So much to say.....

and so little time.

I usually do my blogging in the morning while Connor eats his breakfast but this morning I was greeted with not one, but two super exciting emails. Two bag orders!

Now why this is so exciting is because up until now my bag orders have been from people I know.

But this time....one was from a friend of my cousin who so kindly spammed me out on FB and her blog. And the other was from one of my dear Pumpkin Patch friends.

I'll admit, orders made me nervous. I truly, deep down, did not expect to sell a single solitary thing. I've been in a funk for the last few weeks and missing my Dad in the worst way. I've also complained non stop about being bored so I thought I'd try a new hobby...and since the sewing machine and the motherly 'expert seamstress advice' were close at hand, sewing it was.

But I'm also the type who can't pick up a new hobby that doesn't have a purpose. For instance, I will never (NEVER) be able to sew my own clothes. Patterns make no sense to me (and I'm sure my mom could teach me to understand them, much like reading sheet music or blueprints) but frankly, I'm not a huge fan of homemade clothes and probably wouldn't wear them. I'd make some for the kids but the girls are too fussy and Connor...well, I couldn't make him anything worth my effort...he's a boy.

But with bags....I could find a purpose. I thought of doing an Etsy store (which I'm still working on but I want to make a bunch of really nice bags first) And if I used donated materials and kept my costs to a minimum I could put the profits toward our relay team. And that not only gave me purpose but also gave me drive to do it well.

I've gotten good (if I may toot my own horn) I've learned to make button holes and put in zippers. (in fact, Jenny, you'll be my first official zipper...the rest were practice ones) I can see a dramatic improvement from the first bags I made out of Mary's old curtains to the one I sold to my cousins friend and the one I'm making for my friend. They're good. They're nice. I'm going to make myself one for when I go back to work. I'm proud of them. I think if I find I'm getting more sales I may order some custom labels to sew inside of them. I want to do my dad proud.

This brings me to the next thing.

One of the last conversations I had with my dad was about when he'd given me the money to pay for my second year of college. I'd forgotten about it and my Dad, brother and I were on the back porch one evening while my mom was out. This was about 4-5 days before he died. My brother and I had been talking about college and I'd said something about having paid for my college tuition with bingo winnings (true story, I won the jackpot the week before my tuition...which I didn't have....was due) My dad started talking about some money he'd invested and how he'd given me the money he'd gotten from the investment. The thing is, this was when he was often not making sense, talking slow, bouncing around subjects and I thought, at the time, that was what was going on there. It wasn't until he got further into the story that I remembered the whole story....that he had, in fact, given me all the return from his investment to pay for college. My Dad, who never had two nickles to rub together, who finally had a bit of money to play with....gave it to me for school.

18 years later, it is that very education that he paid for that got me the job I am starting in 3 weeks. And for that I am grateful. And I hope he's proud of what I've become.

So, there's been no union talk for a while. I'll fill you in. Our vote is being delayed because the EFTO managed to get enough cards signed to be added into our vote. This means that on Thursday or Friday we'll have a choice between CUPE, ETFO or no union.

Now if you go back and read you'll see I was a staunch CUPE supporter. Perhaps though, I put the cart before the horse...I think I'm swayed the other way. It just looks good. So, I guess even the stubborn ones like me can be swayed. Who'd have thunk it?