How to make everything appear effortless...or not
There's a link going around Facebook right now to an article called "Your Children Want YOU!" by April Perry of powerofmoms.com (read the article here). It begins by pointing out the pressure that Pinterest, blogs, Twitter, parenting magazines, etc. put on parents by showing images and telling stories of uber-put-together moms who keep toys alphabetized, create specially shaped sandwiches and pancakes every morning, and so on.
The gist of the article is that your kids would rather have plain old time with you rather than less time with super mom and her fancy pancakes. I get this--as a mom of young kids, it resonates with me. I'd love to do all that cool stuff and focus my creativity on my kids. And sometimes I do. But between the kids, a full-time job, dealing with the house, spending time with my husband and friends, and, oh yeah, quilting, more often than not, it's just not gonna happen. But there's always that illusion that it could, isn't there?
As I was working on my wonky log cabin blocks this week, I had that same feeling of pressure settle down on me. I'm so eager to see where these blocks are headed that I'm giving up sleep at night, and I definitely want to share the process with you. But. A big but. How do I balance between quality, quantity and sanity? That is, quality of photos, quantity of blog entries (gotta keep you interested!) and my sanity ('cause my husband sure isn't staying up making sure I sew those seams straight!).
I LOVE looking at other quilting and sewing blogs. In fact, that's part of why I started this one, so I could join the fun. But I'm often blown away by how much sewing time these other bloggers find, and how seamless (pun not intended) everything they create looks. Are they all professional photographers? The step photos they post are well-lit, fabrics are pressed, no excess clutter crowds in. My photos so far have been only a little dark and wrinkled, and that's with maximum effort and way too many attempts to count. How do they have time to sew AND take photos of what they're sewing as they go every day?
So I present to you my wonky block update and my template plastic experience, here.
 |
| Star Wars pancake and cookie cutters from William-Sonoma. Very cool, but not on my agenda at the moment. |
As I was working on my wonky log cabin blocks this week, I had that same feeling of pressure settle down on me. I'm so eager to see where these blocks are headed that I'm giving up sleep at night, and I definitely want to share the process with you. But. A big but. How do I balance between quality, quantity and sanity? That is, quality of photos, quantity of blog entries (gotta keep you interested!) and my sanity ('cause my husband sure isn't staying up making sure I sew those seams straight!).
I LOVE looking at other quilting and sewing blogs. In fact, that's part of why I started this one, so I could join the fun. But I'm often blown away by how much sewing time these other bloggers find, and how seamless (pun not intended) everything they create looks. Are they all professional photographers? The step photos they post are well-lit, fabrics are pressed, no excess clutter crowds in. My photos so far have been only a little dark and wrinkled, and that's with maximum effort and way too many attempts to count. How do they have time to sew AND take photos of what they're sewing as they go every day?
So I present to you my wonky block update and my template plastic experience, here.
