Well, Monday was a bad day in Columbus. My day began by waking up at 4:00 a.m. and crying because I was in so much pain I thought my eardrum was going to burst and there was nothing that I could do about it, but take some more Tylenol. Things had eased up by the time 8:00 rolled around so I decided to try to go to work for a few hours because I’d already missed a lot of work the previous week for doctors appointments (not the most brilliant decision I’ve made). I got a call from my doctor around noon (you know it’s never a good sign when you get a call directly from your doctor instead of the office staff or a nurse). She was calling to tell me that I have gestational diabetes, but the good news is after just hearing me on the phone she wrote me a prescription for antibiotics and told me to go pick it up and go home.
At least I wasn’t the only grouchy one in Columbus after the Buckeye’s huge loss at the National Championship. I think the whole city is in mourning.
Both of my bosses were out of town for the football game and I was still feeling sick on Tuesday so I only worked a half day and spent the rest of the day at home. It worked out well because it gave me a chance to get some rest and start a new project, a baby quilt for one of my best friends who is having her first baby. I’m attempting to make a faux chenille quilt with flannel, which is going to take me longer than I thought, but I’m trying to remember to take pictures so I can show you when I’m done and give you directions if you want them. Keep your fingers crossed that it will turn out well because I don’t exactly know what I am doing. Attempting projects like this always make me miss my mom a little bit more. She is a craft genious and she knows how to do everything (yes, I mean everything: quilting, painting, decorating, basket weaving, book binding, home repairs, embroidery, and to top it all off she’s an interior decorator). I often look at my projects and I’m sort of glad that she can’t see them because I look at the little flaws and just know that she would find a way to fix even the tiniest mistake, but I’m just too lazy for that.
I think I get a lot of my creativity from my mom; she’s always working on several projects and I love that I can ask her what she’s working on at the moment and she always has a list of fun things. Interestingly enough, I didn’t learn to sew from my mom, I took lessons from a neighbor because my mom said that she didn’t have the patience to teach me, but I think it was better that way because that meant that sewing with her wasn’t a task, it was always just for fun. She gave me my first sewing machine for my tenth birthday and another one when I was a senior in high school, which I have never gotten along with so she gave me her old sewing machine after I moved to Columbus. She owned a quilt shop so our house was overloaded with fabric and other craft supplies, but she was always willing to take me out to get my own supplies for the various projects that I came up with: felt for clothes for my troll dolls, fabric for clothes for American Girl Dolls, she even traipsed to a bunch of second-hand stores with me in Hawaii when I went through my year of wanting to be a fashion designer and decided to make a dress out of men’s ties and then she helped me figure out how to make it work (I wish I had a picture of that one for you and I’m actually sitting here wondering if it would fit me if I cut it down into a skirt because it might actually be kind of cool).
Candice, Marissa, and I all agree that there’s so much more that we should have tried to learn from our mom when we were living close to her. I have to call her asking her how to do things I would much rather learn in person like, how do I scald with milk for your butterflake rolls, and if I’m using safety pins to baste a quilt, how far apart should they be? And I often find myself thinking, “If my mom were here, we’d work on this together.” She’d help me choose paint colors for the nursery, she’s show me how to bind this quilt, she’d give me advice on choosing tile for the bathroom . . .
Now that I’m having a baby I find myself wondering if I’ll gather skills over the next 20 years that will encourage my own child to call me for a little help. I hope so. It looks like I have a lot to learn and to explore.
Is there anything that you wish you’d learned from your mom when you were at home?
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3 comments:
I sure wish I paid attention when she tried to teach me to sew!
Steph: Thanks for you nice compliments. I think you gave me much more credit in the talent category than I really have. I wish I were there to work with you, be with you, and learn from you. You have always been very creative. Your tie jumper is still in Eli's closet. It's not too late to take pictures of it or try and remake it. And, you were awesome at making dresses for your American Girl dolls. I proud that you are one of my three strong, independent, talented, loving, smart daughters.
oh my, I am extra sad about not taking advantage of learning from my mom because she offered and I TURNED HER DOWN when I was a teenager. She wanted to teach me how to sew and embroidery and I just couldn't think of why I would need those skills. I am trying to learn now, but I had so much free time then I am kicking myself. Right now I want to make pillows, 2 aprons, and a baby quilt, possibly bumpers. It took me 4 hours to make one apron. I have no one to blame but myself.
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