I always try to post positive things whenever I can, but I never want to present an overly polished, shiny version of our lives. Honesty and authenticity have always been important, but they’re particularly essential as we all struggle to deal with a relentless pandemic and its devastating consequences.
So let me share this: whilst our lives are always filled with love and community and a great deal of wonder, there are also times when my anxiety runs riot. I’ve written about this before and it’s taken me fifty years to accept that it’s just the way I’m wired. It’s not a weakness or a flaw, but it can sometimes feel overwhelming. I’m grateful for the amazing support I have from my family and friends, but occasionally I’ll just hide in my cave until it passes, hence the dearth of posts in the past couple of weeks.
Having said that, I’ve found that one of the best ways to deal with the emotional roller coaster is to keep my hands busy.
So…I’ve been sewing masks for the Addison Road Food Pantry. When I heard that this wonderful organisation needed masks for their volunteers, I stitched 50 for them from rescued Sewing Basket scrap fabric, interfacing and elastic. It was a win all around – the $30 I paid for materials went directly to Achieve Australia to support their charity work, the materials had been diverted from landfill, and I had a soothing couple of days immersed in craft…
Our friends Kevin and Carol came around for Friday night takeaway, then they, Small Man, Pete and I finished up and packaged the masks. I wouldn’t normally package in plastic, but I made an exception for these, as I felt it was important that whomever received a mask knew that it was hygienic and hadn’t been overly handled. I used cellophane bags that I’d originally bought for Christmas chocolate over a decade ago…
More upcycling…we figured out that 2cm strips of our stripey socks (the story starts here if you haven’t heard about them before) made a perfect substitute elastic for masks…
I used them on my new favourite mask…
I also read this article by Nancy Zieman and after some experimenting, figured out that I could divvy up drawstring elastic from The Sewing Basket Newington (donated to them by Bonds, apparently) into mask elastic and cord for mesh bags. The elastic isn’t quite as robust as hat elastic, but there’s a shortage in Sydney at the moment, so we’ve had to improvise. This particular one doesn’t fray at the cut edges, although it won’t work for every type of elastic…
The leftover middle section is gorgeously soft and stretchy. It will make perfect garden ties and kitchen bands…
In non-sewing news, we’ve been teaching Small Man to cook! He whipped up a brilliant cottage pie from leftover roast beef and 50% more potato than the recipe specified…
…and a delicious chicken curry! As he was putting it together, he said “this is ridiculously easy, Mum”.
“Shhh…” I replied. “It’s a family secret. No one knows except everyone who reads my blog.” (The “recipe” is here.)
Finally, Pete and I escaped the house for a couple of hours yesterday to visit the Biennale of Sydney at the newly reopened Carriageworks. It was uncrowded and spacious, but we wore masks anyway because it’s the right thing to do. There are half a dozen or so installations to view, including this wonderful stain glass window by Indigenous artist Tony Albert. I think it might be my favourite piece of the entire Biennale…
The work by Teresa Margolles is also worth seeing – beautiful and serene, although both of us felt it could have been improved with more content (perhaps video or photographs) about how the materials were actually collected…
. . . . .
What’s been happening in your world? I hope you’re all traveling well and keeping safe. ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
May your kind soul be blessed, Celia.
You are the most inspirational person I ever got to know…ok well online but still. You got me making sourdough when I was terrified of it so that is something!
I love that black floral mask the best and wow the cottage pie looks amazing. Well done to small man!! Off to go read the so easy curry recipe now and I’m also in the middle of packing for a month long trip around the QLD outback :) We live here so are allowed anywhere within our boarders. Climbing an dormant volcano in a couple of days then fishing in the gulf and rivers. Should be interesting!
Busyness is the best antidote to anxiety I know, far surpassing any chemical remedy. I am suffering a particularly anxious health time with the possible reappearance of breast cancer, and I am filling the hours and days and week till I get results with Making and Baking, Reading and Feeding, Sewing but *not* Going anywhere… I do love your Best Mask Ever. Mine is the one I made with leftovers from my favourite home-made top. So fun to be co-ordinated, especially in a nice loud orange, pink and acid yellow splashy print :-)
Fingers crossed that it’s a false alarm, Kate. xxx
Thank you! Just four more days to wait. I have a particularly complicated cake to make tomorrow which should keep me occupied…
Hi Celia, I don’t know if you will get this but I would really love to try your Priscilla starter. Can I purchase it from you? I live in Melbourne.
I’m sorry but I don’t have any to sell or give away. Try my friends Clare (The Life of Clare) or Maree (Simply Sourdough). Good luck with it all!
Thanks for getting back to me. You were the inspiration for Emile Raffa, and after reading her book sourdough baking has become so much easier. Emilie said she went down the rabbit hole when going on the internet to research sourdough…I went down a wormhole. But you have saved me. The concept of making the dough at night and baking the next day is the Holy Grail of sourdough baking. Your idea of keeping the starter in the fridge, feeding once a week at a minimum but when you want to make bread, take it out and get a bubbly starter going in 8 hours…BRILLIANT. I hade 5 starters going, with different flour combinations and ratios and feeding schedules (all from the internet and books) and it just got too much. I threw them all out as I wanted my life back. Decided to go with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes by Hertzberg and Francois, yes it made life simple but the bread is just ok and I do like to play with the dough…haha. I don’t really like sour, sourdough, but if its mild it’s great. My husband loves the crunchy crust. Did I read somewhere that you also are not a fan of sourdough? Anyway, I will try your two suggestions. I was hoping to get your offspring as you were the gamechanger for me (and name it after you), but again, THANKYOU.
That’s very kind of you, thank you! I actually love sourdough, but yeasted breads can upset my stomach. I’ll let my friends know you’re after starter!
Love reading your post. You do / make such amazing things!
Here in the UK I too have been making masks for my family and friends. I have now moved on to jam, jelly, and chutney making!
You are so lucky to be able to visit art installations nearby. We haven’t anything like that near us!
You are an inspiration.
PS your pin cushion was a necessity during my sewing phase!
Inspirational as always. Celia, we are all different. I am a bit of a Darwinian and console myself that the fat chicks (me) saw the human race through famine, the hypervigilants now suffering from anxiety were the scouts and lookouts that saved us from anihilation. (Darwinians believe that depression is an exaggeration of an adaptive response to winter which used to see those in cold climates semi-hibernate during winter, doing very little and conserving food supplies and energy. I knew you wanted to know that.)
I’m not home, (travel discouraged, fifo is more like fly in and stay) no sewing machine, just a couple of op shops but invariably add to my stash for projects which probably won’t get off the ground. Let me know if you would like latest quilting fabric finds sent! LOVE the repurposed socks. BTW I got some ridiculous amount, it must have been 100m of that funny elastic at a garage sale 20 years ago, it lasts FOREVER and is in several sets of decade old fitted sheets, and in numerous pairs of trakky daks and comfy happy pants. Keep well!
I suffer from anxiety, too, and find keeping my hands busy helps as well. Great work to make masks for the Food Pantry.
You are an inspiring woman and so generous with your time.
You are one fabulously awesome lady we need more like you in the world. Am hugely grateful for your blog 🤗
The stained-glass window is an amazing work of art. You seem to have an amazingly productive way to deal with anxiety — admirable!
be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Those masks look great and I love the team of you packaging them. I had looked at your elastic in awe because I know it is really hard to find in Melbourne – one of my craft friends has made her family masks with lacy ties because she could not find elastic. So was interesting to hear Sydney also has a shortage. So nice you could get out – the stained glass is beautiful. And Small Man is doing a great job – with the a fine guiding hand! Take care
Well done, Celia, great respect to you 💕
Truly much respect to you Celia. I also adore the stain glass pieces, thank you so much for SHARING.
Best Mask ever? It looks great,but not the same as the pattern you previously published? have you a link? thanks
Dear Celia,
I will miss you but i am sure i will find you here. Thank you for all your help over the many years and for being so wonderful tome everytime we talked! Hope you enjoy retirement!! Take care, Cindy x
Hi Celia,
I’m an avid reader of your blog and trying to be more sustainable and recycle/reuse things that I didn’t normally think I could.
I must say that my mending skills have improved during COVID!
I have 2 flanelette bags that came with some sheets that I just purchased for my son’s new bed. I thought you may be able to use them for mending or masks?
I tried looking for an email address for you but to not avail.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Hi Kelly, I’m not great with checking emails anyway so it’s always better to leave a message here. As you can see from the post, I used flannelette for the knee patches In Sharon’s sons’ pants. It’s lovely stuff to work with! A lot of people use it for mask linings as well but it could get a bit warm. Otherwise, drawstring bags are always useful. Have fun with it!