Back to Stitching
18 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Craft, Sewing Tags: Craft, Finished Projects, Handmade Shop, Sewing, Stitching
Today I visited our local, and quite well known, Handmade Shop to do a stitching workshop.
I have been shopping at the Handmade Shop since it opened and admired all the gorgeous things so many talented people had made. I’ve bought a lot of presents for various friends there. Over January they doubled the size of the shop and now have a space up the back to do workshops for 10 people.
When I saw that the first workshop was a stitching sampler & included learning to sew on a button I was thrilled and quickly registered to attend. I arrived at the right time, and just as it started. Disappointingly I hadn’t left enough time to grab a cuppa before the workshop, which I had been thinking about while driving into town.
Vanessa, the instructor, told us about her background which included a lot of crafty things, including making wedding dresses. She was very good at explaining slowly what to do & was very very patient. We started off with running stitch, followed by whip stitch (a personal favourite of mine) and then chain stitch. The last thing she showed us was how to sew on a button. The stitches were all familiar to me from the Prints Charming stitching workshop I did last year, but the refresher was very helpful.
I managed to finish my sampler:
I’m not particularly happy with the colours I chose, but the choices were limited when I was picking & the lady next to me quickly grabbed the pinks I had been admiring. But I finished it!
We also discussed with Vanessa other types of workshops we would like to do – so now I will be watching out for other interesting crafty things for me to learn.
The next stage
05 Feb 2012 2 Comments
In 2005 this small boy started primary school.
He was excited to be starting big school, even though he didn’t really know anyone he would be going to school with. We packed his lunch, covered books, labelled all his uniforms and went to orientation days.
At his first orientation day he made a friend
And then at the end of last year these 2 friends finished primary school together
still friends.
Tomorrow they go to high school together for the first time.
We have packed bags, labelled books (not allowed to cover them anymore as it is not cool), organised a lunch box. My boy is again excited to be starting on the next phase of his life. This time he knows many people he is going to be at school with, he has had orientation days and has spent many hours at his new school attending vacation care. He is super confident.
But how do I feel as we enter this new phase? I am excited to see my little boy growing into a young man. I am nervous and thinking about all the things that can go wrong at high school. I am sad that I will no longer be a part of his daily education, communicating regularly with his teacher. I am terrified at what he is going to be exposed to with so many older kids. I have to let go now and watch him slowly start to make his own way in this world, scaffolding his independence, sending him off on a bus each day.
This morning our Assistant Pastor preached on sending kids back to school, asking us what we were packing in our kids school lunch boxes, whether we were encouraging them in their christian walk to be prepared to uphold the values that are increasingly becoming uncool in this modern world.
I’ve been thinking about this today – what am I sending him off to high school with? I hope I am sending him off with a strong sense of who he is and what he believes. I hope I am sending him off with knowledge of right and wrong and the ability to tell the difference. I pray that I am sending him off with the ability to say No, and to stand alone if needs be.
So we embark on the next 4 year period of his education, with my fingers crossed and hoping beyond hope that he will emerge from high school as a strong, determined, positive young man.
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