Light Aluminum Ladder

Friday was fabulous. I left around 7:30 in the morning and was back home around 9:00 that night. It was long day but a good one. Beside having coffee - and lunch - and coffee - and dinner - together, my cousin and I went to several high end shops including a few consignment stores. We toured "the details". She even bought a few things.

I had warned her that I'm very good at spending other people's money and by the end of the day, it was true. All the bags in the trunk were hers. Too funny. When I see something I really like (or need or would definitely use) I will buy it but I'm not one for spec shopping. If I knew what kind of clothes I would need for work, I could have bought those. Oh well. That's a good excuse to go back later.

What I love about designer clothing is the little things - the tucks, pleats, buttons, trims, linings and so on. In mass production, these are the first to go but when you're sewing for yourself, they're completely possible. They just take a little longer and make a world of difference and - IMHO - make sewing more challenging and fun. Snoop shopping provides inspiration for my wardrobe and construction clues for easier sewing.




Saturday, I painted Howard's workshop. My friend asked "any color you want?" No. That would have been too easy. Instead, I painted it a color he would like - beige, as in Gentle Cream from Benjamin Moore. If you're a beige lover, it's pretty and certainly would add contrast to darker flooring, furniture, or art work. If I were to consider beige - well I guess I did because I bought it - this would be the one only I don't think it would last too long inside my house - LOL. It's a little too beige and I do so prefer lime.




The workshop has a sloped ceiling that is quite high up on the right against the house. We're going to build a mezzanine for storage only that has to wait until the city has approved the work so far. To get approval, the walls have to be painted. I've decided that I'm either too old or too wise at this age to be standing on top of a light, aluminum - and IMHO - tippy ladder. Howard and Aryck figured it out with a "lean against the wall" kind of ladder and I painted everything else but those upper corners.

This workshop has been an ENDLESS PROJECT. I can't believe we started in March and it will be the end of July before Howard sets up the cabinets, hangs the pegboard, builds the shelves, and actually moves in AND... that could still be before the siding is on around the outside. Hilda (our sider) says she'll fit our job in "soon" which means in-between other bigger ones. Even when the workshop is done, there are still the posts and brick at the front of the house to finish. I'm hoping for fall but I'm not holding my breath.

Maggie wrote - I finally accepted that I need more time to prepare - to figure out what it is I really want to do - to finish external commitments, to be finished with things. I am finding it so easy to let go of things I have had for years & know I will never get to - they have served their purpose and are on their way to other lives.

And so much of the preparation is emotional as opposed to physical. It's good to "be finished" with things and remove that pressure and it's fabulous to think about "what do I really want to do" and give it priority over the shoulds. There will always be a list of shoulds.

One of the ways I look at letting go of things is that I'm setting those supplies free to go to a home where they'll be used and appreciated as opposed to storing them in mine where they are clutter and unwanted. One is negative and stops the creative flow and the other is positive and encourages it.

When I'm debating something highly emotional, I feel so wishy washy as if I'm saying one thing and doing another - and then, when "it" finally clicks, everything feels so much better. I am amazed at how much lighter I have felt this past week. Each day, I'm more excited than the day before about NOT being in business. An invisible weight has lifted off my shoulders that I didn't even realize was there.

At some point down the road, I will not be surprised to hear myself say that I should have done this sooner. And ironically - as often happens - on the weekend I had a request to teach this fall. I turned it down - gladly - no guilt attached - no second thoughts. I know that by completely letting go, there is now room for something new to come into my life. I bet you're feeling the same way Maggie. You also said...

I have a small stack of things I want to cut up - a few months ago I couldn't contemplate hacking up something- but watching you so fearlessly reinvent and un-knit so many times made me realize it can be done and it can be fun! so it is all good.

YES YES - way to go. Send me some pictures. I'd love to see what you're working on. Isn't that complete change in thinking unbelievable. Now it wouldn't occur to me NOT to unravel or chop up or change something that isn't working but even a few years ago, I'd have had heart palpitations. Now, it's VERY VERY fun and it sure does extend the stash in my studio. There are endlessly endless possibilities.

Later this morning, Kyle and I are driving to Salmon Arm to have a last coffee with my aunt, my cousin, and her Dad. Aryck may be able to come along. I hope so. He's going to check with his boss and if he can I'll pick him up before ten and bring him back around two. I would have loved for Howard to come too but he has to work. Very few of my extended family has met my boys and even though Howard and I have been married 28 years, they haven't met him either and he's such a sweetie. I'd love to show them all off. SO...

... I'll drive one and a half hours, have a coffee, get a hug, and we'll be on our way - us back home and them all the way back east. They have a MUCH longer drive but even so, I'll drive about six times longer than we'll have coffee for and that's okay. My love language is quality time and seeing them, even for a little bit, is worth it - LOL - especially to show off my boys.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful: lazy days of summer