Too Much!

I was trying to work on my profile and it turned into something else. It's too much for that little box. If I was going to pick a phrase that describes me, that is it. Too much! I work too hard and play even harder. Life IS what you make it and I've made most of mine personally or pulled it out of a trash pile. Too much dancing, too much eating. Too much drinking and fabric buying! Not at the same time! Well.... maybe only a couple of times. ;o}

A few years ago I lived near a shopping heaven named Atlanta. Shop till you drop? I wore my knees out in only two years time. I'm damn near a cripple! Besides my all consuming gluttony, my other faults are not knowing when to quit a lost cause, being overly passionate about those I love and always putting my much too real self way out there.

People who know me as an outspoken adult might never guess I was a very shy child that never attended kindergarden. My journey hasn't been in the middle of the pack, so it's been rough at times. I am blessed with a very wonderful bunch of brothers and sisters and a few very good friends who always help me through the rough spots. I'm a lucky woman.

While other kids were learning to play nice, I was was stuck out on the farm in remote rural Kansas with a little dog named Nippy for a companion and a very moody sewing enthusiast for a mother. I swear to God, she had more faces than a mug book. The comparisons to Dorothy and the Wicked Witch doesn't end yet...A huge tornado nearly sucked me and my infant sister up....up...and away one afternoon. I'm not kidding.

Somewhere over the rainbow, I was doing English smocking and having tea parties with dolls and things rescued from the trash pile. My girlhood was ruled by my obsession with dressing my dolls and creating fashions for them by hand or on the finger eating treddle sewing machine out in the shed. My teenage years were during the hippie era of the early seventies. I wanted to be an artist and tried to learn to play the guitar. Besides my wavy hair, the thing that set me apart from the legions of girls with center-parted straight hair was my really wierd handmade clothes adorned with profuse embroidery and patches. Heard of the Mad Hatter? My moniker was the Mad Seamstress.

Most of my adult life the carpet has been full of threads, the dining room table has ALWAYS been covered with sewing and the housekeeping is waiting until tomorrow. My four daughters became my "Barbies" to dress and pamper. We might have lived like white trash but we looked CHIC! The girls looked for scissors with such frequency that one decided to hide them until I offered a reward! Many years of beautiful little girls in pretty dresses. I made clothes and quilts for everyone I love. Even my husband had handmade shirts. Really awful novelty print ones whenI didn't like him. :)

I've tried many crafts. I had quilt fever for a while. Jewelry design ruled for a couple of years and is on it's way out. Knitting is my new pastime for lazy nights in front of the tube. Some of my professional occupations besides seamstress have been wallpaper hanger, nurse, recreational therapist, craft class coordinator and custom picture framer. The pattern seems to be I take on something new and then loose interest when it is no longer a challenge.

A few years back I made the decision to quit playing around and make some money. I went to college and became a mechanical designer. Designing backhoes and other large construction equipment is very challenging but it's not my passion. I wish it was. But I do love the money I make.... and the shopping! Nothing makes me happier than to give away the clothing and accessories I create or buy.

Epiphany #1

Last December I had an epiphany of sorts. My buying "too much" may have come to an end.

The Christmas buying frenzy was at it's peak when I made a trip to Wal-Mart. I was generally upset with the quality of merchandise being offered when I realized that all those carts in that crowded store were full of shoddy crap from Asia. How much of it was going to wind up in the landfill before next Christmas? All those good hard working people spending money they didn't have on stuff they would throw away before it was paid for. It slayed me.

This past Christmas, instead of the usual landslide (or landfill) of gifts, the grandkids got only one or two very well thought out and well made toys. The adults were SOL. To reinforce my thinking on the subject, the present the kids unanimously liked best was a bunch of pieces of PVC pipe and elbows we used to make marshmallow blasters.

Epiphany #2

I love buying fabric, in fact I'm probably - NO, I KNOW- I'm addicted to it. Buying fabric is even more fun than sewing it, so I have bolts of fabric from the dollar tables at Wal-Mart that will never see a pair of scissors. What a waste. I probably have enough fabric to last until I die.

What will I do with it when I get old? Give it to the Salvation Army? Do other people give away their stash? What if..... I buy my fabric and supplies from thrift stores, like the Salvation Army, Goodwill or Hope Haven's thrift store? If I can't find new fabric, I will just have to remake clothing to fit my needs. Then somebody will get some good from all my gluttony! Wal-mart certainly isn't doing enough good with the money I spend there!

A Mission Is Born

Deciding to use my craftiness for good, I've been toying with the thought of building a business that will someday be able to give back to the community and provide jobs for disabled persons. Someday I hope my new line of clothing and crafts made out of other people's cast offs will do that.

I will not contribute to the evil corporate giants any more. Enough is enough! It doesn't make sense to crap up this beautiful planet with so much STUFF! American companies have moved overseas, employed the good people of Asia and Mexico to keep up with our country's demand for cheeply made goods AND they're poluting everybody's air and water as fast as they can. The Gulf of Mexico near the Mexican shore is visibly bluer from space from all the dye poluted water from prewashed jeans. We are all supporting this every time we buy more useless trashy stuff.

Inconceivable!

At the very least every big box store should have to install solar panels on the roofs of to get them off the power grid.

Please buy quality and buy handmade!

We all have....
Too much!