Having been sewing as long as I have, I find that many tasks don’t take my full concentration, so I love to have something on in the background to keep my mind occupied while my hands are busy working. Here are a few of the things I’ve been listening to:

Music

In case you hadn’t heard, No Doubt is getting back together for the first time in nine years! They’re slated to join some of our other hip-hop, pop-rock and alt-rock favorites out at Coachella this spring and I’m stoked. When I heard the news, I immediately broke out my “High School Memories” Spotify playlist chalk full of No Doubt and hit play. With “belt-them-out” refrains from “Don’t Speak” and “I’m Just a Girl” to the swinging tunes of “Bathwater”, it’s perfect “sing-along-like-no-one’s-listening” fun to keep your mind occupied.

Podcast

ID10T Is our favorite “don’t-need-to-pay-too-much-attention” podcast that keeps us up to date on pop culture. It’s a little like sitting in on an afternoon coffee with, pretty funny guy, Chris Hardwick and some cool people he knows. Past guests have included Christina Ricci, Danny Elfman and Matt Damon and they get into talking about everything from parenting to how they made it big. It runs the gamut and the best part is, if you get distracted and miss a little something you haven’t missed the fun.

Television

Shonda Rhimes does a whole lotta things well but one of the things she does best is make shows that are incredibly watchable and infinitely memorable. Of course, if you have tired of having reruns of Grey's Anatomy playing in the background, now is the time to be rewatching Bridgerton and it’s sister project Queen Charlotte in preparation of Bridgerton Season 3 coming out on May 16th, 2024. The new season will focus on Penelope and Colin’s “friends-to-lovers” romance that I, for one, have (not so) patiently been waiting for.

Bonus: Since you can’t read while sewing - well, I haven’t mastered it anyway - may I suggest you listen to the audiobook versions of the Bridgerton series written by Julia Quinn. There’s 8 books in all and, although I absolutely love how the show came together, as there almost always is, there’s just a bit more depth to the books. There’s a little more story, a little more romance and the steamy parts are a little more steamy.

Happy listening!