Readers, I did it! The thesis is finished!
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| ***Heavily edited version of what it actually looked like*** |
After changing country five times in five years, you know that I couldn't just stay in Toronto. Now I'm turning towards planning my upcoming move to Sweden at the end of May, as well as learning Swedish, further establishing my translation business, dabbling in travel writing, continuing to work on my academic research, and of course, sewing. Always sewing.
I can't even begin to describe the sense of accomplishment I have from finishing my degree. To celebrate, and to thank you for being such an amazing topic of study, as well as a source of support, I am hosting not one, not two, but THREE giveaways:
Lucky winner #1: Your very own digital copy of the Mathilde Blouse.
Lucky winner # 2: A Sewaholic pattern of your choice. (Might I suggest the fabulous Robson Coat? Amazing.)
Lucky winner # 3: A Victory Pattern of your choice. (Have you heard that the Toronto-based pattern company is now going print?)
To enter, make sure you're subscribed to All Style and All Substance -- either through bloglovin' or your preferred blog reader or through my email subscription -- and leave a comment bellow telling me about a period in your life where you've experienced a new beginning. You'll be automatically considered for all three giveaways, unless you specify otherwise. One person per entry. The contest is open worldwide until April 1st, 2013 at midnight. I will be announcing the three lucky winners the following day.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my sewing room!
***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED!***
Congratulations on finishing your thesis!! That is such a major accomplishment. Thanks for sharing this time with us; I'd love a chance to win either a Sewaholic pattern or a Victory Pattern.
ReplyDeleteAfter I finished my Masters, I moved states with just my belongings and did not know anyone where I was moving. It was very bittersweet--moving away from a place and friends I had grown fond of, but also a life full of new possibilities. It has been 3 years now, and I have a whole new set of friends and experiences that I have loved here. New beginnings mean change, and change is most often a good thing. Best of luck!
P.S. I currently follow via Google Reader, but I guess I should find a new method of following soon.
DeleteI have been through the thesis process and let me offer another hearty congratulations, that's not easy! Last year was full of new beginnings for me, I got married and bought a house within a couple of months. It was nuts and I am looking forward to a much calmer 2013 :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!! What a great feeling.
ReplyDeleteNew beginnings eh... I've had a couple, but here's one:
My boyfriend at the time had just moved to Korea to teach English. I was supposed to go with, but promptly lost my shit when it came close for me to commit to going. I was a bit lost and hadn't found my "group" since moving back to my home town after going away to school. I saw a friend in a Broadway review show and asked how I could audition. I ended up in the chorus for their summer show, dumped the long distance boyfriend, and met the friends of my life including the dude who would eventually be my husband.
Thanks for the giveaway and keep up with your blog!
Oh, and you are listed as a "blog I like" on my blog, which is how I follow people.
DeleteWoohoo! Congrats on the masters! I would love to read your thesis. My feminist studies classes were some of my favorite in college, so add in sewing and I'm sure I would be in for an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteAs for my new beginning, it's happening right now! Just moved in to my boyfriend's apartment after having to leave my grandparents house. I have a seasonal job through the end of the summer, but then I need to figure out something new. Taking sewing classes while working some job is on my radar.
Thanks for hosting a giveaway!
Way to go lady!!
ReplyDeleteMy latest new beginning happened this past fall when I moved to California to start my master's program. The adjustment period was hard but I'm so happy now living somewhere beautiful and new!
Congratulaions! Will your thesis be available on the internet to be read by interested people like me? I would so love to read it (and I think, many others would, too)!
ReplyDelete(Please leave me out of the giveaway - my list of planned projects is too long already!)
Whoop! Big weight off your mind I'm sure. Great way to celebrate too ;)
ReplyDeleteI've had a few new beginnings- moving to Australia 6 years ago was a pretty big one, then this time last year I quit work to go to uni full time to do a Phd, which ended up not working out at all so now I'm at another crossroads trying to decide what to do now!
WOWOWOW how cool is that. You've finished. Congratulations. Now sleep and sew and do all those things you haven't had the time or the head space to do properly for ages.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting three giveaways. Very generous of you but please don't enter me in it as I have a list I wanna stick to :)
Congratulations - look forward to hearing about what you get up to next! We moved from the city to the countryside 5 years ago, and it's made such a difference to my life. A much slower, happier pace, and we have made so many new friends. I would love to be entered for the Victory pattern giveaway.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!! What an acheivement :) I'm sure you're glad it's all sent off and enjoying some well-deserved sewing time!
ReplyDeleteI've been on the blog lovin' bandwagon for several months now - naturally you were 'imported' when I made the switch. Count me in for the Victory patterns options, please!!
I'm currently mid-way through a new beginning right now, although it's all work related so really very uninteresting. It's requiring some hard-cored hours at my desk, but is satisfying work. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't studying on top... but hey, work is paying for it, so I can't complain! It just severly limits my sewing time, which is bad, bad, bad. :(
Congratulations on completing your thesis!! I guess I could say that right now is a period in my life with new beginnings? I've only just started my masters this year! Already feeling the pressure a little but very much loving sewing as a way of completely zoning out of anything academic and busting out a little bit of that creative energy I always have swirling around!
ReplyDeleteWould also love to read your thesis by the way!
Lauren x
Congratulations Hun! I'm so pleased for you! I've still got my thesis to write. I'm sure I've got all that stress to come on my Masters. The big change in my life was probably moving to university four hours away from home or moving into our first house together with Piemaker. Both were equally scary but I'm really glad I did both of them. Does your thesis count as "published" now? If not make sure you protect your research!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to enter the giveaway for the Sewaholic or Victory pattern.
Hope you get a nice rest at some point! xxxx
Congratulations on finishing your thesis! Well done for all your hard work. I'm going through something of a change at present as I am four and a half months pregnant and in the next year I also want to change jobs, my husband needs to get a job after finishing studying and we need to move house. However all that big stuff is secondary to the baby arriving safely!
ReplyDeletePlease count me in for the sewaholic and victory patterns. Thanks for the generous giveaway.
Kerry
Congratulations! I should finish my Masters about 1,5 mouth time, so a lot of panicking!
ReplyDeleteMy new beginning, as many here, is due to moving:) It was in 2011 autumn, when my older sister (who is also my best friend and biggest support in everything) moved to another country. I felt so left behind and was very lonely. Not that it wasn't enough, I decided to move out from out home (where I had life my whole life) to my boyfriends' and to rent out our home, so that I didn't have a back-up plan if things had went sour... But I survived, somehow.. And thanks to lacking of back-up plans, I had to become much stronger person then I was before.
I follow you through Bloglovin'
ReplyDeleteCongetulations on the thesis! It's brain- and bodywracking, but the relief and, yes, pride that one feels once you're finished and hold the result in your hands - amazing. Congratulations!
And good luck with the upcoming move to Sweden :-)
(If I'd be a lucky winner, I already own the Mathilde pattern so I am not a contestant for that one. Thanks!)
Sabine
sushi(at)telenet (dot) be
My new beginning was actually sewing. I was a mom with a newborn and decided that I needed to get involved with a hobby to give myself a break from everyday household and baby "stuff". That was 5 years ago, my "newborn" is a busy 5 year old boy, and the joy that sewing has brought to me is profound (I'm either sewing, thinking about sewing, reading about sewing, or shopping for sewing). Best of luck for what the future brings you!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually just coming up to a new beginnings. I'm applying for grad school in ~6 months and it's a terrifying ordeal (exciting as well). I'm pretty sure it's what I want to be doing but there's always that seed of doubt.
ReplyDeleteI follow with the Google Reader and already own the Mathilde so I can be removed from that prize pack.
And CONGRATULATIONS on finishing you thesis, you can relax for a bit now. Good luck in Sweden
Congratulations! I'm nearly there too (I defend my thesis today!... and I'm sitting here reading blogs...) so I'd have to say my "new beginnings" hasn't quite happened yet but it pretty much has to once I graduate and get a big girl job.
ReplyDeleteI have had a few 'new beginnings' the most significant was deciding to go back to college and get a Degree in Fashion and Clothing design, there are times when I am racked with self doubt, luckily I have one of my older 'new beginnings' in the form of my boyfrind there to support me when I feel wobbly (or need a proof reader)
ReplyDelete- I follow through bloglovin but I still haven't forgiven google for taking reader away!
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI've had many a new beginnings, but I must admit that deciding on a whim to visit a French guy I hardly knew for 9 days and staying 21 years and counting is my best new beginning ever!
Congratulations Adrienne! So exciting! Not so keen on one of my fellow Canadian sewists heading to the Canada of Northern Europe, but I'll get over it.
ReplyDeletere: new Beginnings.... I've had so many new beginnings it blurs into a mass of "never endings". Brutal breakups and requisite haircut and recovery, new apartments, discovering new friendships in your 30's, learning how to make bras, haha.
(I would love to get my paws on another Victory pattern or that Sewaholic trench.)
Congratulations Adreienne! What an exciting, exciting time! Go forth and conquer, you courageous woman! Please don't enter me in the giveaway, I just wanted to say how happy I am for you!!!
ReplyDeleteThis year has been the beginning of me viewing myself as a creative person. Previously, I had always thought of myself as a little creative, but mostly driven my rationality and reasoning. However, this year, in my senior year of university, I took Set and Costume Design. My instructor has allowed me to tap into my creativity. I asked, and received, a sewing machine for Christmas, and now I'm exploring the wonderful world of sewing.
ReplyDeleteMadeline
Congrats! This is great news for you, although I must confess I was looking forward to meeting you, Gillian and the rest of the TO bloggers once I move back in the summer, so I'm a little sad you'll be gone by then. Thank for a fabulous giveaway. Oh, and I follow your blog on Bloglovin'. Congrats again and enjoy your last few weeks in Toronto.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! and good luck with your swedish adventure! i moved from France to Vancouver Canada 4 years ago, and that was definitely a new beginning. B and I had packed up everything we owned and sent it by ship. there was a moment on the plane where it felt a bit surreal as we realized we didn't have a job and we didn't have a home and we were unattached to anything... But then the new adventure begun and it's been great since!
ReplyDeleteSo I wish you all the luck for your move and i can't wait to see what you'r up to in Sweden!
BTW I follow you on Netnewswire
Congratulations!! How exciting! I should really go back to school... I experienced a HUGE new beginning when I moved to Vermont a year and a half ago. There's really no greater feeling than that! I'm following you with Bloglovin' :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations for getting your thesis done! That must be such a relief.
ReplyDelete2008 was just one big new beginning for me: I met my fiance, stopped self harming, moved in with said fiance, got pregnant and started working towards my degree. Best year of my life and completely turned things around for me.
Ps. I follow on bloglovin'
I follow you on Bloglovin :) That's so exciting that you finished - hizzah! I'm sure you feel incredibly relieved - I know I would. I've had a few new beginnings, but I have recently gotten into another one as I just bought my first house! It's an incredible amount of work, but it's really helping me to change lots of things I had meant to for a long time :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations darling I know the feeling I just finished my MBA and I know how hard we gotta work. X
ReplyDeleteWow!! Congratulations on completing your thesis, Adrienne! And Good luck with further establishing your translating business.
ReplyDelete2010 was a grand new beginning for me - I had a very rewarding career in the US / UK / India. But somehow I just couldn't get a job in my field in Canada after my maternity break of 2 yrs combined with the darn recession and zero Canadian experience. So the break in my career stretched out to FIVE HUGE yrs... and those 5 years were darn hard. And then in 2010, I got the perfect job for me and it was as if, the universe listened. :) It looked like my company created a job description with ME in mind, with breaks et al! I hit the career jackpot and thus began a grand new beginning. My life was turned upside down, for good. And I'm incredibly thankful for that beginning.
As for the giveaway, I'd like to sign up only for the Sewaholic pattern giveaway please. I have my eyes on Renfrew - that gels with my sewing level :) and it will help moving towards my TNT knit pattern.
and yes, bloglovin you! :)
DeleteCongrats on the thesis! Having gone through the process (even just for a ginormous undergrad version), I feel your pain and your relief! I feel like I've been through a new beginning ever since I graduated 3 years ago!
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Finishing up your Masters is a huge accomplishment! Good luck in your move to Sweden!
ReplyDeleteWhen I picked up and left Toronto almost 4 years ago, I moved to California based almost 90% on feeling (10% based on weather, proximity to family... and beaches, and availability of work in my field) it was a huge new beginning.
I really believe that when you follow your heart, life just falls into place easily and happily. I wish we could have crossed paths during my visit home this summer, but I'll definitely enjoy following your new adventures in Northern Europe. :)
Congrats lady! Thanks for the giveaway. I'm about to embark on sewing pants - I hope it's the beginning of having a bottom half to my handmade wardrobe.
ReplyDeletePlease count me in and congrats! I'm coming up on my 1 year wedding anniversary and I'd certainly say getting married was a new beginning. And then shortly after the wedding I took up sewing- another new beginning!
ReplyDeleteFollowing on bloglovin :)
DeleteCongratulations! Your thesis sounds really interesting (I wish mine was related to my hobbies!). My most recent new beginning was probably moving across the country to start graduate school. I really liked the new location, but not totally sold on grad school yet :) Have fun in Sweden! (Also, I follow on Google Reader right now, will probably switch to another RSS reader soon...)
ReplyDeleteThat's a huge accomplishment, and your future sounds full of excitement! I would be happy to win and one of the giveaways mentioned.
ReplyDeleteOh, I follow via Google Reader for now.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!! That's such an impressive accomplishment!! :-D
ReplyDeleteGosh, a time of new beginnings..... So many to choose from! I'm at a bit of one at the moment actually - there's a restructure on at work right now, and my job is being effected, so I'm pondering what I want to do with my career - so many options, it's quite exciting really!
Thanks for the lovely competition. :-) (PS I follow via bloglovin')
Awww shucks, and I missed the toronto sewing meet and missed meeting you! *lol*
ReplyDeleteHuge congrats on finishing your thesis, and your impending move, and for all of the terrific changes going on for you now! Wahoo! You must be so proud, and rightfully so. Hopefully you'll be blogging in Sweden so we can keep up with you...?
I don't follow, but I should...
A change in my life? My nervous breakdown about 4 years ago. Sounds strange, but it was the best thing that could happen to this extreme type-A. perfectionist person. Taught me to slow down, look around and forgive myself for being human. Too bad it happend so late in my life! *LOL*
You take care and have lots of fun, you! You deserve it!
Love,
Mugsy
Congratulations! That must feel good. After our honeymoon, my husband and I took flights home to different states---he worked while I got my Master's across the country. It felt so good when we were finally reunited.
ReplyDeleteNow, go treat yourself to some fabric!
-Trisha
MadeByTrisha [at] gmail [dot] com
My most intense new beginning was when I survived a car accident in which my car flipped over on the freeway and the worst thing that happened to me was that I broke my thumb. Certainly makes you reprioritize the things in your life!
ReplyDeleteI am subscribed to your blog via Google Reader and now Bloglovin'.
Penny
penny [at] eagerbeagle [dot] com
Congrats on this milestone! New beginnings are amazing, wonderful, terrifying things. Most of my obvious ones have involved big moves (changing countries or states) but these days I feel like there's a major new beginning at least once a year due to my growing daughter. There's a new grade every fall and a new passel of activities every summer. I'm sure there are more but lots that don't get recognized until after we've begun (like when she decided to start reading big kid books and became obsessed with cats).
ReplyDeleteI follow you via Google Reader (and more recently through Bloglovin', as I search for a replacement reader that makes me happy).
Congrats on finishing your thesis! And thanks for such a lovely giveaway! My biggest new beginning was switching from a physics degree (that I truly hated) to a fashion degree! Talk about a total 360! It was the best move I ever made and I've never looked back and have one more year to go before I graduate.
ReplyDeleteI follow on GFC and bloglovin (I'm trying to move over there) :)
Oh sure. Just when I've discovered your blog, you leave the city!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing your thesis! My major change was 10 years ago when I decided to quite my PhD and go into teacher's college. Best decision I ever made.
I'd love to win either the Sewaholic or Victory Patterns giveaway!
Well done on the thesis - hard work always pays off, and new beginnings are like a breath of fresh air in life! My major change was focusing on my hobbie, sewing, more as a passion than a part time hobbie - not life changing in itself, but changed my focus ... enjoy Sweden and all it has to offer you...J
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing your thesis. I would love to win the pattern. Thanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, and I'd love to win a pattern. Too bad we didn't meet at the blogger meetup! Sue
ReplyDeleteWow congrats! That is so exciting! A new beginning for me will be moving to HI in the fall! I'm so ecstatic! I'm following your blog through Bloglovin!
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS on getting your thesis finished!!!! And so good to have you back in the blogosphere xxx
ReplyDelete