Binge Crafting

Okay, so needless to say I’ve been away for a while. A long while. More than six weeks, in fact.

While I’ve been away, and life has carried on, a few notable things have happened that I would like to share with you. In the last few weeks I’ve:

- Started another baby quilt, for my new nephew Kieren. In my last post I was still embroidering the patches. In the meantime I ordered a charm pack (oh, I do love a charm pack!) of Moda Hideaway fabric, which is covered in clocks and alpine-looking motifs, perfect for a little part-Swiss boy. The other night I put on Woody Allen’s Alice (oh William Hurt, my love for you has not waned) and sewed the whole quilt top together. So it’s almost done…

- Witnessed the birth of my aforementioned new nephew. A beautiful home birth. It was amazing, and transformative, and very moving. Keaton was totally freaked out by the whole thing and bawled all night, but that’s another story.

- Had some major thoughts about my creative process. When it comes to crafting, writing, or anything else in the creative realm, I am a binger. I’m not the type of person to sew a few stitches one day and a few the next, or write a page or two a day, slowly working toward my goal. That’s not me, even though I sometimes beat myself up for not working on my projects more consistently. Nope, I’m a work-on-something-for-many-hours-late-into-the-night-for-three-days-straight and then put it away for a while type of person. So, bingeing it is, if that’s the way I get sh*t done!

- Realized that I should probably tame my potty mouth in front of Keaton, now that he’s parroting everything I say.

- Gotten very stuck with both the creative writing projects I’ve been working on. But now slightly less stuck with one of them, which may in turn lead to some binge-writing. Fingers crossed.

- Been working with a web designer on a new website for my freelance copywriting/consulting business, Creative Cat Communications. It’s still under construction, but stay tuned for a link.

As I write this, a huge flash of lightning and a big clap of thunder boomed just outside my kitchen window. I think I shall go cuddle up under the covers with Josh and listen to the rain pouring down outside. Ahhhh.

Life is good.

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The Right Amount of Busy

For the first time in a very long time, I feel like I’ve got the perfect amount of busy going on in my life. A balance between activity and rest, nights out and nights in. It’s the amount of busy that I’ve been hoping for and trying for for so long, but just never achieved. And it’s been years, too, too many years. My too-busy-ness before was entirely self-wrought, I do realise, but still. It’s temporary, I also realise, and all too soon I’ll be right back to too busy again. But for now I’m savouring it. Last semester was crazy, and I barely had time to sleep, but this semester’s workload totally makes up for it. (Funny, now that I’m an instructor I’m like a student again – thinking about the year in terms of semesters.)

So, fortunately, lately I’ve had time lately to:

- Finish that patchwork baby quilt I showed you last post, and now I’ve started on the embroidery for another baby quilt, this time for my sister-in-law’s soon-to-be-released wee one. It’ll be another patchwork quilt, using the most darling charm pack fabric from Moda.

Listen to me: I actually sound like I know what I’m talking about. Really, everything I know about quilting (which is very, very little) so far I’ve learned from the Missouri Star Quilt Company’s online tutorials. Jenny’s my favourite – she’s hilarious and I love her gel nails.

- Take a one-day drawing class on ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ with the Vancouver School Board. Just for fun, of course. I have absolutely no dreams of actually being a good artist – I still draw like I’m twelve, as I’ve mentioned. But it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for years, so I was glad to finally do it. But it definitely confirmed the fact that I still draw like I did when I was twelve. My favourite things to draw then were hamsters and gymnasts.

And the class was in a high school science lab, so that was cool.

- Write a new picture book manuscript. Not sure exactly what I’ll do with it, but it’s an idea I’d had for a while, and I sure was glad that I found the time to write it. And last week I put Keaton in daycare for a few hours and worked on the edits for my new novel that’s coming out in the fall. That’s been my dream for a long time, too, to work on creative writing in a coffee shop.

So yeah, I’m enjoying all this extra creative time while it lasts. ‘Cause I know that pretty soon Too Busy will come along and kick me in the ass again. But, for now, it’s all good.

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The Land of Procrasti Nation

Just call me Master Procrastinator. It’s been that way as long as I can remember. All through high school and university (both my Bachelor’s and my Master’s) I wrote every single paper the night before it was due, which usually meant staying up all night. For pretty much every task in my life, I leave it until the last possible second, and then throw myself right into it and finish it, just in the nick of time (or, to be honest, quite often late). I thrive on deadlines, which is maybe part of the reason why I found a career in writing and communications – I love press deadlines, ad deadlines, editorial deadlines. That adrenaline rush is what makes me do my best work, I think.

With this whole crafting thing, though, I don’t have an external deadline. The only pressure I might face is deadlines that I set for myself… and I’m a pretty lenient client, I tell ya. So I’ve decided that before I can really start with this sewing thing, I should clean out and organize my arts & crafts cupboard. Yep, procrastination at its finest. Kinda like when you have an essay due the next day, but you decide that that toilet really needs scrubbing. Except that now I’m procrastinating on the procrastination project – all of the craft stuff has been sitting there in disarray since Friday night (sorry Joshua!).

Other things I’m procrastinating on:

- writing my PhD application (before I had Keaton I got all excited about applying to do my PhD in Communication at Simon Fraser University as something to do after maternity leave, doing research in children and children’s culture… but that fire has dimmed somewhat and now I am half-heartedly applying)

- writing the last few thank you cards for Keaton presents (we got at least three pairs of denim overalls, in all different sizes… he’ll be like a little farmer boy!)

Hmmm… maybe I’ll have to procrastinate on writing the PhD application by finishing the organization of the craft cupboard. Clever!

In other news, had a fabulous day in Chilliwack with my dad, stepmum, sister and her boyfriend. I am such a Valley girl at heart. *sigh*

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