Guys, I cleaned a window! It was a large one too! Granted I only did the inside of the panes and our dog pretty much messed up the lower portion within minutes but still, I'm calling it an accomplishment. (If you are not sure what I'm on about then head here to read last month's musing.)
Funny that my last few month's musing posts have either been about a lack of inspiration and motivation or about feeling crushed from everything on my to-do list and yet this month I thrived on productivity.
A few of the items I sewed up this month
Clearly my reaction to a global pandemic and enforced isolation is one of ACTION. I should have realised this would happen as on a smaller scale, generally, if I'm faced with a problem my first instinct is to action a solution - I deal with things by doing. There must be some psycho-analysis research on this somewhere...is it related to the fight or flight response? Anyone know?
Not that I'm saying this is the only or the best way to deal with life's stresses just that it's one that works for me. I enjoy being busy, creating things and having something tangible as a reward for my effort. It keeps my mind busy and my soul soothed. I feel proud of that but sometimes I also feel ashamed of being productive, like I'll be viewed as an over-achiever and should down-play my achievements. Does anyone else feel like this?
With the shop on temporary hold during lock-down level four and without all your lovely orders to keep me occupied, I focused instead on some business ideas that had been in the back of my mind and had previously lacked time to come into fruition.
One of these was overhauling my Instagram highlight stories to look more cohesive and give an overview of what Nellie Joans is all about. Since graphic design isn't my strong point I hired LJS Creative Services to create these for me. They did a wonderful job and I've now got these gorgeous pieces of graphic work proudly displayed on my Instagram page. Have you seen them yet?
While that was happening I somehow managed to convert a hand-dawn pattern for Children's Knickers (created when my daughter was young) into a printable pdf. I still almost can't believe I accomplished this and it gave me a new appreciation for all you pattern designers out there. There is so much information and effort that goes into producing a pattern and I really don't think it would have happened without the lock-down. It's now available for all you lovely people as a free download - pop your email into the newsletter sign-up to receive the download link.
I also managed quite a bit of business and personal sewing, some other crafting, enjoyed some family dog-walks and caught up with friends on Zoom.
My daughter shot this photo capturing my best side - I think I was fighting our dog for the stick.
Lucky for us this beautiful bush walk is at the end of our street.
I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with this month's musing - it's certainly not to brag. Maybe it's just to say that I coped with lock-down ok and that I hope you did too, with whatever coping mechanism works best for you. It's certainly been a weird, slow and yet fast five weeks. Level three kicked into action on Tuesday and I'm loving being able to connect with you all again through your orders of lovely fabric and findings. Thank you so much for all your wonderful support of my business.
Take care and happy sewing,
Helen xxx