On any given day, there are so many creative thoughts running through my head that I can't consciously pick one to focus on. It's true. Sometimes the creative mind is a force to be reckoned with.
On days or weeks when I have custom orders due (as I do, now), I have a strict schedule outlined. I know which projects I need to complete, by when, for whom and how long they will take. It's something I have found helps me to focus and helps ensure I do not let paying orders (or any orders, for that matter) fall by the wayside. Because if left to my own devices I would be dying yarn, making earrings, doing duct tape crafts, and working on new patterns all while practicing the songs I sing in my band...... and NOT working on the Spider-Man, Minnie Mouse and Elmo I *should* be completing.
That's kind of hard to follow, isn't it?
Additionally, I try to keep my working hours in the confines of a regular office job to make sure I have a life outside the job that I know and truly love. If I didn't, I wouldn't have time for creating or working on new or personal projects. I even try to keep "personal" items out of my working hours - such as baby, birthday or holiday presents - unless I actually have NOTHING else on my plate. And who are we kidding? That seldom ever happens.
It's easy, when you work from home (or wherever you want, whenever you want) to let your "work" and "personal" hours flow together. I try SUPER hard not to let that happen, but it does.... and far more often than I would like. It's hard to say "no" to a last minute order for an easy stuffed animal that you get at 8pm the day before the customer wants it delivered. I can pump it out fast, while watching TV, but what I often dont consider is that while I'm counting stitches, is that I'm ignoring my long time boyfriend. Sure, we MAY just be watching TV, but whether you realize it or not, that time is actually important and shouldn't be taken for granted. Im just as guilty of that as the next one!
My point with this - as my creative, ADD mind jumps all over the place - is that even if you love what you do and your work reflects the person you are, you cannot let that work become your whole life. Never lose sight of yourself, the life you want - no, the life you deserve - in what you do to sustain such a life. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much you loved it and how happy and fulfilled it made you, it's not going to matter how many stuffed animals or blankets you crocheted, or how many shawls or sweaters you knitted... your epitaph won't be these items, but the impressions you made.... the lives you touched.... the connections and differences you made in your time here. You get one chance to do it all. Fly away on that zephyr.
yarn
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
B.U.B.B.L.E.S! Bubbles, Bubbles, yes, yes, yes!
When I was 4 or 5 years old, my cute tiny grandmother (who I so lovingly have always called Bubbles) taught me to crochet. Well, she tried to, anyway. I could make granny squares, I could help her with stitches on gifts and other things she was making. And if she showed me how to make it, I could make it myself, with little to no help. But since I was just starting to read for real, patterns were definitely out of the question!
Over the years, I made a ton of granny square blankets and straight crocheted scarves, but it wasnt until about 13 years ago that I started to search out unique items to crochet (stuffed animals, cool sweaters and basically anything that wasn't a granny square). Of course by then I could read a pattern, but if I ever got stuck, Bubbles would bail me out and tell me what I was doing wrong.... or show me, if I happened to have showed up at her condo with a severely messed up work in progress! She was always amazed at the things my generation could crochet - she had no idea it had come so far or become so popular with a younger age bracket!
Two weeks ago yesterday, Bubbles passed away at her home in Texas. For the past year, she had been working on a blanket for me to replace my original blanket, which had been destroyed in a basement flood. Because she was getting so sick, so quickly, she basically lost all dexterity in her hands in August, which left her unable to hold a hook or the yarn. The blanket sits unfinished, in her craft room and will eventually be boxed up and sent to me to finish and assemble.
It's hard for me to process that I can no longer make her presents, or send her pictures of what I'm working on. I can't call her and tell her the details of my latest yarn splurge or how I dragged Anthony to a LYS outside Syracuse over Christmas and what a good sport he was (she was already pretty out of it then and barely taking phone calls).
But this isn't meant to be a sad, first entry! No - she wouldn't stand for that (just as she wouldn't have stood for it if I wore all black to her funeral this past weekend. In her honor, I wore a white, black and green dress and Anthony wore a blue shirt). She is the reason I crocheted in the first place.... and besides the joy I take in it now, she's the reason I continue to do so. Because in every piece I crochet, a little bit of her lives on in that project and with the person who receives it.
Here in this blog, I'll talk about my current loves, my favorite finds, WIP's (works in progress), my favorite designers/patterns, deals and upcoming shows. There will be pictures - OH will there be pictures! - but the first post... it had to be for Bubbles.
Over the years, I made a ton of granny square blankets and straight crocheted scarves, but it wasnt until about 13 years ago that I started to search out unique items to crochet (stuffed animals, cool sweaters and basically anything that wasn't a granny square). Of course by then I could read a pattern, but if I ever got stuck, Bubbles would bail me out and tell me what I was doing wrong.... or show me, if I happened to have showed up at her condo with a severely messed up work in progress! She was always amazed at the things my generation could crochet - she had no idea it had come so far or become so popular with a younger age bracket!
Two weeks ago yesterday, Bubbles passed away at her home in Texas. For the past year, she had been working on a blanket for me to replace my original blanket, which had been destroyed in a basement flood. Because she was getting so sick, so quickly, she basically lost all dexterity in her hands in August, which left her unable to hold a hook or the yarn. The blanket sits unfinished, in her craft room and will eventually be boxed up and sent to me to finish and assemble.
It's hard for me to process that I can no longer make her presents, or send her pictures of what I'm working on. I can't call her and tell her the details of my latest yarn splurge or how I dragged Anthony to a LYS outside Syracuse over Christmas and what a good sport he was (she was already pretty out of it then and barely taking phone calls).
But this isn't meant to be a sad, first entry! No - she wouldn't stand for that (just as she wouldn't have stood for it if I wore all black to her funeral this past weekend. In her honor, I wore a white, black and green dress and Anthony wore a blue shirt). She is the reason I crocheted in the first place.... and besides the joy I take in it now, she's the reason I continue to do so. Because in every piece I crochet, a little bit of her lives on in that project and with the person who receives it.
Here in this blog, I'll talk about my current loves, my favorite finds, WIP's (works in progress), my favorite designers/patterns, deals and upcoming shows. There will be pictures - OH will there be pictures! - but the first post... it had to be for Bubbles.
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