I'm mulling. You know how I get into that mode, the one in which I go round and round just...brooding. A little while ago, K went through an intense period of wanting to know what her singular talent is. "What am I really good at??" she kept asking me. I finally deduced that this newfound interest was because she'd been binge-watching My Little Pony and became fascinated with the idea of a cutie mark. "Mama," she told me, "your cutie mark would be a sewing machine and a paintbrush. And your ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness (+ An Unscheduled Sewing for Me Rendition)
Happy Friday! Old habits die hard, and I did sew something for myself this week, spurred by the need to create a sample for a class I'm teaching next month. I'm going to be frank -- initially I wasn't crazy about this dress once I sewed it up in this khaki linen-blend (I might have mentioned that I planned to create a slipcover with this fabric, so it's a touch on the heavier side and I have yards and yards and yards of the stuff). I thought, "Oh no! What I have I done? I chose an awful dress to ... Read more
Kind of Reeling Over Here…
Well...how shall I start this? I've been sitting on this unexpected turn of events for so long, it stopped feeling real a good while ago. Friends, I am publishing a book. There. I wrote it. It feels a tiny bit more real. I bet you think it's going to be a sewing book, but nope. Even better. I am going to be writing and illustrating my very own children's book!!!! When I was a kid, and had to go through the usual rigmarole of answering the question, "What do you want to be when you ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
Happy Friday! Above is documentation of K's first kiss, planted on her lips circa Halloween 2007. Frog boy is one of her best friends, and they still play together all the time. A couple of days ago, after getting her braces, K had a few thoughts on smooching: Mama, it's hard to pucker with my braces...I'm gonna have to cut back on kissing. +++ Mama, kissing in front of other people is so gross. Ewwww. When I get married, I'm going to have a giant curtain that drops down when it's ... Read more
International Women’s Club
I've been thinking of you, lovely readers of this little blog. As I assembled the post for the Secret Valentine Exchange yesterday, I was struck by a feeling of déjà vu. I dug around the roots of my memories, and realized that almost everything about this blog takes me back to a very particular time in my life: grad school. After teaching English in Japan for a couple of years in my mid-twenties, I knew that I would be a basket case trying to transition back into American society (ironically ... Read more