Outlook and Happiness

(pattern & fabric)
I like the dress with a belt! Have you noticed all of the dresses with belts lately? I went into Anthro the other day and I was surrounded with cotton dresses with belts (temptation). Also, did you know that cotton/linen, medium weight fabrics shirr up quite beautifully? They do! All this shirring makes me feel like Bubba from the movie Forest Gump. Remember when he talked about all of the things you could make with shrimp? That's me with shirring. "You can shirr cotton, light weight, medium weight, heavy weight, double gauuuuze, linen, cotton blends, you can shirr just about anything Forest." Ahhh sillyness =)

On a different note, I will be away for a bit. My etsy shop will be closed from June 29th (this afternoon) to July 7th. My fabric shop will remain open, but all orders placed between 6/30 to 7/7 will ship on 7/8.

We will be on a family vacation and this will be the kids first plane ride =0 They are super excited about it. My daughter is amazed they have bathrooms on planes. When we told her about the bathrooms she gasped and said in complete joy "I'm going to go pee on a plane!" And to think I stress about what to buy my kids for Christmas.

Before I take a little blogging break I wanted to share an article I read on Yahoo the other day. It's rather appropriate for my nerves as well (plane ride). The article Happiness: 3 amazing tips from the world's oldest case study is a 72 year old study on 268 Harvard students measuring "love, work, and adaption for a good life." The article basically summarizes 3 constants for happiness. The first being have a healthy outlet such as a sport, craft, or hobby. One that is enjoyable and makes you laugh. I love the quote from the article which is "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road."

The second constant is to not take yourself to seriously. Basically let the big ego go and laugh at yourself.

Lastly, happiness must be shared. Engage in relationships, laugh together, cry together, and cherish friends and family. My little summary is very brief. I recommend reading the article to get the full dose of it. Here's the link.

After reading the article, I kept thinking about my previous neighbors who recently moved away. The household consisted of a Grandma, Mother, and her kids. They were.... different. Actually, I should say the grandma was different. To give you an idea, every summer she (grandma) would shave her head and bleach out the 1/4" buzz. She would pace the neighborhood with converse on her feet and a skimpy tank top (no bra). Our first encounter with Grandma was when she came to our door, knocked, and asked my husband to take her to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes. I can remember once being in my backyard and hearing Grandma yelling at her daughter. She was telling her daughter to "get a man" and was complaining about being to old to watch the granddaughter. As I was going inside my house, all of a sudden Grandma, with a thick accent, yells "I need to pucking relaaaax." "Oh my" I thought. (My husband and I still haven't pinpointed where the accent is from, but we do know the f's sound like p's) Anyways, on occasion I would see Grandma at a Senior facility where my daughter took ballet classes. As I engaged Grandma by saying hi, sometimes she would say hi back... sometimes not =) One day when I was talking to my neighbor I asked her how her mom was doing, because I hadn't seen her at the Senior Center. Here daughter told me Grandma had been kicked out for having some sort of altercation =0 My neighbor then went on to say how much she loved her mom and thought she was one of the funniest people she's known. What a great outlook. Rather than being burdened by her "different" mom, she instead choose to look at the humorous side of it all and didn't really take what her mom said or did too seriously. She recognized the fact that her mom should not be alone and needed her. Fortunately, I don't have a mom like that, but watching my neighbors relationship with her mom taught me a lot about outlook. So after reading the yahoo article and thinking about my neighbors I've concluded that crafting and exercise are my outlet, I should continue to invest in friendships and family, and lastly... well... please pardon my french, but...

I need to pucking relaaaax.

See you soon,

Jamie