Organizing and then Re-Organizing my Work Space

     A couple weeks ago we donated a small desk that mainly held stuff and wasn't being used as a work surface. Last Wednesday night, I thought I had finished putting away all the stuff the desk had held by reorganizing my table and shelf. I wasn't thrilled with the end result and even while cleaning I told my husband that it felt like I was just moving piles from one place to another. It was frustrating, but by the end of the night my table was useable with no piles.

      I took some pictures the next day. Not great. No piles of junk but no space to spread out while doing work.

This is my writing space. My computer doesn't even have enough room to sit the right way.

     Shelf still looked crazy with projects piled on top of each other. Bottom two on the left - fabric project throw up.

More piles. And more fabric.

     When I woke up on Thursday, I thought now I can get some work done. But I wasn't excited because there really wasn't any space to do work (writing/editing). And the space didn't really reflect me. Looking at the above pictures you'd think I was mainly a quilter. The sewing machine takes up more than half of my desk. There's obviously some yarn but the shelves are still full of quilt projects and fabric. 

     I still quilt and enjoy quilting but it isn't my main hobby anymore. I had bought or been given all this quilt stuff and felt I should use it. But I wasn't. I just felt guilty every time I looked at it. If my priority and job is writing and knitting is what I do to relax, then my space needed to show that. 

     So, Thursday afternoon, I started going through all my fabric, quilt projects and other craft supplies. I was ruthless. I had a real goal in mind this time. I emptied the bin of fabric that sits under my table and declared it the quilt bin and whatever fit inside, I would keep. By the end of the day I had filled two boxes of stuff to donate, another box for my sister and a trash can that was overflowing. It felt great.

     To help the future me who would have doubts, I collected all the garbage in the house and took it to the outside garbage can. I put one box of stuff to donate in the trunk of the car. The second one still had some room in it so I kept it inside. It is now full and waiting to be taken to the car. And I taped the box for my sister shut and labeled it as hers. If I wanted any of that stuff back, I would have to work for it.

     Not perfect but you can actually see the table. Sewing machine is pushed to the corner. I really need to finish quilting that quilt and then I'll have even more space. Until I start the next quilt.

     Pile of paper to the right of the computer are my writing notes and The Little Poem Project. I've forgotten a day here and there but I am still doing it. And loving it.

     It still looks full of piles put there is less there. I've been living with the space for a week and it's been easy to take things off and put stuff away since shelf spaces aren't crowded. I tried to keep it to 2 projects per space - usually one on top of the other. If there was space, a third beside them.

I obviously kept more than what fit in the bin. And the bin is full. The box at the bottom left of the shelf is the fabric for the quilts my mom requested. They are all supposed to be done by the end of the year so I don't really count that as part of my stash. They used to be kept on the floor between the shelf and the table so I'm happy that I was able to make room for them. The only thing between the table and shelf now is batting with small pieces of batting in the purple container you can see. I mainly purged small pieces of fabric from the stash (less than a yard). Anything over a yard I kept and set aside (in the box on the left, second shelf from the bottom) to make pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer. I might involve my kids in making the pillowcases this summer. There are also a few smaller projects that I hope to finish soon on the shelf.

     The big question is, is the space working for me now? And I would have to say yes. It takes effort to keep it cleaned off. I often throw things on it during the day when I have to quickly set something aside before Floyd gets it. But if I take 5 minutes while he naps and after he goes to bed I am able to keep it clean. Just a few weeks ago I wouldn't have had room for Floyd to sit on my lap and draw in his book while I did stuff on the computer.

     And if he's not on my lap, there's room for the toys he drops off and his crackers and a knitting project (a hat). And you can still see the table. I spend less time on the internet since the computer mainly stays on the table. I used to always use it on the couch and it was too easy to waste time. Floyd doesn't leave me alone for long when I sit at the table so I go on the computer, do what I need to do then return to him. My table is in the living room so I'm never far but for some reason Thomas the Train is more fun to watch from my lap. I even did some editing of my novel yesterday and I hope to do more today but it's taken me over an hour to write this blog post so my eyes need a break.

Have you been doing any purging? Doesn't it feel good to let the stuff go?

    

Little Poem Project

It's been a couple weeks since I've shared any of my little poems. I am still writing them everyday but I've decided not to share a week's worth of poems every Saturday. I'll still share one every now and then but not all of them. Knowing that I won't be sharing them, has changed the poems the last few days. They've become more personal and experimental in form. 

Today, I am sharing a poem I wrote on Tuesday, February 10th. The little poem came to be during yoga class. I am currently taking a Mindful Yoga class which includes three meditations per class, along with yoga postures. It's been an interesting class to take and a good way to get back into yoga after almost 4 years off. During one of the meditations on the 10th, the teacher instructed us to imagine ourselves as a mountain. I've been lucky to see the Rockies and visited Banff and Jasper and loved those mountains. When we lived in Idaho, I saw Moscow "mountain" everyday but none of those felt right. In 2011, our family visited the west coast and we stopped at Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helen's and it is the later one that came to mind. And then the poem followed.

This is what I feel like a lot of the time. That I am one moment away from erupting. And not in a good way. Being a stay-at-home mom of three kids, who would like to do more writing, life can be frustrating and sometimes I don't know how I hold it all together. I don't feel like a strong mountain connected to the Earth. I feel like a mountain who has lost it once and is struggling not to do it again.

I couldn't get the poem and image out of my head, even after I wrote it down. So, I'm going to try and make a Mt. St. Helen's painting. 

I settled on this picture which is from 1979, a year before it's eruption. I might do a second one from after the eruption but I'm going to try this one first.

Little Poem Project - January 31-February 6

For me, February is the most difficult month. Especially when I have a little one that keeps me inside. I think the little poems are starting to show how hard it is to stay positive through all these cold days trapped inside. I love snow and winter but I am looking forward to Spring and spending hours outside.

Saturday, January 31st.

Sunday, February 1st.

Monday, February 2nd.

Tuesday, February 3rd.

Wednesday, February 4th.

Thursday, February 5th.

Friday, February 6th.

Little Poem Project - January 17-30

Here are two weeks worth of poems (minus one day that I'm not sharing). I didn't post last Saturday due to Friday Night Sew-In. I'm still enjoying this project after one month and am looking forward to continuing. Enjoy.

Saturday, January 17th.

Sunday, January 18th.

Monday, January 19th.

Tuesday, January 20th.

Wednesday, January 21st.

Thursday, January 22nd.

Friday, January 23rd.

Saturday, January 24th. Husband, Joseph and I were talking about 6 word poems. I included his.

Sunday, January 25th.

Monday, January 26th.

Tuesday, January 27th.

Wednesday, January 28th.

Friday, January 30th.

Little Poem Project - January 10-16

Sharing all my little poems from this week. You can read more about this project here. Enjoy.

Saturday, January 10th.

Sunday, January 11th.

Monday, January 12th.

Tuesday, January 13th.

Wednesday, January 13th.

This one popped into my head while doing yoga that morning and wouldn't leave.

Thursday, January 15th.

Written in celebration of the safe delivery of the baby my SIL was carrying as a surrogate. "Little" Norman came into the world at 9 lbs 5.5 oz. Everyone is doing well.

Friday, January 16th.

The Little Poem Project - January 3-9

Here are my little poems for the past week. I wrote one everyday but am only sharing 6 here. Yesterday's poem is for my eyes only for now. So far, I am really enjoying this project. You can read more about it here.

One thing I noticed is that the time of day I write really alters the mood of the poem. Most have been written at the end of the day. At least one was written in the morning and one in the afternoon and those ones seem more hopeful/ happy. To me, anyway. By the end of the day, I usually feel pretty defeated and tired and I think that shows in the poems. I'll have to try and continue to write them at different times of the day. Last night I was thinking a neat 24 hour project would be to write one poem every hour to see how my day is reflected in what I write. Maybe I'll try that one of these days. 

Enjoy this weeks poems.

Saturday, January 3rd.

Sunday, January 4th.

Monday, January 5th.

Tuesday, January 6th.

Wednesday, January 7th. I really wanted to use the frog paper and it inspired the poem.

Thursday, January 8th.

The Little Poem Project

It's finally time to talk about some of my 2015 plans. Last year, I tried to write a poem a day in a notebook. I made it until early March. That's when I lost steam and started forgetting. There was a lot of pressure facing the page everyday and even though it was a spiral notebook, I felt I couldn't rip pages out. When I went over the poems I had written last year, the ones I liked the best were short, often just a line or two. I wrote a few more in the fall and decided on trying to write a little poem everyday of 2015. But I didn't want to write in a notebook. I wanted something different. So I came up with an idea.

First, my family probably thought I was crazy since I asked for post-it notes for Christmas and I got the cool looking tetris ones. I also got some sharpies to do some more blackout poetry. When I told my mom what I was doing with the post-its, she gave me the ones she had been gifted.

Back home, I put all the post-its together. I collected a lot this fall once I decided to do this project.

I keep them in this snowman container that my sister gave me years ago.

I'm sure you can guess my plan. Each day I will write a poem on a post-it. I was going to call it the Post-it Poem Project but since Post-its is an actual company I thought that wouldn't be a good idea. Now it is The Little Poem Project.

I still needed something to keep all my poems in and thought of trying to find a blank journal to put them in, which is much harder than it sounds - everything has lined paper. Then I remembered my book-making pinterest board and decided to make my own book.

I started it on December 31st and finished it January 1st. I needed something sturdy for the cover and found the envelope my husband's passport had come in, in the recycle bin and decided to use it. I think the Priority across the top is very fitting.

The back. 

All stitched together. I used this tutorial for the stitching. I really enjoyed it and might have to make more. Not sure how long this notebook will last but I'm hoping it will make it through most of the year.

I even created a title page. I put double sided tape on the back as well to help keep them in place.

This is the best part. Above is yesterday's poem and all the rejects that got recycled after. Some were scrapped because I didn't like my handwriting, others because I changed the words. It was so nice just to rip it off and start again. 

First page. 

This year, on Saturday's, I will post my poems from the week, although I reserve the right not to share a poem if it feels too personal. I think about the poem during the day and on the 1st all I could think of was "Tick, tock", so that's what I wrote. I'm really looking forward to working on this project this year.