Baby Gone Back... IN TIME!!

This has been a lllooonnnggg week. This is only my second day back at work, but ermagerd I'm ready for it to stop. Needless to say, I've been incredibly busy. Like INCREDIBLY busy.

I went to my first teaching MLHS function on Wednesday (5/25/2016), and it was a total blast!! The leadup was the exhausting part... A little back story, the founder of the organization is getting older, and has been doing far to much for far to long. So, because I'm a huge sucker with a big truck, I volunteered to help out and tote stuff from our shed (approx. 15 minutes out of the city), bring it to the event, and take it back afterwards. Much more work then I thought it would be, yet not more then I expected:P

Anyways, as a result most of my weekend was devoted to this. First off, it was a long weekend to start with, and I'm booked to work tomorrow (Saturday), so as a result I got the Tuesday off as well. The perfect volunteer!! So, Saturday I was shopping all thrifty like (more on that later), Sunday I spent my whole afternoon and part of my evening gathering everything up for the VPRR (Visit the People of Red River), Monday I was running errands most of the day and working on my Farmer's Market content, and finally Tuesday I was running errands and dropping things off at the location we would be at. By Wednesday I was pre-tired.

Then it was Wednesday!! Yay!! I was assigned to lead the candle making station. I was nervous as hell (didn't really sleep the night before) because I'd never done it before, but it ended up being super fun!! And I learned how they made candles in 1812!! How cool is that?! To them it was something that they needed, for me it was learning a new skill to add to my awesome arsenal of crafty stuff!! Yay!! I also had a lot of fun learning about all of the other stations that were set up as well. Super fun!!

After we went through all the stations, I reloaded my truck (with a little help of course), and headed back out to the shed. I REALLY would've preferred to go home to bed... But off I went and unloaded everything just as it started to rain. It didn't really open up until I had already unpacked everything and was on my way home (whew!!). A fun day had by all!

But what did this mean for lil introverted ole me?? PURE EXHAUSTION!! Tara Swiger (love her info on introverts) defines introverts as people who get their energy from being alone, not from other people. This pretty much defines me!! I am for sure an outgoing introvert, but things like this leave me exhausted and frazzled. There's another event that they're doing on Saturday (tomorrow) that I'm unable to attend because of work, which is kind of a blessing in disguise. I won't be completely alone to zone out and recharge, but at least I can put on my headphones, turn on a podcast and just work. Then I have all Sunday to recharge/clean my house (in all this busy it's gotten incredibly messy).

Anyways, I kind of wanted to go into more detail about the candle making, as this was super fun and a creative endeavor that I've never undertaken but REALLY wanted to. First off I got to see and know all of the different kinds of lights that were used, and I'm planning on building a rush light. This was used by poorer people and was simply a dried out bulrush dipped in animal fat, dried out again, and then lit. MLHS currently doesn't have an example of this and it sounds really fun to try out:) There were different types of lanterns, candle holders, and even an old-fashioned oil lamp. History combined with creativeness, I was in seventh heaven!!

The candles themselves were commonly made with tallow, or animal fat. Apparently they burn smelly and greasy (we didn't actually light one), and don't give off very much light. So we basically melted the tallow (we had bear and buffalo) on a hot plate (NOT historically accurate, but we didn't have all day, or a fire), tied our wick (approx. the length of a sheet of paper) to a wooden dowel (they would have used sticks), and dipped into the tallow to our heart's content. The hardest part for the kids to get was that you had to dip QUICK!! The longer you held the wick in the hot tallow, the more would melt off from your previous dips and your candle would actually get skinnier! O dear!! Some of them had great candles, while others were still very skinny... They all seemed to have fun anyways!! I know I sure did!! Made a real mess, but my hands have never been softer!!

My next post (hopefully a little quicker to come out then this one...) will probably be a continuation of my Style School capers, and will probably touch on my content for the summer.

My outfit for the day.

Inspired by the laundry station a the VPRR:)

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired

Soo...

Where have I been? I was sick as a dog pretty much all weekend, so I gave myself the weekend off. Why? Because I can! I am trying to be a little nicer to myself and admit to myself when I really don't want to do anything, and I'm not just being lazy.

What did I do instead? I dragged myself to a sewing meet on Saturday, which I'm very glad I did, and pretty much just laid on the couch and slept/watched TV/read on my phone. Being a Type A person I usually feel guilty as hell doing this, and usually have about a million to dos buzzing in the back of my mind. The difference with last weekend? I gave myself permission to just RELAX! To not think about the to dos, the half finished projects, work, and all of those other things that buzz like a mosquito in my brain.

How does this relate to the creative process? Well, in every way that counts I'd say. Last week I was kind of feeling burnt out, exhausted, and just didn't really want to do anything. I finished what I was working on on my loom, there was nothing coming to mind to draw, and I just didn't really feel like making a blog post. I guess (aside from being sick) I just needed some relaxation and downtime.

So, I sewed something by hand with no pattern and very little help (I went rogue:P), I caught up on some TV shows, I re-watched the new Star Wars movie, and I got out the material for my next big sewing project. I did all this without thinking about applications for Markets this summer, without trying to figure out more branding, or a business strategy, and you know what? I had a blast, even though I felt slightly death-like.

But, even having a down-time weekend I still managed to get some creative fun stuff done. By that I mean I sewed a day-cap, which is a 1800's bonnet type hat. The pieces were cut out wrong and someone kind of threw it at me and went "Here, have fun!" I forgot to take a picture of it, so I might hold off now and wait until my whole outfit is sewn (that's what the material is going to be fore) and just get a pic with everything:)

In closing, I would have to say that I quite enjoyed my lil break, and it's left me feeling more invigorated for it (even though I'm still sick). This headache can go away any time though :P

Never Wear a White Shirt with a Muffin Top

Mmm... Muffins... Slept in today and grabbed what I thought were my normal fitting pants and a nice white shirt. NOT!! They are, in fact, my skinny pants and have had me muffin toppin since lunch time😜

The point of this? Absolutely nothing, just needed to get it off my chest😜 Anyways, this past weekend I went to a Manitoba Living Historical Society Baggage meet, and was introduced to the amazing world of weaving!

I'm so excited!! I also have big plans to learn how to weave wool as well. Business ideas anyone? My entrepreneurial dreams have re-errupted into something huge!!

My big plans at this point are to actually learn how to use my Inkle Loom (yay for google), and then the sky's the limit!! Eventually I want to do the whole "from sheep to cloth" type thing, but for this summer I'm thinking of just starting with all my woven creations. There's a long way to go, but now at least there's a path again.

Plus, with all my historical connections and whatnot, I can do it completely old-fashioned. With all natural dyes for the wool, grassfed sheep, and all that other wholesome stuff everyone seems to love these days.

So excited!!! Yay for my new loom!!
...now I just need a business name...