Friday, Friday 4.1720

This week was a pretty tough one on the motivation front, I felt a real slump in my mood and general feeling going into five weeks of quarantine. Various news sources (with varying reliability, I will admit) have predicted that here in NC we’ll hit our peak for the virus as early as two weeks from now, as late as mid-June, but either way, it is clear that this is not going to be a three or six week situation here. We are in this, and in it for the long haul.

Despite some panic and a decent amount of struggle, here’s what made this week good.

A friend is helping me to become a respectable plant mom and I can slowly see my aloe plant, long neglected, start to perk up.

I’m definitely going to finish my Wool & Honey sweater this weekend.

I looked through all of K & C’s wedding photos and there are some really fantastic ones in there.

We ate a crazy amount of 15 bean soup after Easter courtesy of trying to eat almost a whole ham by ourselves. It was awesome.

I am about eight years late to the washi tape craze but I am all in. Last night I got on Etsy and purchased this one, this one, and this one. So cute and can’t wait to bring some more creativity to my planner and some letters I’m writing during quarantine season.

I organized my desk drawers and it’s really nice to open them up looking for pencils or scissors now.

I went on a run/walk on Wednesday in the cool weather and it felt really good.

I finished The Nightingale. It was ok, some compelling story moments with some, in my opinion, clunky character development, but mostly I just felt happy about crossing that off my goal list to finish. I have heard that The Great Alone by the same author is really good so I may try her newest novel instead.

This weekend I’m looking forward to picking up pastries and a couple of weekly favorites from my favorite bake shop, sewing a few more masks (maybe), and going on a long walk with B while he plays disc golf, if the weather will hold. Happy Friday!

Looking forward to this week!

Attempting to get some long-neglected plant babies some sun

It’s Monday, and there are some things I’m choosing to focus on and be excited about as I’m feeling stressed. Here’s what I am really looking forward to this week:

• Finishing my first Wren Dress! After our at-home Easter festivities yesterday I found a few hours to watch The Office and crank out most of the construction of this dress. It looks great and the fabric is really soft. I made a few modifications to the pattern and am looking forward to sharing that.
• Sending off a very special gift to a family member!
• Starting the sleeves on my Wool & Honey sweater! Planning to finish the sleeves and do a first try-on before deciding how long to make the body and make sure I have enough yarn.
• The rainy start to this week. We were awoken at 5 AM by a monster wind/rain storm that lasted about 15 minutes but there’s more weather on the horizon and that always makes it feel better to stay inside and be cozy even though its getting hotter.
• Getting back on my “moving every day” challenge for myself with consistency.
• Sewing B a fabric mask and hoping that neither of us needs to use them. (AKA: not planning on going to any public places.)
• Eating more fruits and veggies. This quarantine is long enough that I’m coming to terms with leaving the house once a week for food and trying to keep lots of fresh things in our diet.

Also, just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has commented on here or my IG about blogging and loving it too! I am thinking about how to add more features and organize the blog a little better so it is easier to find content as this progresses and potentially add a “subscribe” feature to get these posts straight to you. For now, I am registered on Bloglovin’ (what I personally use for following blogs) and you can follow me there to see new posts as they arrive too.

Easter Sunday

I once heard a sermon from a pastor that used the analogy of a piece of embroidery to help us understand difficult times. On the backside of things, the piece of art being created looks incredibly messy, unplanned, jarring, all over the place, and unintentional. The colors are mixed up, there are random pieces off to the side and overlapping, and the string looks awful. However, if you flip it over, you can see how a design has been created from all of those seemingly haphazard stitches and the beauty of the finished work to be displayed. This image has been coming to me a lot over the past few weeks, and particularly this Easter Sunday as we walk through a very uncertain and messy season in the world. It brings me hope, and I hope it brings you hope too.

May we trust that the finished piece of art, this life, will be worth all of the confusion in the end. Happy Easter all, and to my friends who are celebrating, He is Risen!

K & C get married

Photo by the amazing Mel

Total personal post today, but I just love these two so incredibly much. It was such an honor to be a part of their wedding celebration yesterday, a private ceremony in a beautiful backyard on an even more beautiful day complete with face masks, tacos, and a car parade of friends who loved them so. I am so glad that they found each other, and that now they are man & wife. I love you so much K&C!

Friday, Friday 4.10.20

What a week!

I said my goals out loud and started a daily blog habit that I am loving.

I made a large batch of French onion soup and loved eating it all week.

I watched the pink shadows outside my frosted bathroom window become vibrantly pink with the giant azalea blooms outside.

I didn’t do a great job of getting up and moving my body, but I got a lot of work done.

I finished a big project for a tiny human.

I made two cakes, including a wedding cake.

We mulched our front yard and welcomed spring weather.

I cooked a delicious hash for breakfast.

I got ready to love on some dear friends who will host a private ceremony today for their wedding in lieu of the party they had planned.

I ripped out a few inches on my Wool & Honey sweater when I saw a mistake I knew I’d never be able to let go of, and felt good about it.

I hung out with my husband and cats a lot.

It feels as though we have been living in our home in self-quarantine forever, but really it’s only been about a month. It’s weird thinking of all of the things I used to take for granted as so normal that now I miss so much. Going to the library. Getting a coffee downtown. Eating at a restaurant. Popping into my local yarn store. Not wondering whether a business is going to be open this weekend that I randomly need to visit. Going for a swim at the Y. Not wearing a mask outside. I know we’re getting through this, and in some ways have settled into a routine, but in others it just continues to be hard and I want to acknowledge and be OK in that space too. Happy weekend friends. May it be full of health and goodness and love for you!

Moving ahead in a new world

Natural dyeing as meditation, and home-based crafting

The title of this post feels a little dramatic, but then again, so does the past two weeks. While I was still checking in on the Australian wildfires, it seemed, I began to hear and connect with the fact that some new virus was spreading like crazy abroad. Watching the images come out of Wuhan and Italy has been nothing short of shocking. And then, suddenly, our plans went from, “Hey, we should maybe think about this,” to, “We have to do something about this right now.”

I’m working from home, which is an incredible luxury. B is a resident physician and had to go into the hospital for the first part of this week. Each day I disinfected our living spaces and door handles in the morning after he left. My house is definitely cleaner than its been since we moved in two and a half years ago. Luckily, he’s been working (furiously) from home trying to make sure patients have everything they need outside of an imminent infection and it has been humbling to see the most organized and systematic processes at his work have to be completely re-made and adapted for telehealth and virtual meetings at the forefront of care.

I’m sure that many will resonate with the fact that one of the hardest things about this time for me is the uncertainty. No one knows when the worst of this will be over. In China, only half of the cases have resolved in over a month, although it looks like containment might actually be working. We have no idea what events we may or may not be able to have in April, May, and beyond, and if it gets better over the summer (as some predict), whether it will return in the fall. My dad is immunocompromised and every day I am nervous I will wake up to hear he had to be hospitalized, or worse. My sister-in-law and brother are expecting their first baby and all plans to shower them have been completely cancelled, and my best friend’s early April wedding as well. It feels impossible.

My faith is the anchor of my hope, and it is being surely tested. Crafting helps. Putting together new routines helps. Making small lists of specific things I can accomplish each day helps. Dreaming of new projects and looking forward to creating new things really helps. My library’s virtual resources help. Family group chats help. Watching a comforting TV show helps. Going on a nature walk helps. Stretching helps. Praying helps.

Hold on to what is helping you in this season. Give yourself and those around you grace as things ram to a halt. Call in the order for that yarn that you’ve been wanting or buy yourself a gift card to your local craft store and favorite restaurant to treat yourself when the social distancing ends and you can celebrate life in a way that you didn’t before. Take this chance to clean out and un-busy your life and see the good in that. Look at the generosity of strangers and small businesses offering free resources for those who are home-bound and know that we are all in this together and that we will get through it one day at a time. I am trying to do this, and it is helping. Little by little, we’re moving forward.

Picked these flowers for you <3