butterflies

I had butterflies in my tummy before I went back to work. How fitting then, that on my first day I wore a blouse that I made myself from this butterfly print fabric. This butterfly print fabric that comes from a French Connection blouse that I picked up at Buffalo Exchange in the U District completely on a whim because I loved the fabric and thought that I could make something out of it.

Unfortunately, with a couple of muck-ups along the way, I wasn't able to make something out of it alone because I ran out of fabric and then had to stalk ebay to buy another dress and another blouse and a skirt too actually because the previous owner washed the dress with something nigh corrosive and the fabric was bleached out and ... suffice to say, there were no savings made here, fabric-wise.

But the fabric is gorgeous. You can ever so faintly see the self-stripe, it's 100 per cent cotton, great weight and drape, adorable print and no, doesn't suit me at all. I've mostly always worn single colour tops and blouses and t-shirts and there's a reason - I'm just not a printed blouse wearing sort. I did wear it to work, the first day, but only out of pure obstinacy because, yes, I'm like that.

ps: And those pre-first-day-back-at-workbutterflies? It took ten days and a dose of antibiotics to get rid of them. Ugh.

everybody wants to work

"oh no, not me"

Oh, I was going to set out a 2013 agenda and maybe review last year's output a bit more and planned to catalogue absolutely everything that I have on the go and every single idea that I have bouncing around in my head but it all seemed like too much work and I kept putting it off. And then I went back to work; paid work, office work, commute-to-the-city-by-train work, swipe-my-security-pass work. After five years of variously leave without pay, long service leave, maternity leave and extended family leave (yes, we have all those things in Australia). And this will be my new baby.

And on the first day I wore a blouse that I sewed myself, a blouse that fit me just right across the bust (that was about all that was just right about it - I forgot to sew the gap up above the zip, the sleeves were badly finished, it wasn't quite long enough, didn't suit me and I didn't like it at all anymore by the time I finished it but, by golly, I wore it, because 14 months ago when we decided to return to Australia and I knew that I would go back to work, I resolved to wear a blouse that I had sewed on my first day back. And I did. The fact that I put the zip in the night before is just some indication of my ambivalence about the whole process. More on that all another time.)

Anyway, work, two days a week. Just like last time.

2012(.16666666666666667ish)

Finally, the end of 2012. Although, looking back I see that I was even later in 2012 with the 2011 wrap-up than I am now with the 2012 wrap-up - oh, whatever.

Here's what I was aiming for:

- read at least one book each month
- craft mostly from stash (I aspire to 'only from stash' but then, I'm also realistic)
- finish things

Here's what I did:

27 - number of books read (and at least one every month)
24 - number of finished projects (17 knitted, 3 crocheted, 4 sewn)
13 - number of finished projects crafted from stash or thrifted materials (a pleasant surprise, that's more than half!)
2 - number of long-term projects completed, Baudelaire socks and Babette blanket (respectively, 3.5 years and, oh, only one and a bit)
2 - number of times I completed Cladonia
12 - number of items made for others or given away

1 - number of heart-rending, mind-bending international moves made. I haven't really written much about this, about the dislocation, the discombobulation. Maybe it's that I'm still processing it, or processing it in small, incremental ways that don't warrant a mention in themselves but all add up to a greater picture of where we are now and where we have been. Four-and-a-half months and already the whole experience of living in the US, the four-and-a-half years of it, seems like a dream. Making that photo-mosaic, looking at those photos taken on my kitchen windowsill - sob.

I'm a bit disappointed with my output last year, but hey, those last four months were a write-off and I'm only now getting all of my sewing stuff unpacked. I think I'm ready to buy a sewing machine which is very exciting. So, yeah:

3 - number of machines left behind in the US: sewing machine, overlocker and cover-stitch machine - sob.