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Christine Welsh of ChrisW Designs... |
At various times, I've referenced my first entry, which was written at
a time of great excitement and anticipation, not knowing the terrain of the
road ahead or how long it might be. I was acting upon a spark of inspiration
that had convinced me to go for it.
By all accounts made public here, that spark of inspiration arose from my
fascination with a friend's tote bag. But there was another spark that I
didn't talk about at the time. I did sort of allude to it several weeks
later, when I introduced my version of the
Bella Bag. I've come to see that post – my sixth – as the opening "bookend" of my
blogging adventure.
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| Never going to part with my pretty Bella... |
The project is one of
Christine Welsh's early patterns (actually her second release), one that she later retired,
then subsequently revived with changes, and then revamped once again. The fact
that it went through several iterations and still manages to retain a strong
appeal is a testament to its essential design. It simply looks good.
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| Interior of my Bella... |
It's come to my realization over the past several months that the story of
Christine – or more accurately, the story of the relationship that she and I
cultivated way back when – is the natural closing bookend of my
blogging adventure. And to ensure that it is mathematically
symmetrical – in keeping with a recent topic of note – this is my
sixth last regular blog entry.
Christine and I had our first online encounter in late December, 2012. Whatever fuel it was that caught fire between us, we quickly became pen pals. Throughout the next two years, messages flew back and forth and then – invariably, perhaps – they started slowing and by mid-2016, they ended. She was busy building her brand and I was immersed in cultivating a blog following. Truthfully, however, the main reason for us falling out of touch was the fact that I was no longer proof reading for her.
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| How Christine's adventure started... |
That particular story started when, after I bought Christine's Bella bag PDF
pattern, an error in it resulted in my purchasing the wrong size grommets.
When I explained this to her, she was mortified that the mistake had gone
unnoticed by her testers and immediately rectified the problem by mailing me a
set of the correct grommets... all the way from Australia.
That right there tells you what a gracious human being she is.
Within the span of a mere handful of Etsy messages, she asked if I
would be interested in proofing the rest of her patterns. Thus began our
unique history. I was smart enough to see a tremendous opportunity for me to
pick up some bag making skills while she reaped the benefits of my meticulous
copy editing prowess. (I was at the top of my game at the time, and was speedy
to boot! ◕‿↼)
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| Some of my editing input... |
As I worked my way through her library of patterns, we corresponded on the
side about a wide variety of life topics ranging from cleaning up after
teenage parties – of which I know zilch about – to the devastating challenges
of elder care — with which I was more recently experienced. In fact, when I
dove into my email archives to revisit those memories a couple of months ago,
I was taken aback by the vast expanse of subjects that we covered. But most
especially, I was pleasantly reminded of the fun that we had; our messages
were liberally sprinkled with LOLs and general hilarity.
Christine has a great sense of humour. Hence her series of
YouTube videos dressed in pjs and assorted sleep masks...
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| Pajamas and sleep masks make good fashion sense... |
Just as an idea of how varied our virtual conversations were, here's a list of
non-bag making topics that we managed to cover:
- The Bee Gees
- The cow in the movie 50 First Dates
- Microsoft Word and its myriad features that we should learn how how to use
- Trusting or not trusting document storage to "the Cloud"
- Chocolate and pizza (no, not together)
- Cheap watches and sunglasses on eBay
- Bare Naked Ladies' If I Had a Million Dollars
- Boxing Day shopping
- McDonalds
- 411, 1123, and 911 (and other differences between Canada/North America & Australia)
But not all of our exchanges were light and frivolous. For most of the past
decade, Christine was the primary caregiver for her aging parents. And
whenever something happened, her fear of losing them was palpable across the
miles as she juggled the stresses of operating a business with family
obligations. Being a realist, I could only offer my own perspective on how to
deal with the inevitable.
Christine is one of those people who is inclined to be kind. As in, she's
naturally so, not because she thinks it's right to be so and then has to
make the effort. I'm not implying she's a saint – because none of us are,
and she'd be the first to dispute it – but in my experience, those whose
automatic response is to be kind are rare these days. In my experience with
her, it wasn't just the replacement of grommets, it was the freely shared
expertise and offers of support. She does that for her customers and she
certainly did that for me in my early days of creativity. I've made
inquiries to other designers over the years and have been ignored on
occasion. (She's had the same experience, believe it or not.) Christine
generously offers without being asked and shows genuine interest in someone
else's creative efforts.
I've
said it before, but it merits repeating: she's been an inspiration for my journey from
the very beginning. I thought that if she could do it at the level that she
was performing at, I could do it a level that worked for me.
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| My favourite "newer" CWD pattern... |
When I think back to what I appreciated most about our back and forth
emails, it's that she was very conscientious about replying. I'm not talking
about merely answering an email; she was meticulous about answering specific
questions. Oh, and one of the funniest situations occurred once when I told
her something along the lines of
this is just info, no reply necessary and she responded with, "I had
to reply....there is something weird about an email that doesn't warrant a
reply.....maybe I am strange but I needed to reply!"
At some point in the latter part of 2015, due to my not being available to
meet certain timelines – curiously enough, I believe I was away on
vacation on two occasions – Christine turned to other people to back up
her proof reading requirements. As often happens in such situations,
backups gradually become the "go to" people. With me no longer occupying a
seat at the table, we fell out of touch.
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| CWD's three Bag Mag editions... |
In April of this year, we reconnected when I answered her call for content for
her new Bag Mag. In many ways, we took up where we had left off all those years ago, with me
giving her unsolicited advice about navigating the ups and downs of running a
pattern business and she being too kind to tell me to buzz off. (I'm kidding,
but from the very beginning of my editing days with her, I've told her that
she's free to do whatever she wishes with my input... including ignoring it
entirely!) Seriously, though, sometimes an alternate viewpoint from someone
who is not mired in the same quandary can provide reassurance and
encouragement. Whether it was a few months ago or many years ago, I like to
think that I lent a hand during times when she needed affirmation that things
will work themselves out in the end.
I don't know if Christine realizes this, but she is, in fact, a prolific
writer. If you check out her blog, you'll find that she did a lot of writing
in the early years... all while designing and churning out purse patterns. Her
blog posts from that early period contain a lot of reference material for
bag-making "how to"s that are well worth reading and are still totally
applicable if you are just starting out. (She even threw a bouquet or two at
me that I don't know if I ever truly thanked her for at the time, like this
one above from February, 2013.)
As an emailer, she's been known to sign off lengthy missives with, "I wrote a
book!" I feel honoured to be someone she's deemed interesting enough to
correspond with – really correspond with – because I'm sure she has
many people in her life who have more legitimate demands on her time.
Coincidentally, it is Thanksgiving weekend in the US right now (for the
record, those of us in Canada already celebrated in early October), meaning
it's time for ChrisW Designs' major sale of the year. The whole
Black Friday trend has infiltrated all the way down under and
Christine says this has become a significant event for her. As such, I
thought I'd take the opportunity to let you know that all of her patterns
are on sale through Cyber Monday at 25% off. (Those of you who live
down under have the added benefit of buying via her
Aussie site – where she also sells bag making supplies – using Australian
dollars.)
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| Just some of Christine's latest patterns... all on sale this weekend! |
While many CWD creations are more elaborate in both design and
relative complexity than your average purse pattern, Chris also has several
that are beginner friendly. And to be honest, her most recent offerings
are definitely aimed at being quick wins for the maker... without
sacrificing looks or functionality! The ones shown above are the newest in
her vast catalog, and all are accompanied by detailed videos on YouTube.
I've written here before that
online relationships are weird. But every once in a teeny, tiny, teensy while, they're not. With luck, it's
entirely possible for two like-minded people to encounter one another and
form a connection that endures even over a long period of absence.
Thanks for the friendship and inspiration, Christine!
As for what that may be, I don't want to make any promises other than that
this blog won't be totally abandoned. And that
all of the content currently here will stay here. I will enjoy some time off
from the weekly obligation, but at some point, I'll probably be inspired to feature
something nifty that I've encountered. One idea that has occurred to me is to go back through the archives, revisit the
years and update my thoughts on a favourite topic from each month. With ten
years x twelve months worth of archives, that gives me – do the math! – one
hundred and twenty more post ideas.
And if I were to do that once a month, it'd give me – do the math again –
another ten years. Ha, ha, ha! 😂
'Til next...
