Where has the time gone? To the past, that's where! My hope is that 2023 brings new opportunities and much happiness for all of us, for the world in general. It's what we need.
In hindsight, 2022 wasn't such a great year. My creativity sat at an all-time low along with my motivation and that is just plain sad. In my last post, dated 7/2022, I mentioned how stagnant things had become and how I felt like I was trying to do too much and that was pretty much right on target. I feel like that at the onset of the pandemic, and an influx of extra money, I spent feverishly (stimulating the economy which was the goal), buying so many things that I had put off purchasing, so much so that it was overwhelming, and still is. I joined multiple monthly bead subscriptions, clay subscriptions, Skillshare, etc. It got to where all I'd do is unpack stuff and put it up to use sometime later, which to be frank never happened. Or watch videos on how-to while never putting the how-to to work in practice. What a freaking waste! My answer was to cancel the monthly subscriptions and take stock. That lasted for over a year. I pared down to one clay subscription, while still keeping Skillshare (which I have found to be such a welcome and useful resource and I highly recommend to any who seek training in many subjects). But even Skillshare, with the classes I signed up for, took a ton of time to complete and I was signing up for so many of them! But, what happened is I filled up my little 12x12 crafts room. Everything is in tubs/containers, but they are stacked, double-stacked, etc. It's really become quite an unbearable situation and I find that when I go there, I get mind-blocked and can't wait to leave. Seriously, things were so much easier when my only medium was shrink plastic and that was my sole focus; I was a truly well-oiled machine. Design, print, cut, bake, assemble, list, sell, mail, do it all over again! I dabble in everything now, which is great, but accessing my supplies has become arduous and limiting. I walk away constantly.
The past 2-3 years, I have not made any resolutions (or I prefer to call them self-promises). This year, I did. I began a healthy eating plan in August and have removed 23 pounds since then, that promise will be carried into the New Year with hopes that by April, another 23 pounds will be gone.
My next promise is to stop spending so much money on things I'm not going to use any time soon and to spend more time SAVING it. I think the pandemic spurred fear into all of us with supply chain issues and everyone camped at home looking for something to do with all of their free time; buying up every bottle of paint and brick of polymer clay. LOL. Only recently have polymer clay supplies returned to their former abundance. It has also created an entire population of polymer clay jewelry designers who, for those who have worked with polymer clay for a long time (I am not a long-time polymer clay artist so I think I'm included in the newbie classification), is not all that welcome. I never really gave it much thought, but I have seen several posts by seasoned, long-term artists who lament the influx of quickie earring and necklace makers who don't spend much time making their designs... I guess I would be considered one of the new comers...
Promise three is to seriously knuckle-under and get my crafts room squared away. My daughter would call me hoarder of sorts. But really it's in the crafts vein, and that would be true. It is also a multi-pronged issue. There are several things working that are keeping me from moving forward. Number one, the room I wish to move everything into is full of junk. We live in a very big house where all of the rooms are not used. As a result, they have turned into storage areas for this and that. So the room I wish to move into, is full of this and that and it needs to be cleared out before I can even begin to move it. This leads into a long list of things that must be done BEFORE I can use the room, and it is going to take time. My hope is that by June, I'll be in the room. It may not be completely finished, but it will be functional. The room is great for crafts because it has only one door and one window, leaving me lots of wall space. Our downstairs has 9 foot ceilings and allows for cabinets that are taller than normal. my hope is to have at least two of the walls equipped with tall cabinets (second hand cupboards) to hold so much of my stuff and keep it dust-free at the same time. I'm not sure about the under cabinets. I love the popular drawer units at Ikea for their quality and versatility, but I would also love to have base cupboards like you'd see in a kitchen. I know that I want the 'counters' in the room to be 30" deep which allows room to have items sitting at the wall while still allowing enough table top work space. I may upload my diagram as a rough-in of what I want. I'll go more into that later.
Promise four is to stop complaining so much. I have tuned into a lamenting complainer and it's grating. How did I ever become such a griper? Does this come with age? It's energy sapping and negative and just plain bad. I have already put turning this around into practice and when I find myself drifting to that, I consciously stop myself and turn my thoughts to something positive. It is going to take time to turn the trend of being so critical, but I know it can be accomplished. Looking on the bright side feels good and it's uplifting, why is it so easy to do the opposite?
Promise five, pare down into reasonable chunks the things I'd like to do/learn. I have overwhelmed myself with 'all of the things I'm going to do' and it has been debilitating and fruitless. Too much of everything and in the end, nothing is accomplished. This leads to promise six...
Promise six and this is not a MUST but a TRY TO. Learn how to use my Olympus Pen camera I bought during the pandemic. LOL. It's a nifty little digital SLR and I need to give it the attention it deserves.
Okay, so that's it. Have a happy new year. 365 opportunities for something better.
