbow."

(picture courtesy of Kelly Letky)

Personal Assistant Needed

I used to think I would like a wife. You know for all those picky detail chores that fill our lives. But I'm updating my attitude and daydreaming about a personal assistant. What has pushed this latest fantasy?

Last night talking with the poet sister who was outlining all the many steps ahead of her to self-publish a chap book, I was totally stricken by the load of work ahead for her. Having written her poems and chosen which ones to include, I thought she had maybe 3/4 of the work done. No! Her list of the remaining steps and decisions before the book is a hold-in-your-hand reality leaves me exhausted, so I can't even imagine how she feels.

She needs a personal assistant. Someone you can look at and say, "Macy, after you answer all the emails, research and present me with types of paper, find out pricing for cover - color versus black & white, take this to the printer. Oh, and pick up my dry cleaning on your way back." In my fantasy for my sister and then, of course, me, I see that perky, energetic, tireless assistant who can take care of the endless organizational tasks leaving us to create and make the creative decisions.

Don't all of you creative artists, writers, artisans who are trying to run a business need a Macy?

In my case, if I didn't have to be on the phone or email shepharding my business through shows, etsy and stores, I can be awash in fabrics, piecing together the dresses and watching them emerge, creating new designs. Ahhh, bliss! Instead I'm up to my neck in paper - email and  microsoft office. I need to create a time line for the Georgetown Art Center, email artists and artisans for the gift shop portion, talk budget for the art center booth at the Red Poppy Fest, plus a few more necessary and urgent tasks. Oh,  if only I could swivel my chair around and say, "Macy, take care of this." Then I could work on the next onesie.

Well, a girl (truth in advertising, an old lady) can dream.

Here are 2 dresses that are making their debut at the Red Poppy Fest in the Annarella Girl  booth. I'm in love with the vivid colors.

 



Notice one fabric is common to both, but the pallette of each is totally different. That's part of the fun in what I do. I hope you are smiling as you look at them. The joy I take in looking at their vivid colors and the pride I take in a job well done, give me a push forward to the to do list. I'm going to corral some of that paper work!!! 

List Making

Sunrise yesterday was gorgeous - such inspiring colors. Everyday the dawn is different. Mother nature, you rock!

Grabbing a cup of coffee I toddle off to my work room to try and mold my day. Making a list is the way I try to order my time. A few days ago I posted about spring fever and its effect on me - lack of focus, task hopping, and general purposelessness. In order to correct and corral my energies I make a list of tasks to accomplish. Not a glamorous solution but it works for me.

So after breathing in the fresh spring air and feasting on the rosy sunrise, I tackle the to do list. It pays off. Of the 6 tasks I target as important to finish...drum roll please...5 are crossed off. Ahhhhh, my world seems manageable again.

My dream is to spend all my time creating - composing with fabrics; painting with cloth. In reality, the occasional spate of paper work, list making and (dare I admit it) organizing clears my mind and reenergizes my artistic side. Just not too much.

Spring

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn."   Hal Borland

This quote greeted me in my email this morning from Goodreads. I post it especially for my northern friends who are still experiencing winter storms. Hang in there!

 

Bluebonnets, something to smile about.

Is It Spring Fever or an Allergy Attack?

 

 

Last week I could feel a creeping lacksadaisical attitude taking over. Not a sickness. More of a boredom. Lack of direction. No excitement.

You know when you think you are hungry, and you refrigerator surf looking for something that will satisfy that urge, but nothing really seems to hit the spot. A nibble of this, a nosh of that. You end up filling physically stuffed but still unsatisfied.

Well, that is how I was last week except not with food (although I confess I did my share of mindless snacking) but a lack of direction, no concentration. Leaving lots of half-done projects on my sewing table. Feeling at loose ends. When I was in my sewing room, I was looking longingly out the window at the birds flying, squirrels scampering, and leaves budding. When I was outside, I was worrying about everything that was undone whether it be sewing, cleaning, cooking or organizing.

Is this spring fever?

Or maybe it's just a result of increased pollen in the air. Not severe allergies but just enough to make me feel logey (how do you spell that?). A little out of sorts. As if the world marches on and I'm a 1/2 step behind or off to the side or slightly turned around.



This Monday morning finds me hoping that I will be a bit more focused this week. To give each project undivided attention, and every trip outside deep enjoyment. Smelling the roses.

Neglect

So sorry for not paying attention to my readers. Hang in there this time will pass. I've been preoccupied with special orders (Yea!!!), business details and lots of the minutia of  ordinary life. I have nothing exciting to say or share.

So bear with me. I will be back. Maybe to pontificate or rant. Maybe to share some designs and creations. Or maybe just to ramble like today.

Happy Sunday.

Sunday Sounds

After a stormy night with rain, thunder and lightening, this morning dawns soggy but dry. Clouds are clearing allowing for brief glimpses of blue skies. The birds are in full throat. I'm watching a cardinal preening and singing, probably to find a mate. I'd join him in making a nest together but it will have to be a very hefty branch.

People often rapsodize about the quiet of living in the country - no rumbling cars and buses, no hanking horns, no passerbys laughing and talking. Have they never heard the birds? My yard is full of chatter, chirping and scolding - hardly quiet. They are enjoying a bright morning and serenading a dry day.

The sound bite from CBS Sunday Morning. "It's not what you do in life, but how you do it."  What a good thought for all to hold. With that I'm off to sew.

Thursday Wish

Don't you wish that everyone would work on living his/her best life stop trying to live everyone else's life? Lets stop the judgements, nagging, and rudeness.

Throw open the window, breathe the fresh air, and enjoy the day!

My Life as a Pinball Machine

Today, I'm like a pinball machine. (Am I dating myself? Do they even exist in today's internet world?) I am zinging from one thought to another; bumping off one chore to another; careening around a creation. Now that doesn't sound too bad, but (insert a pause here) the result is energy spent without getting anything completed.

Why? Because I have several projects going at the same time. Dresses cut out and waiting for the sewing machine. A new design on my mind. A project for Georgetown's new art center. So my ducks are not in a row. (Someday I'm going to compose a post made up of as many cliches as possible.) (See I digress proving my point that I'm all over the place.)

The cure. I'm taking Butler to the dog park. After a cloudy, sprinkley morning, the sun is shining. We need to soak up some of it. Such a small thing. What I really wish I could do, is to climb in the car and drive. I fantasize about a trip to Tennessee to my sister. I can picture the roads through east Texas with its rolling hills and pine forests. Then through Arkansas with its swooping curves carved around Memphis. And then the endless width of Tennesee that is not too exciting except that it brings me closer to my destination. Mentally I'm packing my sewing machine, threads, scissors and pinking shears. I have with me my patterns and a few fabrics. We will sew, talk, eat, drink and sew for a couple of days. It may not sound like a break to you; but it would be a dream renewal for me.

Enough of that. Pull back my lever and send another ball on its way. Off to the dog park. Run an errand. Rack up some points as I flip flop between dream and reality.

Hey, that's what I'll call my game - Chasing a Dream.

Order Reigns

Thanks to my son, Jeff, I now have an orderly, organized sewing room. YEA!!! It was such a pleasure to walk in this morning with my first cup of coffee in my hand.

Before

After

 

I predict it will be a good week



Another Good Thing

There is nothing that can't be conquered on a Monday morning after I've had a good, long, uniterrupted night's sleep!

Happy Thoughts

This came into my mailbox this morning. It is so hopeful and joyful. This is how I'm feeling today!

The time will come

when, with elation,

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror,

and each will smile at the other's welcome.

 

By Derek Walcott

 

 

Make this optimistic Wednesday!!!

Fallen Heros

I live near Austin, Texas - Lance Armstrong country. Like so many others I didn't want to believe that he used performance enhancing drugs and procedures to ensure his reign at the top of the cycling world. I wanted to believe his story - a rise by hard work from cancer against all odds. This fall I finally accepted the overwhelming evidence and sadly left my hero.

With many millions I will watch his interview with Oprah. What do I hope to gain from it? An understanding of the culture of competition which has given rise to cheating? I'm not sure. Maybe I am like the bystander who can't take his eyes off the horrific train crash. I want to look away but I still can't believe it is happening. "Say it isn't so, Joe."

Do any of you out there care? Is it a stretch to question if this is a result of a money driven culture? Or is it part of the celebrity cult - fame at any cost? I don't know.

On a much lighter note, I'm making my first sundress in at least a month. Before the holidays I did lots of skirts. But now I have the time to work with some new palettes and fabrics to make some sample dresses. Feels good. I am smiling. Cotton materials are smooth and silky as they run through the sewing machine. I'm getting ready for a photo shoot in February. Sneak peek coming soon.

A Winter Sunday

 

 

This morning brings on a sunny start, but coooold. (Any temperature in the 30's qualifies as very cold here.) At least no rain.

Much to the dog's disgust I don't do a whole lot of walking in frigid weather. Despite my ample insulation, I don't like the cold. I want to curl up under a blanket and move as little as possible. My meals include a lot of my comfort foods. Nothing hugs warm comfort like casseroles. Why don't men like casseroles? Is it because they can't identify all the ingredients? Or maybe because they are easy? Or because they make great leftovers, and the men know they will be seeing them again and again? and I like them for all of those reasons!

What are your favorite foul weather foods? Soups? Meat and potatoes? Stews? I could exist happily during our cold snaps on chicken noodle soup, meat and rice or noodle casseroles, chili (especially with corn bread) and warm chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. How about you?

A Little Sunshine on a Rainy Day

 

 

As you can see, I'm back with photos. Hurray!! So I celebrate with a photo of my granddaughter, Ryann, in her Christmas gift skirt and her doll with her matching skirt. It makes me smile!!!

 

Why I do what I do - I like happy girls.

 

Have a smiling Saturday.

To Resolve or Not to Resolve, That Is the Question

The New Year...time for planning, setting goals, and, dare I say, make resolutions. I heard a funny story yesterday. Some TV show was reading resolutions from their audience, my favorite was from an 80 year old. "Been there. Done that. I'm all over that." Ah, with age, does come wisdom.

But resolutions do have their worth. They give us goals and plans for the year. I find it works best for me if I keep them small and specific. For several years I've changed my annual weight loss goal from "lose 100 pounds," to meet next Christmas 15 lbs lighter." This strategy has worked for the last 2 years, so I'm keeping it. By the time I'm 80 I will have been there, done that. Ta Dum! Small steps.

Last year I joined the blogging movement and chose a word to frame my business and goals. "Forward." It was a good mantra for me. Often I get stuck in the quick sand of broken goals. Many of you know the drill.  A stumble leads to giving up. For instance as I plan my year and pick what shows I want to do, I dream of new audiences from some of the bigger venues. When I'm rejected by the planners, I fall apart. I give up on the dream. By reminding myself of the simple word, FORWARD, last year I didn't fall on my face. When rejected I used it as an opportunity to rethink and retool but in a forward direction, maybe diagonal but forward. Small steps.

This year I'm borrowing from Kelly Lefky, That's Mrs Mediocrity to You. She posted a picture and blog that spoke to me. "Blossom."

turn your face
 to the sky
 and blossom

So that's my goal word - blossom. Since I love flowers. Relish watching spring blooms. Work with flowered fabrics. It makes sense for me on so many levels. Business wise and personally I want this to be a year when my petals unfold in splendor. Sappy!!! Yes, yes, yes. But I'm loving the image of growth and beauty. It is going to be a good year.

 

 



Still Here!

The world didn't end today...or at least so far. Let's take the chance for another cycle and make it a mission to spread kindness.
I love the idea of random acts of kindness.
Let's smile at each other.
Buy a cup of coffee for the person behind you in line.
Let the person behind you in line, go first.
Pay a toll for someone else.
Give a dollar to 10 people. (Or 2 to 10 kids.)

You get the idea. It doesn't take much to make someone else smile. And let your message be, pass it on.

Let me know what you did to brighten someone's day.

Small Joys

My dog wriggles with delight in the bright sunshine as he rolls in the grass. If dogs' could smile, he would.

A gift emerges from my hands. Birth in my designing mind ends in success!

Wrapped presents under the tree. Many thanks to my husband who has taken on, not only buying many gifts but also wrapping them.

Time with grandchildren. They are all so special. Their smiles light up my life.

Christmas lights that sparkle in the night.

The morning parade of deer down my street.

My life is filled with so many of these small joys.