I had been bemoaning the fact that the 200 yards of 1/8" elastic I ordered in March had still not arrived. I had to therefore make masks with elastic that I found in mom's old sewing chest which were a little too wide, rolled up t-shirt material, some cord remnants I found in my drawer, etc.
I met fellow blogger, Honolulu Aunty several years ago.
She is an amazing financial wizard as well as an artistic, creative designer. And so... of course, she would also come up with out of the ordinary, gorgeous face masks.
When she learned that my elastic was taking months to show up and who knows?... might never show up... she decided to send me some valuable treasures from her own supplies.
When I responded that I just needed maybe 10 yards of elastic, she sent me twice that plus beads to experiment with, pens, magnets with recipes and yes, her incredible masks. Wow!
I was blown away!
I immediately used the elastic she sent to finish off the masks I had waiting and gave/sent them out.
What a relief!
Would you believe that as soon as I'd given out all my masks, I got the notice from Amazon that my 200 yards of elastic was arriving in two days? Sheesh!
When the elastic finally arrived I was disappointed to see that it was discolored, appeared dirty and frayed.
However, since my daughter had asked for some, I started unrolling it to send to her.
After about 30 yards I found clean elastic.
I'm thinking the quality control person was asleep or something and didn't see what was happening to this unlucky roll.
When I told Honolulu Aunty that I could send her some of my elastic, she said she had enough so I decided to pay it forward by giving some to my tai chi mask making hui (group).
And guess what? Myra (my tai chi mask making friend) shared some of their avocados and fabric as well with me.
So here I am. I was actually pretty much done with mask making, but I now have more material and more elastic.
Looks like I'll be back to my sewing machine. Honolulu Aunty says she's working on another pattern for her masks too. And she says she'll share it with me. How awesome is that?
She is an amazing financial wizard as well as an artistic, creative designer. And so... of course, she would also come up with out of the ordinary, gorgeous face masks.
When she learned that my elastic was taking months to show up and who knows?... might never show up... she decided to send me some valuable treasures from her own supplies.
When I responded that I just needed maybe 10 yards of elastic, she sent me twice that plus beads to experiment with, pens, magnets with recipes and yes, her incredible masks. Wow!
I was blown away!
I immediately used the elastic she sent to finish off the masks I had waiting and gave/sent them out.
What a relief!
Would you believe that as soon as I'd given out all my masks, I got the notice from Amazon that my 200 yards of elastic was arriving in two days? Sheesh!
When the elastic finally arrived I was disappointed to see that it was discolored, appeared dirty and frayed.
However, since my daughter had asked for some, I started unrolling it to send to her.
After about 30 yards I found clean elastic.
I'm thinking the quality control person was asleep or something and didn't see what was happening to this unlucky roll.
When I told Honolulu Aunty that I could send her some of my elastic, she said she had enough so I decided to pay it forward by giving some to my tai chi mask making hui (group).
And guess what? Myra (my tai chi mask making friend) shared some of their avocados and fabric as well with me.
So here I am. I was actually pretty much done with mask making, but I now have more material and more elastic.
Looks like I'll be back to my sewing machine. Honolulu Aunty says she's working on another pattern for her masks too. And she says she'll share it with me. How awesome is that?
You're both awesome! And what a super photo of you & Honolulu Aunty too :)
ReplyDeleteI agree you are both awesome!!!!
ReplyDeleteNicely done!
ReplyDeleteThis is what it is all about -- helping, sharing, caring. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLove it.
ReplyDeleteWin win!
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to see the photo of you with Honolulu Aunty. Looks like the elastic you got from her will just about replace the dirty elastic you discarded.
ReplyDeleteI need to try another mask pattern, or make up a variation. I don't have the right kind of elastic, the first mask I made hurts my ears, and the second style doesn't fit well. I have been using the disposable one I got when I went to the medical center and just air it out between wearings. Since it looks like we'll be wearing masks for some time to come, I'll do some more experimenting.
This post makes me so happy. (Well not about the 30 bad yards from amazon.) But I love reading about people helping one another. It is one of the few bright spots in a rather sad world at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI got a nice email from Honolulu Auntie thanking me for posting about my morning exercise routine. She's going to do them too! Thanks for the cool picture of the two of you. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou both set the bar high on how we should be behaving in this time of stress. Well done.
ReplyDeletea real sense of community!
ReplyDeleteHonolulu Aunty is such a nice friend. Kudos to both of you regarding mask making.
ReplyDeleteSince it looks like we will be wearing masks for a very long time, your elastic supply is probably a good thing. You will probably be making replacement masks. Although we have four face coverings, two seem to always be in the wash. Good thing we have extras. I ordered some fun masks awhile back, but it may be August before they arrive. I guess if I go back to storytelling they will come in handy as they are really some fun designs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of elastic. Sue is still wanting. :)
ReplyDeleteAwww, Kay. Who would not want to share with you because you share so much with everyone else? I am finding new friends in my old age. And constantly learning new things - good new things from surprising sources. For example, DJ's Five Tibetan Rites exercises that I re-discovered from her website and connection to you. And gardening inspirations from your blogging friend Linda Letters. And to think I "found" you from following Jalna's blog.
ReplyDeleteYou have now inspired me to keep on with mask making and one of my next posts will be about the patterns I have been going through and a recent one that I really like because of it's design possibilities with a variety of fabrics.
Mahalo for the kind words, Friend!
LOVE the adventure around the world. Seems your big spool of elastic might have fallen in the creek for part of it's travels. If it could talk. Thanks for continuing to make the masks; it's going to be awhile before we won't need them.
ReplyDeleteThe devoted mommy robin finally has three new babies today! In spite of her nest being on part of a downspout under the eves, right near where 4 cars park, she sat right there. Three days ago I got some birdseed and fishing worms for her in a half gallon jug nearby. Probably need to fetch more worms. No centipedes! Linda in Kansas
Receiving dirty frayed elastic doesn't sound very good.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see a new style of fabric face mask with beads.
ReplyDelete