Worth Saving

A few of the projects that are in the project bin are old things that need repair or ressecetation.

This is an old pillow of mine that sustained some dog inflicted damage. Our puppy isn't much for chewing up things now but the first 6 months or so after her adoption she did have a couple of destructive moments. This little pillow that my mom embroidered was one of the casualities.

I think I will bring it back with an addition that I will make...

Books

2 large totes of books dropped off at the library today and I found out they take donations of magazines! that will make it a great deal easier to let them go...
I am making progress here!

Night Off

No sorting tonight, I just played with these

Tonight after sorting through ALL of the bedding in 85 degree heat and nasty, soupy humidity I honestly qualify as a hot mess. There is a tepid shower with my name on it waiting for me.
I found this Old German Proverb today that I will be keeping in mind as I start the sorting of the studio closet in the next two days:
"Who begins too much accomplishes little"

Reclaimed Treasures

One of the payoffs of doing all of this purging is that I have not only found some old, much loved items but I have enough space to display them. Tonight I riffled through my old comics collection* that I have resolved to get rid of and I found my "Batman The Dark Knight" graphic novel which is totally awesome and I'm keeping. Then I found something I thought I had lost long ago in a past life... My original 1st edition of the "Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles" this was before Eastman and Laird sold the rights and it got cheap and stupid.

Cool!

I've also dug out a bottle of sand from my first trip to New Mexico; a tole painted bowl made by one grandma; a beaded palm tree made by the other; three hand carved wooden pieces made by my step brother; a clay dinosaur made by my art teacher in high school (Mr Hall); an Asian perfume bottle; and 4 ceramic tiles I bought years ago in Maine.

The monetary value of these things is pretty close to nil (especially the bottle of sand) but they are all meaningful to me and its a treat to be able to bring them back into my life.

* told you I was a geek!

Books

Alright! I've managed to reduce my books by 1/3

Its not a complete victory, I did cheat and put a couple of boxes up in the attic.

I also kept one stack of "read 'em again" books to go through and make a decision on when I've reread them.

The shelves in the studio now feel under control and that is a very nice feeling indeed.

I have started an area in the cellar that is full of stuff to get rid of one way or another.

It is occupying the same space the credenza from hell was in prior to the yard sale.

In spite of getting rid of all that stuff at the yard sale there still seems to be a great deal to process out of this house.

Again no artwork has been done, the purging satisfies my creative needs for the moment.

Decluttering

Anna posted this bit of wisdom she's run into in the comments of one of my posts so I thought I'd share it here:

"It's not about getting rid of stuff, it's about making room to live."

This is precisely how I feel about the process!

When Lar decided to paint the bedroom a month or so ago I took the opportunity to really go through my clothes/stuff in a ruthless manner. I would never say that I have a big problem with collecting things, but certain types of possessions are sticky to let go of, clothes, books, supplies, and magazines/papers are the worst. I just don't tend to accumulate other stuff as much (thank goodness).

Getting the bedroom settled with only things I use and want in it has created an aura of peace there. I find myself really loving to go into that room, as though I can mentally stretch out and go ahhh. I like the fact that I know what is in there, and that isn't something I can say about the rest of the house especially the studio.

Every couple of months I find myself cleaning the studio again because all of the desk space has disappeared and I am working on the floor. The shelves are sagging under the weight of books and the closet is inaccessible because its too full of stuff.

Going through the fabrics wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. I set a reasonably generous limit of how much I could keep and as I sorted it really fell into place.

For UFOs I've set the limit of one bin... it is now full. If I want to keep another project something in there has to get finished or abandoned (lets see how that works out)

Today I began the task of going through my books. The goal is to reduce them by 1/3. I've gotten one shelf of the three done and again I can sense this peace that comes over me as I look at that shelf, it dissipates as I look at the pile of books that I need to get rid of though.

I am definitely on the right track here.

The picture is just for pretty's sake, I love the graceful shapes of those balloon flower petals.

Another set

Finished up another set of these stones this evening and now I'm off to spend a little family time with Lar.

Massage

Well tonight was my massage appointment. I have been getting a massage about once a week for the past few months. It is part of a program of general self-care I am trying to institute in my life. I have issues with edema in my lower legs and feet especially in my right big toe and I have decided to pursue reversing the condition. Deep tissue massage is really helpful (albeit somewhat painful) in releasing the adhesions and trapped fluids.
I am lucky enough to have a husband who is a massage therapist otherwise I doubt I would be able/willing to invest in this treatment. Believe it or not I still found it difficult to schedule these appointments. I tend to have a difficult time finding that kind of time for myself. It seems like other things should come first, and its easy to push that sort of care out of my life...
Then I wonder why I find myself shutting down.
In another form of self-care tonight I continued sorting and purging my supplies. I am really hoping to make some psychic room in my life by releasing old UFOs that I don't really want to finish, and supplies that I don't have any real use for. So far it feels right. I've given myself one "Project Bin" full of pieces that I want to finish. I am trying to keep a limit on them because I need to learn to let them go when my interest has waned.
It seems as though once something makes my list of "Oh! That Would Be Neat To Do"
it never comes off, even when I'm no longer interested in doing it.
I have a visualization of all these bits and pieces of stuff dragging behind me like an unwieldy train on a wedding gown.

2.5

I sorted the fabrics!
I'm down to 2.5 bins of keepers... I can live with that.
For the time being.

post-fair

I've spent the free time I've had tonight catching up on some postponed chores and post-fair inventory.

I still haven't heard from the Project Linus people, if it doesn't work out I will see if I can find another charity to donate it to.

I did find a few minutes to wrap some rocks though!

Tomorrow I will be getting back to sorting fabrics.

Project Linus

I'm looking into donating the fabrics to Project Linus
I'm not sure if they will be interested or not...
I've decided that I will go through the mess and pull out 2 totes to keep and get rid of the rest
(maybe 3)
I'm going to try to be tough with myself
As you remember I recently cleaned out my bedroom of all the excess stuff. It has since become the model which I want to base the rest of the house on. I honestly feel a sense of restfulness when I go in that room now because I KNOW everything in it is something I want, use and love.
My studio is a particular problem area, I hate to let my ideas go but I also find I just cannot process them all. I am jammed up. Organizing the mess just moves it around, stuff has got to go (I think I did this last year too...unsuccessfully)
I will also be getting back on the creative horse I have fallen off of recently. I don't think it will be my focus but I'd like to keep the pump primed so that as I make room I will be in a position (mind set) to fill it with stuff that is important to me.
My computer isn't getting along with my camera lately, I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow, for decoration.

Well the fair is over I'm pooped and plan to spend a pleasant evening with the family.
I may have found a solution to my fabric dilemma too. I will do some research tomorrow and see if it is a good fit or not. I had some pictures from the fair but my phone doesn't seem to want to send them to my computer in a timely fashion so I will try again tomorrow
G'night!

Look at who I met today!

An Embarrassment Of Riches?

Here is the first reason I feel smothered in my studio, 6 bins of hand dyed fabrics.

There is no use kidding myself, I will never use all of this.

I'd like to de-stash and sell it. The difficulty is that 90% of it is cotton knit and I don't know if any one will want it, even if it is very reasonably priced and nicely dyed. Do quilters use knits? I can see people who make stuffies liking it but I really am not sure how to reach those people...

I might be able to sell it at the ETSY shop but that is alot of work and I haven't had much interest in my fabrics over there, probably because no one knows its there...sigh...

Well its a conundrum that MUST be dealt with and I will be making my first foray into doing something about it this weekend.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Portsmouth 4H craft fair, I will be bringing one carefully selected bin of fabrics to offer for sale. I know there are a few quilters there so maybe I can pick their brains on how to solve this problem.

Does any one out there have any thoughts?

Night Off

Well no sooner do I give myself permission to really dive into the clearing out task do I get sickly. Nothing serious but tonight I will curl up with a video and relax until I feel a bit better...

Pics from class

here are some pictures from our class!

Nice spot to work in isn't it?
We really had a great time, many thanks to Patti for hosting/arranging it!

I am off to dive into a massive fabric sort now... 6 bins!

Tie Dye Class

I ran the kids tiedye class at the local library this evening.
Really alot of fun to watch the kids exploring something that is kind of old hat to me.
I've been working with tie dye for over 20 years now often in the same pattern/color combinations repeatedly (the variations on rainbows alone...)
Now, while it is true that each tiedye is different, its easy to forget the magic of discovery on your 20th day straight of rainbow spirals.
So these days I often forget to even look at patterns I've made many times before.*
The kids went at it with abandon though, breaking all the rules and really letting loose. They all went home with a couple of plastic bags full of wet dyed tshirts and bandannas to be washed out at home tomorrow (the set time of the dyes)
My only regret is that I won't be there to discover what they made with them.
I may have some pictures to share in a few days courtesy of Patti who runs the summer program.

*shibori is different!

Excavating

Tonight I will be spending what is left of the evening clearing some space in my studio. The last few weeks have left me a huge mess in here. In the process of going through all these old boxes I have found some items that I want to find new homes for. Normally I have three work surfaces in my studio (plus an ironing board) and when I find myself working on projects on the floor then its time to clean up.

I will be running a small tiedye class tomorrow at the local library as a part of their summer youth program I can't really take pictures of it for the blog because its kids and people are not cool with that (which I get) then with what is left of the week I will prepare myself for a craft fair this weekend. I haven't done any craft fairs since last December... I've felt a little burned out on them and not really sure its a good use of my time, I'm still not sure... but I have some thoughts on it and I will mull them as the week goes by.

Repeating Until Its Right

I had a thought today, well OK I probably had a few, but one had some worth to it.

I seem to be trying to divest myself of all the things I no longer need or use, all of the stuff that doesn't serve me at this moment in my life. I repeatedly seem drawn into "organizational" tasks here at home instead of "creative" ones. Each time I feel a bit freer but still driven to do more. I suspect I am trying to manifest in my outer life something that I desire in my inner life.

Each time I sort through my belongings, supplies, aka debris, I sort through more of the baggage that has accumulated within me too beliefs, desires wounds and joys. Slowly I am discarding the ones that no longer fit or serve. I think some people are naturally able to do this but not many. The emotional attachments that are present in objects and in beliefs make them hard to discard. I seem to have a goal of having the right stuff in my life and releasing the rest. If I look at it that way I don't feel as aggravated with myself for not being "creative"

Perhaps I am kidding myself and its all a never ending round of navel gazing but it seems I keep coming back to these activities and I'd like to believe its for a good reason.

Over

Hooray the yard sale is done, now I can start to put the studio area back together!

Not tonight though... I'm going to make it up to a certain someone who didn't get a walk in the woods today!

Staying Small

Tonight I am (still) preparing for the yard sale. I've delivered all my stuff to the location, gotten change and now I need to make some signs. I'm glad I'm doing this with a group, it will be more fun.

As to creativity... well once again I'm keeping the focus on small acts, that will serve for the moment.

Wrapping

The yard sale is on Saturday, I am left with small energy and small scraps of time, so I am wrapping small stones. Trying like hell to maintain a daily practice no matter how insignificant my output or uncomfortable it is.

At the moment my studio areas are crammed with overflow from the sorting, stuff that needs to go somewhere else just not quite sure where... I think in the long run I will be glad I did this but right now I just feel discombobulated (a favorite word of mine)

I moved some of the sale items out of the house this evening and I can already feel the first hint of space that will follow!

Inspired

those are beetles! I've mentioned this place before
I'm still captivated...

Do I Repeat Myself?

I suppose I do...

Sorting

Sorting and thinking

Sunny Day

Mmmmm
Sunshine for 2 days in a row, with bright blue skies and soft widely scattered clouds (widely is key here)
We have been going through a wet dark summer so far, frankly I bear up alot better than the sunworshipers do, I don't mind cool at all and I was never one for sunbathing (boring)

I will admit though that today I was called by the siren song of the sun to garden the day away.
The results are never quite as impressive as you think they will be, once new plants are in the ground they seem so much smaller than they do in the pots.
I did some transplanting, trimming and moving of some of the established plants too.

This is the first summer that we have been here that I am concentrating on just letting plants fill in and finding some balance in the beds. Usually this time of year finds me digging away trying to get some new beds made. Last year I removed the small front lawn that was allergic to grass and put in the beds in the pic above. I've added plenty of plants to it but it still looks kind of skimpy to me, I'm trying to resist jamming them full of stuff though because I want the trees and shrubs to really have a chance to get established.

Happy 4th!

Wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day!

They were some good principals that got laid down there,

still are,

bit tricky to put into practice though...

Rasta wants you all to know that although she wholeheartedly approves of picnic related activities (especially the food), she is indifferent to her mommy dressing her funny, and firecrackers are loud and disturbing and in her opinion unnecessary, get some rest instead.

Ebb and Flow

Still thinking about variety, here are some fabrics I purchased a week or so ago (a nice variety).

They are all poly bought to play with some heat setting shibori. So far I haven't launced into it... For the past couple of weeks I have been feeling unsettled and unfocused. At the moment working on projects doesn't seem to come easily so I'm trying to cut myself a break and give myself some time to work it out. At the same time I am sifting through my jumble emotionally I am also allowing the projects to ebb and flow as they will, been a bit more ebb than flow here today!

Variety

Thinking tonight about the variety of experiences that our lives encompass. Each and every one of those experiences offer us the opportunity to learn about ourselves and the connection we have to the infinite. They are all portals that we can use to connect with our deeper selves, each other, and the universal...

If we dare

Framed

I've decided that this one will go to a friend of mine...before it goes I will try to get a proper picture in daylight... I like how it looks framed