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Having so much time off between the end and beginning of semesters has felt a little strange. Normally during the Christmas break, I work my tail off, but I did so much shift switching before Christmas that I’ve only got one shift (thus far) this coming week. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a complaint. But there have been a few times over the last week that I’ve been sitting at my computer or at my table/craft area and found myself thinking “Oh man, I should really be doing readings for class”. Only to remember that no, I have no homework right now.
So while taking a break from homework, I’m enjoying a period of super domestication. Receiving a wonderful Husqvarna sewing machine from my parents, I now want to have a space for it.
New storage shelf for sewing machine and random craft stuffs
About half of my buttons. These are inherited from my Great Aunt. Now to find the others from my Grandmothers and I should have a jar full.
My first sewing project on the new machine was a voodoo doll pin cusion (incidentally, he is made from 30 year old orange/white checked gingham fabric).
It has been fun, creating my little craft corner, learning how to use my camera and testing out the sewing machine. I’ve done some sewing here and there over the years, but have never had a machine that made it easy. This machine actually comes with a lesson where you bring your machine into the store and they show you how to use all the settings and in which situations, and teach you how to troubleshoot. Fantastic, as I tend to run into mechanical confusions often with these getups.
I have also started a ‘wedding bin’, which is fun. In reality it’s a large, grey Rubbermaid container with a “Wedding Stuffs” lable taped to the lid. But in my mind, there’s a little light that comes out of it. It’s full of laughter and dreams and projects to come. It’s full of family and music and memories that have yet to be made. It’s full of scraps of paper, receipts and magazine clippings. It’s full of love.
Christmas has come and gone for another year, and it just felt so easy this year. The Christmas day gatherings were minimal. With my brother still living in Australia, and family friends celebrating elsewhere, the morning consisted of just my parents, myself and Mr. Circus. Christmas dinner wast at a family friend’s home (the man who will be performing our wedding ceremony) and after dinner was at our place with some wine, a couple friends and Hellboy 2. It was relaxed and, aside from some dog allergies, stress free.
Yup, my delightful fiance got me a delightful camera for Christmas. After ours died a few months ago, I toyed around with my Holga for a while, but at $40 per roll of film, it was just unbearable. Now I can take all the pictures I want! I really can’t beging to explain how excited I am.
As an anthro student, I am always aware that this constant need need need of material objects is a symptom of a problem that humanity has created all by itself. Global capitalism dictates that we must spend our sometimes hard earned money on many many many things. And if you can’t decide what to spend it on, don’t you fret, because they will create just that perfectly useless but overly desired object that while serving no real purpose will fill you with a sense of desire you haven’t known since your first sexual encounter.
Even when you try to block out these man-made desires, it can be so hard to ignore it all. When I used to watch tv everyday, I always had an ongoing shopping list in my head; a list of little odds and ends that I’d seen on tv that I just had to have! Now that we don’t even own a television, I know much less about the bits and bots that are out there just waiting for someone’s relatively hard earned money to be slapped down on the counter. I do find that I do a lot of Internet window shopping, but because I’ve shut down my credit card, the lovelies I find on-line are just day dream material because I have no way of making them come home with me.
And yet, I still find myself drawn to the immediate quick fix of retail therapy. When I’m having a shit day, my first thought is to go out shopping. But then usually I have a reality check because I hate wasting money and will end up just feeling sorry for myself because a)I’m already having a shit day and b)I won’t let myself spend any money.
Today though, these two things are playing well together. After morning after morning of waking up too tired to think, I skipped out on my second class to come home for a nap. After snoozing for about three hours, I woke up to a truly cloudy, kind of cold ugly fall day. The first few days like this always drag me down.
Thinking I’d pick myself up, I was looking at wedding websites to distract myself, but the pictures were full of sunny days and smiling people. With no sunshine and not in the mood to smile, I checked out my second go-to pass time, recipe websites and blogs.
Now I’m off to the grocery store to get canned pumpkin, quick oats, brown sugar, and whatever I think will help me to bake away my early fall blues (and get my mind off the fact that every day I miss my camera so much more).
