Karma

Let me start by saying that I am not a religious person, nor am I one of those who is "spiritual but not religious." This does not mean I have no moral compass. I try to live my life by the Golden Rule, and hope that others do the same by me. But beyond that...I don't believe in much.

But sometimes, karma is just amazing.

On Thursday one of my neighbors asked me to create a jewelry set to donate to the silent auction at the annual Georgetown Pediatrics Gala. While sewing is and always has been my first love, I got into jewelrymaking after I graduated from law school. Suddenly, for the first time in my life I was living alone and not in school and I just had no idea what to do with my evening time! Then (as now) I found it too difficult to sew during the week because I felt like I couldn't get anything done in the few hours of a weekday evening. I spent a lot of time at the gym. But when I got home after that, sitting around watching TV got real old, real quick.

So I bought some beads. I loved them. Stringing went by too quickly and I didn't feel like I could be creative enough, so I learned to do some wirework and was very content. This hobby kept me company during a lot of hours! I am definitely back more into sewing recently and haven't done much jewelry lately. A couple years after 9/11 they relaxed to rules on what you can carry onto a plane so now I can bring my pliers with me onboard and I do most of the jewelry stuff I do while traveling.

My neighbor knows I make jewelry because she commissioned a piece from me. It was a blast to make. Normally I make jewelry that suits me, but we have completely different styles. For her I got to make a big, substantial, chunky, ethnic piece that I totally loved but never would have made in a million years otherwise. So for the gala I decided to make a piece on a much larger scale than I would normally do. The pendant is about an inch and a half long, and the twist beads are about an inch long. I think this piece will be great on a dramatic grown up woman over a black turtleneck or boatneck tee. I hope somebody wants it!



So here's where the karma comes in. I made this yesterday (my off day) while I was supposed to be cleaning the house (more on that later). This morning I checked my email...and I had an order from my Etsy shop. Etsy is a great venue, very easy to set up and the fees are relatively low. So I set up a shop a while back but since I've been in a sewing fever for so long it's been months since I put up anything new, and even longer since I made a sale. This was completely out of the blue. Literally just hours after I finished the donated set. Wow! I was really humbled by that.

And the order came from a sewing friend! Lisette on PR, who blogs as La Cubanita Cose (The Little Cuban Sews), took home one of my favorite items I had in the shop:



It's going to look great on her. Blue-grays are definitely her color. Thank you again, Lisette!



The other thing isn't nearly as cool, but you know how the Great Craft Clean Up of 2008 wasn't really prompted by anything in particular? I just felt like it was time? Well, I am refinancing at the moment because when I bought my condo the builder's lender offered a deal where it would pay the closing costs if we used them. Their rates were as good as any, but the best product they were offering was a 5 year ARM. I took it, figuring I could refinance later when I had 20% equity without any loss since I'd just be paying the closing costs I would have paid before.

When the Fed cut the rates in advance of their meeting a couple of weeks ago, a 5.25% mortgage was available for about 4 hours and I managed to lock it in. The appraisal is scheduled for Tuesday, and this particular broker uses a guy who actually comes to your house to check it out. *blanch* But it is such a miracle that I cleaned out the craft room already! I can get the rest of the place (closets included!!!! Geez, I feel like this guy is giving me the white glove inspection) into shape in a weekend, but if the craft room was in its old state I would have been toast. Strange but cool.