Tag: goals

To do list or not to list

PiaChit Chat

I don’t really do resolutions at specific times or other calendar assisted activities if I can help it, but 2012 was a bitch right up to and with the last day, and I don’t want a repeat. Won’t bore you with the details, but one of the things I’ve spent some time pondering is chores, schedules, plans and to-do lists. So now is as good a time as ever to create new routines.

I love making lists, it seems to declutter my head (a bit) and oh, the joy of crossing something out! But. I also learned that those lists in fact add considerably to my stress levels. Must do! Look how busy I am! I make short term day lists and long term big chores lists. Tape them to the kitchen cupboard.

Then I tried something new, I put them away. And realised that A, I can learn to not repeat them in my head all day in case I forget and B, I actually get just as many things done anyway. Perhaps even more, actually, because less time is spent fretting over the amount of items. I’m learning that not all things are equally important nor urgent, who’d have thought!?

So my hope for 2013 apart from a smoother ride, is to keep reprogramming my whole mindset about these things and just really go with the flow. Leave room for lots of breaks and marvel if I don’t need them! Rather than feeling guilty for sneaking them in. I still have goals, but every step I make towards each one is fine, no deadlines.

So how do you all juggle the stuff that “needs” to get done, stuff you want to do and all the rest? Do you deliberately limit yourself to a manageable number of hobbies/activities so you don’t spread yourself thin, do you schedule heavily, delegate chores (I knew there was at least one reason I should have had kids!), happily swim in a sea of options, picking as you go along?

(some of) The List

  • Scan my old negatives (3 heavy binders full)
  • Play with sampling/mixed media
  • Start painting again
  • Try garden printing
  • Organize my image files
  • Finish my garden chores (separate list!)
  • Clean ALL the things!
  • Exercise regularly
  • Meditate daily
  • Drink more water
  • Create a work schedule and stick to it
  • Design sweaters
  • Don’t worry
  • Ride more
  • Clutterfree desk
  • Be happy
  • Spin the karakul and other odd wools for weaving (and to clear storage space)
  • Make a loom and start weaving
  • Get books on weaving from the library (probably in that order)
  • Don’t worry
  • Spin ALL the wool, then buy more.Ā  Dye it.
  • Write every day, not just the silly blog
  • Clean up the courtyard between buildings
  • Carry all the firewood inside before winter done
  • Restore order to the barn
  • Wash horse blankets done
  • “Quilt” collages from cutout water colours
  • Process box of fiber from “Goliath” the camel
  • Tonnes of dull sewing and repairs…
  • Finish knitting projects
  • Learn about felting. Get books from library. Etc.
  • Work on the other artsy project ideas (separate list)
  • See people
  • Go new places
  • Order new firewood and stack it
  • Declutter garage (Oh my)
  • Empty wash room, tear down wall, build a new one
  • File backups
  • Find a/some nice yarnbase/s to order in bulk for dyeing
  • …
It's a scary, exciting world! Arthur's first trip outside the house.
It’s a scary, exciting world! Arthur’s first trip outside the house.

My new studio

PiaChit Chat

… has huge windows with an amazing view of the countryside and forest, running hot/cold water, a stove for dyeing and no end of large worktables, handy storage solutions, lots of floor space too as well as a reading corner, couch, and of course looks really pretty (although probably messy, knowing herself well). Light, airy and absolutely perfect for my every need.

Never mind what the rest of the house looks like, I’ll only visit it rarely and briefly. šŸ˜‰ (actually that’s not true, I do have a lot of ideas about what my dream house looks like. And the garden. And the location.)

I don’t think that’s too much to ask, so I am. With colour and doodles and fairy glitter on top.

I need storage space for:

  • yarn and wool
  • paints of various types and brushes
  • all sorts of scraps and doodads for collage
  • tools, scissors, stamps, glues
  • fabric for dyeing, canvases, bookmaking etc.
  • Bigger things like frames, canvas rolls, sewing machine, drum carder etc.

Then I need wall space for:

Not to mention all the ideas I get from the magazine “Studios”. Yes, I torture myself reading such things…. I call it visualization. šŸ˜‰

This is a 3D image I did years and years ago of the office in our flat. I even had an equal room next door for a studio, but at the time computers was the thing. And myself with the wacom tablet.
1970’s style šŸ˜‰

In the mean time I guess I have to live with a corner of the kitchen for an office, library and stash, a corner of the guest room (no it’s not big enough for a studio in any which way) for stash and the dining table for crafts. Our kitchen counter is really small and fortunately old and worn, because dye does get spilled… But cooking and dyeing and doing the dishes clash very often.

I’ve perhaps scored a piece of wall currently occupied by my husband’s entertainment center (great big tv). Turn it around, turn the sofa = added bonus we can see the fireplace from the sofa and I get a place to hang canvases. Yes, I’ll splotch the walls, but at the rate that we’re not entertaining dinner guests I honestly don’t care. I live here every single day, and doing is so much more important than showing (off) in my humble opinion.

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