I'm due to start Week 3 of c25K any day now...any day. My intentions were good this weekend, but after going to an excellent yoga class (taught by my college friend Meghan) and while catching up with Meghan, I was struck suddenly and overwhelmingly ill, being quite sick in the bathroom of the small (but good) Mexican restaurant in which we were chatting. All I will say about that is that luckily, canvas bags are washable.
So I took it easy this weekend, or easier than I had initially planned! The yoga class did inspire me to sign up at the same studio for a five-week "introduction to yoga" series. I have taken a yoga class before (with a wonderful teacher doign Iyengar-style practice), but a lot of my yoga experience has been via bellydance instructors, DVDs, or books. I have not had an in-person instruction in an overview of yoga. What a great idea! So next week I'll be starting the five-week course, one class a week.
As I am slowly emerging from a dark and stressful year, I am trying to build back in more things that allow me to thrive and find stability. Spending time with lovely people is one of those things. Another is pursing physical restorative pursuits (for me - yoga, bellydance) and creative pursuits. I'm still carefully nurturing the banked creative embers, which have been slower to emerge. Speaking with Meghan, a wonderful person who has continued to feed her creative nature, made me more fully realize that I need to re-build and feed my creative nature as well.
In only marginally-related news, a piece of Shamless Commerce (internet window-shopping) caught my eye this morning. Sew Mama Sew has new fabrics in - including this collection, which I adore. Someday I would like to add quilting to my list of creative pursuits. I do have a knitting stash to knit down, however, and little time and space to expand into a fabric creation space. There is a wonderful intersection of the visual and tactile arts with quilting: for me, knitting is more tactile, building a garment by hand, by stitch, feeding fibers into a creation. Quilting allows a more rapid visual impact, although quilters may read this and think, "Rapid?!?"
In other news, we had a terrible heat wave last week (as in many parts of the USA). Today is blessedly cooler, thank goodness.
3 comments:
Yay, yoga! Yay, re-building creativity! Yay, long-term fantasy of quilting!
I like that Mona Luna line of fabrics, too. Have I started Duncan's baby quilt? No. Hmm . . . maybe he'd like a Mona Luna first day of Kindergarten quilt . . . that's the timeline I'm looking at these days. :)
Reconnecting with your creative self isn't always easy, but so rewarding. I'm so glad to hear that you're heading back to yoga. That sounds like fun! I love yoga (when I used to go, but it has been quite a while), and you've always had a natural talent for belly dancing. It's on my weight loss "bucket list" of things that I want to do when I'm thinner. I always loved hearing the joy in your voice when you talked about it, and I loved watching you dance. It comes to naturally to you, it seems.
I've been thinking about quilting too! It seems like another one of those practical art forms that we love -- ceramics, knitting, quilting. Arts that produce usable objects. Love it! I'm scared of the sewing, though! I have trouble sewing a straight line! =)
So glad that you're reconnecting with your creative self, lady! It's so easy to lose sight of that when you're jockeying behind a desk all the time, isn't it?
Love you!
Sarah - I hear you on the timelines! I had hoped I'd already have a summer accessory wardrobe knitted for the baby from cotton...ha! Sadly, no.
ISG - It is so important, and something I've let become stifled for too long. I think my tendency towards clamping down on my emotional expression easily spilled over into clamping down on creative expression as well.
I'm also having trouble with the straight line-sewing, in part due to lack of practice, and in part due to the buggy sewing machine I've got.
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