It has been a month since I last posted to this blog! Oh my…where DOES the time go!! There is so much going on in our crayon world, to quote a dear friend, it is a never ending twirl! It is no wonder that the days fly by and there still appears to be so much to do that I don’t know which end is up. I AM overwhelmed, but it is time to pause, even if it’s just long enough to write this.
The Red House is progressing, as I hope most of you have seen on the Facebook videos. It is truly amazing to watch it grow and now the progress seems to once again be daily; decisions, decisions, sometimes on an hourly basis. I know in our day to day lives it is necessary to take on many details but this avalanche for us seems to be never-ending right now. I guess rebuilding a house is not a great deal different than building anything else, the beauty remains in the details. Sadly, often, so does the cost. I am reminded of the movie the Money Pit with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long…. but enough said, I digress. We are moving forward quickly and hope to be able to announce our Grand Re-Opening early this summer. I personally will be there dancing and I hope you all will be too.
The other big deadlines/events that are quickly approaching in May are: the submission of the complete draft for our book with C&T, Eclectics, and my return to Orvieto, Italy to co-teach a quilting inspiration class for Adventures in Italy with my dear and talented friend Renee Nanneman. It’s no wonder sleep comes hard these days. All this and I’m still trying to finalize new projects for 2017, prepare for the Kansas City Regional Quilt Show in Kansas City AND get Eastlake, our new BOM, constructed before we begin in June. Maybe I shouldn’t have written this all down. I’m overwhelmed enough. My mom always said I work best under pressure, but this is extreme.
This is all a really long way of saying “stop”. Our world–not just mine, but our world–is a little crazy right now for so many reasons. I think we all need to stop from time to time, and Spring seems like the most obvious time to do just that. Slow down, as best we can, and take stock of where we are and what we have. Give ourselves a pat on the back for what we have accomplished and not just chastise ourselves for what is left undone.
Maybe it’s a little corny, but the trees are in bloom, new growth is all around us, brown things are turning green and the smell of flowers is in the air. Isn’t it obvious that if the earth can rebuild itself every year we can too? So hold the hand of someone dear, sip a glass of wine (or your beverage of choice) and just sit down and be still……. for just a little while. Relish the small things and let the troubles and deadlines go for just a bit. It’s what I need to do so that I can get up, make the decisions and actually, again, see the wonder I have yet to behold and in turn, create. Take a breath and then go out and make something; a quilt top, a garden, a recipe, a play date with a child, a smile on someone else’s face. Something that will ground you and give you pause to recognize that today is a good day, no matter the decision that needs to be made later or the deadline that looms.
Happy Spring, my friends!
My Box of Crayons 