Another Passion?

Every time I run into Mr. Wright, he comments on how stale my blog has become since I wrote about the miseducation of the American children. He is right. I've been neglecting my blog. Not only have I been busy since last August getting back into the real world of working 5 days a week, but the end of the year brought holiday cheers & no time for indulging myself in front of my computer spewing my thoughts online. Plus my mom spent a month with me here in SLC, spoiling me to no end, and I just became a lazy bum doing absolutely nothing but the one thing that led to my new passion.

So what's this new passion I speak of? Sewing! (I know, I know,my passion's forever changing on a whim, but hey, this is how I can live alone & never be bored.) A few months ago, I scored some free passes to go see a movie called Bright Star. It's a story about my new favorite poet, John Keats (Sorry Rilke, the English have such sexier accent than the Germans.) & his love, Fanny Brawne. Fanny's outfits were so amazing, the picture so beautifully shot, I ended up watching a ton of period movies while my mom was in town. I've always adored period films & once upon a time even contemplated going to a fashion school to learn costume design. Well, I just had to make one of those dresses.

I seriously was born in the wrong century & the wrong race. I simply adore the early 1800's & would have loved the life of Emma & others in Jane Austen's books. Lauren & I were lamenting how wonderful life would've been for us had we been born then...none of this having to work for a living, mortgage, worrying about global warming, but rather enjoying a quiet life in the country during the summer months reading books and having tea parties; and then spending the rest of the year in the city going to balls dancing with those dashing, eligible, educated gentlemen.

Well, I bought myself a serger & a new sewing machine, and have signed up for a sewing class online. It's not just any old sewing class, but a class that teaches you all about Regency Wardrobe making. I've already made a lovely 50's style apron for practice before I dive into more challenging ball gown I intend to wear to Mr. Wright's wedding party in May. As Mrs. Wright happens to be a super-seamstress as rumor has it, I hope to recruit other ladies & start a sewing group in my basement & serve tea. I hope to upload pictures here as I begin my journey & keep up this blog as well. Wish me luck.


Bright star, would I were steadfast
by John Keats

BRIGHT star! would I were steadfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task	5
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,	10
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

1819