Life is like shuffling a collection of beautiful lace bobbins
Another busy week - WHERE does the time go? I spend a considerable amount of time - while i'm doing other stuff - wondering how people have time to make so many things, even if they have full time day jobs ... I have a part time day job which takes up most of 3 days a week - the other 4 days I can more or less spend doing what I like, but there is so much to do! I left full time work 3 years ago after a breakdown, and I really don't know how I would manage to fit a full time job in these days. I have known people who say "I have to work full time otherwise I would be bored" .. How can this be? There is just too much to do in life .. how could a person ever be bored?
Much of my 'spare working' time is spent on Sew Curvy - the website/advertising/admin and ofcourse packing and sending orders. The rest of my time is spent in various amounts on the garden - including my 4 hens, the allotment - I avoid supermarkets like the plague but that's a whole other story, my son - a teenager requiring constant homework harassment/help and activity chauffeuring, cooking - no processed food in this house, husband, dog, home/housework, soap making, and sewing, not necessarily in that order.
Sometimes I have coffee/drinks/cake/social time with friends. And I also like to fit in some 'craft networking' by way of blogging, tweeting, and workshops/demo's at local sewing related establishments.
I have always been creative, but when I stopped full time work and took a year out, I had time to delve deeper into my creativity than I have ever had a chance to do .. In hindsight, there were so many opportunities open to me, that I am not really sure why I returned to 'the office' - I do 15 hours a week for good pay, better benefits, as much software as I can use, and as much training as I can fit in. I also have a lovely, creative, boss, who happens to be a gay man, ex puppeteer/voice over artist and Dr Who fanatic.
If I didn't 'get out' by going to work, I would quite easily and happily stay indoors sewing all day, every day .... I think 'work' is good for me such as it is.
BUT ... All I want to do is stay indoors, sewing all day! A day in my ideal life, might go something like:
- get up early
- take dog on long walk through woods and fields
- return from dog walk via allotment to tend/harvest for a while
- on return from walk, have breakfast, do housework/domestic duties etc.,
- from 12.00 midday, sew, create, design. Things on my making list : ongoing creation of my own stylish wardrobe, 'green'/alternative wedding dresses, corsets.
- finish around 5 (but more realistically 6), cook tea, relax with husband/son
I am not sure about Sew Curvy. It is really a vehicle for me. An 'excuse' to buy corsetry components, to help other corset makers, and to get 'out there' in the craft movement. I don't make any money from it, and I am not sure that I want to. As long as it covers it's own cost, which it does, then I am happy. Corsetry is my passion. I got into it via the Fetish scene and have only made corsets for me ... I want to make corsets for other people but I am not sure I have the confidence. I am trying. People say I am talented and I always wonder why they say that. Do other people do that?
I will never be a millionaire entrepreneur, it's just not in my make up. I can't do it. I think this has been true for many 'creatives' across time. As far as Sew Curvy goes, if possible, I would like to branch out into bra kits. I like encouraging people to be creative, to explore. That is my motivation behind Sew Curvy. To be honest, the suppliers are 'difficult' and sometimes I wonder if it's worth it, but then I get lovely comments from my customers, and it does seem more than worthwhile.
But really ... I want to make things. That's what I want to do. And Sew Curvy takes up too much of my 'making time'.
So I guess the purpose of this post has been to clarify my mind a little. I can't really drop any of my 'balls' because I don't want to, but I suppose if I had to drop one, then it would be Sew Curvy.
This weekend, I have been at a shop in Oxford - Darn it and Stitch - doing corsetry demonstrations. I do workshops there too - dressmaking, corsetry, pattern cutting. It's exhausting, but ultimately extremely satisfying and so interesting to meet all the different crafty people. This weekend, I met a lady who makes lace. AMAZING! No wonder it is so expensive! Maybe one day, I will commission some hand made lace, for a special hand made corset ... ahhhh dreams!
In the meantime, I shall keep shuffling those beautiful bobbins which create the fabric of my lovely, but hectic (if not chaotic), life!
I am really interested to know how other people fit in their creative time? Is your creativity a compulsion? If you don't do it, do you get bad tempered and/or depressed? How do you make sure your life is balanced?