I’ve finally pinned down the date!

There will be a bunch of whatever you’ve seen around the blog lately, plus a few other things that I haven’t shown off yet. Brides, I’ll have a bunch of those organza flowers, plus some cards that are perfect for thank you’s or invitations to a special bridal party.

Bear and I will be out of town the weekend of the 27th, so I wanted to make sure I put off the shop update until I was back. I’d hate to have a bunch of questions just sitting there ignored in the inbox.

I still have a lot of work to do to make the deadline, but I will take requests! So let me know if there’s something you’re dying to have included.

When you have your hand in every little bit of crafting like I do, it can get pretty dang pricey. Having a fabric stash, and a paper stash, and a bead stash, and a yarn stash….you get the idea.

Nowadays I deal with this dilemma by not having a stash at all. The only stuff I buy now is stuff that I want for a specific project. Except paper. You can’t buy paper for every little thing. That’s just crazy.

But I used to try to stock up on everything, I’d just buy the cheap stuff. Huge mistake. HUGE. I’d spend all this time working on something, only to have it fall apart in a couple of months. If I even made it that far. I’d often give up halfway through the making because the fabric was bunching or the yarn was uncomfortable.

This yarn was so much fun to knit with. It was soft and spongy and wicked cheap, I got a ton of this stuff back when I worked at Michael’s.

I should have listened to Crysta. I made her a blanket out of this yarn and a few months later she warned me that it tended to pill. I didn’t pay attention because I loved working with the yarn, and it all pills eventually. Ho boy. Crysta was trying to be kind. This yarn doesn’t just pill, it turns into velcro.

I made a green blanket for myself, and I just loved it. I had a whole bunch of this yarn left over in different colors, so I cast on for Mason Dixon’s Log Cabin blanket. I’ve been carting that one around for years as my “car project.”

But now I see. Oh boy do I see. After a few times in the wash the fringe of the green blanket is mushed together in balled up dreads. It clings on to hair and fuzzballs like it’s magnetized. It’s sad, but that one is finished. I’ll deal with it until I gt so sick of the whole thing that I just chop the fringe off and the blanket finds its way to the back of a cupboard somewhere.

But the log cabin one still has a long way to go. I still have time to save myself. I picked it up to work on it during a drive the other day, and there was an audible “Riiiiiiiip” as I pulled it off the floormat.

It has turned to Velcro, it’s time to walk away.

Like pretty much everyone around the blogosphere, I’m in a little bit of a creative funk right now. Actually, maybe that’s not accurate. My brain is boiling with things I want to do, but I have no time or money to do them.

I’m in a time and money funk.

With times the way they are we’ve got a little economic uncertainty around here, nothing like most of the country, but enough to fill us with a sense of unease and make us think about whether or not we’re being as fiscally responsible as we should be.

And I’m trying my absolute darnedest to be responsible by not starting any new projects. Or at least not starting a new project until I’ve finished an old project, and all my old projects are big fat gnarly projects. The projects that get put off because there is so very much of them to put off. And they’re all in that phase where you can’t stand the sight of them. Whenever I have a project that takes more than ten hours or so, I always go through the same cycle.

Step 1: How exciting! a new project!

Step 2: Love LOVE this new project!

Step 3: Boy, this sure is challenging, but it’s fun!

Step 4: OK, this is a little harder/more work than I thought, but the end result will be worth it.

Step 5: I’m bored.

Step 6: I really should have thought twice before starting this project.

Step 7: I’m such an idiot. What made me think this was a good idea.

Step 8: I hate this project and it’s stinking project guts. I never want to see it again.

Step 9: So what, am I just going to throw it away after all that time and money? {Guilt}

Step 10: Maybe this isn’t so bad. I do really like this yarn/fabric/color/design.

Step 11: Why did I think this was so hard? This is a breeze!

Step 12: I Love LOVE LOVE this finished project!

I think all long-time crafters go through this at one point or another. Even in my scrapbooking, a relatively quick project as these things go, I’ll still go through these steps about certain pages, just compressed into the course of three hours.

I’m trying to force myself to press on through those distasteful steps until I can remember why I wanted to start some of these things in the first place.

I finally managed to finish off my Snowman Crosstitch I started back in 2005, and I’m trying to keep that momentum going until I finish off all 120 Christmas cards, and a couple beaded projects that have been sitting around for about as long. But Atti’s first birthday is on Thursday, so I’m probably going to end up shelving all those good intentions in favor of some homemade presents and an overdone birthday cake.