I recently realized that I now associate seasons with sewing projects more than with the weather (although the two are, of course, intrinsically linked). It takes time to plan and execute a seasonal wardrobe, so my brain is usually a month or two ahead: the official start of summer, for example, was when I sewed … Continue reading From Linen to Wool
My husband and I got home last Tuesday after a very full, very satisfying vacation. We covered a ton of figurative and literal ground in our ten days on Prince Edward Island: quality time with family on both his side and mine; visits to beaches, towns, and what pass, in that tiny province, as cities; … Continue reading Back to Reality (and My Sewing Machine)
A quick post, completely unrelated to sewing so I won’t even try to make a connection, while I wait for a flight. This’ll be my fourth major trip in a twelve-month span after a many-years drought during which the idea I’d ever again leave the hospital, let alone the city, seemed laughable. Yet here I … Continue reading On the Fly
I sew for many reasons—the pleasure, the satisfaction, the skills-building, the way it scratches an OCD itch. One of the biggest ones, though, if not the biggest, is to learn how to not just accept but also embrace my changing body. A body I've never felt at home in. A body I've never put much … Continue reading In Short(s)
OK, here it is: the second instalment of a two-part series of posts about irons. Riveting stuff, right? It's exciting to me, anyway. I long ago stopped pretending that this blog is anything but a vanity project through which to indulge my whims and interests in a semi-anonymous format; as you might have gathered from … Continue reading Ironing It Out
When I was ten or so, my mom sewed a solstice dress for me to wear to winter solstice rituals. (I won’t elaborate on the yearly event, but think “simulated birth canal.”) I still have that magnificent gown, which is in a purple 1990s celestial print that could be mistaken for nothing but a relic … Continue reading Curse of the Solstice Gown
The more time passes, and the more consistently secure I feel in where things have settled with my health and my daily rhythms, the more aware I’ve become of how different my life is now as compared to how it was when I published my first De Morbo Sacro post eons ago. Back then, epilepsy … Continue reading From DMS to … DMS
When my power chair and I hit 100, it felt like a significant milestone in the coming together of one soul and one motor. We'd bonded in those first 100 km, and I remember being sure that it was impossible for woman and machine to be any closer unless in a cyborg situation such as … Continue reading When 2 Become 1,000
Hell hath no fury like a woman with a full bladder and nowhere to empty it. Scrap that: hell hath no fury like a wheelchair-using woman waiting for someone to vacate the only accessible stall in a public washroom with plenty of unoccupied toilets. And can you blame her/them/me? It's hard enough to locate a … Continue reading Stalled
At the end of an especially frustrating day earlier this week, I found myself struggling to accept how little I’d accomplished. All afternoon, I’d flitted from one task to another, never able to spend more than fifteen minutes on any given thing before getting lost in the news or rolling to the kitchen for a … Continue reading (Un)burdened
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 