2022: Summer of...

A few weeks ago I was rambling about my new-ish tradition of having a theme for my summer stitching. In late spring of 2020, when we were all still trying to adjust to the awful reality of the pandemic, I was casting about for something cheerful and distracting to focus on and came up with Summer of Halloween. Our first Halloween in that neighborhood was a blast and reminded me I hadn't stitched any new Halloween pretties in forever, so I decided to spend the summer just stitching that. I enjoyed it so much I did Summer of the WIP in 2021, working to finish some long-neglected projects. 

What to do about 2022? This year has been... well, y'all have been here. You know. I hadn't given a thought to my summer stitching theme until some time in May. I was sitting in temporary quarters one afternoon, trying to come up with a theme, something I would really enjoy. Something calming. Something therapeutic. Something that would help me recover from these difficult months. And then I thought of the perfect project. Exactly the right project.

Me.

I'm the project.

2022 is the Summer of Me.

I got out my little notebook and started jotting down things I'd like to do over the summer that would be just for me. Things I enjoy. Things that calm the mind and repair frayed nerves. Things that are quiet, and slow, and pretty. And of course, creative. Things that got swept away in the upheaval and grief of the last six months.

Reading on my pretty little patio

Having tea with my favorite tea sets

Getting back to my rowing machine (Mr. Wonderful attributes this love of rowing to my Viking genetic memory... lol)

Baking, baking, and more baking (thus all the rowing!)

Of course, stitching... I have a couple of projects chosen

And all the little things you let go of when your hands are too full of hard things to hold onto them.

There's something else I want to do. Something I absolutely love--get lost in--and always, always, always put off because there's always something more important I should be doing. 

Finishing and framing

When I get going on a pile of stitching that needs finishing or framing, I may as well have fallen down a rabbit hole. I become totally absorbed. I make a mess. I spend hours and hours and then days and days at it. I completely lose myself in it. I thoroughly enjoy it. Which is why I rarely take the time to do it. Which is... backwards and wrong? My reasoning goes something like this (stop me if you've heard this in your own head): "I can't tackle this pile of finishes because if I do I'll end up spending days on it and I have all this other stuff to do and I can't just disappear into my sewing room for days so maybe once I get all this other stuff done I can get to it..." And of course we know that all that other stuff never gets completely done and so we never feel like we can break away and play. 

Not this summer. This summer, I want to finish and frame until I go cross-eyed. I want to enter my sewing room after my morning row and only emerge for snacks. I want to make a mess. I want to throw some things into my slow cookers for supper (two new cookbooks have arrived!) and walk away from the kitchen. I want to spend an hour trying to choose just the right embellishment. I want to re-pin something three times. I want to beautify the things I've stitched so they can live where I can see and enjoy them, instead of in the finishes box. 

And it's almost as if this was the plan all along. My sewing room is small, but it's painted a soft, sunny yellow (by some past resident) and has a bay window. My pink and green sewing room is going to clash magnificently with the yellow paint, but I don't care. I think my soul needs sunny walls and a bay window. 

So it's the Summer of Me. I'll be quietly puttering away, putting myself back together. You're most welcome to drop in any time. Consider it a season-long open house. We'll have tea. We'll eat tiny baked goodies. We'll get lost in the sewing room. We'll sit on the patio and listen to the birds. And we'll feel better. (I won't make you row.)

See you soon, my dears.