Kay’s Korner
With the Stay Home, Stay Safe order in place, people find themselves with more free time than usual, which is both wonderful and unfortunate since we can’t travel or spend as much time outside as we’d like.
It’s nice for people with indoor hobbies like cooking or sewing, but for those who enjoy outdoor activities, options are pretty limited, especially when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
I personally feel like I can find something to do inside or outside. Recently my family and I were discussing the idea of creating a raised garden in our backyard, and I’ve been brainstorming. I’ve been thinking about the process I would need to go through to build the raised beds and wondering what to plant there. I’ve always thought it would be really cool to grow poisonous plants, but that seems like a bad idea if people and animals could potentially get into them.
I have a few small plants I’ve been tending to, but they’re so easy that some days I don’t need to do anything with them.
A lot of the activities I’d like to get into are outdoorsy, but also things that Snyder’s topography isn’t exactly suited for.
I enjoy skiing, which is pretty hard to do in the summer in Texas. I love kayaking, but there isn’t really a good place for that nearby. Those are things that I’d like to do more often, but there are plenty of indoor things that I’d like to do more often, too. I really need to work on a few sewing projects I have in the works. I’ve got two Renaissance festival costumes that need finishing — one for my sister and one for me.
The very first thing I ever sewed was a costume, a coat for an Evil Queen costume. That was a few years ago, and I haven’t done much sewing since.
The main reason I did it was because my mother told me I wouldn’t be able to. She is a much more experienced seamstress than I am. At the time, I only knew the basics. I didn’t even really know how to use the sewing machine.
I bought the pattern and fabric only about a week before I intended to wear it to a festival, and I knew the timeline would be tight. I figured there would be enough time to finish, even if it wasn’t exactly perfect. Mum looked at it, laughed, and said that it would probably have taken her a long time to figure it out.
I completed the costume in about three days. I put it down to the fact that she challenged me.
I started a new rendition of that same pattern several months ago, thinking that I’d have it done in plenty of time for Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie. Since that was canceled, though, I’ve procrastinated a little. My sister drew up a pattern for a costume that I figured I’d try to make, too, and although I’ve cut all the pieces for each costume, it’s going to take me a while to get them put together.
It’s a lot of fun dreaming up new costumes and scheming how to put them together. I’ve always been pretty good at thinking of things in pieces, which helped me make models for my interior design classes. I have plenty of ideas, but rarely have both the time and inclination to work on them.
Maybe I will soon.
Kaylee Rush is a staff writer for The Snyder News. Any comments on this article can be made at lifestyles@snyderdailynews.com