The end of a matter is better than its beginning...

and patience is better than pride. (NIV)

So true.  I love the sense of accomplishment taking something and shaping it and giving it a purpose.  BUT I love the beginning too!  The beginning is full of hopes, dreams, and ideals.  The brainstorming process is exciting.  The fabric shopping is the BEST! Today I am looking through some new fabrics that I have recently purchased and I am dreaming of all the possibilities.  I know for sure that I am making some bibs and burp cloths, but I'm still working out the details and wondering how else to use my new fabrics.  Any suggestions?

My First Creations

When we attended our childbirth class there were several vendors and resources geared toward new mothers and babies there as well.  One of them was selling taggie blankets.  My husband elbowed me and said, "You could totally make that."  I thought, I could make that.  It had been years since I had sewn, but it seemed like a simple idea.  So I made some.  And I had a great time.  The blanket in the picture is the last one I have of the ones that I made.  Unfortunately, it sustained some damage in our basement from some minor flooding during a wicked storm this summer during which we got like 7 inches of rain in an hour.  Thankfully I had long ago given away all the other ones that I made.  They were all the same concept as this, square, with ribbons sewn in, but were made of different fabrics.  


Sure, I could have saved myself some trouble by just buying blankets like this for friends and for my own baby, but I LOVED making them.  Being able to pick the fabric, ribbons, thread, putting it all together exactly as I want makes the time and effort to sew them completely worth it.  Are they perfect? No.  I have grown in my skill since then, and I have much more room to continue to grow.  I think you have to buy something in a store that was made by machines in order to find perfection.  But I think that there's a beauty in the imperfections of a handmade object and even more so in the process of creating said object.

All aboard!

Welcome to my blog!  Welcome to the outpouring, the overflow of my ponderings.  I am so excited about the road ahead but this is new to me, and I am sure that it will take me a while to get my feet under me.  Blogging is new.  Brand new.  I have read blogs, however writing them has never seemed like the thing for me.  Mostly because it seemed like I lived far too mundane a life for anyone to want to read about me.  But now here I am.  The past few years of my life have been full of change.  I have moved half way across the country, changed jobs, gotten married, and had a baby all within the past 3 years.  All this change has left me in a place of constantly wondering who I am and what I should do with my life.  But it has also left me in a place of wonderful opportunity to figure out those things and to live the life that I want to live.  Its scary to step out into the unknown and pursue new and lofty goals and to change but it is also exhilarating and empowering.  

And so now I begin to share some of my musings on all of this with your.  A few months ago I really wanted to sew and so I borrowed a sewing machine from my mom.  I'm not exactly sure where this desire came from, but it was strong.  When I was younger I actually won a blue ribbon for some 4-H sewing project I did but I wasn't exactly the most skilled seamstress.  But somehow sewing just seemed to excite me at the time I borrowed the machine.  The machine is quite a bit old and nothing fancy, but free and therefore I was able to try some sewing out at very little risk.  I was pregnant and not working at the time, and I honestly just felt the need to create.  Sewing gave me that outlet.  

I think that each one of us is created with some form of that desire within us.  Some are drawn to cooking, some writing, some painting, some building.  I think that we all enjoy creating something in some way, shape or form.  Sadly, I think that most of the time the responsibilities of day to day life and burdens bear down on us so much that we're just to busy to pursue creative enjoyments.  I hope that you are able to pursue your creative enjoyments, even if you just get the opportunity to dabble in the every once in a while.