Since I left my most recent job, my daily preoccupations have changed quite a bit. Instead of deadlines and commitments to clients and bosses, I spend my time on deadlines and commitments to family and friends.
If my mother wants food instead of flowers for this Nurses’ Day, I order custom cupcakes. (Because baking is way beyond my realm of capability.)
If Grandma hasn’t much company in the afternoons, I drop in once a week with yummy snackies and listen to her stories. She tells kick-ass stories even if the timeline and order of events are a little fuzzy sometimes.
If we need an electrician to hide the OpenNet cabling in the false ceiling, I set it up and see that it’s done to my liking.

I’m told that everyone liked the cupcakes a lot. Yay!
Obviously these don’t pay very well monetarily. They are, however, part of the reason I stopped working in the first place – to look after the things that affect the people who’re important to me.
In the same vein I’ve also started a few creative endeavours that will (hopefully) one day mean something to another important person in my life.

I decided early on that I wasn’t going to bombard the interwebs with stories about having a baby. Some things are too private, and some probably aren’t interesting to other people. So I started a paper scrapbook for this pregnancy, which I hope to evolve into a baby book when the kid arrives. It’s partly for me and James, partly for the baby to look at someday.

If it turns out my baby is a girl, these dressmaking classes will have been a really awesome investment. (If I’m having a boy, I guess he’ll have to be a cross-dresser because boy clothes are boring to make.)
It’s nice to have the time for these pursuits (on top of a little freelance work here and there). Definitely a luxury, and one I’m glad we can afford.
I don’t understand how you say boy clothes are boring to make. Menswear tailoring is BRILLIANTLY complex and wonderful! Make him little buttondown shirts and khaki pants!
Shirts and pants. That’s the ENTIRE menswear repertoire. And unlike girl clothes, all you can really do is make the same damn shirt/pants in different fabric – which doesn’t seem very worth the effort of making them. Now, the world of dresses and blouses, OTOH…
Hats? Bowties? Waistcoats? Tiny well-tailored suits? And then force him on all friends/relatives getting married as a page boy.
But but but… they outgrow those things SO FAST.
that’s when you can put your creativity to good use to spice up boys wear! i’d gladly buy nice boys wear from you!
Aww!! Thanks for the vote of confidence. Hopefully we’ll find out the gender soon and then I’ll know which basic patterns to ask my dressmaking teacher to teach me!
Love this! And I’m so happy for you.
You can make Jon Jons. Do y’all do those? Is that a very Southern US thing? So sweet. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=690905134258550&set=a.136559456359790.26157.136384219710647&type=1&theater
I did not know about these till now! They are cute. In a light enough material they might work in our climate. I need to look into this.