Create

Darling M,

I am so sorry I have abandoned you for so long. I am going to plead not-entirely-to-blame due to having been consistently blighted with tenacious illness, and an ever-increasing imbalance in my eternal quest for a “work/life balance”. My friends claim I have gone rather M.I.A, and living with Bear doesn’t seem to aid opportunity for regular heart-to-heart communication either. It is all rather ho-hum and causing some serious reassessment of lifestyle (or lack thereof) and circumstances. My biggest downfall is that I am still keen on being Master of My Own Destiny (read: owning my own business), and so continue to plug along accompanied by a vague hope that I have made the right call (desperately hoping that I haven’t turned left, when the sign clearly said right). We all live and learn though, and such is the journey.

To aid in fixing these sad and sorry worn-out workaholic circumstances, I have hit upon a new love. Creative Outlet. It’s where it’s at. Being creative for the pure sake of being creative is soul-food – it is yoga for my spirit. Goodness me, it is why I started writing to you in the first place. I needed to stretch my metaphysical legs. As an extension of this, I have discovered I need more creative license in my life. This is where baking, cooking, designing and sewing comes in. Yep, that’s right, I am finding comfort in creative domesticity. Who would have thought that was possible of me. 

At first it started with dinners and cupcakes. The cupcakes were lovingly nicknamed the Booby cupcakes due to strawberry pink icing and a red raspberry on top. A huge hit at both Bear’s and our housemates workplaces, and yet they refused to tell their colleagues the real name of the treats. I moved on to Thai Beef Salad. Then, just last night, in an attempt to self-soothe the worries away, I made a very simple, rather rocking pasta done with vegetables, peanut oil, chilli, chives and parmesan. My tummy needed the hug and I was too worn out to feel the carbohydrate-guilt. In fact, I wanted seconds. I patted my stomach and felt unbelievably proud of myself.

In a bid to really gallop this Creative Outlet thing home, I have started sewing. Not any sewing mind you – By Hand. How 1950’s of me? No, more like how pragmatic given it was all I could do to unearth a needle, thread and fabric that didn’t cost the earth that I could experiment on. My current project should by all rights be called a toile (given I used pen rather than chalk with dubious results) but I intend on wearing it, so it is currently called dress-in-the-making, perfect-candidate-for-stain-remover.  Latent design skills assisted greatly in this project too – though I should probably accredit this to my voracious consumption of images on the net – it isn’t hard for the brain to create something out of all the pretty white noise jammed in there.

I made a trip out to that Nirvana of Creativity – Spotlight – the other day with my baby sister. I entered with the mantra “I don’t know how to sew, therefore no fabric shall be purchased”. Needless to say, once I saw the bolts and bolts and reams and reams of pretty promise and gorgeous potential – well I couldn’t help but believe that the dressmaking genius flowing through both my grandmothers’ familial lines perhaps lies somewhere dormant in me too. Goodness me, I hope it does, otherwise it will be a very sad and sorry lesson in staying true to well-meaning mantras.

Below, I have included pictures of the lovely fabric I purchased. Being that we have just stepped into sunny spring, and look forward to a blazing bright Summer of beaches and pools and succulent drinks – water and fluid was a clear inspiration as you will see. I plan on creating dresses and tops in loose liquid shapes to compliment the prints. I am adoring the fishtail hems being played out in design at the moment, and this fits wonderfully with my theme of liquid and summer. Also, this shape will perfectly compliment my undying desire for heavy wedges that wouldn’t look out of place in an orthopedic ward.  Today, too, I rediscovered my devotion to that most beautiful of the 1920’s film starlets, Clara Bow. I think her lovely makeup – all dark soulful doe eyes and love heart mouth would complement the entire look perfectly.

Anyway, behold and enjoy! It was a challenge photographing fabric with my very lack lustre photography skills. Hopefully, the images go some way to doing the prints a sort of half-justice.

So there you have it. This has turned into a seriously long letter, but perhaps it goes some way to making up for my prolonged absence.

Take care my love, and keep squirrelling!

Squirrel Nutmeg