Peace...Piece by Piece

After an aggravating morning with a mouthy, moody and grumpy autistic teenager, I needed a little space before Quirky's attitude made me want to throw a fit myself. So I sent Quirky to her room and I barricaded myself in my sewing room. I turned up the music and lost myself in my work. I cleaned up my fabric stash folding and reorganizing and ultimately not getting rid of a single scrap. I cleaned and dusted my sewing desk and sewing machine. I even organized my elastic stash. With each little task, I felt a little bit of stress lift off my shoulders.

By the time I got my sewing room cleaned up I felt calm enough to actually work on a project that had been sitting waiting to be done for two weeks. I finished hemming up a pair of too long khaki shorts, it was quick easy work, and considering I paid $4.00 for these Eddie Bauer shorts at Goodwill, well worth the effort. I was pleased and the funk my morning had put me in was starting to lift. 

I was going to throw out the leftover scraps from hemming but couldn't bring myself to do it. So, even though I was still a little aggravated at Quirky, I decided to make her a new skirt for her barbies. It took little time at all to stitch the two edges together, cut out a skirt shape, and the stitch the skirt sides. It took so little time really to do any of things, but it gave me something much more. Peace...and perspective. 

Was Quirky intentionally trying to be so difficult today? Probably not. We had a busy morning of errands in equally busy and loud stores...Quirky was just being Quirky. So when the skirt was finished I decided, instead waiting to give to her, which was my first thought, I took it to her room. A peace offering of sorts. It got a smile, one of the most beautiful smiles I know, the smile of my favorite teenager in the whole world...my Quirky.