Save the Date

I am proud to announce that the classes I am teaching with the Arts Council have been set!  You can check out my dates and details across the top of the page under the Oxford Handmade tab. 

I am so very, very excited to get this party started and cannot wait to share these experiences.  I hope to see everyone there. Remember that classes are cheaper for Arts Council members and membership fees start at just $25 a year.

After October 31st I will also be available for individual sewing lessons.  New to sewing?  Have a specific project you'd like to work on?  Need help figuring out your machine?  I'd love to help.  You can email me at Stacey@madedem.com for more information.

I'll admit I'm terrified.  I'm terrified and excited and when I start directly thinking about this life change I start to feel a little bit woozy and the room spins... but I know that at the very, very bottom of the fear is the feeling that I am doing something which makes my soul sing.  I am listening to that voice who has been so angry and upset.

Twenty years from now you will regret the things you did not do, much more than the things you did. You know what I think?  That thing you've always wanted to do?  You should go do it too.

Thank you for coming along with me.

I'm Coming Up

Well.  It's October and that means my final countdown has begun.  Plus it's time to make a few big announcements.  No Mom, I'm not pregnant.

First, I will be leaving the public library at the end of the month.  I both incredibly sad and wonderfully excited.  I have made a wonderful home at the Lafayette County and Oxford Public Library.  They have taken care of me through college, my dad's surgery, a tremendous break up, a house buying, a wedding and now the begging of my next big adventure.

What am I going to do instead?  Well craft of course!  I am hooking up with the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and our local Moms and Tots groups in order to start teaching at least two sewing/making/creating classes a month.  I could not be more excited to hoard supplies, build lesson plans, create templates and directions, and get out there with the community I love so much.  I am very excited to continue to build on the relationships that the library has provided me, but in new and exciting ways.  I do not have final dates for my classes yet, but I do have a monthly list of what they will be at the top of my blog.  If you are interested in joining us for a class, but the date is not set yet, please email me and I will add you to my list serve.  That way I can notify you when dates are released.  Also- and this is not a plug, but actual advice- I would highly suggest anyone who in interested in joining my YAC classes at the Powerhouse to join the Arts Council.  You will save $5-$10 off each class.  So you're $25 donation will pay for itself after only three classes, plus you get on the Arts Council mailing list, and you save on ALL of the other stuff the Arts Council does too.  It's worth it for the "savings" and for the cause- 100% of your donation goes to help provide more art in Oxford.

To sign up to be a member with the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council click here.

And finally, I am beginning on another big adventure.  I am starting my own business.  We're still hashing out details, like the name, but it will ultimately be a subscription service for a handmade project every two months.  It works like this- every two months, starting in January, you will receive in the mail a box of stuff.  Basically, all the supplies, directions, templates, and suggestions to create something by hand.  There is everything from basic book binding to wax seals to mini woven patches and more.  The projects are gender neutral- but you can obviously girly-fy anything with a little glitter.

People will be able to purchase the subscriptions per year (6 boxes plus two wild card boxes that will be surprises and full of extra stuff) or by month.   Individual boxes can be purchased from the Powerhouse or by contacting me online.  Boxes can be mailed to anywhere in the continental United States and would make great gifts for the upcoming season- PLUS we have just decided to do Boxes of Boxes as well.  Know a group who would enjoy the boxes?  We can put together a Big Box full of small boxes at a discounted rate.  This would be great for church groups, mom's groups, casual groups- whatever.

The best part about this entire adventure is that I will be the boss of it.  So if you have an idea or suggestion or request (more glitter! more upcycled!) I can make that happen!  I am so excited to get started that I have actually created an extra, bonus box to go out on November 1st.  I will be using this box (it will actually be an envelope, go figure) to help promote this new venture and there will be a limited number created.  However, if you want to be a guinea pig and try out this new product for FREE, I am giving away 5 November boxes in the upcoming weeks.  You'll have to keep checking in to see how you can enter for a chance to win yours.

So you see, I am going to be busy and growing and fulfilling that voice that keeps screaming my name.  I am not waiting for my ship to come in, I'm going out to meet it.  Smooth seas never made a seasoned sailor.  Carpe Diem!  And all of that stuff.  I'm scared out of my mind and I am sure that very, very soon I will miss a steady paycheck, but you know, if you wait until the perfect time to do something, you'll never do anything.

I want to thank all of you for coming along on this journey with me and for supporting me this entire time.  When I do finally start working from home full time I have big plans for this blog and will honestly be updating more regularly.  But I hope to see you at my classes, or on my list serve.  And I hope you stop by the Powerhouse and check out my Art Boxes (or Monthly Make boxes, or Made by Mail boxes or whatever we decide to call them).

It's going to be a wild ride, here's to a good time!

No I am not a tree

(Source: Here)

I find myself thinking this over and over and over all day.  I am not a tree.  I am not a tree.  I have a voice. I am not a tree.  I have options.  I am not a tree.  I have goals and abilities and friends and partners and choices.  I am not a tree.

So I am making those changes that my voice keeps whispering.  I am taking control of my body.  I am not waiting for my ship to come in- I am rowing out and meeting it.  I'd love for you to come along.  I'll be sharing the journey and posting the pictures.  If you want to join me for cheaper- and desire a little tease before the big reveal- you can become a member of the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council here.

I am choosing my family, my community and my passions.  I am choosing to let go of things that I cannot control.  I am choosing to live intentionally, peacefully, completely.  I have more choices to make and mistakes to overcome- but I am grateful to have those options.  I am not a tree.

Get Control of Yourself

As I prepare myself for the responsibility of actively teaching others, I am going to try to share some things that have been taught to me more recently.  

A few weeks ago Marco and I were invited to an adult birthday party.  It has party hats and balloons, but there were dirty words on those hats and balloons, so that made it adult.  Also there was beer- and adults.

The birthday boy is actually the husband/father of some ladies who are very, very special to me.  So special in fact, that right now I'm thinking about not seeing them three times a week when I do eventually leave the library and I'm getting a little weepy.  So special that this is one of my favorite pictures from my wedding:

I love that picture and I love that bunny in that picture.  She is cheesing it up in that picture but I still love her and that smile and how she ended up eating most of my nachos that you see to the side there...

Anyhoo- at this birthday party, that little bunny was running around like, well, a bunny.  A bunny on crack.  And you know what her mother said to her?  Her mother told her to sit down, cross her legs, put her hands on her knees and take control of her body.  And she did.

My bunny's momma didn't know it then (though she will now- hey girl!) but that moment taught me more than I could learn from any Mommy Blog or book or therapy session.  She treated that bunny like a person- not a child to be coddled, or an inferior who needed things explained to her... but as a person who was capable of controlling herself through awareness.  And the awareness thing- whoa.  In that moment I realized that I could probably use some more awareness myself.  Awareness of my own body and my own thoughts and those whispers in my soul that have been so long ignored.  

So when I find the panic climbing up my throat or the backs of my knees start to feel weak- I sit down, cross my legs, put my hands on my knees and get control of my body.  I ask my body what it's looking for- what is it afraid of?  I ask the whispers to speak a little louder, I'm still practicing.  I pace my breathing, it doesn't pace me.  And then I thank the universe for the people who unknowingly have given me so much.