Creative Chaos: Self-reflection amongst the gluesticks........

Self-reflection amongst the gluesticks........

I did a bit of thinking the other day and came to the conclusion as to what kind of crafter I am. Mixed-media, you say......Paper Artiste?....... Paint by numbers? possibly.......Maybe, crafter extraordinaire? ......Well, it's none of the above. I came to the stark cold realization that I am what you call a "Beat the Clock" crafter. As in, I only have so much time on the clock for creating, sooooooo I better make good use of it. Plus, I'm lazy....but more on that later......

(Sad, lonely, in progress, valentines that never made it out the door)

Anyway, I realized this the other week as I had a couple luxurious hours to myself. And, after I talked myself out of some mundane, yet, much needed to be done tasks, such as catching up on the laundry, cleaning the moldy leftovers out of the refrigerator, or wading through a stack of bills that needed to be entered into Quicken, I decided to treat myself to some creative time. But, for some reason, this time it didn't feel like a "treat"....I felt more like a deadline. A deadline with no actual goal. And, no idea when I would have time like this again. I needed to accomplish an entire month's worth of crafting into 3 precious hours. I felt pressure between getting things I needed to get done....with things I wanted to get done, such as the journal I've been dying to get started on. As I sat at my desk staring at my supplies for a good 30 minutes dealing with the never ending struggle between starting a "just because I'm in the mood for it" tussie mussie..........or, working on items to sell in my long neglected Etsy shop that for all I know has been shut down and reopened as a Buddy's Bar & Grill......and, finishing the valentine hearts I started a week ago (that at this writing still haven't been finished), I realized with so little time comes so much self-imposed pressure to not waste any of it.

(Tussie Mussie....trying to break free)

So, therefore, by demanding of myself not to waste one precious moment of those hours, I managed to waste every single second of them. Every. Single. One. I got nothing done except to hop from project to project starting one thing and then deciding 5 minutes into it my time would be better spent on something else. Before I knew it, the boys were home. My time was up. And I got nothing done. Arrrrgggg.....

On the same note, I found the blog of Rebecca Sower whose work I adore. She wrote a post about "disconnecting" everything and just getting to work. It sounded all well and good. However, my dilemma was trying to figure out where the on/off switch was on my children. I haven't been able to find it as of yet. So what I did was the opposite of her suggestion, and plug back in the DVD player and put in another round of Thomas the Train's Milk Shake Muddle.......sigh....

Since I obviously don't have anything of my own to share let me show you some of the wonderful things that I have received in the mail.......

Mary from Oh Merci sent this to me just because! It was such a wonderful surprise and so heartwarming to find a little something in the mail just for me! I just adore Mary and everything she creates!!!

And I also got a valentine from Jeanne of Dream Create Inspire......She is one of the sweetest bloggers out there! I've been lucky enough to be involved with some swaps with Jeanne and so glad that I've gotten to know her!!!

Again, it's so nice to find a little something that is addressed in handwriting to me that doesn't include the words "date due"......

Also, here is the cover of my Sweet Treat Recipe Book from the swap I did hosted by Karla and Beth......

You have to understand that both Beth and Karla made ALL the book covers. I feel as though I am in possession of an art piece that will be handed down the generations. It contains 40 pages of recipes that were contributed by various artists and bloggers. The tag was made by Lolly of Lollynestegg. Isn't it adorable!?!? If you want a chance to see more you can go to the Flickr site. All the covers are pictured as well as the recipe cards.

Here are a few more pictures from the book.....

Beth's page.....