Craft Sustainably

the referees

Sunday, I was telling John about my latest idea, and then, I remembered, oh yeah. I can't start any new projects. sigh.

John has been my referee of sorts. Every time I want to do something I ask him if it is allowed. He's a terrible referee because he pretty much lets me do everything I want. I know my sister is going to read this and think I totally punked out. Three months? What was I thinking? It's the holidays!

But I really want to follow through with this commitment to balance, slowing down, and putting the girls first. So we discussed compromises - something that would allow me to craft a little, without taking away time/focus from the kids. Here are the new rules:

1. I can only work on one thing at a time. No starting a new project until the first one is completed (or scrapped - that happens sometimes). This is important I think because too often I try to work on all 800 of my ideas at once, and I get all frenzied. So one thing at a time.

2. I have to do craft offsets (like carbon offsetting) - this was John's brilliant idea (although he did apologize for comparing crafting with polluting). In order to make sure that my crafting doesn't take time away from the kids, the time has to come from somewhere else. I volunteered to give up housework, but that idea was rejected. Instead, I'll be turning off the computer for most of the day - save nap time and bedtime, which, by the way, are also my craft times. That means, I'll need to be much more efficient with my time and computer use. Similarly, he suggested I could get Craft Credits by taking the girls to the park or something.

I feel a bit guilty about changing the rules after only two weeks, but really making and crafting is a good thing. And I believe it can be compatible with being a mother - and that's what this project is really about - figuring out how to make it work.

Anyway, I've gotta go - it's nap time and I've got some sewing to do.