Sew It Together 2012

Last year I had the honour and a whole bucketload of fun being part of a weekend called Sew It Together 2011. It's a chance for crafty, bloggy types like myself to get together and have a great time shopping, travelling, crafting and generally being ourselves. 

This year Sew It Together (SIT) is being held in Canberra in June. I can't wait!! I've already booked my plane tickets and have decided to shack up with some gals at the YMCA there. Should be a hoot!

I like to be involved in things beyond just participating and letting other people run the show, so last year I took fabric along to sell and donated to the prize pool. Hopefully Sheridan will think that's a great idea for me to do it again this year.

In addition to that, I've popped my hand up to help organise the name badge swap. We each get another attendee's name and create a name badge for us to wear at SIT. This years colour combo is blue, white and red. It's a secret as to who makes your badge and it's so much fun seeing all the name badges coming together.

So, to those of you who are attending this year's Sew It Together, keep an eye out for updates and get some gorgeous ideas brewing in your creative heads!

Some of the attendees from last year's SIT. Just quietly there are a couple of us there that will look quite different this year!

Bowdacious!

Making school colour hair bows for the weekend's Jumble Sale. 

Hopefully I'll get known as the hair bow lady!!

More on the Process or How do you follow up a big heavy blog post?

Soooo, the though processes are still going. If anything, I can almost feel the cogs whirring and little gears ticking into place. Very little ones but, just like a clock, there are lots of little parts to me and they all work together to achieve one thing. In me, that's being happy.

It's been hard to work out how to keep blogging after writing such an emotion laden post but I was so truly bolstered by the genuine, heartfelt comments left and emails received that I thought I should have a go.

I've joined up for Michelle Bridge's 12WBT (12 Week Body Transformation). I have numerous real life friends who have completed one, if not more, rounds of this program and they all express such enthusiasm and support that it's hard not to be infected with their positivity.

So that's what I've done. I'm infected. Apparently with that crazy exercise bug. It really doesn't suit me right now but when I fully acknowledge that I weigh 111kg, I'm sure it will grow on me (pardon the pun).

And a comment I made this morning really reflected how my thinking is slowly, ever minutely, changing. I was down the beach at 7am this morning with my melon head dog Banjo, my good friend Kelly and her big boofa Pyrenean, Beau. We were discussing fitness and how I was going with the preseason tasks for 12WBT. I said, "But now I'm going to have to stop thinking of myself as the depressed girl.". SO telling. Yep. I have been depressed for so long and down and sad and miserable that it's habit. It's how I see myself.

Not for much longer. Yep. Not much at all.

Random lotus photo taken in Bali last year. Because really, what photo goes with the blathering above?

Wow

Thank you for your messages of support and encouragement all. I do truly appreciate it.

Life has given me a couple of slaps upside the head in the last day or so with a couple of dear friends going through some really bad personal experiences. This is how it goes. I am so down and so low then life reminds me I need to pick myself up and help other people. That's my job. It's what I do. I love doing it.

So onwards and upwards. Yesterday, having a quiet day at home with my daughter after a couple of full on days with friends, my daughter lauded the 'I hate you Mummy' phrase three times. First time, I let it slide right off. Second time, I gave her the 'Don't talk to your Mother like that' line. Third time, I weilded the full extent of the law and banned TV all day today.

It's going to be a long day. I think I'll hide in my studio and sew.

Aiming to finish off this little number today.

It's Not Me

I hurt inside.
I hurt a lot and I dislike myself immensely sometimes.
Other times I think I am absolutely fabulous and feel about 40% motivated. That's the high times.

I have just read on the interwebs that the medication I take, sertraline, to treat my PMDD (PreMenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) causes apathy and loss of motivation.

I have spent the last four or so months hating on myself, thinking I was the reason for losing my sewing mojo. Thinking I was slack and a lazy person for not getting stuck into my craft and business every day. For not wanting to bother about keeping the house clean. For losing motivation on things I'd start when I was feeling good.

I am experiencing a side effect from my medication which is treating my anger and anxiety and it's causing a different type of anger at myself and stress about my apathy.

I sit here with tears in my eyes and a sad soul as I feel that I have been hating myself unnecessarily. I'm not the cause of my apathy. I'm not the bad person for being lazy and tired and unmotivated.

I've been trying to fix myself and that treatment has been kicking me in the ass behind my back.

I've had enough.

It's time to change this.

I'm pressing publish before I hate myself enough to delete this.

Causing a scene

Sometimes when you are bored at home and have nothing else to do on a 38 degree day, you might consider doing this... 

A major water mains pipe had broken in our neighbourhood. I saw the SES volunteers working out in the heat and thought it might be nice to hand them some icypoles to cool down considering they had been on site since 2am that morning.


One slip in some silty mud and there I was causing further chaos. Long story short, the icypoles were handed out, I got a ride in an ambulance and now have a great story to tell the grandkids. So that's me up there in the photo, under the blanket which was protecting me from the sun. 


A big thanks to the Enfield, SA, division of the State Emergency Service for the professional and friendly way they looked after me.

I like frocks (or why I haven't posted in a while)

I was in an earthquake in Bali in October this year.

Of course it happened when it was my day on holiday to relax by myself whilst Mr Silly Gilly took the young one off on a day of adventure at a Safari Park. I don't do zoos or animal sanctuarys. When I do visit them, I just want to let all the animals out of their enclosures, hug them and tell them to run for their lives. But that's another post.

So there I was, having just finished watching a movie, trying to decide whether to have a massage or go for a swim. Big decision time. I was standing in the doorway of our room when the ground surged like a gentle wave. Up, then down. Nothing else but gee willakers, I knew that it had been an earthquake. I was mildly impressed that I had lived through an earthquake. Wait till I told my friends back home! Then 30 seconds later, all hell broke loose and the ground, buildings, trees, everything shook like a kid shaking a snow globe. It was the most frightening moment of my life, and like a mature adult I ran screaming into the most clear area I could find.

For the rest of the day I had the fortune of experiencing numerous aftershocks. I was terrified and didn't go back inside for hours. Mr Silly Gilly and the young one came back late in the day, safe and sound, luckily having experienced a much less drastic version of the quake. That night I could barely sleep and was constantly ready to bolt for my life.

But the quake did something. It shook me up. (Had to include that pun there.)

It made me absolutely terrified for my life. Then a few days later it made me focus on my life. It was a life changing moment. Albeit a moment of terror.

For so many, many years now I've always gabbled on about how I wished I'd lived when women got to wear big skirts, gloves, fancy dresses and hats every day. And the quake made me realise that I could focus on the 50's right now. I didn't have to dream or wish or wallow in the fact that I had been born in the 70's.

So that's where I've been. Building up my conviction to start living, wearing, working on 1950's vintage every day. Well, nearly every day. My wardrobe is somewhat limited right now but I'm working on correcting that.

So I'm back blogging, having been inspired by two fantastic writers, dooce and edenland, that I've always admired. I love their honesty and their wit. Oh and the earthquake.It's given me the proverbial kick up the derriere that I needed.

Back soon!