Back in the Saddle

After a quite arduous week, I took some much needed R & R (from Etsy and social media and jewelry making) over the weekend.  It's a hard thing to balance the demands of a family and work, as well as trying to grow your hobby into something more fruitful and so it's difficult to flip that switch that's always telling you "Go, go, go!"

I made a conscious choice not to even look at my Etsy shop for two days, not even to check my page views (which can be addictive). And it was everything I hoped it would be.  I slept in and then slept some more while hubby looked after our kids.  I ignored the urge to get out of bed and take control of everything.  The only thing that finally roused me from my blissful slumber was the smell of bacon frying - and really, who can resist that right? 

I relaxed on the couch and watch cartoons with my girls, I took the kids on a few little fun errands around town, we invited some friends over for dinner on the spur of the moment and instead of spending hours in the kitchen cooking, we ordered pizza, (again - I let go of the reigns of control there too) played Yahtzee and tried to guess the names of obscure songs my husband was playing.

Sunday was awesome as well;  we spontaneously decided to take a mini road trip to Grand Forks (2 hours from Winnipeg) with friends.  We visited the Splashers water park at the Canad Inns and my husband Rob and his friend Andy swam with the kids while my friend Rebecca (aka Winnipeg Style) and I went on a mini shopping trip.  Again - it was a wonderful spontaneous day where everyone had fun and although I was a little worn out, it was the good kind of worn out.

It did me a lot of good to switch off for the weekend - much easier than I thought it would be and it's a good practice for me to get into I think. After all, everything has it's place on the scale of importance and sometimes they get all jumbled up. So, it's Monday morning and I'm all reset.

The only price I have to pay today is getting caught up with custom orders that I put off for two days, but I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day than doing what I love.

The Best of Intentions

I was a highly motivated crumpet busting to get started on my latest project this morning, ideas were flowing, I had a positive attitude and a fresh mug of tea.  But hello - this is what I saw when I got to my worktable; a mess that stopped my flow of good vibes dead in their tracks:

Lightbulb!

Here is THE reason I can't focus, have no direction and get all discombobulated by the end of the day.  In essence - I'm a pig.

Day after day, this is how my worktable ends up.  I have no follow through when it comes to putting my things away.  I have to fight against my inner desire to leave a wake of destruction around me all for the sake of "creating".

So my new promise to myself from this day forward is - CLEAN UP!  I'm going to try and start every day with a clean workspace and end every day by cleaning up after myself. Maybe I will be able to focus a little better from now on.


Here's my new work space after 2 minutes of tidying:

Not a huge effort, but it's usually the simple things that get pushed aside.  Aaaah,  I feel the creative juices flowing again.

Now if I can just apply this principle to the rest of my life, I'll be unstoppable.  But I know me.....I'm sure I'm going to fall off the wagon many times before it becomes a habit.  But acknowledgement is the first step toward recovery.  Here's hoping!

I'm a slacker

So I have to apologize for being a big fat procrastinating slacker for the past few weeks.  I have been putting off my blog for no good reason and reasoned that my one or possibly even two followers have better things to do anyway than read my boring tales of woe etc etc.

But anyway, I made a promise to myself that I would write something, however dull.  After having a really soppy melancholy day, I managed to list some of my recent designs on Etsy and so here are a few pics of my "Egyptian" styled earrings.  I'm really loving using copper in my designs because for one, it's beautiful and two - the colors really pop against it.

Here they are:

You can see more of my designs here:http://www.deannewatsonjewelry.etsy.com/