I do the same thing at the end of every year and at the beginning of the new year. I say I am going to get this, this and this done. But what I end up doing each year for the past 5 or so now is add on to what I wanted to accomplish the year before. I still never get any of the UFOs done and just have more on my plate. I have more than 5 years of projects that need to be completed and that is not right.
As I was thinking about what I wanted to blog about today I went out to check the mail and do you remember one of my Christmas presents I had wrote about, the block of the month put out by Shabby Fabrics for Bunny Hill Design’s “The Night Before Christmas” quilt. (Goodness, I have reread that sentence ten times and it still makes no sense to me but my flu”ey” head cannot make it right, sorry.) Anyway, the first block came, I was half excited and then the other half of me was saying, “This is what I am talking about!”
I am going to get to my point because I am feeling dizzy and starting to think this is not going to make sense. A good friend of mine and I have discussed this many times in the past, we do this all the time. When we worked at the same quilt store we would do it there. Always volunteering to do this shop sample and that shop sample and maybe we can just add this one more project to our never ending lists. It has to stop, at least for me.
I want to enjoy my sewing/crafting/doll making/quilting, not think that I have to keep up with all the great things going on. With so many blogs, “ning”, yahoo, and other groups out there, I have a list two pages long of the most awesome groups of creators, crafters, sewers, etc. you could imagine. But I don’t have to belong to them all. The swaps, the challenges, the blocks of the months, and everything else, they are all awesome. But I need to let them be awesome and sit back and enjoy what I enjoy and be my own kind of awesome.
I am not pulling the plug on any obligations I have already signed on for but I am not going to get caught up in the excitement any longer of being part of this great group, or this great project, or this great swap. They will still be great but I will be a lot less stressed and have so much more time, well I don’t know about the time part.
I am going to pare down all my lists and groups and want to do’s and just pay attention to my “am doings", yeah, that makes no sense but I got it. One of the things that made me really think about all this, besides being sick, is I received a notice that the Cloth Doll Artistry Ning group was going to be charging $12 a year to be a member, which is not bad, if that is the only group I am into. I had to make a decision that no I don’t need to belong to the group and I need not feel guilty about it. It is an expense that I definitely don’t need to spend. I have done very well the last year with limiting my fabric purchasing and I hope this year to do even better using what I have and doing some of the fantastic kits I have put together with my fabrics.
I am very excited about my new plan. I have some tweaking to do but I think it is going to be a great year. Now if I can just get this flu out of my system so I can get to sewing!!!
Sorry I was so wordy today, hope I didn’t bore or confuse you. Heaven knows I will probably read it next week wondering what I was thinking when I wrote it!!
Have a great day and don’t forget to find a little stitching time!!!
Jennifer
