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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Is it the yoga?

Almost a month ago a friend and I decided to try yoga. We are both active - she is a personal trainer and a Pilates instructor, I go to her classes and teach eight indoor cycling classes a week and we both cycle outdoors when we can. Neither of us had taken a yoga class before so we did what we always do - jumped in feet first and have been taking three classes a week in addition to our other activities. I think we have settled on instructors and class times that suit us and will probably continue along those lines for the foreseeable future.

I am surprised that I am making the commitment to continue because I can't honestly say I enjoy the classes. But I love the puzzle of figuring out what to do and how to do it and hours and days later my brain is still buzzing with ideas about a pose and how I might do it better. And I think I am seeing a difference in other areas of my life. I seem to be sleeping a little better and am getting even more done around the house and with my art. Perhaps the most noticeable effect is that I seem to be more resilient to stress and things going wrong. Case in point: I spent much of yesterday afternoon and part of this morning working on the centrepiece of the Ivory Tower piece. It involved making lots of components and assembling them carefully. I had all the pieces made and was mid-way through assembly when something out of the ordinary happened - the freezer paper templates wouldn't release from the fabric they were stuck to. I tried everything but the stickum was so effective that it tore the fabric. I had to start over and make a bunch of pieces again. Some of them took three steps to reproduce. At another time I would have walked away and found a way to distract myself. Instead I just got back to work without missing a beat.

I think it is the yoga . . . but the sun helps too.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Hello, old friend

I haven't written a blog entry in over a month but it isn't because I have abandoned my intention to do so. Some days it feels like the blog is a friend who I can only see occasionally. I store up things to tell it. And there's lots to tell. Let's start now and work backwards over the next few days.

Today I have been thinking about how much I enjoy problem solving and how wonderful it is to have the resources at hand to make the solutions possible. In the last hour I have:

Used three circular templates to draw circles on fabric so that I could cut out perfect pieces. I have a whole set of the templates - I don't know why I bought them in the first place but they came in handy today.

Used a cute little wheel to add an extra 1/2 inch to the circumference of one circle. Ditto on not knowing why I bought it.

Found some fantastic wide basting tape that made construction much easier. I use basting tape to make zipper installation easier. I'm not sure why I bought the wider variety.

Pulled silk chiffon and black tulle from a random bag of sheers. They created exactly the effects I wanted.

Used a lot of Mistyfuse to stick layers of sheers together. I bought a large supply of Mistyfuse a couple of years ago but had never dipped into it. I had gotten by until now on the amounts that come in small envelopes.

It is not a stash - it is a resource.