Too Much Stuff ....... or Just Not Enough Room

OK - I am not gonna say that Elli and I share a brain......  however, I AM BORROWING it for a while, I promise, Elli, to give it back, hopefully in the only slightly used condition.

It may be fate or just irony that Elli and I seem to have hit similar dilemmas about the same tymes in our lives. 

So.... anyway sitting here looking at my work center and thinking I either have way too much stuff or just not enough room (two artists in a small apartment ---  scary, really!) While trying to find a solution I remembered something Elli put in her blog:  "It’s not, I might add, because I’m dissatisfied with my life.  Not by any means.  I love my life.  I just think, sometimes, that there’s too much Life in my life, and not enough time to BE.  And then I remember that if I sit still, I get antsy and start contemplating the best way to clean the ceiling fan or something, and realize that some people just aren’t cut out for BEING as much as DOING, and I go have a cookie." 

Then she adds: "Tooth and nail type holding on.  It’s a sickness, I’m sure."


Then it hit me (gonna have to start wearing a hard hat if these ideas keep coming at me like this).  My problem is very much like Elli's - too much life in my life (in my case it is supplies, projects, books, kits and stuff).  Even working at it full tyme for the rest of my life, I could not finish all the projects I have supplies for.

For example:
1. there are wood items that need painting including all the paint and supplies
2. there are boxes of quilt fabrics to be turned into quilts which I have never chosen a design yet - not to mention the stack of partially completed quilts that just need binding, quilting, etc
3. dozens and dozens of cross stitch charts and patterns
4. three different Hawaiian quilting projects in progress
5. six different current knitting works in progress plus three boxes of yarn and stacks of books and patterns
6. kumihimo braiding books and supplies
7. tatting shuttles, thread, and pattern books
8. bobbin laces pillows, bobbins to be spangled, thread and pattern books, three works in progress
9. the polymer clay supplies with no real plans for at the moment
10. three recently acquired art bins for my newest passion with pens, sketch pads and art cards.
11. ohhh not to mention the spinning fiber and the two projects - one on each wheel
12. oh oh oh and the 100 lbs of glass beads or so I have waiting for inspiration to hit
13. and not to mention the number of pieces to be made into tribal belly dance belts
14. AND there's the new clock and watch parts collection recently started for my fore-ray into steampunk
15. AND AND the stash of leather hides, feathers, and cow horns.
16, don't know if this counts but also have a knitting machine getting pretty dusty
17. oh AND the piano keyboard's not dusty only because I built it a case, but the case.... well just sayin'

This is where writing this stuff out is gonna help.  In having to create the list above ----- it's no wonder my creative life and work space is feeling really SCHIZOPHRENIC.   Could be because IT IS!!!

Looks like this and next week's projects will be to destash and determine which projects I really love and really see myself doing in the next 5 years or less.  I need to pick some of my skills, keep those projects in my work area and pack the rest away..... Like I have tatted in a couple of years, that stuff can be put away or scaled back to the shuttles I really love and get rid of the thread for now.  I see an Etsy store sale!

Same oh so much with the fabric and the quilting stuff, haven't made a quilt since my son was two..... He's almost 9 now... just sayin'

I am gonna go through my stuff with a totally different eye and say "Am I passionate about this, do I LOVE it and Will I get it done. 

Elli said she had too much Life in her Life - I think my trouble is I have too many WIPs in my life (Work In Progress).  Coffee mug logo once saw said "Everything I ever let go of had scratch marks all over it"  Goes back to that tooth and nail sickness.... Tyme to start lightening the load of this ship before she sinks!