Saturday, January 09, 2010

The downside of being multicraftual

Yesterday we took down our Christmas things. The house looks barren without the lights and garland and all the sparkly fun stuff.

Naked House



I think I need more home decor. I dream of lamps and vases and beautiful conversation pieces, and throw pillows, and pictures on the walls. But then I might have to dust more. Or constantly pick the throw pillows off the floor. Or worry about the children breaking things (which is after all what children do best). I think it might be best to keep it barren for now. There is always someday for the other stuff.

To get to where we keep our Christmas things I must move all my crafting things. I was sure that after I moved it to get out all the Christmas stuff I had it all put away beautifully and it was group together according to craft and project supplies were all neatly bagged together. I was sure it was the epitome of organised.

crap pile



Yeah...not so much.

I'm beginning to see why The Greatest refers to it as my "crap" closet.

I've never been one for project monogamy. I like to knit what I wanna knit, when I wanna knit it. I like to spend an evening or two beading if something sparks my imagination that way, or making hair bows, or sewing, or my renewed obsession: quilting. I'm a bit like Pretty Woman that way. I say who, I say when, I say how much. If only I had the fabulous hair to go with the attitude. I find this attitude helps keep my hobbies relaxing.

I can do the monogamy thing. And I'm really good at it. I've got only the one God. I've only got one major credit card. I buy the same cookie every week for my mid-morning snack. I only get naked with the one guy. I'm good at monogamy.

I just choose not to be with my crafting.

But I've been staring at my mess and I'm beginning to see the wisdom behind the virtue.

I counted 30 projects in various crafting categories all in random stages of completion. That isn't when I hit the bottom of the pile of unfinished things. That's just when I decided to stop counting. The list was making me feel panicked and overwhelmed.

I know I've tried to get on top of things in the past. Remember when I tried Mission Possible. Yeah. That didn't work for me. I didn't finish my 12 projects. I finished 5, sort of. And I didn't abandon the others either. Instead I gave them all amnesty. The unfinished ones are still patiently waiting in my pile.

That's what I like about my projects. They sit and quietly wait.

The Greatest is not so quiet. I need to knit his sweater so he'll shut up.

And judging by the near panic attack I get looking at my stack of stuff, I need to get this under control before it stages an uprising and takes over. After all, if my projects were to stage an uprising they'd be well armed with all the various needles, and hooks, and pins, and scissors I own. Not to mention my two glue guns. I'm sure if they were to mobilize they would quickly over take us all. Except maybe the bunnies. I might be saved by the bunnies. They've got a lot of attitude. They just might be our salvation. But as usual, I digress thinking of the crafty rebellion and the bunny counter-strike operation.

So maybe I need to look into this idea of project monogamy. I daydream of just picking a project, any project from my closet, and working it to completion. Then I would reach in the closet and grab-bag my next unfinished object and continuing on until everything in my closet is beautiful and finished and blogged and admired and oh how productive I would be.

I think I'll look into this project monogamy.

Right after I cast-on for my new sweater.

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