Here is me in a nutshell. I am a stay-at-home mom of an 11 & 13 year old. Both of which are in every sport possible. I work part-time for my husband doing social media & marketing (ha ha ha….jokes on him, I have no experience whatsoever). The only reason I have this gig is because Darren has to pay me zero dollars. I also teach yoga & love fitness (except running & road biking, YUCK). I must be in bed by 9:30 pm at all times. I had a friend put this to the test once. She called me up to have drinks at 9:30 pm. I told her that if this is what we do now…”go have drinks after dark”, we cannot be friends anymore. She agreed it was a terrible idea. We are still daytime friends.
My point is, these are the key ingredients that have determined my social circle. My friends all have similar situations. They are all people that can hang out with me before the school bell rings. Once school is out, I am off and running UNTIL 9:30 pm. Then, I am in bed. It leaves a small percentage of people I can actually interact with.
I have now added sewing to this list of ingredients. The perfect friend recipe also includes someone who likes to sew. Guess how many friends I have that sew? ZERO.
I am a social person! Just ask my sister. Unfortunately, she is not a social person. When we are together I will sit by her bed in the morning and stroke her hair until she is ready to get up and play with me. She is never ready, but I follow her around until she breaks down. She secretly loves it, I know. All that grumbling and court served restraining order is her having a little fun with me. I get her sense of humor. I am including this picture of just how annoying I can be to my sister. She doesn’t watch football or dress in football gear. I think she is literally trying to squeeze the life out of me so I will go away and she can change back into her yoga clothes.
Here is my solution to not having any friends who sew. I will MAKE them. I have found that people don’t actually liked to be FORCED to do things. I will have to have a softer approach.
Here is my strategy, I make things and casually wear it to yoga or out to dinner (at 5:30 obviously). They make comments, “That’s a cute shirt.”
I take my newest handmade handbag and bring it to book club (7:00 pm, over by 9!) “Don’t tell me you made that bag?”
They come over for a cup of coffee (10:30 am) and I throw them a handmade blanket. “Stop it, this is adorable!”
I am working on their subconscious. They don’t even know it’s happening. Then, one day I say, “Hey I am putting together a class at the store. I am having Susan teach us how to make that bag you like.” See, I planted the seed way before I dropped the bomb.
Almost every one of my friends came. It was during the time when doing a Mannequin Challenge was popular. Of course we made one too. You can check it out on Blows YouTube Channel.
The first class was to weed out the potentials. There were a few (I am not gonna name names BUT…) that would hold the scissors upside down, some no matter how hard they tried couldn’t sew right sides together, some that wouldn’t make a move without guidance. 2ish out of the 5 survived. Sarah, you are the “ish”. You kept sewing after the class and then took a dramatic halt. You still have potential, Sarah, I have not given up on you!
I was left with Shannon & Krista. I only need 2.5 sewing friend. I can still sew and socialize, life is good!
I now lure them over to my house with coffee (coffee=mimosas). I have to push them slightly but, they are always game. It takes them 100 million times longer to complete anything, I am OKAY with that. They look to me for answers, I pretend to have them, it works!
Here are a few samples of their handiwork.
P.S. My sister does not actually have a restraining order against me. (She may want one, but to keep the family peace, she has held off.)
Cheers!
Andrea
