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About Me

Where do you live?
I live in Canada, west of Toronto, Ontario.  I'm a suburb girl, close enough to pop in for a concert, far enough away I can shake my head at Toronto municipal politics.

How did you get into sewing?
Such an obvious question that I wouldn't have thought of without Tanit-Isis.  My mom has sewn my whole life.  She sewed clothing for herself in the 70's-early 80's, clothing for myself and my brothers as children.   I do not remember watching her sewing for herself, just the final products.  This shifted to sewing for sale, bibs, table runners, luggage tags, kids aprons, crib sets, mittens (the only thing she knits) all kinds of stuff.    You can see (and purchase) a snippet of her work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/theeclecticcloset 

In university, I'd make clothing or costumes maybe twice a year when I was home.  The problem was that sewing was her living.  I never wanted to take away from her sewing time.  So it would be more like a marathon 10pm-3am sewing adventure to do something for Halloween.  Post-grad, she got a new machine for herself and gave me her old one.  Then I started buying fabric and occasionally sewing.  Fast forward enough time to know I really liked having her old White, she did a big machine swap where I got my Huskystar 224.

Favourite things to sew?  Least favourite?
I think this is ever evolving.  Right now, lingerie, bras, clothing for work.  Slippery fabrics don't scare me, expensive ones are still hard to cut into.  I love prints, purple and texture, I shop faster than I sew, which has led to a growing stash.  Pants are scary but I'm working on that.  Coats haven't held appeal to me (yet), neither does home dec.  I'd have to care about decorating before I started to sew for it. 

I don't have a serger or coverstich or vintage machine.  Just my Huskystar.  I can't say I really have felt the need for more machines and I don't really have the space to set more up without reorganizing my sewing room.

I am not much of a pattern collector.  I have a handful that I've purchased (mostly bras and swimwear but a few dresses), quite a few that were my mom's (mostly 70's vintage, often for a much smaller waist than I have or Stretch & Sew), downloaded a crap ton of Lekala as their free downloads in September match me well.  I like knowing that my dollars are supporting independent pattern makers so I have purchased more Colette, Sewaholic and Cake patterns than Big 4. 

Seraphinalina?  Where did that mouthful come from?
I have posted about this here.

The short version is that Seraphina was the first character I created to play  Dungeons and Dragons.  I was setting up an Etsy account to buy something and every usual name I use seemed to be taken.  I added lina to Seraphina and it was free so I took it.  When I decided to blog, I figured that was a good name to hang my hat on.  I refer to my husband as Mr. Lina and I refer to myself as Sera.  When I get a dress form of some sort, I'll probably call her Phina.

You mentioned infertility/adoption...
I told that story here.  I have blogged through a few FET (Frozen Embryo Transfers) cycles, I have those posts tagged.

Short version is summed up to:
  • I don't ovulate regularly (thank you, PCOS)
  • Mr. Lina has exceptionally low sperm count (thank you, vasectomy & reversal)
  • I do get pregnant easily with IVF (YAY!)
  • However I also have recurrent miscarriage (thank you, crazy immune system)
  • 8 pregnancies is enough, infertility treatments are a chapter of my life that is done
  • Adoption has always been on my radar and I know there are children that need me to be their mom.
Infertility is the aspect of this blog that keeps it a little removed from my real life.  I have found that talking to friends and family does not help me.  They do not understand where I am coming from and I spend more time comforting them than helping myself.  We have been open with friends about most of the journey.  We have taken a policy of no news is bad news, please don't ask.  We enjoy socializing without facing a Spanish Inquisition of well intentioned people. 

But if you need someone to talk to, have some questions, need an ear, I am happy to help others with infertility issues.  It can be lonely and confusing.  Seraphinalina@gmail.com

Who the heck is Clone?  Scot?  Shouldn't that have two t's?
I have given my two younger brothers names.  Clone is 6 years younger than me and has a daughter I've named Autumn, Scot is 3 years younger than me.  Both had sons the first week of April 2014.  I blogged about why I chose those names here

Why is there so much music?
Mr. Lina and I have a passion for supporting independent musicians.  We do that by hosting house concerts.  Friends and friends of friends come to our house for concerts.  They pay $20 a show, they sit in rows in the basement and focus on the music.  This isn't a party with live music (although there is time to socialize pre-post and between sets), this isn't my 15 year old cousin and a clarinet, it is professional musicians and this is how they reach their audience.  Most musicians come for dinner, stay the night with us and move onto the next house the following day.

What is your real life work?
I work within the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, a mix of manufacturers (for example, P&G, Kraft, Pepsi QTG, etc) and the retailers who sell their products.  As big as those global companies are, it's a freakishly small world in Canada. 

My education is in geography.  I didn't realize until I was finished my undergrad that I really am a social geographer, but my university didn't offer social geography courses.  It should have been a hint when I studied people at every opportunity (like my 4th year GIS project - location analysis for a long term care facility).  To me, the interesting part of my job is about who the consumer is and where to reach them.  Geography plays a part in most fields if you want to look at it from the impact of location, even if it's about perception of space more than actual space.  If you got a sample or coupon in the mail, a smart company would ask someone like me where to send it.  Why send it to all 13 million Canadian households when you could send it to 1 million who are more likely to be your consumer?  Seniors don't want coupons for baby food, young adults don't want to hear about funeral homes.  It's all about defining and then finding your target audience. 

I may have ended up a teacher if the standard reply to finding I was taking geography at university wasn't "Geography?  Oh so you're going to be a teacher."  Nothing pissed me off more than hearing that, it's a really useful degree even if I am in a pretty niche field.  I can be a spiteful rebel at times. 

My question wasn't listed here.
Okay, what is it?  I'll do what I can to answer them.  Seraphinalina@gmail.com 

2 comments:

  1. I didn't see an email, so figured this was as good a place as any to shoot you a note. Jonathan Byrd is one of those people whose name I have heard but never managed to see/hear. It's amazing how many of these vagabond troubadours there are out there! I was at the Crimson Moon last weekend, and Smyrna is an Atlanta suburb, so hopefully I can make one of his shows. The Blue Ridge venue is one I hope to visit--in case you didn't know, they do a great job with streaming video and a live chat that the performer is able to see while on stage. I will keep an eye out for my favorites heading your way, and would love for you to do the same! So glad I talked about music on the day you came to visit!

    mmk262@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comments, I love to have a two way conversation. I seem to be getting a lot of spam from anonymous users and am turning off the ability to comment that way. I really would like to hear from you so if you do want to add your two cents without an OpenId, email me at seraphinalina at gmail dot com.