It's Great to Be Back! Diary of an Amateur Gone Pro And Returned

It's been a strange time these last six years.  I remember when blogging and sewing were my two favorite things to do.  And then life happened.  Fast and furious, things radically changed for me.  Things that I loved doing were replaced by things that I thought I would love doing more.  In some instances, I was right.  In others, dreadfully wrong.

In June 2014, my kids were finally old enough that Mom could go out and get a job.  I'd been a primarily stay-at-home mom for 24 years.  It sounded like a good plan.

I live in an area where theatre and the arts are the biggest thing happening in the summertime.  There are world class museums, award-winning performance venues, famous names and faces everywhere.  So it's no surprise that I ended up working in the arts.

It came by a weird, roundabout way.  A friend of my oldest children saw the dresses I made for my daughter and offered me a job as a stitcher in the costume shop she managed.  The costume shop for an internationally traveling ballet company.  Three days a week.  Sew in the shop, they said.  It'll be fun, they said.

And it was.  As three days a week gradually became five days a week, I suddenly had a full time job.  Sewing.  It was great.

And before I knew it, I was asked to go on tour.

It wasn't an easy decision.  To go from stay-at-home mom to gone for two months was a radical move.  But in the end, the family and I decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity too good to pass up.  I got me a passport.  I made myself a mountain of black clothes to wear backstage on tour.  And I prepped my family to make it without me.  It was a Christmas season tour.  I would miss my daughter's and son's birthdays.  I would miss Thanksgiving.  I would miss Christmas.  Hell! I missed Halloween.  I was due to arrive home in time for New Year's Eve.

Wardrobe Supervisor on a traveling tour is a challenging job.  The days are long. The crises you have to solve can be constant.  I went to 60 cities in 65 days and I didn't get to see much more than the theatre backstage in many of them.  But it was one helluva trip!

When I got back, I was asked to replace my sons' friend (who had become my friend, and still is) as costume shop manager.  Which I did.  Far cry from signing on as a stitcher for three days a week, huh?

Somewhere in there, we bought a new house and moved about 40 minutes away from our old house.  One of my sons moved to an urban environment for a new job, hated it, bought a house about a mile from our new one and moved back.  Another son got his own apartment and moved out, then moved back into our old house after we moved into the new house.  Whew!

I also got my EMT certification, something I'd wanted to do for 20+ years.  I now volunteer at my local fire department. 

The gig at the ballet lasted for two and half years.  There are costumes out there that I have made with my two hands that have been seen and appreciated by thousands, no millions of people.  It is a thing I will always remember.

After that ended, I went to work in the local theatre's costume shops, sometimes as a stitcher, sometimes a first hand, sometimes as shop manager.  And I've been the costume designer on more than one occasion for entire shows.  I love costume. I love theatre.  But last year, I realized that's its not really for me.

I was costume shop manager last year, with nine staff and four interns to manage.  Most weeks I worked all seven days.  During tech week, I worked sixteen hour days, seven days a week.  I barely saw my family.  I rarely made it home to Sunday night family dinner.  What was I doing?

Then, my first grandchild was born in August.  And my priorities changed.  And I decided that a professional career in the arts wasn't for me if I couldn't do it and have time for my husband, and kids, and now a granddaughter.  It just wasn't the path I wanted to take in life.  Besides, sewing in the shop made me uninterested in sewing for myself or anyone else when I got home.

Aside from all that, being in quarantine helped me realize that I actually like the slower and more sedate pace of being at home.  Granted, it didn't feel like that when the kids were small, but I look back on it nostalgically now (please don't throw tomatoes, all you moms of toddlers dealing with temper tantrums right now).  My daughter is 16 now, and one of the most enjoyable people I know to spend time with.  My sons are all adults.

I spent six years in the arts.  Wouldn't change it for the world.  But I'm done now.  Except for the occasional short term projects I might accept.  Depending on my mood.  That's not to say I haven't still got a full plate of work and family and volunteering and hobbies.  Just not a career in the arts.

If you've made it this far and you've had the patience to read my saga, I thank you for your kindness.

I'm glad to be back.  And I expect to be blogging about sewing again.  And gardening.  And me cute grandbaby.  And all the other projects I get wrapped up in.