Have you ever had a day where a sequence of events have given you the feeling of it was meant to be. All the signs given are pointing directly to what you need? This happened to me at the Weekend – I had a Sea Glass Moment!
It’s very very easy to get sucked into new projects isn’t it? Especially as a creative, so much inspiration out there for us to jump on. We get excited by starting new shiny projects. It makes us tick. Well this weekend an email dropped in my inbox from the Night Quilter, she was advertising her new project…. The Summer Loving Sea Glass Sewalong.
It sang to me, looking at and recording the things that bring joy over Summer, collecting Sea Glass shaped fabric pieces to make a Sea Glass Quilt by ExhaustedOctopus. I had put it to one side, out of mind, knowing that starting a new project was probably a bad idea, but a series of events happened that day which made me change my mind.
A Sea Glass Moment
We had a very lazy Sunday morning this weekend, lego, chores, too much TV. We needed to get out the house in the afternoon, anyone else need to bribe their kids out on walks? Thankfully we had a little bit of chocolate left over from Easter so we decided to go on a egg hunt.
The destination was the woods, go and play in the dens, climb some trees and keep shelter from the forecasted drizzle. Loaded in the car, ready to go and setting off, straight away we hit traffic. Traffic going in the direction that we wanted to be going. Thankfully we live in a location where we can change direction easily.
A quick discussion and we ended up at the Beach! A lovely stroll down to the coast, through the fields to the beach. It was like walking back into lockdown, a secluded little bit of rocky beach. We spent quite a lot of time here when we couldn’t go anywhere, close enough and secluded enough to stay distant from others.
It was real family time, outdoors. Our afternoon was spent making flower wands and exploring a beach cove.
That one moment though, that Sea Glass Moment, was when the littlest found some sea glass.
“Look Mummy, isn’t it pretty. I found some treasure”
We looked some more. The Holy grail of sea glass showed up in moments, the blue kind, it’s rare. It spurred us on to find more, digging in the stones and making a pile of pretty sea glass.
Then I had that little ping, what I am calling A Sea Glass Moment, when I was reminded of the email that landed in my inbox that morning. All the feelings of joy that came flooding through me, the memories of all the family adventures that we’ve been missing of late, the playing and exploring in nature that have been passing us by.
Definitely a WOW moment, with all the feels. I felt that at that moment I knew I had to do it, a summer of joy, re-finding and connecting with all the things that I’ve let slip. I have been in massive overwhelm the past few months and I am acknowledging that I need to take a step back from whatever it is to start to rekindle the joy.
The sea glass collecting got real when the little purposely went into the bag to retrieve an empty cup to store our treasure. We spent the next hour rooting through stones while we watched the rain clouds heading towards us over the bay. We got a good collection in the end. The fun carried on when we got home, cleaning our treasure and making some art with it:
It’s all back in a jar now ready to play with another day. I had a lot of fun connecting with the kids that afternoon. I know it seems silly to me because we spend a lot of time with them anyway, but this felt different, a little bit magical!
Finding the Joy this Summer
Having a Sea Glass Moment has spurred my thought processes this week and after a few days I did sign up to the sew along. Taking a step back to think about how I am going to find the joy again. The past few months I have been working on this. This website, I have been oh so excited about it. Creating my brand, creating my shop, adding my listings, working out what I wanted to say, it’s been an epic process. I am utterly proud of my self but honestly, I feel a little broken!
The kids are off school a lot over the next few months, I know they are going to consume my time and heck I need to adjust to this. I’m looking forward to it, wanting to connect with them and myself in a way I know is possible. I am going to keep adding and working in Two Tiny Makes, I hope you’ll see me working on and in the community spaces that I want to grow. I’ll hope you join me?
Every new project needs a nice journal cover page doesn’t it? I have added this in the back of my journal. An important part of the process of finding the joy this summer is keeping a tracker. I carry my journal everywhere I go, it made sense to put the Summer Lovin Sea Glass Tracker straight into my journal so I can keep track of my Joy.
I have picked out 10 things I am going to track this summer, a couple are quite general and specific but others are pretty loose.
Let me tell you want I plan to track
Three sewing related tasks. My Beaufort Quilt, a Block of the Month I started last year that I want to revisit and make progress on. My Fussy Cutting Sew Along Cross blocks, I would like to catch up on the 2023 process. Sewing Tiny House Books and for Make Time, rather general sewing but making progress in moving Two Tiny Makes forward.
Two Family tasks. For nights away and for fun day trips.
Two Exercise tasks. I really love my paid for fitness classes, they hold a really awesome bunch of ladies so they hold their own category. The second of the tasks is to try and fit more free exercise in, running, cycling, yoga at home.
My last Three are a little miscellaneous, but still important for my Summer of Joy – Drawing and Teaching myself Illustrator, I have some plans for the future of Two Tiny Makes and I’d like to build on my current knowledge and take it to the next level. The next is reading, I started my year tracking the books I read and I am on about 15 in the last 9 months, I want to continue this by tracking the days of reading rather than books!
The last of them all is to DIY the Hallway. A total wild card, one that I want to achieve to help with the general look of our run down house. We’d like to move in the near distant future and giving everywhere a little boost of love will hopefully get us there!
That’s 10 things of Joy! What would you choose?
The Sea Glass Quilt
Onto the next exciting bit, yes I am going to track all Summer but I also get to collect the joy! The tiny scraps of sea glass fabric pieces that I am going to turn into a quilt in Autumn. There are so many different colour options to choose from and after a little look in my scrap supply I am looking at these:
I love taking on over peoples designs from time to time, I love putting my own spin on things too. I don’t own a lot of fabric, but what I do have is a lot of scraps, ones that are tiny. Here I am showing you my 1″ scraps and I plan to use these to make my Sea Glass Quilt. It might not be very big when I have finished but I am okay with that.
The colours I have chosen here are blues, grey, browns, green, grey, I hoping to get the natural sea glass feel rather than a rainbow version. I am looking forward to having a play with my scraps before really settling on my colour palette of 10 colours.
Taking a tiny step back to re-evaluate and see where I am going. Picking up some things that are important to me feels like the right decision for the coming months. I think that life is important and making that connection and taking the time to move through the things that bring joy will be the right call.
If you’d like to come in and join me while I Make Time, come and join me in my community space, it’s free, I’ll drop you an email with the details:
How are you at finding the joy? I hope you can find A Sea Glass Moment for yourself…. I’m looking forward to my Summer!
Take care Karen x
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