5 - Creating OOAK (Order Out of Alarming Kaos :o)

My house scares me. Not because it's evil or eerie or even somewhat eclectic (which it is :o) but because it has been invaded. By what, you ask? Well I'll tell you ~ my house has almost completely disappeared under a deluge of craft supplies and vintage items that span decades (literally). First there was my own personal stash (which was already a teeensy bit *cough, cough* out of hand), THEN there were the boxes and bins belonging to my grandmother (Nana), the ornaments made by my great grandmother (her mother) and so on.

Some of it has been fabulous fun to sift through, like the family photographs dating all the way back to the 1860s (translation: watch for a blog post on my heritage scrapbook album, I'm so into it :o) There was the vintage jewelry she had stuck in a seriously tacky ceramic container; Trifari pieces that were drop dead gorgeous and some other amazing bits and baubles (hours of fun trying on and bringing back some fond memories). These fabulous finds were mixed in, mind you, with some cheesy plastic jewelry and dead tape (eew).

Then there were the things that were not so fun. Like the piles and piles of knitted "squares" that were NOT square (or any other easily identifiable shape; Nana had Alzheimer's). She made them by the dozens ~ no two the same size or shape - complete with holes and dropped stitches - impossible to use for anything. But the thing that really hurt my feelings was "The Tree". I've unofficially dubbed it, "Lamenting Loretta: A Felonious Folly" as this is nothing short of criminal...

Needless to say, I will be dissecting this and remaking some of the pieces into vintage jewelry for my shop (after I pick out the "keepers", of course ;o)

To top it all off are the evil dust bunnies on crack that I seem to be chasing

everywhere. Have you seen them? They look something like this...

Note the small beady eyes which have no problem spotting clean surfaces in dire need of a "dustover". For the past several years I have been battling them to no avail. Craft supplies and everything else had to be kept in boxes, storage containers or bags to prevent a light coating of dust from rapidly accumulating. It was a constant battle to keep up with that seemed to be getting worse, and I fought it bravely right up until the cancer. Now, I'll be the first one to admit I don't like to clean. While I may derive that certain satisfaction that comes with a job well done, I would be lying through my teeth if I said I liked it. Along with a cancer diagnosis comes surgery (or in my case surgeries), chemotherapy and a whole host of other raindrops on your parade that cause a lot of things to fall by the wayside (cleaning being one of the first casualties in the new war).

Why am I off on a tangent telling everyone about my dust? Because there's a moral to this story. A number of years ago, we remodeled the house and added a much larger central heat and air unit. In addition to some serious square footage, we added a half roof on the back side which created a nice big roof instead of several smaller ones. We also ended up with some storage space for "outdoor safe" items. Had it not been for the air handler going out a couple of months ago we would never have discovered that the people who installed the very expensive, brand new unit forgot to seal off the air intake. What does this mean? Well, instead of pulling air from the house, it was pulling air from the attic between the roofs. Nice hot, stuffy, dusty, gritty air which burned up the coils in the old handler and cost us around $1,300 to replace. Of course the man that owned the business that did the installation of our new A/C retired quite awhile back...probably to some remote island in Bimini. The moral? Check behind your contractors (which we did) even if they come highly recommended (which he was), and if you haven't a clue what to check find someone who does (that's the part we missed).

Anyway, if I can put in about 8 to 10 hours a day, I probably have a mere 6 - 8 months of cleaning and destashing left do. I'm sure if I hurry though, I can Git 'er Done (as they say). Hmmm, you know I don't remember seeing that big box before, maybe I'll just take a minute and see what all's in there...

4 - Finding That Ever Elusive Happy Medium...

I think the first issue here would be to determine precisely what that statement means. Now that I have allowed my creative self to emerge, I probably need to strike some sort of balance between work, creativity and family, don't I? Of course being a perpetual smart-alec and sitting here reading the words "happy medium" conjure some entertaining definitions to go along with the meaning of that particular phrase. It could be a perky palm reader, for example; or - since it's relevant - I can declare a pencil as my personal "happy medium". Well, using it does make me smile most of the time....

Is it just me or does everyone assume that they're the only one with a specific problem? I logged on to Ning the day before yesterday to see that another FAM had posted in the forums asking for advice on what to do when your husband starts complaining about your involvement in your crafts/time spent on Etsy. You're kidding! I thought that was just MY husband doing that (see what I mean?) Of course I was morally obligated to respond with a bit of cheer:

See me scooch over to make room for you in this here boat (because guess what? we're in the same one!!) I also work in a school system, so soon to be summer (thank goodness!) and I too find myself "stuffing" my creativity anywhere I can fit it. To make you feel a tiny bit better, my DH was laid off about 2 months ago and is temporarily ALWAYS home :o he's now beginning to grumble about Etsy himself....

So even though it's not a solution exactly, I vote we start right here -
"Support group, party of two"
Of course we should definitely order something from A Sugar Affair's shop (and it's gotta have chocolate in it) to have at our first official meeting...

What really surprised me was the number of posts after that - there are a whole bunch of us! It's nice to know that you're not the only one having technical difficulties with a specific issue; of course no one had a solution to her dilemma as they were all suffering from the same problem, but it sure is nice to know you're not alone. And what is it that you do when you have a group of people all suffering from the same issue? Well this was my suggestion:

As unofficial acronym queen, I vote we just get a yacht, load up on the chocolate, and - because this is starting to sound more and more like a support group meeting, I'll make a motion we go for a "team" anonymous group and call ourselves E.A.T. (Etsian's Anonymous Team) which not only meshes with Etsy, it covers the chocolate issue too....hahahahha :o)

Interestingly enough, in the past few days since that little group discussion of ours I somehow managed to become so completely eclipsed by my own creative monster that I pretty much ignored my poor family altogether. Hmmmm, I wonder if I'll find that balance someday - probably not. Although I have pretty much worn myself out, I did produce some nice additions for my shop:

First up were the magnets. Why? I don't know; apparently Sebastian didn't have a clue either, but we had a grand time :o) I've only posted one set thus far, but of course made lots more (I found an empty spot on my dining room table...tsk-tsk, can't have that, now, can we?)

Okay, empty spot on dining room table - check! Now then, what was I supposed to be doing again?? Hmmm.....

Oh, I know! I can't believe I forgot about them. I wanted to finish some of those Pink Ribbon ACEOs I was working on for Breast Cancer survivors/supporters/ survivors in training (a.k.a. those till in treatment). So I did some of those too....

My very good friend Suzanne was having a terrible week at work, so I thought it might cheer her up to have a sketch of one of her photographs. I chose a gorgeous shot she took of a heron (wouldn't expect something with such gangly legs to be so regal looking, would you?) I think it's safe to say I surprised both of us with this pen and ink :o)

Oh, wow! I just remembered that the pink ribbon charms had come in and I wanted to make some BC bracelets...

and of course in addition to these four are a number of others (all different), and then there were the earrings...

Oh yeah, the "Siblings" sketch I was working on; slipped my mind. A pair of African Antelope that I finally finished. They looked so cute curled up together in their little hidey hole, I just had to draw them. The common name for these little guys is "dik dik", so of course I named them "Dik Dik and Jane Jane" (haha :o) I really thought that when I got through with these two I could keel over somewhere, but I remembered those charcoal pencils I just got...

I dubbed this one "On the Line" as this little fellow was indeed sitting inside a pair of jeans on a clothesline. There was some additional relevance in there, however; my creative benders this week seemed to have crossed the line. Maybe one of these days I'll be struck with brilliance and actually find that ever elusive balance. I'll be sure to let you know if I do. In the meantime however, I have a custom order for some graduation gifts I'm supposed to deliver tomorrow. I believe it was 7 of my origami "stacks. Funny, I'd forgotten about that....