Biggest order ever!

Very sleepy. Overslept through morning yoga, worked through evening Bollywood dance. What a sedentary day. But I did get a lot done.

While writing my morning pages, I realized that I have so many creative outlets these days, and spend so much time creating, I need to be really diligent about filling the well. To that end, I made a list of fun Bay Area excursions and researched them as necessary (finding SF museums’ free-admission days, for instance). Compiling this list made me excited to get out more and do more things that I usually dismiss as taking up too much time. Some items on the list: catching the Luc Tuymans exhibit at SF MOMA (Kirsten enjoyed the Tuymans show she saw recently in Ohio), luxuriating in corsets and vintage-inspired accessories at Dark Garden, spending an afternoon at the Lacis Fabric & Textile Museum, sampling donuts at Pizzaiolo, and hunting down a Korean supermarket on Telegraph. I think it was actually Tuesday’s SF outing with Bright that made me see just how beneficial a day out can be — a real day out, not just a couple of hours — and more particularly a day that includes public transit and walking. Driving, it’s easy to get impatient and self-absorbed, but when taking public transit and walking through a city, one sees people as individuals, there’s more freedom to stop and explore, and everything just happens at a generally more leisurely pace. Of course, walking also necessitates comfortable shoes, cash, an ergonomic bag and plenty of water. But it’s good to get out and see the world in this more natural way and pace. I’m planning on my first such excursion next Tuesday. The weather is supposed to be clear, so maybe I’ll pay the Lacis Museum a visit.

I barely had time to finish one more Christmas gift before I got a series of emails and calls from Devin and his mom, resulting in Rochelle clearing out my shop of lavender eye pillows, and custom-ordering seven more! I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the pillows done today, but my sewing skills have improved a lot since the last time I made eye pillows, and I was able to finish these quickly. For a couple of the pillows, made from thinner fabrics, I tried a suggestion from Jinny: I made inner casings from tightly woven old bedsheets (I needed something with a high thread count). This made for some beautifully smooth, fat eye pillows. After I finished the custom order, I made the casings for nine more eye pillows. After I’ve bought some more rice, I can fill these, and then I want to try making outer cases that are removable, so users can wash them.

I’m so excited that people have been buying Christmas gifts from my shop. I love to think of my creations going out into the world and making strangers happy!

After dinner, I made myself a seam roll, something I’ve needed for a long while. At first I thought the roll was a tailor’s ham but it turns out that is something different. I am disappointed that my item is the one with the boring name, instead of the one called HAM. But oh well. It still sounds like food: California roll, cucumber roll, seam roll. I used another piece of the old bedsheet, and a piece of pink wool from the stash I got over the weekend. It sounds so sewing-geeky but I am so, so happy to have the seam roll. I’ve been using a rolled-up towel and it is just annoying.

Tomorrow’s my birthday! 😀