There has been a lot of talk on blogs I read about Japan and the earthquake, fundraisers on Etsy, and benefit sales.  One blogger I know has shut down her blog because she feels in the light of this event, that she should be doing something more valuable with her time than blogging.  I wish her the very best with that, although I will miss reading her blog.  That comment brought me back to thinking once again about how people deal with stress and worry.  I posted not long ago about the physical act of mending things, sewing up tears, fixing buttons, restitching hooks and eyes and how that has been a balm for me when I need to get rid of some stress.  Sometimes the frustration of not being able to do anything or not being able to fix something, just needs an outlet.

I can’t do anything to help the mending in Japan.  I can send money and support organizations that are helping and I certainly will do that.  And in the meantime, I will continue to make things better in my little part of the world, the part I can do something about.  In that spirit, I took a day off from work last week and spent it sewing a gift for a little girl who I think needs something magical for her birthday.  I knit a present for a friend who just had a baby boy, her third.  He was born on my dad’s birthday, so I know he is going to be something special. ;)  Andy and I spent the last two weekends tackling some chaos in our lives – the frightening cupboard full of papers needing to be filed, getting prepped to do the taxes, checking in on long-neglected accounts.  I’ve spent a lot of time talking to my mom about nothing and everything; she is awesome like that.  Next week looks to be a busy one with a medium rating on the work-stress-o-meter, so I will be looking for more tiny things to fix in my part of the world.  How about you?

The Gnomey Hat and the Strawberries are both knit with scraps of Cascade 220.