Navelgazing

It’s Day 23 And The Planking Ain’t Easy

Hello from Day 23.

My 2018 commitment to daily practice has revealed a few things:

  1. I have consistently put myself at the bottom of the list for so long that I think it became a habit.
  2. Yep, I am working to break that habit.
  3. Keeping my promises to myself is important …and it helps to do those tasks early in the day.
  4. Planking sucks.
  5. To clarify, the way I am doing planking sucks.

About five days ago I noticed I would wake up each day, look at my task list, and wonder, “Is this the day I fail at the plank thing?”

The “plank thing” is one of my 2018 goals, a last-minute add-on to my daily list (which you can read all about here.) The problem is not the daily task of it, the problem is the groaning reality that by adding on one second every day it gets harder and harder and harder until eventually I will fail.

And it was through this mounting dread that I came to a new realization: The purpose of my daily goals is to encourage consistency, not to win a planking competition. Right now,  I need practice and motivation to become more consistent in taking care of myself. This goal of piling on myself more and more every day until I fail is OH MY GOD IT’S A METAPHOR FOR ALL OF MY LIFE.

Alrighty then!

So, I will continue my daily plank for January and then in February I will shake it up. Planking will move out of the third spot on my Daily Commitments List, and a five-minute (or better) stretch/yoga session will take its place. I need to take care of myself right now, not dread my personal tasks. You know?

And then in March… who knows. Maybe I will add daily flossing or daily dancing or daily meditation (don’t hold your breath on that last one, though) (hah hah, breath, get it?)

What I can tell you is that it is Day 23 and I have done 23 consecutive Duolingos — my longest streak ever! — and I have completed 23 walks of at least 10 minutes each (so, at least 230 minutes of walking, go me!) and I have held my body up in a weird frozen push up state for 23 days in a row.

And I have kept my promise to myself for 23 days and that feels awesomeeeeeeeee even if the plank is a muthaeffer.

 

January 23, 2018 5 comments
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An Ode To The Walking Foot (It’s A Sewing Machine Miracle!)
Sewing

An Ode To The Walking Foot (It’s A Sewing Machine Miracle!)

How have I sewed this long and never used a walking foot? It is my new favorite thing. It is genius:

This is the walking foot for my new Janome sewing machine. I am in loooooove.

So what exactly is a walking foot? It’s a foot attachment for your sewing machine that has a set of grippy feed dogs on it, so that it grips the fabric under the needle from the top (just like the feed dogs below the needle grip from underneath.)

Yesterday I was hacking up a T-shirt for a work colleague and struggling with the slippery seams. The new machine has speed control and it wasn’t eating the thin fabric like my old Singer would enjoy (delicious thin fabrics!) but the seam was rippling and stretching.

Part of sewing is experimentation, and I decided to try out the walking foot. I turned to the page in the user’s manual on how to install it, but it was pretty easy. You remove the current foot from the shank entirely (meaning you do not just snap this attachment on, it screws to the metal shank) and voila. There’s a little bar that sits above the needle bar and the whole thing then moves along on its own, keeping the fabric in place as you sew.

After the first three stitches I was a convert — suddenly slippery knit fabrics that seemed to grow longer and longer as I sewed were stable and seamed up perfectly.

I still use my “vintage” Singer sewing machine, and now I really want a walking foot for that machine, too. I decided to dig through the accessories that came with Joe’s mom’s terrible machine but there was no walking foot attachment in the box. I’m thinking I might buy this very reasonably priced walking foot on Amazon to keep on my Singer for heavier knits. Now that I have stumbled upon this awesome thing I can’t imagine not using it for knits.

But Don’t You Need A Fancy Serger For Knits?

No. You do not need a serger to sew knit fabrics. I do not own a serger (yet! let’s keep hope alive!) and up until my recent Janome machine addition, I sewed everything on a mechanical, old school Singer machine with two stitches — straight and zigzag.

For seams, I use a zigzag stitch and for hems I do a straight stitch twice around to mimic the look of a coverstitch or serger machine. A lot of folks use a twin needle to achieve the coverstitch/serger hem look but I have not been brave enough yet to try one one. Who know, maybe that will be my next experiment.

Sunday Sewing Day Is Pretty Much My Dream Right Now

The walking foot got quite a work out yesterday! I finished up a dress, hemmed/hacked four T-shirts and mended a skirt. The first T-shirt hack was my favorite project (I posted a ton of pics on instagram). We’ve been working with a design shop for a new Apple TV thing at work, and they gave us some branded T-shirts last week. Beth gave me hers to customize and I turned it into a cropped hoodie 🙂

I cut the bottom 13″ off the shirt and used my hoodie template to cut a hood out of the discarded bottom portion. After removing the shirt’s neckband, I re-attached the hood to the shirt at the neckline. I also made the neckline into more of a V-neck, so it’s a little roomier at the neck.

If I had a serger this project probably would have taken half the time, since I wouldn’t have had to finish the seams. But on a thin material like this one, you have to take care with the seams or they all curl in, so I did a wide but tight zigzag (Stitch width 5, stitch length 1.5) along the edge of every seam. It came out awesome!

Beth had brought me a whole bag of sewing projects, so I customized a few other T-shirts for her this weekend. Mostly I evened up armhole cutouts and necklines with my rotary cutter, but on the one below, I cut the sleeves off to make it into a tank. Then I cut the shirt apart at the shoulders, twisted the fabric over and re-sewed the shoulders. I think it adds a cute touch that looks more polished than your average T-shirt hack.

And I finally finished my print dress. A project for myself, this dress has been sitting on my to-do pile for ages. I made up most of the dress a few months ago, but ran out of time to finish it. The back seam had rippled (this was pre-walking-foot!) and I knew I needed to fix the seams and the side shaping but I needed time.

A Sunday sewing day was just what this dress needed. And a walking foot for that back hem!

This dress was an experiment. I used my homemade tunic pattern that I copied from a favorite top in my closet and tried to lengthen it into a dress. The shape of the skirt isn’t quite what I intended but it’s still wearable. My closet is a sea of black, so I have decided to add pattern and color to my wardrobe this year and yep, this dress certainly has both. It’s a cotton interlock fabric from Joanne’s — the Doodles line of fabrics.  I have fallen in love with all things Doodles, just be sure to wash and dry it before you sew. It shrinks like crazy that first wash.

Knits are my jam. I love them.

Some Other Tips for Working with Knits:

Wonder Tape. Before The Magical Walking Foot Discovery of yesterday afternoon, I used wash-away Wonder Tape to keep knits in place for seaming (especially on the hem.) It is the most useful thing in my sewing toolbox! I never put in a zipper without it. It’s a sticky, double-sided tape that washes away in water and won’t gum up your machine needle. This is the brand I use.

Tissue Paper. Super old school, but it works. You know the paper that comes in a gift box? Put a single sheet of that tissue paper underneath your seam as you sew. You do have to tear it away after but it works like a charm. You’ll also have to change your needle more frequently. This tip is good for sewing with chiffons, too, and any thin or slippery fabric. I have to use the tissue paper trick for anything less than a heavyweight fabric on my Singer or it eats the fabric. (Now I have the Walking Foot, though. Seriously! Never going back.)

Stabilizers. You can also buy a tear-away or water soluble stabilizer instead of tissue paper but it’s a lot more expensive.

Newspaper. This is a trick for cutting your fabric without it slipping on you. Lay out single layer sheets of old newspaper and then place your fabric on top. Trace your pattern pieces onto the fabric with chalk or a fabric marker. Then cut out your pattern pieces together with the newspaper. This one is a good/bad trick because using sewing scissors to cut paper dulls them. I have a few pairs of sharp Fiskars that use for this method and I re-sharpen them with a scissor-sharpening tool I got on amazon.

In Conclusion! Finally!

Sewing Sunday was the best Sunday I have had in ages. I love project days. Next weekend I plan to do another sewingfest, and this time I want to make a few new tops for an upcoming trip. I’ve been looking at the Casmerette Concord (sized for bigger boobies!) and the Patterns For Pirates Slim-Fit Raglan, which is the one I am probably going to make because I am digging the sleeve contrast opportunities.

Sew much possibility! (Ugh, sorry. I couldn’t resist. It was sew tempting.)

 

January 22, 2018 4 comments
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A Tale Of Two Sewing Machines (Again), This Time With A Happy Ending
Sewing

A Tale Of Two Sewing Machines (Again), This Time With A Happy Ending

Finally, finally, I got my first ever brand-new sewing machine!

This year I am planning to make (not buy) my clothing and I decided to invest in a new machine: The Janome New Home DC5100 sewing machine.  I’ve had it for a few months now and used it enough times to be able to give a review. The short version of this whole post: It’s a good machine! I really like it!

First Things First

Yes, I am keeping my old two-tone 1970s (1960s?) Singer Fashion Mate. I can never part with that sewing machine. I have too many memories, we are too bonded, and everyone knows I am a Stage 3 Clinger anyway. I bought that machine secondhand back when I was a teenager, and I think I paid $25 for it.  I have carried it across the country and from house to house for decades. I love that machine.

So Why Get a New Sewing Machine?

The obvious reason: I wanted one!

I have only sewed on mechanical machines and I longed for a modern electronic machine with the doodads and whistles. On my list: A one-touch buttonholer, some (very light) embroidery-style decorative stitches, and a few electronic settings to try out. For example, I love being able to select the stitch length and width electronically. And the speed control is amazing! It’s a machine but it’s also a toy, let’s be honest. I love to play with the stitch settings and try new snap-on feet.

Oh, and the snap-on feet! My Singer doesn’t have those. I think you can buy a shank attachment that converts it to a snap-on situation, but I have been spending my whole life long screwing on shank attachments and I was excited to try out the brave new word of snap-on presser feet.

Most of all, I wanted a machine that could sew lighter-weight fabrics without eating them. Once you get past the fun, experimental phase of trying a new machine you pretty much only use a straight stitch and a zigzag stitch for everything. The biggest difference for me is the way machines handle the fabric. My Singer is a heavy duty metal-bodied workhorse and it prefers thick, sturdy fabrics. If you want to sew through six layers of upholstery fabric like nobody’s business, the Singer Fashion Mate is the one to use. But when making garments from lighter-weight fabrics, I had to use stabilizer or tissue paper underneath for every. single. seam. Anything lighter than a cotton interlock gets eaten and mangled without a stabilizer.

Also I Had To Stop Reading Reviews Eventually

I picked the Janome because it got good reviews and had a top-loading bobbin. I picked it out right away, and then I spent a few weeks descending into a wormhole of online reviews.

Reading reviews and deciding on a big purchase like this is super anxiety-producing!! Weirdly enough, the more reviews I read the more unsure I got about any purchase of any machine at all! I got tired of comparing and bought the one I liked best in the beginning. Plus it’s got pink accents.

The new Janome machine had a slight learning curve for me, the presser foot lifter is in a different spot and the machine has so many features, like a setting that automatically creates a lockstitch. The machine itself is heavy-ish, and feels very stable when you sew. The lightest little chiffon slips right through with nary a mangled edge. And it is SO QUIET! My old machine is fairly loud (I’m not complaining, I love the sound of a sewing machine) but this one just purrs.

The bottom line: It’s really nice. I like it A LOT. I found it at a good sale price back before Christmas and I used some of my Amazon gift credits to bring the number down, too, which made it feel like a value. Truthfully, I probably could have spent a little less and gotten a similar quality from a lower-tier Janome, or spent a little more and gotten a really badass Bernina. I’m not certain I would have mentally survived a few more weeks of review-reading, though, so I’m glad I just got over it and committed to a machine.

One day I hope to dip a toe in and buy my own serger but for now I’m super pleased with my machine choices. I still have a lot to learn on the new machine, and that makes me excited to get in there and sew. When I’m not sure what project to work on next (or on days when I only have an hour to spend at the sewing table) I can practice using the buttonhole foot or experiment with decorative stitches on scrap fabric.

Sew that’s all you need to know about my new machine! (Whoops. Sew many puns! Sew little time!)

 

January 20, 2018 3 comments
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And On The Ninth Day I Finally Learned Something
Navelgazing

And On The Ninth Day I Finally Learned Something

My 2018 New Year’s Resolutions were completely different than anything I’ve done before. Usually I either A) Come up with an entire novella, divided into subject areas, where I need massive overhauls or B) I have a single, vague theme for the whole year (“Be happier.”)

This year I shook it up. I’m trying to create momentum and good change in my life with daily practice. I committed to doing three very small things every.single.day. for the entire year:

  1. Walk every day for 365 days, with a minimum time commitment of 10 minutes.
  2. Do a language lesson/listen to a different language/read something in another language every day. The bare commitment here is a single Duolingo lesson, which can take as little as 3 minutes.
  3. Plank daily, starting with 1 second and adding 1 second per day. I had no idea what this was when I added it. Basically you just do a mini push-up and hold it while squeezing your buns. I believe I was drinking champagne when I agreed to this.

It is now January 9th and I have managed to do all three every single day.  Already this daily practice has taught me a few things:

  1. Even small things, when repeated daily, can create a ripple in my life.
  2. Every task that I want to do daily is better done first thing in the morning.
  3. If I don’t do my tasks early in the day, they hang over me like clouds of anxiety until checked off the list. Anxiety feels yuck.
  4. I feel really good when I keep my promises to myself.
  5. Planking is kind of goofy and way harder than I expected.

What I hoped for when making this resolution was to create positive momentum and good energy in my daily life. Many people say meditation is their solution, but I have tried meditating my whole life long and it still hasn’t stuck. This year I am embracing my true nature and working with what I’ve got right now. Right now I am a person who feels better while taking action. Action feels like energy which feels good to me.

Doing my Duolingo lesson has been easy. I love them, they are fun, and take no time at all. When I drink coffee every morning I fire up the app and practice saying wonderful phrases like mi elefante esta bebiendo leche. I’m sure this will help me tremendously in Spain.

Planking is not time consuming and right now it’s not unbearably hard. The Captain and I also now talk about planking and which muscles to squeeze and all of it is very amusing to me. I’m only at 9 seconds, so, you know, call me in February when I’m at the minute mark and full of complaining.

It’s the walk that’s been an eye-opener.

At first I was able to get a walk in midday because we were still on holiday break and everything starts at noon anyway. Once work started back up, I was surprised at how quickly my schedule came roaring back, and once again I put my work tasks first and the walk became the very last thing on the list.

There’s an insidious and easy habit I’ve established. Here’s what it sounds like: Yes, of course I want to exercise! But I have all these other things to do first. My boss is calling. And I’m late for a meeting. And I’m so tired. I’ll do it later.

And of course later never comes. The day gets away from me and by the end of the evening I am exhausted and the exercise never happens. This year I made a promise, I am determined to keep it, and still I found myself pushing it off until the end of the day! One day I literally timed myself walking up and down the street in front of my house at night just so I could complete the goal.

By late last week I began to recognize the growing stressball I felt from shoving my one (tiny) to-do item to the end of the priority list, where it just hovered around waiting for me all day. Yesterday I did it AGAIN! I had a busy Monday and waited to walk until the evening when it was cold and dark and rainy. We had to sidestep puddles and guess which parts of the road had muddy sinkholes.

Well, friends, it took me eight days but I was finally tired of leaving myself for last. This morning we woke up and went for a walk. It was still rainy but the air was fresh and it was easier to avoid puddles in the daylight and by 8:45 a.m. I had crossed off all three bullet points on my daily task list. I felt such a warm flash of happiness and satisfaction. Taking care of my own needs feels GREAT.

It also frees me now to concentrate on my work. And here is the kicker: I didn’t realize that the undone tasks of my life were draining energy from me until I could feel the contrast of having them checked off. And I have a LOT of in-progress and TBD tasks in my personal life (paperwork, boxes to sort, cabinets of mystery items to purge, closets to clean, taxes to file, bills to pay, on and on). I wonder how much better I would feel if I just got them done? What would life be like without all this TBD stuff hanging out there in the universe sapping my energy?

Taking a daily walk has gotten me out of the house, motivated me to walk to the store, encouraged me to walk to dinner (twice!) and gotten me moving. Most importantly it has forced me to decide to prioritize my goals over someone else’s goals.

This is only Day Nine. I have high hopes for this year.

January 9, 2018 9 comments
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Knitting

A Knitter’s Stash, Explained

I found this on Twitter last night and it cracked me up.

Also, IT IS SO TRUE. The credit on the image is to someone who just inventoried my yarn closet, apparently …. who are you, JAMills? Are you in my house right now looking in that bin of embarrassing novelty yarn? (Here’s a link to the illustrator’s website: http://jamills.com/ and an etsy link for even more shopping options here: J Mills Paints Etsy Shop)

 

 

January 4, 2018 4 comments
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Forecast: Sunny Outside, Stormy In My Soul
Navelgazing

Forecast: Sunny Outside, Stormy In My Soul

Yesterday was the first day back at work and the moment I arrived in the office I was descended upon just like it was still 2017. Even though I had deliberately blocked out my schedule until 11 a.m., people were in my office trying to have a Very Serious Yet Totally Impromptu Meeting with me before I had even plugged in my laptop.

While this meeting was happening, someone else popped by to hover uncomfortably at the door until he realized that yes, I was actually too busy to solve his problem right that moment, so he would come back the second my other meeting ended. And on went the morning.

Finally at some point I closed my door, which I rarely do, but even that is no guarantee of a quiet moment because surprisingly no one respects the closed door. A few weeks ago I was having a really difficult conversation with a colleague and a teammate popped in not once, not twice, but yes, three times.

At home things are chaotic, too, the cleaning folks were scheduled to come and I have been doing all this moving around and re-organizing at home of the studio which has created mess and disorganization everywhere. I got home last night and rushed around for an hour trying to tidy and pick stuff up off the floors and surfaces and by the time the Captain got home for what was supposed to be a chill date night I was sweaty and on the verge of anxiety meltdown.

“I want everything to be different this year but it’s still the exact same,” I said through tears. “I am so frustrated! I want to have a moment to breathe and it feels like I am right back to being pecked to death by ducks!”

One thing I love about him is that he doesn’t run out the door when confronted by such crazy on a Tuesday.

“The difference is that this time we are not giving up!” he said. He was animated and I could feel the energy in what he was saying. “We are going to stick with our goals and not let them fall apart!”

So this morning I planked (three whole seconds! I must be stronger than I know!), and I did my Spanish lesson, and here I am writing this down. My at-least-ten-minute walk will have to wait until after work but like Scarlett said, as God is my witness I will check that task off my daily list today and I will not fail just three days in. Well I am paraphrasing but that’s the gist.

This time I am not giving up so easily.

January 3, 2018 10 comments
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Full Disclosure On The Plank Thing
Navelgazing

Full Disclosure On The Plank Thing

Bob, pictured above, is cat planking.

In my list of Daily Goals for 2018, you may have noticed the very detailed bullet point about planks. Up until yesterday morning I did not even know what a plank was or why you would do such a thing. I am still not sure I fully know the answers to either, but I like saying PLANK. A lot.

It was the Captain’s 365 day goal for 2018 and then I decided to do it also because how weird is it to just hold your own body weight up and do nothing? It’s so random. It’s not a sit up. It’s not a push up, really. You just get into push up position, go up and do nothing. Fascinating.

The hardest part of building up to the grand finale of six minutes will be the boredom of holding it for six minutes on New Year’s Eve 2018. No idea why this appeals to me so much but I am willing to bet cash money this is the one daily goal I for sure accomplish in 2018.

Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, I planked for the first time ever. Apparently I did it wrong with my booty too far up in the air (Peter: “Don’t stick your bottom out as much.” Me: “Um, that’s just my butt occupying its space in the world.”)  The next try was better, as I did it with my forearms flat on the yoga mat, which I learned later was a remedial plank (but it still counts!) Bob joined me on the floor because he thought we were doing yoga, or maybe project day was starting. Humans must be very confusing to animals.

So that is the story of the plank and how I came to learn about it the same day I committed to it for an entire year. One more time for good measure: PLANK.

 

January 2, 2018 4 comments
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Happy New Year’s Resolutions 2018!
Navelgazing

Happy New Year’s Resolutions 2018!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s 2018, and I did not wake up taller or skinnier and no one magically cleaned the house while I slept off the champagne so I guess it is up to me to make it happen. And so I did the one thing I know makes everything better: I made a list.

It’s not a new year in my life without a little selfhelpy list of goals!

This year’s list is different because I am using a cool (free!) app called Asana to track my goals and reminders. In 2017, I used this kind of software to track projects, progress, ideas, budgets and time commitments at my job. I put all the best of me into my work and by the time the winter break came, I felt ground to a nub. I had also put all my personal goals second to work, something that is officially changing right this minute.

Drew and I were on the phone last week talking about our New Year’s Resolutions. He asked me what the intention behind my 2018 list was. “I want to put myself first,” I said. “I’m sorry, that sounds selfish, but I have to. I’m burned out. I need to invest in myself first and then everything else next.”

“Why do women DO THAT? Apologize like that?” he asked. “Men don’t apologize for getting their needs at the top of their lists. Why do women apologize for what they want?”

It was some pretty profound stuff for a Tuesday. He was so RIGHT. Jeezus, why was I apologizing for putting my health and my growth first? Without that everything else falls apart.

So I’m taking a tool I have used to be super successful at work into my personal life and I am going to invest in me in 2018! And while I love my paper and sticker lists, this one works on the phone as well as your regular computer. My phone is the one thing I always have with me. I will walk out of this house with no shoes and no keys but you know I have my phone in my hand.

During 2018 I am sure the sticker list will make an appearance, but I am going to use Asana as the master list and try this extremely granular daily tracking approach.

Why all the attention to daily tracking? Over the winter break something clicked — I seriously overestimate what I can accomplish in a long weekend and underestimate what I can accomplish by doing small, daily, repeated tasks. For example, I had the idea that I could catch up on a year’s worth of work during the week between Christmas and today. HAHAHA. That did not happen. But I could definitely see the effect of doing a few minutes (or even an hour) every day working on my sewing room.

My 2018 Goals

Overall Theme of These Goals:

Make Positive Personal Growth Happen By Doing Daily, Weekly, Monthly Stuff (and not saving it all up until December 21st again like in 2017, ahem.)

Daily Goals (365 Goal)
  • Walk at least 10 minutes every day
  • Plank every day starting with holding 1 second and building by adding 1 second each day, working up to holding it for 365 seconds (6.08 minutes on December 31, 2018) (!!!)
  • Practice a foreign language every day, with the minimum being at least one Duolingo practice per day. (By the way, I am doing Spanish to start this year. Hola, amigas!)
Weekly Goal
  • Declutter or deep clean the house for at least one hour each week.
Monthly Goals
  • Give myself one day a month as a dedicated Project Day (this is at least a four-hour block of fun to sew, knit, paint, do anything creative.) (Probably sewing!)
  • Do a monthly check-in on my goals to gauge my progress and adjust where needed. Happens on the last day of each month.

And that’s it. This year’s list seems pretty small compared to previous years. This is a new approach for me, master of the wordy, long-winded bullet point list. In 2018 I will focus on sustaining a few key areas and not spreading all my energy out across a massive to-do list.

There are some other general goals and project ideas and tasks sprinkled though my Asana board, but the ones on the list above are my only trackable goals and they have specific time commitments. Each goal is set to repeat either daily, weekly, or monthly. Another positive is that I can use Siri to add to-do items, shopping list stuff, hopes/dreams/reminders, book titles I want to research, names of songs (all this seem to come to me when I am driving, so I like the voice-to-text aspect.)

Everyone does it differently, and I am happy to see I have also evolved over the years. Rather than set some generic, vague goals like in past years, I have created a list of time-boxed actions that I hope will make me feel a lot of forward momentum. Momentum is tricky because it can go in a positive direction or a very negative direction. I felt the pull of negative momentum last year and it showed up in my attitude, my health, and my stress levels. The only person who can change that is ME and man oh man do I have a drive to change the direction of this vehicle. Just thinking these through this past week has made me feel invigorated and happy.

Have you set any goals for 2018? Do you have things you want to achieve, places to go, people to see, things to do? Are you also ready to take on the world? I can’t slog through another 2017. I feel the world is changing and most of us want to be a part of that positive change. For me it starts at home, by taking care of myself and investing in my health and well-being. What’s on your list?

List or none, I hope this year is kind to all of us. ♥

January 1, 2018 11 comments
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