Step 11. Wake up

I'm regaining a long-lost habit of waking up early in the morning to work on creative projects. A big coffee-cup cheers to author Andy Traub, author of The Early To Rise Experience, for helping me do it.

The project I'm working on now was first inspired years ago when I saw embroidery work by artist Andrea Dezso at an exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design. In her Lessons from my Mother, Dezso stitched sayings from her mother. I loved the pieces and they've stayed in my mind since I saw them in 2008.

When I traveled to my hometown a few months ago, I knew I wanted to stitch something on the trip. My mom taught me to embroider when I was a girl, and she certainly had many sayings to stitch, though they are quite different than the sayings Dezso had to work with. My mom had an eternally sunny personality, and saying, "What's the good word?" was how she said "How are you?"

So that's the saying I stitched in the hotel room for the days surrounding my mom's funeral on my last visit home.

I'm now working on a second piece, copying the first one, as a gift for my sister's birthday. Normally when I make a gift for someone, I'm scrambling to finish in time and pulling a few all-nighters to get the piece finished. But, I'm not doing that this time - I'm working it stitch-by-stitch in the early morning.

If my mom were here now and asked me, "What's the good word?" I would tell her about how great the mornings are and she would agree.