You know how sometimes when you’re leaving for a trip, and it seems that just as you’re about to get in the car you remember something you forgot, which leads to remembering something else, and so on and so on. You finally get the car completely packed, and as you’re pulling out you realize you don’t have gas. When you stop to get gas you see that your tire is low.
As you fill up your tire you see something else… Finally, 3 hours later, you get on the road. That’s how I feel right now. I feel like the past few weeks have been me spinning my wheels (in a design sense, not in a life sense!) and getting ready to hit the road with some designing.
Finally some of the fog is lifting and ideas are actually making their way from my brain to my pencil to my computer and on to my fingers, needles and yarn. At last!
Generally these phases happen to me when I’m trying to do too much, when I won’t let myself rest (the all-nighter syndrome) and, luckily, I’ve been sensible enough to avoid many episodes like that since I turned 35.
But they still creep up on me, and it takes a few days of just letting things shake out for me to find that still center where I can make sense of the odd design ideas that fly through my head. Which is how life’s been for the past while.
Add to that a lot of pressure I’m feeling on the money side – the regular stuff – nothing too terrible or fear-making, just the nagging fear we all have about mortgage and other things. Having been in a 9-5, with all the worries inherent in hating-yet-needing-to-keep my job, I’ll take the freelance can’t-turn-any-work-down insanity any day. It suits my personality better (and I can work on my own schedule!)
Yesterday yarn arrived for a shawl for VK, and after fighting through some wacky charts for a number of hours, I think I have a clever way to make this baby work. Whether VK will think so is up in the air – but the yarn and “inspiration photo” came with the cryptic message, “Make it Annie”
(Whether this was meant as, “Make it, Annie.” as in, “Get off your but and get this finished and back to us, Sweetie…” or “Make it Annie“ as in “Make it a unique Annie-esque garment, s’il vous plait…” is anyone’s guess. I’m choosing to believe the latter.)
And being at the start of a project where I actually have some inkling of where I want to end up is a good place to be. I have a lot I want to get done before I leave for TNNA, though.
- First and foremost, I need to get my class materials prepped and ready to go and work through all of the projects for the classes (I do this before I teach to familiarize myself with the techniques)
- Then I’d like to get a bathing suit pattern I’m working on finished so I can leave it at the Cascade Booth (if they’re interested…) or maybe I’ll work it up in Classic Elite Star. Hmmmm.
- I want to get several book proposals together so I can chat intelligently about them – I have most of the work done on the proposal ideas, but I need to print out something that looks halfway decent.
- I need to contact a few folks to see if they’d like to get together for coffee. I’ve been remiss about this – time to get on the stick!
That’s about all I can think of. I have a week. Time to head to Costco for some folders & paper!
Kids Night
In addition to being the 87th anniversary of my mother’s birth, yesterday was also the day that BOTH kids had concerts at their respective schools.
Luckily, Max’s school had a preview at 2:30 so I could make Hannah’s concert at 6:30 (Gerry took Max to his concert – something we definitely thought would not be possible two weeks ago!)
Today Hannah’s school has a re-do of their concert at 1:15, so Gerry can go to that one.
Both concerts were SO good! Max was singing and singing for the past few weeks, so I knew every song his group would be doing. He was especially proud to be one of the Shaker Dancers during Simple Gifts, and I was very proud.
My favorite moment in Max’s concert was when the kids sang, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and two of the kids held up a placard with the big dipper on it. Very cute.
Hannah’s concert was on a different level – it was SO professional!
Well, she does go to an arts magnet school, but I was unprepared for how good the student world music ensemble would be (I thought it was recorded music at first) and I was blown away by a piece that was written for the choir by a Minnesota composer about the experience of the Hmong and the journey to their new
lives here. Really quite moving.
There is a very large Hmong community in Minnesota – in St. Paul in particular – and the open way different ethnic groups have contributed to the culture a fascinating aspect of this big-hearted community. There are a lot of Hmong kids at Hannah’s school – it’s a very diverse student population.
Another interesting aspect of this community is the knitting.
There were knitters at both concerts – here’s what the woman in front of me was working on. I was making a swatch, I felt like a piker.
Walking home Hannah said that she liked her school a lot. My heart was so light. In her opinion, the teachers seem to be “tougher”, but they aren’t as “mean.”
I translate this to mean the work is harder, but the kids are better behaved so the teachers don’t have to spend as much time being the fuzz.
We have no plans for this weekend, but we WILL try to make it to at least ONE park. It’s going to be a beautiful weekend – in the 60’s and 70’s (our kind of weather!) and we’re very happy!