Monday, August 10, 2009

A Wise, Organized Woman Once Said

"If you want to be organized, you have to limit yourself to one hobby."
What? One hobby? Are you serious?

I get it. Crafting takes space. It takes time. Neither of those are infinite. And, certain crafts are not all that portable. That's why I've been so into crochet lately. It can be taken almost anywhere. In fact, I think I need to ease off a bit. I've missed some beautiful scenery.

But I've been thinking about what this wise woman said. One hobby. What would I chose? My top two are crochet and card-making. Then I've got the jewelry-making, sewing, and scrapbooking. I can leave scrapbooking behind. It's fun, but it's a cumbersome craft for me. Maybe if I had a kid I'd feel differently. Scrapbooks make great gifts, but I can't see it as a daily hobby for me right now. There's too much to deal with. It also encourages hoarding.

My jewelry supply stash doesn't take up much space- really. The rubber stamps for card-making are abundant, but I feel like I can't bear to give any of them up. I have to come to terms with the fact that I keep returning to the same stamp sets over and over and I am happy with them. I might demount my wooden stamps to make them more portable. We'll see. Then we have to deal with ink and paper, too. It does get bigger and bigger!

Paper is heavy, expensive, and abundant. It does take up a lot of space, too. It's also not easy to find once it is in your stash. I am sure that there is a bunch of gorgeous paper hiding within a stack or folder that I am not using. Then we've also got the crazy paper embellishments. They're so cute, don't get me wrong, but haven't you ever noticed that sometimes you can be more creative with fewer supplies?

Anyway, I'm going to be dealing with this issue over the next week. Organization or bust. And I'll likely be selling off a bunch of my supplies. Paper-lovers, stay tuned. I'll keep you posted.