Life Lately

Hello! I hope you are enjoying the days getting longer and warmer as much as I have lately (if you’re in the Northern Hem). The buds on the trees are blooming, flowers are popping up everywhere, and it feels so good. Much needed.

Another blogger I follow recently posted a “Life Lately” blog post because she didn’t post anything in February either. February is hard y’all! It’s funny that I already had this post planned before I saw her email. But as I get back into sewing and blogging again, it’s fun to do something different and share a little more about my life than I usually do.

The news and world have been so overwhelming that my brain is itching for and craving something more to bring more joy into my life. Sewing is that for me.

I usually have time to do a few things to do during the day, but before I know it, the hours that my kids are in school are up, and it’s time for me to go get them. Then it’s one thing after another until bedtime. So, I’ve put sewing on the back burner. But after so long something inside me always begs for me to start again.

What I’ve Been Sewing

I managed to make a few things for myself and a shirt for Dallas. I made my first Sommar Cami in November in a black cotton jersey, but it was a bit too small. So, I gave it to a friend and made the next size up. Then, about a month later, I made a gray ribbed knit one (in a photo below).

I have really wanted to make a pink long sleeve shirt and thought it would be fun to have it done by Valentines Day, but that didn’t happen. I made it a couple weeks later, though. And right after, I made a raspberry-colored Neve Shirt. I love how they all turned out and hope to blog about them soon. For a long time, I never stitched down my necklines, but now it’s my favorite thing, and I love to add a little tag while I’m at it.

I made the Sage Tee for Dallas a few years ago, and it was too big, and the neckband was a little too long. Now that I understand ease and neckline calculating a bit better, I tried again and nailed it!

It felt so good to have him try it on and not have something bother me about it. I ended up going down 2 sizes and recalculated the neckband which made it about an inch shorter. He’s already worn it twice and loves it. Hooray!

Usually when I start sewing again, I feel justified in buying more fabric. My first purchase was a cotton jersey (top right fabric, olive color) from a new-to-me seller on Etsy to make another Sage Tee for Dallas. If you’re in Europe, Stoffebox is fantastic (located in Germany).

The other fabrics in the photo above are from Olives Tecidos here in Portugal. They had a sale, and I bought a few things I have been eyeing. The brown and floral fabrics are linen/cotton and the middle tartan pattern and cream are cotton flannel.

I have some pants planned for the brown linen and a jacket planned for the cream. The other two I’m still deciding on what to make (maybe a dress and pajama pants…TBD).

Me Made OOTD

Now that the weather is warming up a little, I’ve started wearing more of my me-made pants again instead of jeans. I forgot how good the feeling of wearing all me made things is and I had a couple of days like that, so I snap a photo on my way out. I love any chance I get to wear my brown printed Pomona Pants.

Supporting Sewing Friends

My friend Teresa Nunes opened a new gallery a few weeks ago, and I went on opening day. She did such an incredible job with all of the pieces, and I couldn’t stop going around to the different pieces and admiring all of the details.

If you’re in the Lisbon area this gallery is in Cascais at This Must Be the Place Gallery for the next few months. It’s open Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 7pm.

Teresa is incredible and is always teaching mending and natural dyeing workshops as well.

Learning, Growing, and Self Care

I mentioned above that I usually pick a few things to do during the day and the things in the photos below are usually it. We don’t have a babysitter, so we take advantage of when the kids are healthy and in school to go on lunch dates nearby or venture out a little further (if we’re confident that a teacher won’t call us).

Last year in September I finally took the plunge and took some one-on-one Portuguese classes and was a lot more consistent with studying. I’m taking a break from the one-on-one class now but still trying to keep on studying and practicing with my kids and friends. I recently passed 500 vocab words on Linguno and was pretty happy about it. I still struggle with conversations, but I’m slowly making progress.

I would love to say I’m consistent with working out but I average about 3 times a week. I love Sydney’s free workouts on Youtube. They help me get out some of the anxiety/tightness that I feel in my body, and I usually feel really good afterwards.

If you saw my last blog post, half of it was about the books I read last year. I’ve read a few already this year and have enjoyed them. The Libby app is the best and I have over 100 books tagged to read. I recently finished reading The Goose Girl and Wild Dark Shore. They are wildly different genres, but they were both really interesting and I cruised through them.

Remembering to Touch Grass

…and remember that the world is beautiful, even if the news makes everything feel horrible.

I solo parented for 10 days in January, so when Dallas got back from his work trip to the states, I took the train to a nearby city and stayed at an Airbnb for a night. It was strange but also nice to have a break from cleaning and making meals, and have some time to myself.

I sometimes have a really hard time leaving the house and not being able to relax when I’m out on my own, so it was a good exercise in paying attention to how I was feeling and reminding myself that I can relax despite the anxiety and insecurity I was feeling.

I’ve also been on a few solo walks through parks and gardens nearby that have been a great way to connect with nature and take a breather.

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I know this blog post is all over the place and very photo heavy, but I’ve just been feeling a shift in how I want to show up here. I’m obviously going to keep blogging about sewing, but I don’t want to be as rigid about it.

If you’ve been following along from the beginning (2015-2017), then you might remember my Grati-Tuesday posts. They feel a little bit cringe to me now, but I think it was something I needed to do to get through the three very eventful/difficult years (senior year of college, pregnancy, newborn stage, and moving to California).

I’m not going to start up Grati-Tuesday again, but I do like when people share the things bringing them joy or something that they were in awe of. So, I’m going to start doing some type of “finding/sharing joy” at the end of my blog posts. And if you want to, I hope you join in and share yours with me in the comments.

For now, this 90’s song by Des’ree is my morning pick-me-up lately. I had forgotten about it, but I love it.

I hope to have some new makes to share with you soon. Enjoy the rest of your week and remember to take care of yourself.