New Year's Resolutions... Or How to make sure something doesn't get done!

How many of us have done it? Started a nice, bright, shiny new year full of good intentions  that this will be the year that we will finally become fitter, thinner, more productive, more successful, get on top of the paperwork, see friends and family more, learn a language, start a new hobby...only to get to the end of January feeling like a failure! (I was going to write this blog every day!!!) What is it about January 1st that makes us set the seeds to our own destruction?
We all want a new start, a second chance. Remember how good it felt as a child when you were given a new exercise book at school? All those clean white pages with no mistakes... a chance to start again. Each day is that chance to start again. So you cheated on the diet. Didn't go for that run. Skipped the Yoga class. Been over a year since you last phoned your friend. Who cares! This doesn't make you a failure. It makes you human. Tomorrow is a fresh start.
I have binned my list of resolutions for 2013 and replaced it with just one...
I resolve to keep starting again!

Distractions!

Oh my! Has it really been a week since the last time? So much for good intentions! But you see there has been a very valid excuse for my inablity to focus on anything for my than a minute this week. We have a new addition to the household. 5 days ago an 8 week old ball of black fluff in the shape of Django the kitten entered out lives and we will never be the same again! Neither will our resident 12 year old female cat!!!
For 2 days I just sat, entraced! How much energy can something so small have? And then, when I tried to get back to working again, I discovered that little Django is a crafter, too! He sat next to me on the sofa, happily playing with every piece of equipment or scrap of wool, button or bell I put down next to him. I was making up a batch of button hearts for Hoppers in Darlington, and any spare buttons I thread onto a length of wool to keep safe. They are easier to count like that rather than stored in a bag. Now, of course, I find they also make the perfect cat toy like this, too.

I have a lot of ribbon. It gets used for a number of things. A metre long piece is currently tied around a piece of screwed up paper making another favourite kitten toy. But the best DIY kitten adventure centre has come in the form of one of those tubes you get bottles of whiskey in. Highland Park, one of the finest, and from Orkney, comes in a squatter, fatter tube... purrrfect for kittens!

Creativity v. Business

It's great to make some money out of doing something you enjoy, whether it be making stuff, painting, teaching...any kind of creativity. But there is always a downside. Inspiration is buzzing, but the paperwork is building up. You need to do a stock-take, e-mail all your retailers, chase up all those people who haven't paid you yet, and of course, there's the books to keep on top of! This stuff is boring and dull but it is so necessary, and just occasionally, there is inspiration to be had.
Organisation and re-organisation clears the minds, bringing clarity. An ocasional stock-take can throw up all kinds of useful information, such as what sells best in what location at what time of year, and what is not selling. Book-keeping ain't just for the taxman. Looking at your figures can also tell you your good months and bad, and when you need to have lots of stock at the ready. It's well worth spending the time learning how to interpret figures. Apply your creative thinking to them... it's amazing what you can learn about your business and yourself.
And, if you're interested, what I learned today as I started work on both stock-taking and book-keeping is that I don't do either of these tasks anywhere near as often as I should, and I'm way too good and procrastination! LOL

The First Working Day of the Year

Today has the back to school feeling about it. Back to work. OK, so I know I did the market yesterday, but   DSPM always has a feeling of fun about it, a jolly get-together with friends. Customers are an added bonus!! lol Today really is a work day. Stock to record, boxes to make, new designs to play with, clients to meet with, cheques to collect, money to bank and parcels to collect! I can also tell the holidasys are over cos the house phone is ringing. It only rings when no-one real is there... the dreaded cold-callers are back!! Time to go into town and escape them and do some work!!!

Darlington Sunday People's Market

So here we are, back home in the warm after the first sunday market of the year. Darlington Sunday People's Market has been running for 6 months now, on the 1st Sunday of the month, and has become a really high in the calender. The organisers and other stall holders are a great bunch of people and it's a really good atmosphere. It's great to talk to like minded, creative people who are trying to make a living through what they do, and exchange ideas and encourage each other. The first week in January may not be the best time of the year to be standing outside selling your sold, but I've had a great day with some great people and I'll be there again next month, Sunday 3th February. Hope to see you then, in Darlington!

Making Dreams a Reality

And so we come to the big question... How do we make a living wage from our artistic talents? In the current economic climate it is a luxury to spend money on arts and crafts and yet how can we guarantee any returns if we try to turn our hobbies into businesses?

These ideas have been milling around inside my head for quite some time now.  If you spend your time creating things, what do you do with them? People admire them, ask where you got them from, say how talented you are...and so a germ of an idea grows. You sell an odd thing here and there to family and friends and the idea takes root and the dream develops... Could I do this for a living? Could I run my own business? But life gets in the way - bills, commitments, work or family... the time never seems to be right, and so the dreams linger in the back of our mind and our creations pile up with the bills!

After several years of dreaming, U-Neek, my business, became a reality this week. The cheque book etc for the account arrived this morning. The website is almost finished. It finally seems real instead of me just playing at it. But that is the key...Playing at it first. Dream about it. Imagine exactly how it will be. Then go out and test the waters. Find 1 or 2 outlets that will take your creations... you will find out what sells and what doesn't and you'll get feedback from retailers and their customers. This is the 'playing' bit. And it's fun. But the serious side of it is that it gives you a really good idea of how things may pan out.

So after a year of my products selling gradually in several shops all over the North in the 'playing' stage, U-Neek is now up and running. Wish me luck, and I'll wish you the same!

The right environment

I have a lovely big light airy dining room downstairs. It has a big window overlooking our backyard full of pots and planters, and a wonderful original built it cupboard in the corner with big heavy drawers beneath...just perfect for all my fabric and art stuff!

The main problem with this room is that it is the only way to get to the Kitchen from the hallway, so it has a tendency to be treated as a bit of a corridor, and all too often, a dumping ground. It can feel a bit unloved. This has been a problem I have been meaning to tackle for sometime, but like all non-urgent tasks, it kept going to the back of the list. Last weekend, though, as I sat doodling out some seasonal hearts, my will snapped...the time had come. The amassed junk and clutter and rubbish in the dining room that meant that I could no longer see the beautiful stripped floorboards in there. Going in there had become a nightmare that you needed to steel yourself for.  I strode into the mayhem and stared around and wondered where the hell to begin!

7 hours, 5 cups of tea and 3 filled bin bags later...

My partner and I were able to eat our dinner in said dining room for the first time in... years! More to the point I now have an environment where I not only can but want to work in! More on this later. I also discovered no end of long-lost bits and pieces...pencils, craft knives, sketch books, things stashed away in those "safe places" and then forgotten about... all these turned up in my right royal clear out. I had a ball! All now refiled and re-stashed and reorganised. And ready to be used anew.

Ok, so there are still a lot of finishing touches still to do in there. I want to recover the dining room chairs... they are looking a bit shabby now, and not in a chic way either! There are still one or two boxes to sort through. I need to rearrange the pictures. There's some stuff to go to the charity shop, too. But I can see the floor boards again!

My dining room is now a room I want to be in again. I want to sit in there and be at peace in there and create stuff in there. I have reclaimed my space. In order for us to be at our creative best, we first have to create a space where we can let go and be free to be ourselves. No matter how unorganised we are, there has to be some order to our creative space, even if it is one no one else can understand, otherwise we only get frustrated and distracted, and where's the point in that?