I find it so interesting, considering the list I had going about a year and a half ago. It had more knitting (a sweater and blanket for baby Jasper), sewing (a corduroy quilt for Josie, plaid quilt for Jasper, a modern quilt for the master bedroom, sewing clothes for Josie...), learning to play the guitar, writing...
Around the beginning of 2007 my priorities were coalescing. My background is in Developmental Psychology, I'm a good writer (my own opinion, thanks), and I'm driven to share what I know (almost to a fault). I was so happy being at home with my children (then 4 and 1), but I really felt like I needed something that was my own, something that I was working for that would bring in a little personal income and make me feel like I was part of something...part of the bigger world. I felt like freelance writing would work with all of my goals and was something I could build on as years progressed. I got things together, organized my ideas, my space, got all of my resources together, and by about March I was sending out queries to local magazines and beginning to write articles and build a portfolio. The following month (surprise!) I found out (on a Sunday afternoon while cooking dinner) that I was pregnant. Two days later I learned that not only was I pregnant, I was 13 weeks pregnant--second trimester pregnant--and it all sort of collapsed (we planned to have another, but we were planning to wait another year, thank you very much). The depression I dealt with when Jasper was a baby (and denied, I think, when Josie was tiny) came back as the summer went on, and I saw these plans I'd made collapse and my sense of being confined within my 'mother' role really closed in around me. I was too tired to think, too tired to write, incapable of enjoying the time that I was spending with my sweet children. The depression lifted some toward the end of my pregnancy, but I was so focused on figuring out how in the heck I was going to manage a life with three children that my own interests (writing, learning to play folk music on the guitar, sewing...) fell by the wayside.
A year later our littlest one has been nothing but a blessing to our family, a joy to each of us, but I'm sort of catching up on everything that I've wanted to do. Working on sharing my interests and connecting with a creative community through my blog has helped so much (no matter how many--or few--are actually sharing it with me :), and the inspiration has brought this sense of self back into my life.
Anyway. My list.
- I've been hunting glass bowls and plates at the thrift shop to build a garden cloche like I spotted on Bella Dia. I think it will be perfect to keep safe a very sweet little speckled egg we found abandoned in our garden. I'm picturing something a bit more lush,
though--mossy and green, a tiny nest...
- A modern quilt for Daddio's and my bed. I'm thinking something a little Denyse Schmidt, a bit of Modern Quilt Workshop, some Gee's Bend...with a little midcentury bent.
Make some of Bakerella's Cupcake Pops. Oooh, these are gorgeous. I spotted them a couple of weeks ago and haven't been able to get them off my mind. They just intimidate me--it may be a Josie/Mommy project without Jasper's little fingers eating all my sprinkles : ) - A quilt for Adelaide using up some of my Moda charm packs. I spotted a quilt at House on Hill Road a few weeks ago that made me think that I could do more with all of the 5" squares I have than just, uh, sew squares together.
- Learn to take better pictures. I know that some of it is my general propensity to take indoor photos, but I'm having a rough time with the lighting. I'm hoping to get an external flash for my birthday (Sunday!), so that might help, but really, I just need to figure out what the heck I'm doing. Anyone have any ideas for me? I could really use a good photography blog...
- Make Josie, Jasper, and I journals to fill with pictures (or scribbles) of, treasures from, and notes about our summer, the garden, our trips out, etc.
