It hardly seems fair for me to be pining for spring; after all, we’ve barely had any winter weather!  But Valentine’s day is here (we stayed in, and I made chocolate espresso waffles with raspberries for dinner… I love breakfast for dinner!)  Valentine’s day is usually when I make the end of winter sewing.  I had grand plans to sew this past week, but instead I took the time to build a new website for my chamber ensemble.  And write a term paper.

I know – it’s bizarre.  I’ve been out of school so long that I didn’t even remember what the professor was talking about when he told us to bring blue books to our midterm next week!  While being in class with students 10 years my junior is a bit odd, I do find that I had forgotten how much I enjoy a good debate.  I guess this isn’t shocking if you read my blog, but I got so interested in my analysis of  Wilfred Owen‘s  poetry that I went out to the library and got a copy of The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell.  It’s highly recommended if you are interested in World War I (and in particular what we can learn about it from the literature of the time.)  I don’t know about any other Americans, but I know that I never learned much about that war in my history classes (and if you are interested in learning why history in the US is taught in this haphazard way, I highly recommend Lies my teacher told me by James Loewen… it’s an eyeopener.  I read it several years ago, and it completely changed the way I think about history.)

Moving along to sewing topics… I’ve been giving some thought to my spring wardrobe.  I feel a bit unsettled about it – did we ever actually have winter?  It doesn’t seem like it!  We have yet to have any snow that lasts for more than a few hours.  I think winter is a lost cause at this point.  Luckily, I do prefer warm weather sewing.  I’ve noticed that there have been some pattern company changes – namely that Kwik Sew is now with BMV, and Burda is now carried on Simplicity’s website.  Seeing them there made me realize that there are quite a few lines that I have never made a pattern from, including several great independent designers.  That changes now!  I’m picking a pattern from several new-to-me lines to work on this Spring!

Over the next few days I plan to get started… first comes the semi-annual closet purge, so that I can decide what I actually need.  I’m going to do some posts about it, as well as my planning process.  I seem to manage maybe 60% of my ideas making it through, which isn’t bad I think, especially with my general lack of time right now!

I hope you all had a great Valentine’s day!  I’m still here, and I’m going to try to get back to more regular posting.