The colour green-yellow

Folks,

Some of you may know my project at the moment is to produce stock for my Christmas craft market in December. I've been doing this - making and selling at craft markets for a few years now so I'm well aware of the problems one encounters when producing large amount of stock.

Here's a list of the problems:

1. Boredom from
2. Lack of creativity leads to
3. Fatigue and
4. Early burn-out resulting in
5. Insanity from under-producing

This round, I try to be smart and not spend too much time making the same kind of pouches over and over again in a short span of time. If I have to make 10 similar zip pouches, I space them out. Certainly making 10 in one go is more efficient but what happens when I burn-out too early is I become paralyzed - totally incapable of making anything. I do not want that to happen.

A short while ago I had this crazy idea that I would make a batch of pouches in green-yellow. I've probably mentioned a few times my fondness for fabric in green-yellow. I looked through my stash and of course I have a ton of fabric in green-yellow.

What do you think? I suppose if green-yellow is not your thing, then these pouches might not look too attractive. But to me, they're so lovely.

The fabric on the left, I'm almost running out of. I made a nice simple clutch with it. The one on the right is a patchwork of cotton twill and green roses from Munsell's Collection.

Three easy zip pouches. The top is a patchwork of cotton drill and would you believe it - Amy Butler's fabric. I showed the zip pouch to my son and he said it looked old. I'm assuming he meant "senior citizen" old. (I think it's the flowers) The other two zip pouches are made using remnants from an Ikea fabric.

This last one is a sort of crescent bag with adjustable handle. The rabbit was a Ikea fabric remnant.

I think I spent a bit too much time making these 6 items taking time to put the different fabric together. I have to use my time wisely. It's the first week of October and you all know how time flies when you're doing something else?


7 out of 74 projects completed.

* * *

Can you spot me? I look like a boy.

Last Tuesday I had my first Tai chi lesson and it wasn't as frightening as I imagined it would be. Now I'll be the first to admit I'm one of those people who would in the past mock Tai chi. From a passer-by's point of view, the exercises look ridiculously slow and easy.

After 1 lesson, I have to admit Tai chi is not as easy as it looks. It's quite hard, actually. If you want to really learn the movements correctly, it is hard. If you're just gonna swing your arms any old how, then it's easy.

Thankfully I've done Pilates before so I think I managed the Tai chi movements pretty well as there are some similarities. Like you need to keep your spine centered. However, in Tai chi, there is a lot of coordination to do - like you swing right, your weight has to be on left. Stuff like that. Many of the participants couldn't do it. You know who couldn't do it because Mr Ong, the instructor would single you out and you have to perform solo.

The language barrier was there as Mr Ong would not speak any English. But his wife speaks some English and anyway, they discovered the best way to get me to do it right was to physically move my body for me. Like Mr Ong would come and poke his finger on my forehead, chin while his wife would adjust my tummy and legs. Oh, You Is Right came in handy! There was one old man who spoke very little Chinese and I felt sorry for him. He sucked. I should teach him the You Is Right trick.

I was a little apprehensive about the Tai chi class mainly because I had hurt my knee a couple of months ago. One day, I kneeled down to scrub the floor for far too long and when I stood up I heard a crack. From then on, my knee clicked and cracked and it was really hard to walk, sometimes I had to hobble. Needless to say, any running was out of the question. However I did continue with exercising with the machines at the senior citizen's corner. It seemed like old age came in a hurry!

Tai Chi is very hard on the knees as there is a lot of strain when you are in a half-squat position. I don't know why so many senior citizens are attracted to Tai Chi then. It doesn't make sense as don't old folks have knee problems? Anyway, I'll be honest. Several times during the lesson, I felt my knees quivering and shaking. I really thought I was done for. To my surprise, my knees survived. In a short while I'm going for my 2nd lesson. I hope I don't get to perform solo!