I shared the delight I discovered with my original “Octopus garden” in a previous post, but wanted to follow-up and share the less whimsical version which is featured at the top of this post. The shells in this are ones I collected on vacations to the Outer Banks with my son and his family, and I made the little, greyish octopus around the same time as the pink one. It also went to work with me and the photos from its positioning there were more to my liking, so it’s growing on me.

I also decided to reconnect with some needlework projects, and a Michael’s coupon was just the thing to nudge me in this direction. I picked up 2 small kits and started the one with the Black cat on the crescent moon, pictured below. Lena the kitty gave her approval of this tribute to her predecessor, Ganymede, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge just a little while ago.

In my family, August signals the coming of many things, including 3 important birthdays (both of my kids, and my oldest granddaughter), the last long weekend of Summer, and back to school – including off to college for my oldest grandbaby, who will be studying music! It is also the month of my grandmother’s birthday – the one who taught me to crochet more than 50 (!) years ago.

Change can be a challenge to navigate, and I am always grateful to the examples set by my grandmother and great-grandmothers on how to keep moving forward when life gets messy. I think it was their generations’ version of meditation, which tracks with so much of the research today around how crocheting, knitting and other similar focused and calming activities are good for managing stress, achieving peace and staying centered.

I’m looking forward to the new semester (I teach as an adjunct and have 2 classes on my schedule this Fall), to cooler weather (these 90-degree-plus days are NOT to my liking!), and the upcoming Indigenous People’s Day which is ALSO a 3-day weekend and one in which my sister and I dedicate to crafting excursions. In addition, the local Crafters group I participate in restarted after a brief Summer hiatus, and I will be taking a personal development class (of sorts) in September.

High School football season begins in earnest, and that means more Friday Night Football games as my oldest granddaughter is ALSO in band. All of these things usher in that now-familiar and frenzied pace that propels us into Halloween, Thanksgiving and the December holiday season!

In the midst of all of this, and lingering in the back of my mind, are things like my looming retirement, the state of the nation as well as the world, aging parents, and how I want to spend the handful of decades I have ahead of me before the NEXT adventure (which none of us is clear on, one way or another).

I have been reading about mediumship and some believe that once we ascend to a higher spiritual level, we don’t need to indulge in the human things like crafting (gasp!) so I’m pondering that concept a lot. I’m not sure how I feel about an existence without a fiber arts option, but then again – I don’t know what the alternate options might be.

All of this thinking and wondering is a LOT at times; but it is part and parcel of this thing called Life – and I’m grateful for it all.

Happy seasonal transitions to you, wherever you are in the world or your life journey!

---

(C) 2025 Fiber Harmony/Stitch ‘n Dish