SueBear Sews And Flows

Please pardon the radio silence. Life. You know. Anyhoots.... I have a dress! A new one to share with you. I have literally been dreaming about this dress since the spring of 2017. I went back and looked at my records and found that I'd bought the fabric in July of 2017. I cut out the fabric in early December 2018. And finally!! A dress!! Without further ado...I bring you my blue baby. This is the Cashmerette Lenox pattern in a straight size 30 DD. Can you tell I was feeling myself today? I took the opportunity of sunshine and a quiet apartment complex to get some fun outside shots.  The Kaufman ivy blue Oxford cloth is from fabric.com . They seem to be out of the ivy color I used but I linked to the navy which looks just as crisp. I would say this was a great fabric to work with. Given the amount of handling this dress took over the months, it frayed very little and pressed like a dream. It does wrinkle, as you can clearly see, but I think that...

Designed by Piet Oudolf. Pic credit: Design Indaba  Sometimes, I just need a moment to dream. So here's a pretty picture of what I hope to someday create in a garden of my own.

I have been thinking quite a bit about worry lately. I have always been an anxious person and there are few times in my life I recall that weren't overshadowed by a worry I was experiencing. In my time here, I've tried prayer, antidepressants, therapy, and meditation to combat the anxiety that worry creates. To an extent, all of these methods have worked, but meditation has been my biggest relief. I credit ongoing therapy and my short time on antidepressants with creating the base building blocks of good mental health, but they weren't able to fully conquer and address the immediacy of panic attacks. Meditation and the breathing that informs and enhances a meditation practice has created so much mental and emotional space for me. (I will say here that I consider prayer to be a form of directed meditation.) Like many things in life, worry is a habit. I had carved a very deep metaphorical groove in my brain where worry lived. If I solved one reason to worry, without c...

The songs below make up my first playlist for a 60 minute yoga class. You could say the overall theme is love. I really wanted a warm, inviting, and uplifting feeling to my class. As I haven't used this playlist for long, I imagine I'll keep it into the fall. Click the pictures to listen on Amazon. Let me know if you have any suggestions! Om Narayana Gayatri Mantra Mangalam Part 2 Drumming Song Oh Had I A Golden Thread Africa (Cottonbelly Remix) Wind Song Offering Chant Claire de Lune 

Sooo.... I've taught a few classes by myself now. I've subbed two classes for my fellow instructors at my rec center and I've done two volunteer classes at my local library. I would not say I feel like I have my class personality yet, but I do feel much more comfortable at this stage than I expected. I think that has a lot to do with my other fitness teaching. Let me tell ya, once you've taught in your bathing suit, in front of 25 people, 20 of whom are not in your class, your comfort level has been stretched, shall we say. I also teach dance cardio which can be rather complicated and work intensive with choreography. I know I use a lot of the same phrases my mentor Diana uses, but that's to be expected. Her class is my most frequented and she really taps into how I communicate with my own body. There is definitely a difference between my free classes and the rec classes. My friends have really shown their support by coming to my library classes so the v...