a year

A birthday book and the makings of an anniversary mask. It’s hard to remember back to the beginning, back a whole year, a year of getting caught up and overwhelmed and angry in the sadness of it all. A year tucked away with my little family, lucky enough to have what we need and time enough to adjust to learn to do life differently. I don’t know, so much emotion is bunched up inside, and it sounds cheesy to say I’m different because of it, better for it, but it kind of feels like that, out growing myself in ways I didn’t even realize were necessary.

A year of using what I have, like taking fabric that I once made into curtains and recycling it into a bouquet for my face, finally (almost) using up that entire giant spool of black elastic that I bought years ago for making my “Midori” style planners.

A year of trying so many different flat metal flexible things wrapped in duct tape just to get a good nose seal, “wrapped in duct tape” because I sewed them into place INSIDE the mask and didn’t want it to rust when washed ..this was before I realized I could sew a little sleeve on the OUTSIDE of the mask and make the metal nose piece removable (lightbulb) and also before actual metal nose bars were a thing you could buy.

A year of sewing matching masks for my parents ♡

Mask upgrade in three pictures, here’s that little sewn sleeve so you can remove the metal nose piece prior to washing, it’s pretty much my most impressive trick right now. ♡

A lifetime supply of the softest ear friendly elastic and metal nose pieces.

A year of trying my best ♡