Design Diary

I love the fall. Time for cozy sweaters, warm scarves, hot drinks, pumpkin pie, halloween, ghost stories, Thanksgiving… all of my favourite things. This year it also meant getting ready for Isabel’s first year of school! I can hardly believe it.  In some ways she already seems so grown up and I know she’s doing great in school, but in other ways I just can’t believe that my baby is so independent. Look at this fierce little woman ready to take on the world! For her first day, I made her a little narwhal print tunic and hologram spandex leggings. She paired them with yellow rubber boots and I can tell she felt like a million bucks! hehe… I just love this kid.

The transition to school has been pretty painless for us. The hours are similar to what our daycare hours were, and she finds taking the school bus exciting.  I’m enjoying not having to pay for daycare, but am missing some of the flexibility that home daycare provides! I have to admit, I still go to Isabel’s daycare now and then for a puppy play!!!  We’ve been so lucky to have really amazing women provide care for Isabel. If you are a daycare worker, you do amazing work!

Our new puppy is pretty much full grown I think. She’s about 9 months old now and just slightly smaller than Oliver, our monster pug, but much thinner. I suspect she’ll fill out over the next little while. She’s a real sweetie, very smart and great with kids! My one challenge with her is a new one that has come up over the last few weeks, and that’s being over protective while she’s on a leash. She doesn’t like people getting too close and puts on a big show.  My mom recently adopted a rescued french bulldog who is about 2 or 3 years old and a total sweetheart. She and Leah get along so well. It’s hilarious to see the two of them run around and play together. Oliver has really slowed down a lot over the last year and a half, but he’s holding steady. Leah follows him around the house and is constantly trying to snuggle with him, which he allows, reluctantly.

This summer has been a weird one. We had so many out of the ordinary things happen, like a huge tree coming down, our car blowing up (figuratively)… and I feel like there was something else but I forget what it is now.  We spent so many weekends either chopping up trees and stacking wood, or my husband fixing the car and I trying to entertain Isabel, that we didn’t get to any of the projects we wanted to this summer like painting the deck and garage… And Isabel had a lot of time off throughout the summer which meant I had a lot of time away from work… I feel like all summer, whether in my personal life or work life, I’ve just been constantly playing catch-up.

That being said, we did fit in a lot of fun things, like a trip to Canada’s Wonderland, we got to watch turtles hatch just down the road from our house, and spent lots of time in my cousins new pool.

Now that Isabel is basically off to fend for herself on the school yard, it’s really set my biological clock ticking. I have so much anxiety and worry over whether I’ll be able to have another baby.  I’ve felt a lot of uncertainty in my life, but this uncertainty is one of the worst because it’s so primal and out of my control.  I’m at the mercy of my own body.  Added onto this is the fact that my brother really seems to have dropped off the radar once again. I want that “normal” adult sibling relationship and it just seems I’ll never have it.  Relationships are hard.

I’ve got a few new patterns still to release. I’m not sure why, I’m feeling a lot of apprehension and anxiety around it and keep putting it off. What if there’s a mistake? What if people don’t like it? I feel like because I’ve been out of the work-loop for most of the summer, my creative confidence has taken a bit of a hit. I’ve been here before, many times in fact, and I’ll be here in this headspace again. I know I need to acknowledge it, then fight against these feelings because they’re not true!

I also am eagerly awaiting a shipment of fabric in anticipation of cooler weather. I’m planning on releasing a number of ready made pieces in the lead-up to Christmas. I know that my made to order turn around can make it tricky for gift giving, so I’m hoping this will help those of you who want to give the gift of comfortably, ethically made underwear!

I’ve also added a handful of new scrunchies to my shop. I am obsessed with these, and the black in particular is a hot seller! In addition to the silk, I’ve included my signature red and black buffalo plaid flannel as a scrunchie. I’ll be restocking my buffalo plaid lingerie pieces soon, so now you can really coordinate from ponytail to underwear!