How Did We Get Here?

In May 2014 my Husbie visited China for work. In July we decided he should take the new job, by September we were on the plane to Shanghai.

We packed up and ordered things, and moved things and sold things. We gave things away and we put things in storage. We laughed a lot, and hurried a lot, we stressed a lot and cried a bit. Sometimes (and even a bit now) we wished that other people helped us decide things. Made choices for us. Mapped our lives out and just did the things that were hard to do. But, after lots of talks & debate & discussions (and still that now), we are the makers. We make our lives, we decide and do and enjoy it.

It's thrilling and fucking scary moving countries. I still cannot believe we have done it. We did it.

So! Yes, I brought both my sewing machines to Shanghai, but hardly any supplies!

Here's what sewing supplies did come with me, and currently hang out in my Shanghai Sewing Studio (AKA the spare room for my parents to stay in - or any friend who cares to stop over!):

- Straight Stitch Sewing Machine
- Overlocker - DUR - I would die without this machine
- A Handmade for Kids Vintage book my friend Cat gave me
- A By Hand London Anna Pattern
- A McCalls Pattern Dress, for some reason, as I've never sewn it
- Oliver + S patterns for children - same reason as above
- A Sew Liberated book
- My pins because they remind me of my Grandmother
- A half knitted cowl-scarf
- A half knitted baby cardigan
- Some crochet hooks that are the same size I thing - oops!
- My computer, so I can podcast & blog (well try to - I've been fixing up the site these last few days - oops, I can't remember as much html anymore! I tried a few new templates, but the code just kept stuffing up!)
- An unstitcher - of course!

And I think that's about it!

Have you moved countries? What did you take? I forgot fabric scissors! OOPS, I bought some here instead, snippy snip!



Photos: Sewing Room packed up in Melbourne, and freshly cut flowers from Shanghai flower shop on our first day in town.

ShangHAI THERE!

Why HELLO!

It's been a while, right? I'm so glad I actually told you what was coming up, because otherwise it'd be a bit DUR what happened to Veronica Darling and her little darlings Husbie & Baby and all the sewing? The SEWING?! What happened to all the stash!? Time has gone so uncontrollably fast!

Well, the greatest thing is that we are A-OK and living in Shanghai, China, not Melbourne, Australia as last year. We moved in September and are SLOWLY settling in... there are a million reasons, but it takes a long time to get into daily life (for me, anyways) in China. It's amazing, crazy, sad without friends and family, but happy to make new friends, and all those other things... like getting lost without knowing the usual places to go but then amazed by other places that you accidentally stumble upon. The whole world as you know it is upside down. (We did not speak ANY Mandarin before we got to China - only Thank You = Xie Xie) (It's really hard moving to a new city without speaking the native language - well done to you if you've done it, WHAT! It's such crazy & scary thing.)

But, we are living our lives, right?

The challenges are very rewarding, and I'm high-fiving myself for the most simplest things... every day.

SO, hello again, I've missed writing here, and I've missed reading about your own creative selves, and while my life starts to settle Gretel, I'll start to split up my writing into different areas for different themes... more on that soon...

I started this blog as Veronica Darling to find a writing voice and to document what I sew and create. I've been doing this for a while now, and I'd like to keep going, because it's really still important to me to be ethical, sustainable, to reuse, recycle and redo where I can in this regard. Circumstances have changed in my life (new jobs, new roles, new houses, new countries) but of course, I'm still a creative-type that needs to keep going and doing and being.

There's a whole lot more I wanna talk about here, but for now, I'll say HELLO again, and see you around soon!

xoxo Veronica Darling