Another Creative Outlet

Last week, I took a break from decluttering in my free time to sew. (Fun fact for those who weren’t aware I had this skill.) It originally started because my mom wanted me to repair her winter jacket. The material had ripped near the bottom part of her zipper back in December, and she was waiting for the weather to warm up before forfeiting it to me. The temperature has been slowly climbing since Spring officially began (which is about time), so I was finally given this coat.

At first, I thought I was going to have to sew it by hand. This method is more tedious and time-consuming than running it through the machine, so I wasn’t looking forward to it. But upon further inspection, I decided that I could totally sew it on my machine. Took me under five minutes to patch the jacket up.

Coincidentally, the week before, I also had a friend (well, she’s probably more of my mom’s friend) ask me if I could repair the growing tear in her coin purse. I’ve done this before for her, so she sent it to me through the mail. (Unfortunately, the purse’s zipper inside the envelope got caught in the post office’s machine, so the envelope got mangled. Guess who had to pay $2.56 to receive this “package”?)

So two days after I fixed my mom’s jacket, I went to work at repairing this purple coin purse. This one can only be done by hand. And despite the hassle it is to thread the needle and making all sorts of knots, I found the process of hand-sewing more relaxing than machine-sewing. I’m just sitting there, making loops after loops. No need to keep an intense gaze at the sewing needle and its foot, making sure that the line of thread is as straight as it should be. No clicking needles or whirling gears.

I feel this ease while I’m sewing buttons too. (I do a lot of this kind of repair work.) There’s a way to do them on my machine, but I can’t remember how it’s done – despite how few dials my antique machine has compared to more modern ones.

And since I got back into sewing this past week, I decided to also tackle a sewing project. There’s an old dress that I acquired last year that used to be my mom’s back in the day. It was originally going to be donated, but I set it aside due to its potential. Black is a classic color, and the long floral skirt of the dress isn’t out-of-fashion.

The only downside of it is where the hemline of the “top” ended. Didn’t flatter my body shape. I’m currently in the process of moving it up about two inches, which means the bottom button will be disappearing. The hardest part is just making sure that nothing looks too bulky as I’m folding material. I’ve also added little decorative details too. Like ran a line on the collar, because for some reason, it only had it in the back. Now it looks a little more polished.

Fingers crossed that everything turns out okay. After all, I had to pull stitches out twice already for one of the decorative areas. One of the instances was when I had accidentally sewn the front of the dress to the back. What an idiot move on my part; I’ve never done that before. (My elementary sewing instructor would be so disappointed in me.) Although, now I’m thinking about taking half of the stitches out for those because I’m not liking the way they look when I model the dress.

It seems like I’m always trying to edit something, ever the perfectionist.

Like Sand in an Hourglass

Every few months, I visit Barnes & Noble’s website to research when authors’ books are slated to be published. I scan through all the novels on my bookshelves and, once I come across a book whose sequel I don’t know much about or if I’m curious if the author had written anything else since I read their last book, I will punch their name into the B&N search engine to find out more. And if I find anything useful, I record all the upcoming books and their publishing date in chronological order on a Word document. Most of the time there is usually at least one book being released per month that I desire, and this is the easiest way for me to keep tract of everything.

When I was researching earlier this week, it started pretty uneventful. One book’s pub date was pushed from June to December, which was fine with me – because I still haven’t read the previous book yet. But other than that, I didn’t learn any new information from the small handful of authors I had looked up.

On a whim, I entered an author’s name who I had practically given up on her ever releasing a sequel. The way her book ended, it felt like it had the potential to be a duology or trilogy, but at the same time, the storyline itself felt complete enough where I would be satisfied if nothing more was ever written about it.

Except the sequel is being released in ten days! (Turns out, it’ll be the conclusion to a duology.)

Kat Falls’ INHUMAN is actually getting a sequel? I was in shock.

This book was published way back in October 2013. I didn’t read it until three months later, but it blew my mind when I began to think about my own life during this time. I was a senior at MSU, and I even remember which building on campus I had cracked opened this book to read it for the first time. I was killing time between classes, and because there were no proper benches to sit on, I plopped myself on the dusty tiled floor (far away from the melting snow that everyone brought in from the front doors) and leaned against a wall to read.

It’s been five years since I’ve read this book. I honestly can’t even tell you anymore what the quality of writing was. I remember bits and pieces of the plot, but I have no idea if I’ll remember enough once I eventually read its sequel, UNDAUNTED. I’m hoping there’s a summary I can find somewhere on the internet; otherwise, I’ll have to go with the flow and do the best I can once I read its sequel. 

“Why don’t you just reread the first book?” you may ask.

Except I currently have twenty unread books sitting on my dresser. If I reread INHUMAN, then my pile isn’t getting any smaller. In fact, I’ve only reread one or two books since 2016. There are just too many interesting novels out there in the world, and I only have so much time on my hands.

Over the years, there are only a handful of books I have reread. Those beloved books that made an imprint on me.

But I’ve been thinking: Is there a certain number of times you have to reread a novel in order for it to be categorized as your “favorite” book? Or how long ago you last read it?

For example, if someone were to ask me what my all-time favorite book was, and I had to give only one answer right now, without a doubt, I would reply, “Stolen by Lucy Christopher.”

According to my book logs, I’ve read this Printz Honor book four times. It was published in 2010, but I first discovered it at my local public library a year later. After I had read it, I was determined to buy Christopher’s book if I ever found it at a bookstore. And sure enough, I eventually did. 

But the last time I read it was in December 2014. 

It’s been a little over four years since I last read this book. Yet, I can still remember a majority of the plot. The various ways the protagonist tried to escape her captor. The unique way of how the book was written as if it was an extremely long letter. The vivid details, especially in describing the harsh and desolate landscape of Australia’s Sandy Desert. (Which was practically a character itself.) It was a beautifully written piece of work.

And as I’ve been thinking about STOLEN these past few days, I’ve been tempted to pick it up and reread it a fifth time. Do I have time to squeeze it in a weekend? How much guilt am I going to feel at not reading one of my unread books? Why am I attributing thoughts to inanimate objects??

To be fair, I’ve spent the last two weeks in this weird “nostalgia” headspace. Books aren’t the only thing that has me thinking about the past. Music has contributed to this as well.

One example of this is with the singer, MARINA – formerly known as “Marina and The Diamonds.” I started listening to her music way back in summer 2012, but she hasn’t released an album since April 2015. I can even tell you which writing project I was working on as I was listening to her songs on repeat. But now, she is finally dropping a new album next month. It took four years.

What have I been doing in the past four years since she released her last album? What about five years ago when I had last read INHUMAN? Or even better, what about six years ago when it marked my anniversary earlier this week for when I decided that I should seriously pursue writing as a career option?

Even though I feel like my life is constantly just this giant waiting room, time seems to slip by too quickly and silently for me to grasp.