Help Sam, please!

 

I have a favor to ask.  I don't necessarily like asking for favors but this one is a pretty big one.  You see, this is a picture of me and my boyfriend Sam.  I love Sam.  Sam loves me.  Sam also loves the White Stripes and he has a deep respect and adoration of Jack White.  The White Stripes are releasing their concert film Under Great White Northern Lights and are doing a special screening here in Nashville next Tuesday.  You can go, all you have to do is RSVP, but there is something more to this.  You see, if Sam gets the most people to RSVP, he gets a prize package.  Sam desperately wants this prize package and so he has enlisted the help of me (social media guru or something) to help.  

Here is where you come in.  You don't live in Nashville, not a problem you can still RSVP.  You do live in Nashville, well if you RSVP and Sam wins, I'll buy you a drink FOR REAL!  All you have to do to RSVP is to click on this link. And head to the bottom of the page and comment.  Please do this... I'm begging you.  (PS- the link is a shortened URL mostly so I can keep track of how many people use the link and so Sam and I can have a rough idea of where he may stand on this).

If you already have, send it to a friend and ask them to help out such a sweet boyfriend!  Let's get as many people to sign up as possible!  

Thank you everyone! 

Frustrations and pushing through

Photo courtesy of the amazing and wonderful Miss Kelsey Foster

When I was in college, I had this theory regarding boys.  If I never said out loud that I liked a boy, then it simply was not true.  Every once in a while, I keep things hidden and stuffed because I think if I don't say it out loud, then its not true (by the way this is also known as denial).  About two weeks ago, I was sharing with my community group that I was feeling really motivated about my blog, sewing, saving money, not shopping, and yoga.  Sam was calling me Miss Proactive (not the face wash, I used it during summer camp and got this crazy chemical burn).

Then it started creeping up on me, doubt.  Doubt hopped in bed with me one night actually.  I woke up in the middle of the night in panic and in fear from a dream.  I have been having doubt and insecurities about the blog and myself and how it all fits together.  I started wondering if I was pushing myself hard enough.  Even though, I want this blog to be just for me, and something that makes me happy... I still want people to read it.

Doing this can be really frustrating because sometimes you can get so caught up in who is wearing what, all the comments others are getting, feeling like you are completely late in the game, everyone is on weardrobe and chictopia and facebook and twitter and blogfacesomethingwhatever...  and I'll be honest, I don't get it.  I feel like I'm working my ass off on this blog, at my job, and in my life and I just feel like I'm so behind or like I missed some fashion wagon that came by on October 7th when I was in the bathroom!  AND on top of that, the one thing that makes me feel like I can get ahead I can't do.  Curse you no shopping year... curses on you!!! 

This is usually when I scream...

and remind myself that I have to just take this at my own pace.  I also need to find some positive ways to move forward.  I've been toying around with paying a graphic designer to help me come up with a logo.  Which means I need to figure out what I would want a logo to look like. I've also been toying around with e-mailing other bloggers and asking them if they will link to my site if I will link to theirs (which I really don't want to do because I feel totally desperate and needy in asking that but I know that its totally normal to exchange links).  I have also wanted to maybe start advertising on some other blogger's sites and getting some fashion stuff going in Nashville.  

I want:
-more visitors and more exposure
-a striped shirt
-black shorts (so I'm not having to wear my thin little black jumper and so I don't have to take my shirt off in the bathroom)
-a "bye" week for my no shopping so I can shop at modcloth
-a pony
-something pink, or floral, with ruffles.

But, what I need is:
-to finish reading Traveling Mercies by Ann Lamott (thanks C)
-so I can start reading Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (thanks A)
-to finish my skirt
-to be satisfied with what I have and who I am
-to take a deep breath
-to pause
-to feel
-to remember and reflect why I am doing this
-a pony (maybe)

I know:
-I have a unique voice
-I am a great writer
-I love what I'm doing and how it makes me feel
-I wear jeans a lot
-how to use the timer on my camera
-it is part of the natural process of being creative to doubt, but I will not let that doubt control me.

Thanks for reading...

Sewing machine, officially broken again

 Not sure if anyone saw this little gem of a tweet last night at about 11:00 PM, but its official my sewing machine is still broken, or rather broken again.  I feel like I should say that it was working.  It sewed approximately 10 inches of fabric before another nylon gear busted.

I will say this.  Sam and I rejoiced greatly over it being fixed; hands were raised, tears of joy were shed, jumping occurred, and then it was shattered.  Sorry for being a little melodramatic, but seriously its been broken for about 3 months and right when I think its going to be fixed...  you get the picture.

Needless to say, what happens with older sewing machines with nylon gears, when one gear fails, usually the other gears start to fail as well.  This is exactly what is happening with my machine right now.  Because of time and use, nylon gears start wearing out.  The gear that runs the feed dog (the little teeth that are underneath the sewing foot) busted after the brief amount that I sewed. 

I now have a dilemma.  Do I spend the $40 or so dollars for the parts and repair manual for this sewing machine and hope that something else doesn't break?  Or do I invest and buy a new sewing machine?  I need advice because I honestly do not know what to do. 

All I know is that I am really wanting to sew and get started on some projects that have been piling up.  Sam has been so amazing and sweet to work on my machine for me, watching him work on the timing last night made me realize how incredibly gifted he is to understand how machines work, from cars to guitar amps, guitars, to even my sewing machine.  Just so thankful for him.  He also gave me this sewing machine too for my 24th birthday, which is why I am apprehensive to just throw in the towel on my beloved little Singer Touch n Sew 758.

Any advice, anything, would be greatly appreciated.  I am just slightly at the end of my rope on this one.