So here goes......you know at the start of Glee where one of the characters
super speedily gives you an update of the past few episodes? Well here’s my super
speedy, almost breathless update of what’s going on at the Millamaloo show.
"So the craziness started when my darling Milla broke her arm
at school. Two weeks later my dear husband severely broke his arm. Surgery, 2
plates, 2 pins, 16 screws, 12 weeks off work, and 6 months of rehab later he’s
kind of back to normal. Then I was diagnosed with Ross River Fever (probably because I was pretty much a single mother for 3 months - my hats off to single mothers everywhere. Frankly, I'm not cut out for it!). Little boy
Dane (3) diagnosed with a speech delay and started speech therapy. And all the
while we’re busy demolishing an old house and designing and building a new house – and moving house 5 times in
16 months. On top of that I’ve got my ‘real’ job as a research analyst for a
media company and a wee little business selling orthoptic eye patches that I
started in July last year. And that’s what’s happened in my little life in the
past 6 months."
So now that you’re kind of caught up, here’s where it’s at
at the moment. My little eye patch business has gone ballistic. Like, totally
NUTS! Here I was thinking it would be an order a month and I’d do it just to
help other patching families out (little boy Dane has been patching for 3.5
years). But apparently there are about a billion kids in Australia having to
patch an eye. Okay that might be a slight exaggeration but you get the drift. So
my little community service venture has ended up being a real business. Unfortunately
not real enough to quit my day job but that’s okay since I really enjoy my day
job. But I certainly have learnt a lot about setting up commerce websites, setting up companies, getting insurance etc etc. Good learning curve.
This is my bubba boy when he was little. His eye is so super blue because he wears a contact lens in it. It's tinted blue so it's easier for us to find in the carpet, on the grass, in his bed etc (yes, that happens).
So this strange little turn of events, discovering this tiny
little niche market, has meant that sewing & creating time for me is almost
non-existent. I spend my mumma days being a mumma (who am I kidding, that's a 24 hour a day job!), work days working and my evenings working (or folding
mountains of washing). Add to that the fact that we’re living at my
mother-in-law’s until our house is finished, and my sewing ‘space’ is a small desk
shoved into the corner of a store room and I’m not feeling particularly creative.
Space is probably a bit of an exaggeration there actually. It’s more like a
spot. Or a piece of carpet. Sure, I've made Dane a library bag for kindy and
Milla a new dress but other than that it’s been ‘real’ work, ‘real’ work and ‘patch’
work all the way.
My fantasy of course is that when we move into our new house
in a few months, I’ll also win lotto and not have to work at all. And then I can
sew to my heart’s content and enjoy my totally awesome new sewing room.
This is my craft room as of about a month ago.
It has external walls now and hopefully plasterboard by the end of next week. Yipee!
I’d say
the reality will be that my sewing room becomes a bit of a shrine to that
creative spark inside of me and when my kids are grown up and I’m semi-retired I’ll
be able to use the 5 gazillion metres of gorgeous fabric I have piled neatly in
lovely shelves around my beautiful sewing room (at the moment they’re piled not
so neatly into cupboards in the aforementioned store room).
Such is life though isn’t it. Sigh. So anyhoo that might
explain why there’s not a heck of a lot going on in Millamaloo land. But I tell
you what, if you need some eye patches I’m your gal! Hopefully see you in a few months when my new
sewing room is finished, I've won lotto and/or I’m semi-retired ;)
