Yeah. Here I am, blogging. I have a million ideas floating around in my head, some of them are good ones too! I have ideas for cards, workshops, swaps, projects, cooking, and present buying for Christmas. I have a raft of ideas for some things at work and having booked the work Christmas party, I have a few ideas for that too. It would seem that blogging about all these ideas is easier than getting them out of my head and doing something about them. I've been talking to Mr Dunnit about my home time-management skills. I don't think there's a problem at work - you just tackle the work and that's it. And I have learned that I need adequate down time, and I very often don't allow the crafty moments to be down time. Because I have to have a deadline to motivate me. I have lists. I have dates and I have allocated things appropriately. I think.
I think one of the things that makes me procrastinate so is that I'm sort of putting off the pleasure of doing it - whatever the 'it' is. Perhaps because it will take two or three goes at it and in 40 odd years, I know myself well enough to know that if it doesn't work first time, I'll be......miffed, let's say! So Mr Dunnit simplifies it in his massive-understatement-type-summing-up-way, a way that makes me realise that I'm never going to be a big girl crafter really - he says - 'why don't you enjoy the process instead of just the accomplishment?'
I can't explain: I do enjoy the process AS LONG as it has a finished, accomplished, thing, item, piece. Now is that petulant or impatient? You decide, I have a problem with choice too!
Part of the tidy up has yielded these three items that don't belong to me - if you were at the Card Marathon last weekend and have missed them - let me know........they were in seperate baskets, so they are unlikely to belong to one person!
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13 comments:
Love that card Julia, may have to 'borrow' that design from you - dinna worry though cos mine won't look anything like it!! :( I want two of whatever you are taking... even if its just the ideas swimming about and not the actual end project! Its about now I start to panic a bit - Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming... ooooh 'eck, Christmas is coming! So you cleftiwhollared a couple of pencils and a pair of scissors in your clean up after the marathon? I don't think anyone will worry about the pencils but I do have a tendency to 'like' my specific scissors so here's hoping the owner recognises them now they are in blogland.
I think we put the pressure on ourselves and Mr Dunnit is right, should just enjoy the process... but like you, I do want there to be something decent to show for it at the end!! :)
Now that is a great card idea and may end up being 'sort of' lifted LOL
Time is flying way too fast and I don't seem to have made much of a start on anything...although I have finished my planner which is supposed to help me be organised...
Toni :o)
Dear Julia,
Great post - so honest and something I can relate to. I really get what you are saying. I took up paper crafting a few years ago as escapism from my all-engulfing job. I am very goal-orientated, a total perfectionist and have a plan and list for everything...quite handy at work but not when it also spills over into the supposedly off-duty moments... It is nuts to think you can schedule in "pleasure" and creativity - but we do try. I can never settle to craft unless all the other stuff and domestic hassle is out of the way. But then when I do sit down, I too want it all to happen at once - on cue...all those ideas, a finished work of art, a new design, "something" up there with the best of them. A little bit of care-free faffing around for fun just doesn't cut it with me...so why did I sign up then???? Because despite me...I was - and still am- totally and absolutely in love with this wonderful art. At the mo - I am just working hard on staying close to my true passion, being inspired and not ousted by other talent. Trying to create quality time to craft - be it just a hour, learning to cherish that time and most of all daring to be me - even if I am still the tweakaholic arranging the last embellie at 2am. Let me remain insane - but let it be with real joy!!!
Hoping you find the harmony, challenges and road you long for. And where would so many of us be without the truly brilliant WOYWW - thank you - you have no idea how far you have reached with that idea. All the best...
Sarah (sasa)
Love your card. You are NOT the only procrastinater in blogdom. I still have ideas bouncing off the instide of my brain, for my Christmas cards, and still have not made ONE. It is easier to see a challenge and go for it than to make myself give my cards a go.
Down time=Bed time for me LOL
LOL! I think that yellow and black striped pencil might be mine. I was looking for it the other day, but decided it must be under all the mess on my desk. At least now I don't have to bother finding it! Don't worry about it, I have plenty of others, I just knew that one was missing!
I have loads going round in my head too :-) Thankfully I have managed to tick off some of the things on my to do list [see blog :-) ] and my 'to do' rail is empty to start tomorrow morning [I do have a pair of curtains to shorten first thing though and Twiglet wont be down to help me this week :-( so a girl has to do what a girl has to do].
Have fun.
A x
Great card, I may lift the stars if thats ok :), I'm struggling with down time, I need it but want to craft but am too tired, its a vicious circle, I have notebooks & notebooks of stuff I want to do, but I can't see that I'll ever do it all & then I keep having more ideas. Hope you find a solution :)
C
xx
What a great post - so glad to know there are other crafter out there like me! I recently bought a small desk calendar just for my scrap room, to keep track of blog posts, sketch & challenge deadlines, design team calls, etc. It does motivate me to have a goal, and when I scrap I do want to get right down to it, no messing around. But that also can create more stress, something my life does not need any more of! Balance, balance, always seeking that balance. My husband quietly reminds me to chill out every so often. I need him!
Oh I so needed your visit today...been trying to learn cricut/scal stuff and pulling my hair out and then your bra waving/copic refill post showed up and totally cheered me up...I am still laughing at the thought of that sight!
I am detail oriented when it comes to "work." I can come up with a plan in a heartbeat for streamlining a product, an assembly line, or any number of things that plague work spaces. But in crafting, I am SLOW! I am prodding. I am a piddler. Sometimes I prefer the process to the finished product. I used to plan everything to the n-th degree. Now I try to roll with the flow, dumpster dive for fodder, and go from there.
Thanks so much for yours (Elle's and Annette's) comments on my sewing problems. They made the most sense to me. I sure appreciate your input because I would still be thinking it was ME. Now I know it's only partly me!
Hhm, not always an easy topic to write about is it, and as life has become more complicated is it any wonder that it's not easy to switch off the mental thing and just enjoy what we're doing for pure enjoyments sake. Having said that though, what's the point of really enjoying colouring an image let's say, but then hating the overall card the image went on to? I don't do a great deal in the way of list making but they are useful for example, if you want to enter a challenge, or if you're easily distracted. So it's a bit of both for me, but mainly because if I didn't have a deadline I'd fiddle around for ages and not achieve anything, and I like that feeling even less!!!!
Brenda
Now, see, I have all these wonderful ideas floating about in my head and I go to sleep dreaming of the perfect idea for my next card/ATC/tag, etc. Then, like tonight, I sit down all ready to make birthday card for son and I have Brain Freeze. Nowt. Rien. Nada. I get my magazines out, I go through t'interweb, I procrastinate. For hours. I finally pick a design and card lift and it never ends up like I imagined when I started. Then, relieved at the fact I have at least accomplished it, I have all these wonderful ideas floating about in my head and I go to sleep dreaming of the perfect idea for my next card/ATC/tag, etc. Huh. What's with that then?
Anyhoo - fab card, love the colours. May well card lift if you don't mind everso... :-D
Sweet simplicity - I love your card Julia!
Ramona
http://create-with-joy.blogspot.com
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