Back to the Middle

*Blog title inspiration*


I recently spent three relaxing and stress free days in a small community called Mt. Calm in north Louisiana at an unoccupied, fully functioning and furnished house owned and upkept by my dad. Just me. No computer and only 3 channels on the t.v. When I was younger, visiting my paternal family in this rural, secluded place frightened me. It was so quiet and dark and shadowy (at night) and wooded and just...out in the middle of nowhere. Now it's this type of environment that I crave when I need a break from all the realities of "grown up life." *Cues Martin Luther's "Growing Pains"*

And this time it was good. Really good. Doing absolutely nothing. Although I did visit my grandparents (a short stroll across the street) and had much needed conversation with my grandmother about life and family. In true grandmother fashion, she accosted me on several occasions with home cooked meals, non of which consisted of foods that I actually eat. She didn't know, so it wasn't her fault. She still doesn't know. Rather than admitting that I no longer eat most of the foods I grew up on and being subjected to that look and lecture that never fails to follow whenever the issue of my diet comes up around family, I just politely rejected any of the meals and got by on fruit and walnuts for 3 days. Nevermind the bit of my mom's peach cobbler that I tore into on Saturday night. My fatigued state on Sunday was the consequence of all the sugar and crust made with lard. :-/

Oh! Of course I can't forget to mention the bag of fabric, zippers, and other sewing supplies my grandmother handed over to me from somewhere deep in one of the bedroom closets. She used to sew and had forgotten about all this goodness that was left over from those days. You know I'm ecstatic anytime free fabric and notions enter into the picture. :-D

So today I'm back on the grind. Right now I'm in the process of making a pant suit for somebody to wear to a church revival this Saturday. The person came to me on short notice asking if I could have it done by December 6th, and unfortunately for me I said "yeah." And it's really only unfortunate because I didn't go to the store with her when she went to pick out a pattern for the jacket. As a result of not really having a sense of required time and effort, she chose one of the most involved patterns they had. See, when people don't sew or have an understanding of how garments are put together, they're likely to do this type of thing. It looks pretty, and they want it. Forget that they want in in less than 7 days and that there are a million pieces involved and all sorts of intricacies that have to be taken care of and that I've got all sorts of other things to do. I'm the one who agreed to do it, so how can I complain? Given my tendency towards simplicity, this is a bit more involved than I'd normally get, but it's good to have these sorts of projects from time to time. It's a reminder that I actually could produce more detailed pieces if it came down to it. So I'm giving myself until Thursday morning to get this done. We'll see what happens. One thing's for sure, though. Somewhere between make this outfit and working on other sewing projects and writing a 12 page paper for a folklore class and studying for a grammar exam, I've gotta catch up on my blog reading...the most important thing of all! :-)


peace