Made to: Rest, and Begin Again.

I've been sitting here thinking about how to start again.

Over the last two years I've made some life changes, and took a break from what I was doing in order to focus on some personal administration work (I became a Japanese citizen), and then made major adjustments to the basic infrastructure of my life. I bought a farm west of Fuchu, and spend every weekend fixing it up, growing things, and enjoying the sunset in the mountains. All of those adjustments feel like normal life now, and my every day is in order well enough to re-open my proverbial doors.

When I added agriculture into my work, I felt completely at home. I'm not particularly good at growing things yet, nor do I understand all of the necessary steps needed for commercial growing, but learning has been a real joy. I've been growing both food, and flowers. So far, I've had wonderful successes and failures in both categories, but the failures have been wildly important as they led me to mentors and helpers along the way. I feel like more success than failure is just around the corner.

One of the wee adventures I'm most excited about is my lavender field.

This year I planted 65 lavender bushes that were no bigger than a coffee mug when I placed them in the ground, and now have grown to the size of a bushel basket. I've been told our situation is ideal as the soil is sandy and slightly raised. I planted a variety "Lavender Grosso" that can handle both extreme heat and fairly cold winters, and came highly recommended by local farmers. The scent is camphor heavy so rather than sleepy time teas, and lavender flavored baked goods, I can make insect repellent sachets and beautiful wreaths. Next spring I'm going to plant another 60+ bushes and see how far we go! Harvesting is great fun, and I feel so lucky to be able to have lavender as the dominant fragrance both in my home and studio while the flowers dry.

As far as my tailoring and knitting work goes, I have been plodding along very slowly as I have a repetitive motion injury, and the pain can be quite debilitating at times. Some lovely souls have sent me recommended exercises, etc, and I have attended rehabilitation as well, but the moment I start back to real production, the pain begins again. I'm thinking deeply about how to move forward but continue more basic sewing work for items for every day use. I hope to have those available sooner rather than later.

And as I think deeply about which direction my life should go, I have also been considering my love for nostalgia and how I might be able to incorporate that into this project.

Recently I've had so many beautiful vintage fabrics and objects enter my life, so I thought perhaps that might also be an interesting avenue to explore. I feel very unsure about which parts of my life to weave into Made To, but I suppose the whole point of this was to help me live a more examined and meaningful life... therefore if I do it out loud, perhaps it will be helpful, or at least interesting for others, too.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back here again soon with something interesting to think and talk about.

Until then...