Crafting A Rainbow

Oh hai! I just fell off the map there, didn’t I? I’ve been hit with my old friend, chronic pain, again for the last few weeks, which means my hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders always hurt… and I just stopped blogging. Not sure if it’s the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome from last year (pinched nerves in my upper torso) or the arthritis they found in my recent MRI… whatever it is, grrr. I’m saving my “spoons” for work and sewing, and therefore blogging less.

So, to avoid doing more typing… here are the drafts of my Top 5 posts I had in progress when I started hurting again!

REFLECTIONS:

I think this was covered in my post, Sewing a Special Wardrobe in 2020!

NON-SEWING HIGHLIGHTS:

My life beyond sewing! It was a rough one, to be honest – work cutbacks, a twelve-month journey to recover from my concussion, accepting that depression and anxiety are factors in my current life, and feeling like a failure much of the time. And yet, thinking of it that way isn’t very useful, so here are the silver linings!

A once-in-a-lifetime trip to Spain with my extended family! My cousin got married to his girlfriend from Spain, and the whole family took it as an excuse to travel! It was amazing to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids all in the historic town of Cuenca! My parents were so generous to bring my sister and I along for the family reunion, and the wedding itself was joyful and fun. I will treasure those memories for decades!

Online friends in person: I attended the Hamilton Frocktails and the Toronto Fancy Sewcial! And I’m happy to say that KW Frocktails was just announced today for anyone within driving distance of the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario! I also saw lots of sewing friends in real life, and it was always a pleasure.

(There are more highlights, but that’s as far as I got in my drafts. First and foremost, my family and husband are always amazing!)

GOALS:

Personal: Don’t laugh, but I realised for the first time this year that exercise actually does improve my mood, like doctors always tell me it will! This fall I’ve been dancing along to the Fitness Marshall on Youtube several times a week and it really does keep my anxiety at bay. My goal is to continue that habit in 2020!

Sewcialists: Keep thinking about topics and voices that aren’t shared enough in the sewing community, and be a platform where we can all walk a mile in each others’ shoes. I don’t want to look back in ten years and wonder why I was so timid when the world had awful things happening.

Happy 2020, everyone!