A Very Loose Woman

My friend and I spent six hours clothes shopping on Saturday. Since the clothes were for her, all I had to do was stand around and look helpful, give opinions, and carry bags. She - the poor girl -  had to actually try everything on. That's a lot of in and out and open and close BUT... she ended up with  a great selection of interchangeable garments that should go well with other things in her closet. Perfect.

We are similar in height and figure type - both bottom heavy with narrow shoulders and a defined waist - so you'd think that the same clothes might look good on both of us. It wasn't true. I tried on three of the sweaters she tried on... or... perhaps... it was more like I made her try on the three sweaters that I tried on. While we both liked them, they were definitely more me than her. As near as I can figure, the factor that made the difference was personality. It was quite interesting and made me consider how the figure type analysis would always needs to be combined with other factors for greater success.

Now that I'm sewing my clothes again, I've noticed that I'm getting more adventurous as well as more reluctant to buy anything ready to wear. I'm quite critical of fit and of price. There were lots of garments I looked at carefully and admired the details on but not too many that I was willing to pay that price for. I did buy one sweater which I thought was a pretty major accomplishment for a day of shopping - only one garment. It's either an accomplishment for my budget as in maintaining it or an accomplishment for my wardrobe as in actually finding something RTW to add to it - LOL.

On Friday, I mentioned that the squares for the baby afghan were going to be a quick knit - about one and a quarter hours each or four hours max. Hmm... well... NOT. Mine took about thirty hours. Apparently, I am a very loose woman. Using the recommended needle size, my squares were 7" and they were supposed to be 5 1/4". I spent an entire day fiddling with needle sizes. Dropping down from 4 mm to 3 mm, my square went from 7" to 6". I tried a whole lot of options and eventually called the woman in charge and said that I could get a 5 3/4" square with a 2.75 mm needle and that was as low as I could go because at that point, the yarn size was a factor. She said she could work with that. I started early Friday morning and finished the last block Saturday morning.

The Lori Jane bag has a definite purse shape. It's narrow at the top and wider at the bottom with an over the shoulder strap. The strap is the same denim as the front of the bag with a purple underside - the same purple used for the lining. There's a zipper along the top and two small pockets inside that will be perfect for her phone and keys. It's a comfortable size and shape for tucking under your arm.

I mentioned that Lori Jane likes bling. While it looks green, this button is silver with a crystal-ish pattern on it that works with the busy side of the bag. That's as close to the white and silver crystals she likes as I could get. The other hand...

... has a brown metallic button on it that looks slightly rusty. Even though the words are upside down, I decided not to detach them in order to maintain the symmetry of the bag side to side. It works. Anyone desperate to know what it says can ask.

I'm working on Susan's bag now. Susan is tall and slim with long blond hair and a slightly bohemian approach to life. I refer to her as organic in the nicest of ways. When she lived here, she grew a garden, went to the farmer's market, and canned and preserved food for the winter. They hunted for meat and raised some livestock so their family was mostly self sufficient. Now that she's moved to a smaller town, we've lost touch but I know they bought some property on the river so I can't imagine that her approach has changed drastically. I'm pretty sure the bag I have in mind is going to work well for her.

Yesterday's sermon was on the land between. The title referred to the space between Egypt and Canaan, the desert through which Moses led the Israelites away from slavery and into the promised land. The desert where they spent FOREVER. The title also referred to those times in our lives when we don't have a clue what God is doing and this burden just seems to vague and too big and too unknown and too much for us to handle. The pastor talked about the desert being fertile ground for several things - complaining, emotional meltdown, God's provision, and God's discipline - and about the importance of living in TRUST. It was a video sermon and I wish I could show it to you because whether or not you have a faith, it makes you think about life and how we approach it. I am SUCH...

... a control freak. I like to know what's going on and have all my ducks in a row and move to a plan. Life's just not like that. Life takes surprise curves and turns and yanks the road out from under us when we least expect it. There's an ING Direct commercial that goes something along the lines of if you're tired of paying bank fees, then stop paying bank fees. I am tired of being in the land between. As one woman at church put it, I'm there a lot. I want to chose to trust that God has a plan and that - as he has promised - it is for my good and not my harm - and I want to walk in that direction even though I have no idea what that direction is. I want to make the choices I can make. SO...

... based on the current economic times, the lack of viewers to our home, and the data that says that NO houses have sold in our price range in our area of town for the last 3 1/2 months, I am going to assume that our house is not going to sell and stop thinking about that even though I have an entire argument about why moving is such a good idea and why I think God should think so too and answer my particular prayer. He has some plan that may or may not include moving and eventually it'll work out and I'll see why this or that was better. It's happened in the past. So... for now... we'll leave the listing up until the end of November and if selling happens, it happens AND...

... because I have time now and the lack of paperwork to say that I know what I know, I've decided to make an appointment with the Academy of Learning and register to take first a Word 2010 and then a Excel 2010 course. This will give me another focus on my way to employment that can only benefit me, especially in achieving a position at the university. I'll stop waiting for the phone to ring and do something while waiting including trust that God will figure out how I'm supposed to pay for this - VBG. Speaking of money...

... I'm intrigued by how little spending I've done while working on the handbag project. I'm not reading nearly as much so I've downloaded very few books. I'm using only supplies that I have on hand, so I haven't even gone to Fabricland in weeks. Since my friends mostly all work full time, I'm not going out for lunch and as I noted Friday, the cost of breakfast has gotten ridiculous so if I do go out in the future, it'll be for coffee which doesn't cost $16.00. I did buy the bracelet blanks but I know that when they arrive, they're going to keep me quite busy like this project and be another way to use up studio supplies. Looking at my spending to amusement ratio, it lets me know that a stashed up studio will be a good way to approach retirement and that staying busy is a great way to stay within my budget which means that as long as I have a reasonable budget and the ability to sew, I should be able to be financially well behaved in retirement. Good to know.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - Kamloops is not on a major fault line and the ability to give