A few weeks ago when I was trying to create Abby's vision of a perfect "twirl dress", I was reminded of how much pleasure I have found throughout my life in making things. One of my earliest memories is of sitting on the kitchen floor making doll clothes out of scraps of material. I don't remember anything much about how the finished product looked or what doll I was dressing, but I remember assessing my skill level (low) and my tools (sissors and a large needle and thread), the excitment of the planning and the figuring and THEN the surge of triumph when I made it work (which is probably why I rmember it...heady stuff for a little kid).I still dream about whatever project I am working on and if I am not working on anything particular, I find myself dreaming of excel spreadsheet formulas or even plumbing (always the romantic). Though I ultimately failed to produce four year old Abby's vision of a perfect "twirl dress", the pleasure was in the trying AND I have not given up - dress number five is in the works.
So, then I started thinking about all the things I have made in my lifetime (most not captured in photos) and in sheer volume alone the list is impressive. Besides the drawings and paintings, there was, stained glass, pottery, macreme, crochet, sewing and probably stuff I can't remember. I wonder where I found the time to cook dinner, read to my children, babysit for a bunch of kids, devour books, sort of clean the house, sort of mow the yard, and do laundry? There were projects that never saw the light of day; the dress I tried sewing by hand, the giant Barbie doll house
that ended life in the rafters, because Ada grew up. There were the projects that should not have seen the light of day; my appalling first attempts at making children's clothes for one (Aaron would tremble in his very cool shoes to know that I actually took him out in public like this). In my defense, this WAS the age of red and gold shag carpet, green appliances and sideburns...we had it all.
So I suppose I am trying to say that for better or worse making things is what I do .
And I am having a terrible time uploading, resizing and moving pictures (at one point I lost them all)...so this is all you get...
3 comments:
And, cheezy and true: For every project, I have attached many childhood memories.
This is actually very good to know. I start to feel badly that I get the fruits of so many of these labors... but if its your "thing" your outlet... then I just feel good to be sharing in the experience or journey.
These photos are amazing!! Did you make all of those costumes?
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