What Lies Beneath “A person always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” ~ J.P. Morgan* I was thinking the other day about the students who find me and the first conversation we have with each other, which is usually me asking them what…
The Art of Coping “It may be that art is simply what we call our most constructive coping mechanism for the incomprehension of life and mortality…” ~ Maria Popova The Marginalian is one of my favorite blogs, so I have no hesitation in recommending it. It’s beautifully written and always…
Cut It Out If I asked you what your least favorite part of sewing is, what would you say? I’ll wager a guess that it’s laying out and cutting. My students frequently tell me how much they dislike cutting or how bad they think they are at it, or how…
What is Presenteeism? I heard a strange word the other day. It was “presenteeism.” Having no idea what this word meant, I looked it up. It has a dictionary definition, but other descriptions I found of the word were much more enlightening. Simply put, presenteeism is being physically at work,…
I Am My Mother's Daughter I mentioned my mother briefly in a previous post, Adaptation. She’s not someone I speak of very often because she died very suddenly last November and it’s hard to talk about her without reliving the phone call following her accident. She died of a traumatic…
Adaptation I am compelled to write about adaptation because it’s something I find very challenging. I’m not terribly good at adapting and often have to be dragged kicking and screaming into any kind of change. Status quo is safe, even if it’s not always ideal. Minor changes are annoying. Unless…
Creativity Under Constraints In one of my recent posts, Conquer Analysis Paralysis, I explored the notion of having too many choices and not being able to make any kind of decision due to complete overwhelm. I briefly touched on a way to reduce that overwhelm by assigning constraints to a…
We all need a little inspiration sometimes, don’t we? Maybe something new and unique to wear–something that says, “THIS is me.” Or encouragement to learn something new when we’re feeling stuck. Can anybody say Covid? Or bored. Seriously, how many times can I scroll through TikTok? I can help! Come…
How Ice Dye Is Like Life If you’ve ever heard the expression “life imitates art,” then you’ll probably understand what I mean when I say sometimes the things we do as makers drive us more toward introspection and self-expression than we realize. Making can give us brain space and change…
Time Goes On “Time asks no questions. It just goes on without you.” ~ From the song "Ya Gotta Be" by Des’ree There are some things about time that continually challenge me--okay, frustrate me, if I'm honest--as a maker. First, how am I ever going to find the time to…
- 1
- 2