Making Peace With Some Mess

January 22, 2021

Making Peace With Some Mess

Well, today is a bit of a slurry anyhow so I think I’ll reverse order on my normal thought process. Let’s start with the tidy and pretty, and then delve into the messy and wonky bits, shall we? Plus some fun stuff, because I need some fun.

Here’s my tidy progress on a little tea towel. I know, yet another tea towel. What can I say? I just need something little to work on while I’m sorting out my next Big Project. And playing with/mixing thread shades is very zen...

I pulled this excerpt today from a blog that I follow called Inspirations, which is a needlework site in Australia. These people make such gorgeous things and, as that Tina Fey meme so eloquently says, I want to go to there.

“We find ourselves here again at the start of a New Year. Yet somehow the beginning of this year feels a little different to most.

As we thought about the New Year unfolding before us, our minds quickly turned to the not-yet-planned days and all the possibilities, hopes and dreams contained within each. Whilst normally these thoughts come with nothing but anticipation, we felt a hint of unease alongside them this year.

For many of us, 2020 will be remembered as our most unpredictable and uncertain year to date and, whilst we had hoped the heralding of a New Year would bring with it a much-needed antidote to such adjectives, it’s become apparent we’re not quite there yet!

So, what do we do when our New Year’s expectancy is a little battle worn and tarnished?

We make peace with some mess.

January can be a messy month regardless of the year it’s following and sometimes the pressure we place on ourselves to embark upon New Year’s resolutions, choose our words for the year and/or plan those not-yet-planned days can bring with it unwelcome stress and unease.

And so, we need to remind ourselves that regardless of what’s going on around us or what we may or may not have achieved, each day is a gift. It may be messy, imperfect and ordinary, but it’s also incredibly beautiful if we take the time to look at the many details that fill it.

This year we’re determining that despite the conflict of anticipation and unease within, we’re going to tackle 2021 one day at a time, knowing that a full and beautiful life is composed of a million ordinary, messy and sometimes challenging days.”

Isn’t that pretty? Doesn’t it make you feel a little better? It made me feel better. Those Aussies have such a good perspective, plus they are completely comfortable throwing around the word “whilst”. I simply cannot express how much I love that.

Speaking of messy and imperfect, this morning as I was making up the bed, here’s a little something I found on my pillow...

It’s an orphan strand of embroidery floss. The fact that it wound up on my pillow means that for at least part of the day yesterday it was on my head. Oh well. When your end table looks like this, I guess it’s no wonder...

But look, my ribbon thingy is all organized!

Well, except for the empty spools I haven’t taken out. Just now noticed that. Dang. So close. Making peace with some mess...

Now for a few fun things. Consider the ordinary lint-roller...

And if you have a sewing room and/or pets, consider what your house would look like without one! It’s the best thing ever for picking up loose threads (unless they’re in your hair), pet hair and ex-boyfriends just lying around. Heh heh heh.

Oooh and These Amazing Gloves for machine quilting! Note the grippy fingertips, the better with which to hold onto that slippery fabric...

If I were more talented I would photo shop them onto the Bernie Sanders mitten meme going around this week. But I’m not that talented, so just imagine it. Oh Bernie.

And this is a Fun Thing that just arrived in the mail yesterday! It’s a pincushion that straps around the top of your sewing machine. Genius! I am forever just tossing pins off onto the table whilst sewing (see what I did there?) and then they end up on the floor where they get stepped on or the dog eats one and then you have to spend copious amounts of money at the doctor or the vet that you could have spent on more fabric. Not that that’s ever happened to me. 🙄