A Year of Make Do and Mend

Well, I'm a proud step-mama. My eldest step-son and his wife are both graduating with their PhDs next May! Keep in mind that these "kids" are 2 and 3 years younger than I, but that means we actually get along really well because we all grew up with the same stuff and we have very similar interests, which is super cool.
What does this have to do with "Make Do and Mend"? Well, my little smarty-pants darlings are having their graduation party at Disney World! Woohooo! My guys and I are so excited! However, this does mean a year of living frugally and going after the best price and foregoing things I'd normally get without thinking about it too much.
To be honest, we don't need anything. We have enough clothes and toys and movies for now. The boys are growing, of course, so they'll get stuff as needed, but I will be scouring the sale racks for school clothes. There never seem to be many boys things at the thrift stores. Maybe because they're harder on their clothes, or perhaps because they don't have as many clothes to begin with - I have no idea, but I sure have a hard time finding stuff for them at the thrift stores.
Besides, I have so many projects I could be making to wear. Sadly, last year I put on some weight and I don't fit most of my patterns. Part of me thinks I should just make the stuff anyway and sell it. Another part of me wants to lose the weight, while yet another part of me figures I could probably modify the patterns to fit my current size. The sum of these parts gets overwhelmed and freaks out and does nothing, but since I have some motivation, e.g. Disney World, I may actually get a move on to do these things. I know, I know. You've heard that before. We'll see how that goes.
By the way, I now have blue hair. I'm not sure I like it. It's a pretty color, and I've always wanted to do something out of the reds/pinks, but it seems so dark. I'm not a dark person. I put it over my natural hair color as well as the part I already had pink and bleach blond. The bleached area is the prettiest part of it. The rest looks sort of green and sad. Maybe I'll like it more once I get a trim. The pretty part is the color of the Caribbean, so I don't mind that. It kinda makes me want to go SCUBA diving, though. I haven't been in over 2 years and I really want to get back in the ocean.
Oh, no!
Speaking of hair and getting it trimmed, I'll have to go back to Fantastic Sam's for my haircuts if I'm living frugally. Sad sauce! I finally found a stylist I really like, but she costs $45, $50 with the tip. Dang it. I may have to consider her a necessity. I really like her work on my hair.
I also have a website for my massage therapy student business, www.catalystbodyworkbytracie.com. Be sure to go visit it. I'll be adding some updates shortly, since I'll be learning a new technique in Shiatsu after this week, I'm really excited about it. It has more of the karate chop type massage that you normally think of when someone mentions eastern massage modalities. Even though my thumbs have gotten stronger over the past 6 weeks, they do get tired when I have a lot of clients. Or when my clients wear jeans. That hurts like crazy the next day!
Well, I've gotten off topic quite a lot in this entry. Don't worry, I've taken my medication. I just have a lot on my mind.  Like coupon clipping and getting groceries while avoiding WalMart, keeping the bills down and reminding the boys that we can't buy a bunch of toys if we want to afford Disney World. All while keeping up with my studies and the household (thankfully, my mom is coming up this summer during my school days to help out around the house. I really couldn't do this without her). First World problems that I'm grateful to have, really.
So, where shall I start on this Make Do and Mend year? Well, my little flowerpots, I think I'll start with the Sunday supplements and clip the coupons and look for deals. Though I'd like to know why there are never any coupons for the stuff I actually use...?

Ouchie!

Several years ago, I injured my left knee while in rehearsal for a show. My costume included platform boots (think Herman Munster) and when I went to do a turn, my body went, but my foot didn't. Ouchie! I was still able to go on, so I didn't go to the doctor or anything.
Yeah, I probably should have.
In the past, oh, two years or so, my knee has been reminding me that I should have done that. Now that I'm practicing shiatsu on a nearly daily basis, it's REALLY complaining. So, I finally made an appointment to see the doctor about it. I have a feeling that I may kneed surgery. (See what I did there?) I'm hoping I can put that off for a while so I can finish school, but the pain has been so bad, I don't know if that's going to be possible. Also, my knee cracks (and by "cracks" I mean THUDS) repeatedly throughout my shiatsu sessions. It's kind of embarrassing. It doesn't hurt too much while it's happening, but afterwards, holy cow!
So, there's that.
On the other hand, I'm passing my classes (even Traditional Chinese Medicine, which I don't get at all) with flying colors. I was a little worried about my shiatsu practical, which doesn't happen until next week, but we did practice runs in class yesterday and I did much better than I thought I would. I do have a few things I need to remember, but over all, I feel ready.
Artistically, I've been working on another quilt top. Very basic, simple blocks, but I started with a set of fat quarters I picked up at JoAnn's. The colors are very Autumnal; burgundy, olive, gold, purple. I ran out of the fat quarters and went to Hancock's to find something that would coordinate. Don't you know I forgot to take a swatch! I decided to go with my gut and came home with four fabrics (including a solid burgundy and purple to break up all the busy-ness) that totally coordinated! I added those to the mix and decided that I still needed a bit more for the complete quilt top so I went back to JoAnn's to see if I could find any more of the original fat quarter set. I found two tucked in the back of a shelf and grabbed them both. I also found two fabrics that will work just in case I run out of the ones I have. I've taken a break from sewing while I've been studying for the mid-term exams, but I'm ready to get back to the sewing table. I'll post pix soon.
Oh, yeah! I made enough money on www.Spoonflower.com to purchase some samples of designs that have been laying in wait to be released. They are especially colorful and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. One of the best, newer options on Spoonflower is that you can order swatches on any type of fabric they have instead of just the plain quilter's cotton. I'm so happy they have that option now. Some of my designs simply look better on some of the other fabrics. I really like their performance knit. The colors come out so vibrant! (You know how I LOVE my colors to be vibrant!)
By the way, Optitz Outlet, mentioned in my last entry, has a website, www.opitzoutlet.com, and they're on facebook.

Impromptu Field Trip

Every once in a while, you have a few spare moments to yourself when you say, "What the heck? I'm going to do something for myself." If you happen to be able to help someone else in the process, well... Yay!
One of my classmates at massage school was looking for another practice buddy, so I volunteered myself. She's in the Western Massage program, so it'd be different than the Shiatsu that I get in class. So, on Monday morning she contacted me to say she'd got the practice room rented for the afternoon before I'd need to be home for my boys.
It was a great change to have Swedish massage! Not that I don't love Shiatsu, I really do, but it's very intense. It was also nice to get a taste of what it is I'll be doing eventually when I start the Western part of my training.
It didn't take very long, so I had some extra time to myself. Since it's the last week of school for the guys, I won't have many more chances like this, so I snagged it. I went to Opitz Outlet.
I don't know the story of Optiz, but they have brand new clothes, some designer, at deep discounts. I saw a pair of shoes I really liked, but they were $44.00. I couldn't see spending that much. No, really. I'm cheap. One of the best pairs of shoes I ever had (lasted for three years of nearly daily wear) I got at Payless for a dollar.
Anyway, my husband and I are going to a wedding for one of my childhood friends this month and I decided to be on a mission for a dress to wear to the wedding. Wedding guest attire can be tricky. You want to look nice, appropriate and still not pull focus - which, since I have fuchsia hair, is already a challenge for me. Also, my husband's class reunion is at the end of this summer, double duty for this dress. I found several designer dresses that I liked, but even at the outlet prices, they were out of my budget. Time to look off the designer rack... Sigh.
Well, I found a few along the back wall of dresses and saw several more that I liked. I had it down to three when I stumbled across a DKNY sheath number with a tropical orchid digital print on the front, black on the back. The front was just colorful enough to suit me, but not so much so as to be distracting from the bride and her bridesmaids. It'll be lightweight enough for the outdoor wedding, easy enough to dance in when the time comes. I think it'll pack nicely, so that when we go to Maine for my husband's reunion, it'll be carefree. Yay, reunion attire! Oh, I forgot to mention, it was $27.00. Ka-CHING! 70% off the retail price.
If you're in the Minneapolis area and in the market for something spiffy for a special occasion, might I suggest Opitz Outlet on Excelsior Blvd.? I might. In fact, I will.

Rainy day musings...

Flood warning alarm on my phone went off in the middle of the night. We aren't in an immediate danger area, but that warning was no joke. The rain has been going on and off since yesterday afternoon and it's hard not to enjoy the rumbles of thunder and the rustling of sheets of rain on the roof. Our lawn has magically sprouted overnight.
Of course, we got our water park pool on Friday and put it up while the sun was still shining yesterday. It's laying, deflated in the back yard, which was mowed yesterday by my 11 year old (his first time). So, we'll have to wait a bit longer to use the pool, but the rain is so refreshing, I'm not going to complain too much. Even my kids seem to be okay with the extra waiting. Anticipation.
Anticipation is such a strange phenomenon. It can be an exhilarating, frustrating, crazy-making and wondrous time. Like when you've ordered something and hear the UPS truck rumble down the street but they don't stop at your house...yet. Or when you're all set to go to school but you still have to wait two months before the first day. Or studying for your first test in 20 some years, freaking out and imagining that you didn't take notes on the stuff that's actually going to be on the test. Yeah, I did that to myself last week. I may not have aced the tests, but I got all A's and B's. Stupid anxiety.
If you haven't guessed by now, I'm prone to anxiety. It's super fun. <sarcasm> At long last, I've figured out one trick to help: I don't cram. I stop studying for a test several hours before the actual exam time. If I don't, I only add to the pressure. When I'm in a show, I can't be one of those people who stands backstage with a script on opening night double checking lines. If I don't know it by opening night, I never will and I'll make something up. No lie. That's how I roll. I always seem to take that anxiety and make it work, but I can only do it if I stop myself before I go nuts. I've gone nuts. It's not fun.
Okay, I haven't actually gone nuts, but there was that nervous breakdown. I don't want that to happen again. Granted, some of what perpetuated the physical response was not knowing what was wrong and having to go through a million tests to figure out what it wasn't. You'd have trouble, too, if you were told you may have cancer, you may have MS, heck, "we just don't know what it is." That's enough to make anyone a little nuts.
Over the past year, so much has happened. I've had countless MRIs, a spinal tap (and the blood patch to close it up) and I've lived with not knowing if I had something acute or chronic. When you are faced with your mortality, you make a few changes.
I have created and helped to create more art in the past year than I ever have, whether it's sewing, painting, sketching, writing or performing. I've figured out that "what I really want to do" is help people. If I get to also make art and people kind of like/want it, great. When I tried to make art my life, I lost my spark. I worried more about if I could make a living at it and that stressed me out. Art stopped being an enjoyable endeavor when I started to worry about whether I'd be able to feed my family with it. My husband is close to retirement and I have to be able to contribute. Not only that, I need a purpose.
When I landed on Massage Therapy as a possible vocation, it was like doors not only opened, they flew open and all the porch lights went on. Since I started on the MT path, I've finished four art projects and made significant progress on several others. Something is working for me. I don't put any stock in supernatural forces, so I'm just going to say that I found my personal purpose. For many years, I tried to be what I thought people expected of me. I enjoyed much of what I was doing (performing), but still... something wasn't quite there for me. Now that I've come to this place, I feel pretty unstoppable. It's kinda scary. I've never felt this way about my life before, and the anticipation is pretty intense, but I've a good feeling about it this time. Finally.

Summer's Here! - Midweek Edition

I can hardly believe it! Memorial Day is behind us and the weather is cooperating. The lilacs are blooming and the lawnmowers are humming. It felt great to finally go for a walk and not need my hoodie!
One of our local flower markets has a slogan for the summer that really speaks to me: Summer's short, fill it with color! Now, I'm a lousy gardener (I joke that I have a black thumb), but I have planted some beans and herbs that I hope will provide some greenery on my porch. My one and only flowering shrub (a bleeding heart) is drooping with blossoms. I have a closet full of bright colors, enough to not need to shop for the rest of the season, but who am I kidding? For what more could a person ask?
I really wish I was better in the garden. I always have grand plans for my own vegetable garden and beautiful flowers, but I'm pretty lazy. I wish I could have a garden that all I had to do was plant it and forget it. I've tried that method, however, and it doesn't work. This year (and next, for that matter) would be near impossible to have a garden because I'm in school so much of the time and studying or practicing on people the rest of the time. On the other hand, I am learning to have a more structured schedule, so perhaps having a garden next year isn't such a bad idea. Maybe this whole having a schedule thingy isn't such a bad idea, either.
It sounds so luxurious to not have to work outside the home when you are working outside the home in a job you don't really like. The truth is, I'm not a self-starter. I hate having a schedule, but when I don't have one, I don't do anything in particular. A li'l of this, a li'l of that... and none of it really seems to make a difference to me or to anyone else. Well, good gravy! No wonder I've been depressed!
Now that I have classes to attend and homework to do and tests to take, I'm much happier. I've been practicing bodywork on my friends and making them feel good and relaxed is so rewarding! I finally feel like I'm making a difference in some subtle yet profound way and it feels pretty fantastic, I'm not gonna lie.
Dressing in the colors of the sun is one thing (and a great thing, too) but living in the sunlight of something you love to do takes it to a whole new level.
My flowerpots, all I wish for you is that you get to live in that sunlight, but you have to be the one to step out the door, open the curtains, or flip that switch, whatever it takes to make that change. Not only is summer short, but life is short. Be bright. Fill it with color.

Studying...

Oh, yeah. That studying thing. I have my first Physiology quiz on Tuesday and an Anatomy quiz on Thursday. I spent all of Mother's Day weekend studying and this weekend has been spent making  Physiology flashcards and testing myself on them. I've got to the point where I know them all and now that I've made it to that point, I'm going to stop looking at them. I have to step away or my brain will explode.
Of course, I have yet to make flash cards for Anatomy. That'll have to be later tonight. I have a DVD that goes along with my Anatomy book and I' think I'll watch that before I make any cards. It may be that's all I need is to watch the DVD. Otherwise, I'm off to make the donuts... er, flashcards.
I'm having a hard time in my Traditional Chinese Medicine class. It's really hard being a skeptic. There are certain things you "just have to accept" and my first instinct is to say, "no, I don't." So I'm treating it as a bit of anthropology. I'm trying to look at it as learning a new language and culture, one that I don't have to integrate myself into, but would like to understand from a cultural point of view. It's not easy, especially when I know my instructor, who's a really nice guy and good at explaining things, is gung ho about it. But I know I'm not the only one in my class who just accepts things on account of because. A couple of my classmates are struggling with it as well.
I was almost to a point where I thought I should switch my certification to strictly Western massage, but we've started practicing Shiatsu on clients and, wouldn't you know it, I'm really good at it. I already have repeat clients! If I could just take the Shiatsu without the TCM, I'd be golden, but I should have some background in where the modality comes from, so there you have it.
On the creative front, I've been working on quilting a baby quilt (I'm about halfway through) and I worked a bit on my sampler quilt, as well.
I've done smashingly well in the thrifting department, scoring 20-30% off of the last two purchases I've made. After I did my banking and grocery shopping on Friday, I thought very briefly of going to the Goodwill between the Festival Foods and my house, but it didn't feel right. Then I decided to hit the Savers. I was feeling drawn to it like the proverbial moth. The last time I had been there, I found a lovely long skirt and I felt I would find another. I did indeed. I found two. And some leggings and a couple pairs of knit pants I can wear to school. Then I went to the back corner where they have some craft items. I almost didn't go back there, but am I glad I did! I found doll parts and faces! No, you don't understand. I've been looking for these vintage faces for ages. They're the type that my grandma used to make these really crazy fun fur tissue box covers. I have some fun fur that I've wanted to use to make one, but I couldn't find any faces like the old ones. I hit the doll face jackpot.
Then, when I went to check out, the lady in front of me had used a coupon and it was left on the counter. The clerk asked if it was mine and I said no, it was the previous lady's. She gave me the 20% off for being honest!
Well, I've taken a long enough break from studying. I'd better get back to it.

First day of school!

Tomorrow I'm headed off to school to begin training as a massage therapist. I'm really excited and have been looking forward to it for two months.
Last Thursday evening was orientation and I got to meet my classmates for the next several months (there are 20) and pick up my books for the first term (there are 10). Tomorrow morning I'll be getting a brain full of Human Physiology and the afternoon has me learning the fundamentals of Shiatsu massage. Wednesday will be my most challenging class, Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I don't believe in TCM, but decided to take it (it's part of the East/West program I'm taking) because a lot of people do seem to really believe in it and at least I'll know what the heck they're talking about. I do believe in learning, so I'm going into it with a slightly open, yet still very skeptical mind. I'm just hoping for a passing grade in that one, to be honest. It'll be interesting, to say the least. Then Thursday has me in Musculoskeletal Anatomy for the morning and back in Shiatsu for the afternoon.
I was looking at my anatomy textbooks over the weekend and freaking out. It's a LOT of information and I don't really have that much experience with the subject, to be honest. When I took any science classes in my earlier college career (as a Theatre Arts major) it was something I had to do because it was part of the core curriculum. I did just enough to get by. But I was thinking this morning: I wasn't bad at it, I just didn't apply myself. I think I got Bs and Cs in it (remember, this was 20 years ago) and that was okay considering I didn't put my all into those classes and I was doing all my theatre stuff, too, with rehearsals every night and performances and all the other classes and projects. I always took a full load of at least 15 credits.
This time around, I'm taking a break from the acting, I only have to worry about subjects related to my course of study and I can really focus on the science. I'm not stupid by any stretch of the imagination, so I should be able to get this. I have a fresh perspective on the subjects and I'm looking forward to the challenge.
On the creative front, I've managed to finish a few of the projects I've had laying around for (ahem) a while. I finished the flannel shirt dress I posted pix of a while back, tho I may just wear it as a frock coat instead. It looks really cool that way with my charcoal gray leggings and a black t-shirt (I know, not sun colors, but will look so cool come Fall). I even have blue combat boots to go with it.
I finished a blanket bag I've had sitting around for years waiting for a binding and webbing. I'm looking forward to using it to carry my sheets and towels to massage appointments.
I've been thrifting (oh, yes, I have). I took two bags of my sons' outgrown clothing to Savers to get the 30% off coupon and hit the proverbial jackpot for school clothes.
Don't worry, I also got the boys some new pants and shorts for the summer months. They're growing so fast!
Which reminds me, they need clean clothes so I have laundry to do. I have to manage my time better now that I'm a student. I think I have a grasp on things until I don't, know what I mean?