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Friday 26 October 2018

Quiet Creativity

There are so many titles I could attach to this post and in the end it would all boil down to talking about quiet creativity. For the past several years, I have been journal writing – praying on paper – about holistic health, about finding balance, and about being aware of both closing and opening doors and of my path to follow.
Lately, a lot of doors have closed - doors around expressing my creativity in louder, more public, even professional ways. I think at first that was hard for me to see, or accept, because of the role creativity has played in my adult and career life. Perhaps that’s the reason that I’ve been having so many technical issues lately. God wanted me know, for sure, that this door is closing.

In 2020, it is my 40th high school reunion and since I’ve gone to all the others, I assume I’ll be going to this one too. In 2021, it is my 40th wedding anniversary and – LOL – I’ve attended all of those as well and imagine we’ll be doing something special together. In 2022, it is my 60th birthday. I believe in celebrating each and every year and the milestone ones even more. Right now, my plan is to spend several months on the east coast of Canada. These are highly motivating events.

Several years ago, when I was doing one-on-one coaching with Diane, one assignment was to make a collage of the woman I was becoming. It started with the words so this is what sixty looks like and was created to encompass the years between ages fifty and seventy. The collage is on the wall beside my sewing machine and I’ve been looking at it a lot and thinking about am I actually becoming that woman, where do I need to adjust, and where do I need to continue moving forward.

While I can’t remember the year, I can remember where I was living when I started my first blog. After some major shifts in life, I closed that one and moved to a new blog and then I deleted all the posts after 800 and then again after another 800 posts which means that I’ve been blogging for more than seventeen years and 1,600 posts. And, it’s time to take a break…

… maybe even a permanent one. I can’t answer that question right now because I don’t actually know. I like to write and the thought of posting the odd essay has crossed my mind and I intend to still post about my studio and some finished projects but that’s not a promise I can make because I honestly don’t know how time will unfold. What I do know is that I want to focus on physical fitness in a more concentrated way and on changing food and financial habits and I want to experiment with broadening my interests and see where that leads me.

Part of getting physically fit will be to lose fifty pounds over the eighty-three weeks between now and the 1st of June 2020. I picked that date so I'd have two months to put together a wardrobe and a reunion outfit that I love. The 40th anniversary in 2021 and my 60th birthday in 2022 give me reasons to maintain the weight loss and I doubt I'll ever have three in row like that again. It's something to take advantage of to get where I want to get.

Although I'm going quiet, I'm certainly not quitting. My studio is set up for copper jewelry and knitting and sewing. Right now, I’m working on a coat and thinking about clothes that I can shrink in like longer, sleeveless, tunics over a t-shirt with tights. This week, I took apart a slipcover for an Ikea Ektorp chair to make a pattern so I can change my décor without changing my furniture. AND…

… I’m sewing some t-shirts for my daughter. Sewing for her is something I haven’t done since she was a little girl and right now, I both have time to sew and she needs a wardrobe boost and would appreciate help. It'll be fun and she’ll end up with a collection of patterns that fit for when and if she ever decides to sew.

Every platform has different extensions which can be rather frustrating although it makes sense in order to distinguish them one from another. Right now, my website is on Wix at www.myrnagiesbrecht.com. If I do post some essays, it’ll be at the blog associated that platform with the extension www.myrnagiesbrecht.com/blog, I am going to post this there as well and - hopefully - ways to follow although I did try to get the Bloglovin link and it wouldn't work. Go figure. I'll do my best.

Update - apparently Wix doesn't have a feed on its blog option - and I only barely know what that might mean but - so it can't be connected through Bloglovin. That means if I do post essays and updates at some point, they will be at either blog.myrnagiesbrecht.com or at myrnagiesbrecht.blogspot.com both of which you can sign up for in Bloglovin. My preference is the first one and I am trying to work out those technical issues. You can always find me at my website - myrnagiesbrecht.com

THANK YOU so much for following my blog(s) over the years, for the creative conversation, and for your support and encouragement. I am grateful.
- Myrna

Sunday 14 October 2018

Blogger Address Issues

When I moved back to this space, I accidentally changed the address to myrnagiesbrecht.blogspot.com which caused an issue with Bloglovin and those followers. Over a month ago, I sent an email to their tech support and have not received a reply so now I am trying a different way that will hopefully change the address of the blog back to blog.myrnagiesbrecht.com.

For most people, this will be great because blog.myrnagiesbrecht.com is the address they have linked. For a few, it won't be great but hopefully you get this heads-up before something happens and if you are a follower of myrnagiesbrecht.blogspot.com on Bloglovin, you can go there and type in the other address and become a follower of both versions of the name to make sure you get the latest posting.

I'm hoping to make the changes at the end of this week and next week to start getting back to regular posts which I've been avoiding while trying to figure out the address. It's very frustrating waiting for others to help so hopefully this new idea will work. We'll see. 

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - my domain registrar is usually extremely helpful so I'm hopeful this will be resolved this week

Wednesday 3 October 2018

Luxury Entertainment

It's officially fall which for me means sifting and sorting my spaces and evaluating what I have and what I want or don't want, what I do and what I want might want to do instead. Since the last post, I've been thinking more about holistic health and balance and in particular about physical health. A few years ago, I read a book about developing habits that said to eliminate a bad habit, or to develop a good one, work on one thing at a time, one per month. This month, I am concentrating on walking every day. This is a luxury.

When I moved here, I wasn't too worried about having a new wardrobe since I was new to the community and the environment was similar enough to wear my - then - relatively current wardrobe although I'd already worn it for a year or so. Only it's been three years now and my old wardrobe is feeling quite old indeed, especially as I have a minimal wardrobe to begin with.

Cleaning my closet, some things were moved along simply because I'm so tired of them that I don't want to wear them anymore however, if the garment was still in good condition, it went to the thrift store. If it wasn't, it became rags. And if I still liked the fabric, it was cut into pieces and put into stash for a re-make some time in the future. Having clothing options is a luxury.




I just finished reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food and have started on Cooked. Both talk about food from different perspectives and since food is a huge part of physical health, I'm interested to see how that may relate to my goal. The changes to food and how it's grown, marketed, and cooked in just my life time is amazing and not all good. Cooking is now seen as optional because food can be acquired in much quicker and less expensive ways other than making it yourself only those ways are not necessarily in our best interest socially, emotionally, or physically. What it means though is that cooking - like having clothing options - is a luxury.

And yet... I live in a community where I am younger than the average age and that gives me numerous opportunities to see what aging looks like and how two people of the same physical age can function in vastly different ways. I can see that holistic health including good food and regular exercise are a huge part of a positive outcome which leads me to question are they - cooking and exercise - really a luxury? One book I read recently put it this way - you can pay more now to look after yourself or more later in medications and health issues.

The number one excuse given for not cooking is lack of time. What does it say about us as a society when we don't have enough time to feed ourselves or our families the nourishment we need to function well - when our cars get better "gas" than we do. It's a question I'm asking myself because - even though I am a good cook - cooking has certainly never been a major priority for me. Perhaps it's something I want to learn to do better.




Sewing is another form of luxury entertainment. While it's still possible to sew some clothes less expensive than you could buy them - think advanced fashion - generally speaking it's cheaper to buy ready to wear. Only I tried that this weekend and I came home package-less and concerned that I remain in good health so I can continue to sew fun clothes that fit and flatter for the whole of my life. Besides the fact that nothing fit like I wanted it too, it was a sea of sameness, no individuality, no authenticity, so boring. Every time I attempt to shop, I am glad I sew.





I'm working on a version of - out of print - Butterick 6138. The last time I sewed this blouse - which is called an unlined vest on the pattern back, only I added sleeves, and called it a blouse, so it's a blouse - was almost three years ago in December 2015. At that time, my goal was to add design elements like trims and inserts. This time, it's to focus on the seams and top stitching and to create a monochromatic piece.



The fabric I used last time was a mystery blend, with fabulous drape, that kept shrinking every time I washed it... on cold... and hung to dry. This time, I'm using a quality cotton shirting, also in grey, that I've already washed several times just in case.




One of the things I love about this pattern is also one of the things that most people hate about it. It's cut out in a single layer, each piece individually. For me, that's the mark of a garment that will be fun and interesting to sew with lots of options for combining fabrics and adding details. It doesn't matter to me that the pattern is out of print. This too, is a luxury - to make what I want to make even if "nobody" else is doing it. YES YES!

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - luxury entertainment, holistic health choices