inhale...exhale...relax your shoulders...repeat as often as needed

Monday, February 2, 2009

reflecting



...on two weeks of blogging.  What a fun adventure it has been!  Thank you many folks, who have left "comments" or gotten in touch with me via email.  Your heartfelt feedback has been both humbling and inspiring.  Let me share a few things with you.
  • Thanks go out to my clever and fun daughter-in-law, Dawn, who came up with the sew/sow play on words.
  • Thanks, too, to Jane and Elin, whose blogs I have followed for ages, and who nudged me into this.
  • And thanks to my amazingly talented brothers, Douglas and Nelson.  Last March, Nelson (who lives in London) and I were both in Portland, OR at the same time without knowing it.  By the magic of email, we realized we were in the same city! We had a great afternoon together and he said something that has been lurking on my mind ever since.  He told me that my creativity might manifest itself in any number of ways.  He's younger, but maybe wiser? And, Doug, multi talented beyond measure, I sit in his shadow, looking up.
  • Gail and Margie, who are leading a wonderful class called "Spirit in Practice" at the UCiW, which has helped me connect with my spirituality in new ways, and helped inspire this venture.
  • My best buddy Nancy from way back (and I'm talking way back, our birthdays are 6 days apart, and our folks were best friends) likened this blog to "birthing this new babe".  She really gets this emptying nest thing.
  • I've reconnected with Catherine and Karen J.  We used to "stitch and bitch" together in our "Quilter's Anonymous" group until they each moved away.
  • I've gotten to know my Mom's friend, Judy, through her blog.
  • I'm amazed at the world wide web and how it connects us.  I have LOVED following the ginger cats in Wales.  Then I found Vivien through a comment she left on the ginger blog. Turns out, she knows Natayla, another quilt artist who I admire.  Natalya has a piece in Art Quilts at Play!   Is that a crazy circle or what?  Then there's "quiltcat" who is generous in her comments, too.  And I'm still trying to figure out how Pakitow  in Barcelona found my blog (thanks!).
  • Yeah, so this blogging stuff takes time.  But I'm loving it.  It has helped create a new structure for my days, has motivated me to come up with fresh ideas to share, and it's gotten me in touch with friends, both old and new.  Pretty cool.
  • And very special thanks go out to my Mumsie, who first sat me down in front of a sewing machine.
  • My kids will confirm that I really am a techno dinosaur, who has been reluctant to "get onboard" for years.  But now Gretta calls me "a blog crazy" and lamented to Elin that, "I want my Mommy back".  But I think the genie is out of the bottle........

3 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of blogging, Karen! (I have to say i'm envious of your lovely neat and clean kitchen. I wonder if you have Shaker furniture in your home?) I find it's addictive, unfortunately...i love "talking" to the new friends that i've made, and then following links to other blogs, which lead to other blogs and on and on. I could easily spend all day lost in the blogosphere (luckily there are way too many other demands on my time). I'm looking forward to hearing how your gardening goes as Spring returns. Around here it's only a month away from potato and pea planting time, but that month also usually contains our worst snow storms. I see you've got some more hyacinths starting there. The picture with Henry was exquisite!

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  2. Karen,
    I think you were 'born to blog' and I love your fresh approach and
    'green' ideas. It's a pleasure getting to know you - your mom is such a dear friend and I see a lot of her in you. Your photos, your artwork and your words make your blog one of my daily reads!

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  3. The clean and neat kitchen is enabled by very clever basket usage...dump stuff in basket=temporarily out of sight! The trick is in going back later and dealing with the "stuff" in a timely fashion! We do have a Shaker setee we put together from a kit up at our place in VT. Love the simplicity of the Shakers, their worship, gardening, simplicity. Just not super practical these days, sigh.

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