Stash Bits & The Drive Home

We left the B & B at 4:13 in the morning. Since she flew, Caroline was home in the early afternoon, around one. I drove. With waits, weather, traffic, and ferries, by the time I arrived home at 4:53 in the afternoon, I was exhausted and crabby. That's not a good ending to a great vacation and I won't be doing that again. I've realized that...

... it's one thing to get up early when someone else is flying your plane and all you have to do is sit in your seat and it's a completely different thing when you're driving yourself. Next time, we can say goodbye the night before, whoever I am traveling with can catch a cab to the airport, and I'll sleep in, have breakfast, leave later, drive more alert, and arrive home happier. I'm getting too old for that early morning stuff - LOL - and that's good learning.




It was a day of misadventures. I just missed the 5:15 ferry and had to wait for the 7:45 one. It didn't really matter because I would have had to wait on one side or the other since I was going to Dress Sew and it wouldn't be open so early only there might have been more to do on the other side than sit in a parking lot.

There was the option of taking a 6:30 ferry to a different port. Now that I know where Dress Sew is, that would have been the better option and a more direct route than the convoluted, right through the center of the city, drive that I took. Next time, I'll know. Luckily, it was much quicker getting back onto the freeway and that was a good thing because it was starting to snow. Snow in Vancouver is not a good thing. I wanted to get as far out of the city as possible before traffic ground to a standstill.

There were two sections of road, each about forty-five minutes long, where the weather was quite bad. On one hill there were long haul trucks parked up both sides either putting on chains or stalled. One had - unfortunately - jack knifed.

A few idiots drove like the wind and - as per usual - I passed them later down the road as they lay in the ditch. My new car worked fabulously. The all wheel drive did exactly what we'd hoped and it drove along securely. It was snowing quite heavily by the time I got home and I woke up this morning to the sound of the snow plow. It was still snowing lightly. I'm glad to be home.

It seemed to take forever to find Dress Sew. Now that I know where it is, that won't be a problem next time. The four pictures in this posting show only PART of two aisles. It's the kind of place to visit when you're well rested and have just had lunch since it's stuffed to the rafters with things stacked everywhere. Digging and stamina are required. I was too tired for that and barely stayed forty minutes. I didn't bother walking around the corner to Button Button. I knew I was too tired for that too. I'd like to go back when I have fabric samples in hand and know which bits and pieces I might need. Maybe sometime in the summer.

This morning is laundry and fabric washing. Once it's folded, I'll need to find spaces for my new stash bits. That might mean clearing out some old stash bits. Things are a bit full in the closet. The new pile is stacked on my work island right now and it's fun to look over and see the colors. I'm glad I focused on less black.

I did a lot of thinking on the drive back. Part of that thinking was about how much fabric I have. Since I tend to buy pieces that are severely reduced, the total amount spent is not nearly as much as the size of the pile might indicate. Even so, there's a lot of fabric there. I'm going back to Nanaimo in the fall and to San Francisco next spring. If I want to buy more fabric, it would be a really good idea to start sewing some of this stuff down and to get rid of whatever doesn't work for me anymore. That awareness is a place of progress. I have a much better understanding of the types of fabrics I like to both sew with and wear and I'm buying less "what were you thinking" types of fabrics. Good.

I also thought about conversation. By the end of the workshop, I had started to feel like that person who is constantly adding their opinion to the conversation, the one who is annoying and intrusive. It may or may not have been true but I did wonder if perhaps my thoughts - although intended to add to the conversation - weren't necessary or even wanted. I wondered if they come across as trying to dominate the conversation or top that story with my own bigger better version. I know that I like to be the center of attention and to entertain people. That doesn't mean I always have to or should. This is an awareness that I'll take with me to the next workshop since I don't want to be annoying like that. I want people to enjoy spending time with me and to benefit positively from the experience. I want them to want to be with me.

I had more thoughts. It was a long drive. I'll tell you about them later and show you the Kwik Sew patterns I picked up tomorrow. They're quite fun.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - safe trip home