Happy Monday, friends. I hope your weekend was great. It was another Friday/Saturday without R-kids for me and this weekend I had the urge to do a little more junk hunting (shocking, I know).
But I was really only looking for one thing: inspiration. Should have been noooo problem. Usually when I’m walking around my secret junk haunts, I’m saying ad naseum: “Why didn’t I think of that? I could totally make that! Oh my gosh this idea is so perfect it’s irritating.” So, Saturday, I wanted to go get really annoyed by someone else’s amazing ideas that I never thought of myself, and then come home and copy it.
That was the plan.
Turns out I ran into a bit of a snag.
I never found my inspiration. OK, what is the deal with that, anyway? Is it because I was actually looking for it? Was I trying to force something magically elusive into my highly controlled plan? Was I looking for perfection? Did I look right past something really great and completely miss my chance? Or maybe I just wanted it too badly? Was I desperate? Do I only see the great stuff when I can’t actually have it? Do I think I want it but I actually don’t? Did I subconsciously sabotage the whole thing? Am I not ready?
…
Wait. What were we talking about again?
Oh yeah, inspiration.
Anyway, it didn’t show up, at least not in a specific “here I am” kind of way. No worries though. I just headed home for a quick nap and waited for the girls to arrive. Then I browsed my own house for some inspiration. After all, I’ve got a few of my own junk collections here—and a whole lot of it came in the nooks and crannies of this great old house I bought. Every time I’m stumbling past the junk in my basement I’m saying crazy things like: “I could totally make something out of this. I can’t throw this away, it would be so perfect for… something. Oh I saw this exact same thing painted black and super-glued onto…something—in Buffalo. I’m so doing that same thing!”
You’d think I would have remembered one of those ideas. Nope. Nothing.
Oh well. I did end up accomplishing one small secret project. Then I just put on an old grandma sweater and dusted off my old knitting basket. I haven’t knitted in over a year (and barely knitted even then). I had no idea which side to even re-start this project on but, happily, my fingers remembered instantly and by pure luck I chose the right direction.
I forgot how much I love knitting.
I have no clue what I’m making—probably another scarf—but I don’t really care. I just love the soothing, almost-mindless motions. I’m starting to wonder if what I actually needed Saturday was the opposite of inspiration. I might have just needed a brain break. And I found it.
For the rest of the night, I sat in the overstuffed aqua chair—next to the eight-foot table I’ve moved into my room to create a studio/work space—and soaked in the action. Here are a few highlights:
Em threading Grandma’s old sewing machine (Thanks Grandma, and thank God for the internet, which had a “how to thread” manual for this model!)
Heather, who hasn’t sewed since (jr. high, Heath?), stitching away expertly. Straight seams, baby. Bring ’em on.
Emily cutting up an irreplaceable towel that matches her bathroom perfectly. This is what we do. We ruin things to make them better.
Heather with her finished product!! (Perhaps you will share how it looks in its new home, Heath?)
Em still cutting up her precious towel. (How about you, Em? Do we get to see the final piece??)
And the view from my chair. So great.
Yep, a wild Saturday night at R-house, topped off by an ice storm that stranded Emily here overnight and probably should have kept our with-child friend indoors as well. (So glad you didn’t fall on the ice rink outside my door, Heath!)
How about you? Find any inspiration this weekend?
by julie rybarczyk
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