Finding my passion

How does one find their passion when one is interested in so many things?! Focusing on just one thing to be “good” at is difficult when there are now so many more options open to women. The options are also now more available as I’ve moved out of my parents home – away from parent rules and restrictions - yet straight into the husband’s rules and restrictions. Once able to find my voice and the courage to express it in that relationship - there were still the restrictions of money and motherhood. When the children were born they were my passion. Through the years as they’ve grown and developed into adults I’ve slowly been able to explore more of what I like to do.
• Read – Books were my best friends during school years. It may sound corny but through books I could explore anything and everything. From the original “Super Nanny” Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, a series of books about a girl named Ginny from a town up north, learning about my Mexican heritage (Aztec Indians, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Cesar Chavez, etc.) to the discovery of Rosemary Rogers and her passionate love stories. I LOVE to read! My dream job would be to get paid for reading books. Until about 3 years ago I got to read for a living at my current place of employment. It wasn’t books but it was close enough. I loved my job and then they had to go and do this reorg thing. Now my job is nothing at all of what I did then.
• Sewing – This is another fave hobby that I have done off and on every since learning to sew as a child. From early attempts at making Barbie clothes and pillows, a passable tank dress made in home –ec class during high school to most recently a finished quilt (with more in progress)!
• Scrapbooking – I’ve completed several for my children with still several more to go. Where to find the time (and the space) for this. This one also ties in with my interest in photography, genealogy and recording family history.

• Dancing – I’ve loved dancing since discovering the Mexican cumbias (a long time ago in my youth). My parents would take me to dancing clubs (no respectable girl – back then anyway – would go to a club without her parents – so I was told). Anyway I didn’t care as long as I got to dance – and dance I did. We would get there at 8 p.m. (way to early by today’s standards I know) so we could get a table and then would stay till we shut the place down at 2 a.m.! On my list is to do ballroom dancing.
• Traveling – After traveling every year since birth to my parents birth place in Mexico you would think that I would hate traveling. I guess traveling this much you are going to either learn to love it or hate. I LOVE it! I miss traveling with my dad as he always loved to explore new places (my husband does not) and we visited a different city in Mexico each time we went. Once driving all the way to Mexico City to visit an aunt. I try to squeeze in at least a short road trip every year to some place new. Also finding postcrossing helps me travel to exotic places one postcard at a time!

• Cooking – although many people might not thinks this since I do not get to cook a meal every day, I do love cooking. I once even had my own cake business. When it became too stressful (too many cake orders + 40 hour week job + family duties) I had to choose between cakes and job. Cakes were not yet profitable enough to support and the job was more secure so the cakes had to go.
How to pick the most favorite of them all. It’s a work in progress and i'm a work in progress.

Bargains galore

Today i took a day off today. Wanted to do some things around the house and work on my sewing/quilting. took a little trip to my local dollar tree store. love that place! every single thing is $1! EVERYTHING - so don't ask, cause it's a $1 (you wouldn't believe how many people do ask). Since this store is not on my route with my grocery store i usually forget about, but i've really got to go there first before going to regular store. i would save so much on paper goods, personal care, party decorations, i mean everything!
For instance i bought 3 packages of very large safety pins to use for quilting. Each package had 50 pins in it, each cost package cost $1, so a total of 150 pins cost me $3 at dollar tree. Then went to Joanne's craft store where a package of 20 large quilt safety pins cost about $2.50. I would have had to buy 8 packages and spent $20 - just on the pins! i saved $17 by going to dollar tree. Love it!

Helpful quilting sites

Still working on My First Quilt and its coming along nicely. It can be hard to get in sewing time after working all day and then coming home to make dinner, do household chores, etc., etc. - you know! But I think I've made some good progress and am almost done. I've also been browsing around on the internet and have found a few interesting quilting blogs and sites. The Online Quilting Blog even offers online lessons/tutorials, free quilting patterns (including a list of other web sites that offer free patterns, photo gallery, tips and a chat room.
The Moda Bakeshop features their fabric line (Moda) and free patterns and photos of the projects. Both definitely worth checking out.
It's so wonderful to see that sewing and quilting are still alive and well in this day and age when so many of the "old fashioned" type of home projects seem to be waning. I'm not sure if sewing is even taught anymore in high school (I don't think it is). It was back in my day when i took home ec. i made a sundress. I think a quilt would have been easier, especially since the dress included a ZIPPER! Anyway i am learning so much from the blogs and sites i come across. Hope to feature more in future along with my own projects and now that i've learned to work the embroidery part of my machine, i'll be incorporating some of that on my future quilt projects, especially for the labels! Happy quilting!