Blood, sweat, and tears. Oh, and yoga too.

Y'all may ( or may not) have noticed my absence on your front door as of late, don't take it personally. I trying to build an inventory for my new online sewing business.
I have had people tell me for years that I should sell my sewing projects, so I'm giving it a go.

Except that I realized yesterday that I'm not as brilliant at it as I thought. Yesterday, I tried my hand at a new project, one that varied a bit from the purses I have been making. Let me just say that I don't really believe that I am brilliant, but all of my designs I have come up with through visualizing in my head how to make it, then putting it down on paper, sometimes as I go and sometimes before I even start.

Recently I found some cute panels on clearance that I think are for making pillows, but I decided that they could be made into cute tote bags.

Exhibit A:
While I planned to sew this pretty much the same way that I sew my purses, there actually was a thick batting material involved to make the bag sturdy. I pictured in my head how it should be sewn... and I pictured wrong. I cut 2 pieces of material wrong, and had to recut them. Luckily I had extra material. I goofed up the desing and it woldn't go the way I had planned because of the batting. So I ripped everything apart and started again. Annnnnnnnd again. The flap I had made to close over the inside pocket was not going to work, since the batting was too thick to sew through with it, and after the thread bunching on me 3 times, I scrapped it. I finally finished the bag off with polka dotted ribbon handles and a double stitched edge at the top only to totally screw up the stitching just as I was making the home stretch on each row.

John said that the stitching was barely noticeable but being that I am anal about anything I make whether it be art or craft, and the fact that I would love for people to see the quality of what I do and want to be a repeat customer- I just had to redo it. So, I ripped apart the top and finally, after working on it for almost 5 hours, I finished.

I held up my labor of love to check out the fine, very fine stitching. I checked out the stitching inside and out, and though there was a small section where the top row of stitching missed the inside material, I was very pleased with what should have only taken me 45 minutes tops to make. *sigh* That's what I get for working with thick batting instead of a thinner interfacing.

Anyway, I'm looking and admiring, silently praising myself for having made a very nice piece indeed... when what do I notice on the inside of the bag? A blood stain. My hands are so dry right now because of the cold, that I bled on the very labor intensive prototype Dora tote, with polka dotted straps and inside divider and velcro closure. Not cool, SO VERY NOT-FREAKING-COOL! I wanted to scream in agony, in anguish... in despair!

But I didn't. Instead I made John run out in the cold, dark night to get me some peroxide, while I stayed home and freaked out over the possibility of losing a whole days work because of my own body fluids. I was able to get the stain out. Thank the goodness, but not without neurotically going over the possibilities of what would happen to my nice neat work after getting wet, and wondering if the peroxide would bleach the material.

Did I mention that I obsess? Anyway, on to the yog-ahhhhh, which turned out to be more like yog-ouch. I borrowed a watered down version of yoga from a friend. I don't mean that in a negative way, the book was very doable, the exercises were adjusted by the author for people of any age to be able to do. I finished the 15 minute workout on Monday, in about 40 minutes (ROFL), and promptly took a nap (LMAO!).

Tuesday, I was busy cutting material and doing laundry... then yesterday I rolled out of bed. EVERY SINGLE joint on my body aches. My joints and cartilage complain as I stand or walk. It sounds like Snap, Crackle and Pop are falling down a flight of stairs. I have never been more aware of my age as I am right now, and I feel like someone beat me with the arthritis stick while I was sleeping. My hands are stiff and swollen.

Maybe that was my problem yesterday. It wasn't the damned batting at all, it was my hideously misshaped and gnarled hands that are to blame.
Has anyone else had this experience with yoga? I read online that yoga releases the toxins in tissues and your organs, so I am wondering if this is why my joints are screaming. Maybe the toxins dissipated throughout my body and accumulated in my joints. Well, that combined with the cold we have had here in the Midwest lately. I'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced this kind of discomfort with yoga yog-ouch. Anyone? What did you do to ease the discpomfort