there's no place like gnome.

Yes, my last blog post was about moving forward.  Yes, this one is about looking back. Yes, I realize those are two opposite things. Just stick with me, okay?

We’re going to look back. Two years specifically. January 20, 2014. 

It was a Monday night and I had a date. (Monday night might seem weird for a date but I was leaving for Montana that coming Wednesday and we wanted to squeeze it in.) If I’m honest, it was my third first date in two weeks. (Thanks, online dating.) If I’m completely honest, it was my third first date in two weeks in which the gentleman suggested dinner and bowling. I bowled more in those two weeks than I had in the previous two years!

So I arrive at the bowling alley to meet a gentleman whose name I think is Brennan. We shake hands.  ‘Lindsay?’ he asks. ‘Yup.  Brennan?’ I asked. ‘No. It’s Dave.’ Wait.  What?  (To be fair, his last name is what I thought his first name was so … honest mistake?)

We bowl. We drink a beer. We talk. We finish up our game. I return my shoes and he carries his out the door with him. (He brought his own bowling shoes!  Dork alert!). We decide to meet at a local pizza place (where I was the week prior for date one of three), and then, after pizza, we decide to see each other again. 

Two years later, we keep deciding to see each other again. Even though he is a dork who brings his own bowling shoes.  (I’m a dork too. I brought a board game to our second date).  We won’t be able to recreate the date tonight, like we did last year; alas, I have confirmation class. We will go out for pizza tomorrow night and, if anything like last year, Dave will request we sit at the same table.  

Last May on a bike ride in Decorah.

I won’t make any excuses for my absence.  I won’t say where I’ve been or what I’ve been up to for the past, oh, three months. Just forward.  Like Wisconsin. 

(Forward is Wisconsin’s state motto.  Fun fact for you there.)

I’m here today, breaking my blog silence, to brag share just a little bit. But first a story –

There once was this bag. It was called the Weekender Travel Bag. It was a pattern by the lovely Amy Butler and all my favorite quilty/crafter blog friends were making it. I’d see pictures. I’d read their tales of construction. I made a Pinterest board dedicated to the bag.  And I really wanted to make one. But I was intimidated. Oh, so intimidated. These bloggers that I follow – they’re, like, really good.  Like professionals in their fields. And they wrote about how hard the weekender was to make. Surely, I didn’t have the skills to pull it off. 

But you know what?  I just did. I was telling the boyfriend about this bag last month. Now, what you have to know about the boyfriend is he is really good at pushing me beyond what I think I am capable of myself. (It’s usually a good thing.) Buy the pattern, he said.  It will be fun, he said.  And so I bought the pattern and embarked on my own weekender tote adventure. 

And I did it.  Can you believe it?  I actually have a completed weekender that will hold (in theory) a weekend’s worth of stuff.  And it has flamingos!  And a green zipper I’m in love with!

   The instructions were so super clear and I took it step by step over the course of a couple weeks. There certainly were moments (It is hard sewing so many layers!) but I broke no needles and only stuck myself with a needle to the point of bleeding, like, nine times.  I’m so super thrilled with it that I’m already planning the next one. 

It will get on the train with me next week as I head to Montana for my annual adventure to see friends.  And I will guard it from getting dirty with my life.