I had been losing the will to blog and create throughout the first chunk of this year. There were spurts of creativity here and there, but I couldn't be bothered to document any of it. This was not aided by a some devastating, but not altogether surprising, news about the museum I was working at closing for good. For five and a half months we worked an insane amount to close the place down, which left me with a will to occasionally cook and sleep, but not really document that first one. As a result, the latter part of 2015, and the entirety of 2016 have been a bit lacking on the enthusiasm for blogging anything. It may be an excuse, but there it is.
I've also really lost the enthusiasm to blog of about my cooking in general. I follow a few blogs that do food, and while I love their design aesthetics and I get inspired by them to make the recipes, I can't bring myself to bother with taking photos of the food I'm making for myself. I also can't bring myself to really photograph my food at restaurants, or in public really, like food bloggers; It's still not something I'm comfortable with. That may change going forward, but I won't make any promises for it now.
Despite these things, so many good things have happened during my massive blogging hiatus. I've done some traveling, hit the one year anniversary with G back in the spring and have at least gotten another job while I look for something that is actually in the field. Said new job is in a fabric store, which is good and bad: it's a barely over minimum wage retail gig, cutting fabric, but it's mostly cutting fabric for people trying to DIY stuff, or grandmothers making ridiculously complicated and stunning quilts for ungrateful grandchildren, or retired housewives that are making receiving blankets to give to hospitals (this is a thing, apparently). There is at least a small staff discount, which has been taken advantage of once or a dozen times for things here and there. I have been very good about restraining myself and not buying fabric unless I have a specific project in mind. With two full aisles of clearance fabric, it's tough. I'm still purging stuff in general in my life, so working in a fabric store has been a challenge.
First travel of the year was to Boston for a hockey games, because #priorities. Meeting George Stromboulopoulos in the airport lounge on the was a bonus.
Second one was to Jamaica for a friend's wedding. All inclusive resorts have their advantages, but stellar food across the board was not one of them for this place. It was nice and warm and not Toronto in early January, so I can't complain too much.
This will be the cottage photo and double for the anniversary with G. Neither of us are big selfie people, and the amount of pictures of the two of us together can be counted on one hand.
A friend and I ran away to Reykjavik and Paris for two weeks after the museum closed. Iceland in general is pretty amazing.
I mean really.
Paris is always stunning, and we got to see way more death this time around, which was fun. We hit two major cemeteries and the catacombs.
Because, that's why.
In an effort to actually do more creative things in my life, and fully take advantage of the (not that great) employee discount, I've decided I'm going to make something every month for the next year. I have a backlog of sewing projects and craft ideas that have been taunting me since we found out the museum was closing, but I never had any mental or physical energy to make them throughout the summer. Now that I have some time, and want to distract myself from the fact I'm working a not entirely great retail job that has nothing to do with my field, I want to start making and creating again. Might as well blog about it to force myself to make more. Maybe. We'll see how that works. Also, like I mentioned earlier, there have been little bits of creativity here and there. I've made a few pieces of clothing (one of which I wore to my interview at the fabric store), a friend's halloween costume and even gave Fluffy a slight makeover for this year's Halloween festivities. None of these have been photographed well enough for the blog, but I feel like I can do some me-made posts in the future to show the backlog.
Doing some sewing.
Getting my 70s string art on for some home decor.
I feel like I have cheated slightly with November; I have made something small already, and I have a second, decent sized sewing project that I want to *actually be my November project. Perhaps this is my early project-timeline enthusiasm, and if so we shall take advantage of it. I'm hoping that in the upcoming week on a day off I can get a jump on said project. I do have a sneak peak of it for the time being though. Some days the clearance section can offer the greatest things that will further your Canadian mid-century modern cottage decor dreams. Or, you know, bear fabric.
The little project will likely make a guest appearance in that post. The process photos look like shit, and I'm waiting to get some better lighting to at least have some nice finished product shots. With any luck, there will be at least one photo of a slightly funky looking sewing kitteh.
I also finally redid my blog header! It's cute and I like it. Let it be the start of something new.
