"Indeed We Can"

One day last year when we were driving somewhere, Kirby asked about if he could do something in the car, and if he could do that at home as well. I can't remember what we were talking about, but my response was, "When we get home, too, indeed we can!"

He thought that was hilarious, and when I asked why he was laughing, he responded, "You named our house 'Indeed We Can?' That's wacky!"

I hadn't even realized what I'd said so I had to think back over the conversation to figure it out. Since then, we have referred to our house as the Indeed We Can.

I like houses with names, like in Anne of Green Gables, and one of our family favorites, 121 Pudding Street by Jean Fritz, about a house the kids in the neighborhood call "The Raisin." I guess we just like naming objects in general, because we have a vacuum named Mr. Gordan and our Kitchen Aid stand mixer is Camille.

Anyway, I think that "INDEED, WE CAN!" is a great motto. Over the past few years, my horizons have expanded exponentially and I am finding things I not only can do but things I love to do and I realize I don't have to be great at something to find a lot of joy in doing it. How I have limited myself in the past! But NO MORE!

Very recently I have decided I want to learn to sew. Since I got my machine for Mother's Day, I have been itching to sew something. With three young children and a household I already can't keep up on, time doesn't magically appear for sewing, so all I have squeezed in is re-purposing an old child's skirt into an apron, which was fun, but I have been wanting to sew a project from start to finish.

I guess I wanted to prove to myself

I can finish a sewing project

because despite innumerable attempts, I have NEVER seen a sewing project through from beginning to end.

I found this tutorial on how to make a drawstring bag, which I want to make bigger and make into a rag bag to hold all my scraps of fabric. I thought I'd do a trial run first in the size of the bag in the tutorial, so here it is, my FIRST FINISHED SEWING PROJECT!




Yes, it is reversible. And there's patchwork, which actually lined up decently. And I made it myself!! I threaded the machine, cut the fabric, sewed, ironed seams, fixed the problem when the thread bunched up and got stuck in the machine, and I even put in the drawstring by myself! Silly, but I have never done that. I always have someone else pull drawstrings through sweaters or bags or whatever if they come out. (I am fairly new to the Indeed We Can Plan.)

What is something you never thought you could do until you did it? Don't you love that sense of empowerment and energy that comes with it? I am ready for more!