Out of the Craft Closet and into the Whirlwind
Yesterday I had great ambitions for today, Yesterday I surfaced from a solid two weeks of immersion in arts and crafts. I'm not really a craft lady. I don't like fiddly, fancy bits and bobs. I don't tolerate the finicky stuff very well, but sometimes I do manage to rise to the occasion. The occasion was our daughter's graduation from university AND her engagement. The arts and crafts project that presented itself was to produce, finally!, her Baby Book. Our first-born has two, but when one became two, my time and energy was pretty much consumed just trying to keep one step, oh heck even half a step, ahead of them. Any craft projects involved popsicle sticks, foam shapes, googly eyes, white glue and cotton balls, but no photo book of memories and milestones. I did turn out a few rather nicely done birthday cakes back in the day; something I discovered as I trolled through the box of photos and hundreds of 35mm slide images.
By my estimate this Baby Book project took over 100 hours of scanning (all photos were from the pre-digital era), printing, cutting and pasting using all the contemporary scrapbooking techniques - rounded corners, wavy cuts, stickers and more! I have to admit that it was fun. I bubbled with satisfaction as each page was completed. I even dared to venture beyond my comfort zone to mount a few labels, just a few mind you, on the diagonal! Can you imagine?! Better yet, I got the job done on time for the celebration dinner Saturday evening.
Two weeks of total confinement in the closet of glue sticks, paper trimmers, rulers and memories ended. I was eager to return to what passes for regularly scheduled programming here - the gym, strawberry jam making, routine grocery shopping - as opposed to the 6pm panic question, "OMG what are we going to have for supper?"; and yard maintenance - it sure doesn't take long for the garden to go out of control! Yesterday I made out my To Do list for the week ahead and settled down for the night.
This morning greeted me with a notice from my 'Go To' strawberry farm. The berries were done for the season. How can that be? It's only ... omg it's the middle of July already. Of course the strawberries are gone. Aw shucks! At least there are still raspberries, currants and maybe even some Saskatoons to pick and preserve. They will have to do.
Somewhat cheered and wearing my 'Woman on a mission' face I headed into town. It seems that during my time in the craft cave, roadworks had sprung up all over my route. A drive that should only take 15 minutes, took 25. I was seeing orange - orange pylons, orange warning signs, orange vested workers. By the time I got to the gym I was ready for a heart pounding workout.
Forty-five minutes later, sweaty and triumphant, I bounded down the stairs and out to my car. Shopping centre, here I come! It's too bad that I had left the list at home - a crisp white square of paper filled with a lovely round script rendered by my own hand in an exercise designed to soothe my strawberry robbed soul. It had worked at the time, but now as I sat in my car with the taste of sweat salt on my lips, frustration and despair worked their way to supremacy.
I eased the car along Main Street, catching every single red light along the way to the grocery store. Once there, I wrestled not only with my mind to try to recall the items on my list but also with a demon possessed cart. You know the kind - the ones in which the four wheels do not spin in the same direction at the same time, or one of them does not spin at all. Brute force of will and body got me through and home again with only one thing missed from the list.
Some days are just like that. Some days I just have to push through, and though such times are part and parcel of 'normal', today it just wasn't what I had planned. Some writing, some tea and some time will ease me out of this Monday Moaning.
"After all tomorrow is another day."
(the character Katie Scarlett O'Hara, in the movie
Gone with the Wind)
©2014 April Hoeller
