Timing is everything, isn't it? Which is great when everything lines up perfectly, and the stars align and you are dancing on clouds because life just could not be any better. However, timing usually lines up somewhere short of perfect, and it's hit or miss depending on 10,000 different circumstances.

My timing has been a bit off recently. Mainly because I was trying to force it to be right. I was still moving forward on a plan that I had plotted out six months to a year ago. But, I kind of forgot that my situation has changed since then, and I can no longer commit to that plan. I was still going full steam ahead on an old plan with old timing, and it was STRESSING me out. It took a little bit of a melt down over a missing sweater to realize that I needed new timing, and a new plan.

How about I slow down a bit here and start at the beginning?

Most of you know that I started working with Michelle, the AWESOMEest creative career coach ever, this summer to help me set up Manusmade and get it ready for operation. I was going to set up my Etsy shop by the end of November. I was going to have a Shop Opening Christmas Gala at my house in early December. I even went out and got business cards and a new logo. Everything was going according to plan, and then I decided to change my job - still at the same place, but just a different position. As since I've changed jobs, I've been traveling every two weeks since the end of June. I went on vacation for three weeks. My sewing machine was in the hospital for a while. And I still thought I could make it all work on the old schedule. I was stressing out. And when I stress out I either get angry and irritable, or I play every avoidance game in the book.

Recently, I was getting ready for work. I had already planned what I was going to wear that morning. I was half dressed and I reached for the sweater I was going to put on. It wasn't in my sweater bin. I looked in all the other bins. I looked in the laundry baskets. I looked in the laundry room. I looked in my half un-packed luggage from my latest trip. I looked in every room in the house, and then in total angry frustration vented everything that was on my mind: how I was not even fit to be an adult as I could not even get myself dressed in the morning, how every time I take two steps forward I end up taking a step back, how I have lost all my creative mojo and who in their right mind would ever consider buying anything from Manusmade so what was the point in making anything when the future shop is already a failure, and how I might as well call the bankruptcy police right then and there because that's where Manusmade was heading.

My poor husband was standing in the doorway waiting for the rant to end. In a small break, he quietly said: "Um, so this isn't really about the sweater"? Long story short, no, it was not really about the sweater. It was about being stressed about things I hadn't even let myself realize, that something as simple as not finding a sweater was making me melt down from everything I"d been building up. Yes, people, that truly is how stressed I can make myself sometimes. (I'm working on it.)

I soon realized that the stress came from the self-imposed deadlines I had created. I simply could not do everything I had wanted to in the time I had allotted myself. Solution? Change the deadline to one that is realistic and achievable. So right now, that means that I will just focus on making a few Christmas presents, and then focus on getting things ready for the Etsy shop opening early in the new year. Hopefully this also means that I'll be able to have a grand opening at the house in Feburary or March sometime when nobody is doing anything else. And maybe next time I give myself a deadline, it won't be pulled out of a hat. I might actually sit back and use some planning skills I must have learned somewhere to help figure out a do-able plan. It's nice to know I'm still learning :)

In the meantime, I'll be posting some general crafty stuff. I can't wait to show you some of the presents I have planned!

I just found this video, and am now even much more in love with linen than I ever was. I didn't know it could happen but it has. I now have dreams of moving to Northern France and being one of the ladies who work in the factory fixing minor imperfections by HAND, telling everyone how noble the fabric is! At the very least, I'll be planting some flax in my garden next year. Perhaps I'll investigate how to harvest it, scrutch it, comb it, spin it, and weave it into linen. I'm not sure that a small garden patch of flax will produce more than a handkerchief's size of fabric - possible the world's most labour-intensive handkerchief.

If you watch this video, you will perhaps stop thinking I"m as crazy as I know some of you do when it comes to linen :)

I'm on the road again for work and haven't had the time to make too much recently. Not only that, but my trusty Kenmore had to be taken to the hospital - literally! - the repair shop is called The Sewing Machine Hospital. I've had it for close to twenty-five years, and it's held up remarkably well for never having been cleaned thoroughly or been maintained properly. It just kept working, year after year, so I never took it in. But recently it had been skipping and jamming the bobbin thread. My husband took it apart and oiled and cleaned it all. It was much better after that, but we could tell there was something going on in the bobbin area that needed fixing. The guy at the shop really knows what he's doing and I'm happy it's getting well taken care of. I keep thinking of it, all hooked up to its oil IVs, getting fed crap mushy food, and getting the occasional morphine hit when the guy tweaks too hard on its bobbin. Get well soon little guy!

I did take the chance to take a peak at new machines while I was in the shop - oh my god, you need an engineering degree for some of them! As long as the sewing machine doc can give my Kenmore some longevity, I'll stick with that one for a while longer. It is has all the stitches I need, and I know it so well. I don't need anything too fancy for now. Maybe later on, I will think about the possibility of getting a serger which will give me more professional seams more quickly.

In the meantime, I'm using my older Singer. It only does one stitch. But you know what they say - how you should pick one thing and do it really well? This old man does straight stitch really well! My sister gave me this machine a few years ago and I not only love using it, but also just looking at it :) My sister has a bit of an old sewing machine addiction and she definitely knows her stuff! This little guy continues to be a workhorse even after 65 years.

I recently tried my hand at making a stuffie toy. I don't think I've made one since I was about 12 years old. Ironically, the robot I made also looks exactly like something a 12 year old would make. It's definitely not my most sophisticated design, but it's a start. I used a piece of patchwork material I had made for the start of a quilt that never got finished. I like his eyes, but can't think why I gave him odd flipper mermaid (merman?) legs. I made two robots, the other one had fairly standard legs, and he got adopted by a little toddler friend of mine. I'm glad one of the robots is getting some love. I'm also wondering why I made his head so small. What do you think? Does the robot have potential?