Something to Keep


Eric has started a new company with three of his friends/coworkers from two jobs ago. This is very exciting and it’s been kind of wonderful to see him light up, finally getting to work towards something that feels meaningful. He looks so much younger to me, all of a sudden. Excitement will do that to a person.

As part of the kickoff, the new founders took a trip together to hash out the details and brainstorm in person - and I stayed home to hold down the fort, so to speak. It was hard. I think I ran on straight adrenaline for eleven days because the minute Eric got home I crashed.

I’ll be honest and say that I wrote a whole, giant blog post about all I learned during my solo week and a half - but in the end I’m not posting it because I think I mostly wrote it for myself. There was a good amount of angst, a whole lot of re-hashing old ideas, and I think I just had to get all those words out in order to sum up the experience for myself. For you, though, I’ll present the takeaways :

1. I’ve got to focus my energy on just one or two things.

2. The things I’m focused on should produce something I get to keep.

So, there you have it - my new life plan, in two sentences. I think that keeping these two points in mind will help me to keep moving forwards instead of getting bogged down (as I have been), but I won’t know for sure until I stop thinking and start doing. So here I go, to do!

Apart from the photos I took for the last post, creativity has largely been on pause. Even when Emily came to visit for a few days, I forgot to get out my camera! It didn’t even occur to me at the time, but now I’m so sad not to have any pictures. What can I say, the overwhelm was real.

I’m getting back to it, though. I finally finished the embroidery floss gradient on the first of my pincushions. Ultimately it turned out that the materials were right but the technique (embroidery) was all wrong. Using the teeny tiniest needles I could find, I split my floss, blended it, and knitted this lovely light to dark effect. I’m hoping, now, I can remember exactly how I made this first one so I can create a second (in reverse colors). The end result feels well worth the six or so hours this took me to create and I’m unbelievably relieved to have gotten past the “artist’s block” I’ve been suffering from with this piece.

Also in progress is a little jewelry piece that I’m pretty excited about - not to tease you, but pictures to come after it’s finished.

Now I’m off to do some child wrangling because my dear, sweet Remi is crawling - and getting into everything I was sure I’d have baby proofed by now. I’ve only been putting it off for eight months - time to stop procrastinating and cover some outlets!