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Sara of Woolies and Buster and Boo fame, wrote a nice blog post about me!   I didn’t even have to bribe her.   We met way back in 2007 at  a local fiber ranch.  She even took one of my needle felting classes.  Brave woman!  Thanks so much, Sara. 

Being stuck at work, car-less, has it’s advantages.   (Unfortunately, I love too far away to bike or walk.)  This afternoon, I had the chance to catch up on some blog reading.  Olive Bites, authored by Cat Ivins of Polarity and Uncorked, is a great one to add to your regular repertoire.  I haven’t been there in a while…

Back in March, Cat did a series of articles called, “Standing Out on Etsy 101″.  101, indeed.  There’s a wealth of information for seasoned sellers as well as noobs.   Check out the articles:

If you’re a veteran Etsy seller or you have no intention of ever selling on Etsy, read them anyway.  Cat is very entertaining!

(See below for the freebie organizer page I created)

Yes, once again, I am attempting to organize my life.  It seems that the more complicate life is, the more organized you need to be to maintain your sanity.  I’ve been teetering on the brink for far too long!

Recently,  a post on CraftyPod launched me into an organizing frenzy.  (J says  I don’t do anything halfway.  It’s full steam ahead until I run out of steam! Then… pfffft… LOL )  CraftyPod is a wealth of information and entertainment for crafters and small business people.  This time, it was Making Ideas Happen that caught my eye.  We all have ideas, right?  More ideas than we can use, probably.  My biggest problem issue is following through.  This is what went down:

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Stacy began reading the blog post.  IT was very interesting and she was feeling inspired to get off her butt… again…

Then… There was this link to Action Method.

“ACTION Method,” thought Stacy.  “Action… Not just thinking about it… DOING it.  This is what I need.”

So, Stacy followed the link and signed up for the free introductory account.  She likes free, you know.  She quickly realized that, although this was a wonderful tool,  it was somehow comforting to her to have something to touch and hold.   Action Method also sells paper organizing products but Stacy wasn’t entirely happy with them and can’t recall why.

At this point, Stacy remembered Crown Bindery, which has lovely binders and printable calendars, trackers, etc…   Unfortunately, they didn’t have the exact item she was looking for  so she decided to design one herself.  “I’ll design one myself,” she said.  She then thought it would be pretty darn nice if she shared it with everyone.

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Here it is:  Project Sheet (2-sided, pdf – print 2-sided with a binding margin so you can 3-hole punch)  You could also print on one side of scratch paper to be greener.  Greener yet, use the online version at Action Method.  Actions should start with verbs.  For example:  Call so-and-so, Make a gift for X, Mail package to Q.

Now, Crown Bindery does have really cool 3-ring “binders” and accessories for said binders.  After looking at the cost of a DIY version – too much, I went ahead and purchased the following:

9×11 Notebook Binder (she also has 6×9 binders).

Set of Dividers and a Pocket.  She makes them to coordinate with your binder. YAY!

(Edit: I meant to mention that you can certainly use any 3-ring binder BUT there are some small but juicy advantages to Crown’s system.  Like what?  Well, it lays completely flat or, better yet,  flip the cover all the way around so it only takes up half the space when open.  It’s much prettier, too!  That’s important, right?  I thought so.)

I’m also considering some of Crown’s printable Life Assistants.  Carla offers a variety of daily and weekly planners, to-do & shopping lists, calendars, note papers, etc., for work, home and school.   Although I am able to design all of these pages myself, it takes quite a long time to get them just so.  Now the hard part: decide which pages I want.

Oh, and use them faithfully.   Yeah, that’s probably the hardest part.

Once again, I am mortified to realize it has been a couple of months since I posted anything on Ye Olde Blog.  Maybe we’ll just have to do what DH says… Realize who you are and embrace it.   That’s not exactly what he says.  I dressed it up a little.

I’m not sure if it’s a cultural thing or a baggage/lack of baggage thing (he is annoyingly devoid of baggage) but he is teaching me to let go of expectations and “norms” and just be who I am.  It’s very freeing!  It has yet to permeate all facets of my being, however, and the process can be a little uncomfortable.  For one thing, in order to embrace who you are, you have to look at the rough hewn little critter and see it for what it really is.   Sometimes it’s simply NOT as cute and cuddly as you hoped it would be.

In my efforts to become the person I wanted to be, to go the way others had gone – to the places others went, I had abandoned something.  Somewhere, somehow, I lost myself.   Now, little by little, with the help of my best friend, I am finding me.  Guess what?  I may not be what I wanted to be, but I’m not as bad as I thought I was.

Part of this process has been exploring  a variety of art and craft media over the years.  At least that’s what I’m now calling my tendency to get pretty good at something then not want to do it anymore.  It made me wonder what was wrong that I couldn’t commit to and truly master any one thing.  What conclusion can we draw?  I get bored!  My favorite part is learning how to do it.   Once a level of proficiency has been achieved, I start flirting with the next shiny temptation.

The worst part is, it doesn’t usually take long to complete the cycle.  Needle felting kept me satisfied longer than anything else had because there are so many and varied possibilities.  Also, I’m running out of options.  Sure, there are still a couple of things on my list: printmaking, silk screening, php literacy.  Oh!  Oh… Then there’s the blasted metal clay.

This post is getting awfully long… So, the metal clay adventure will wait.  Suffice it to say, I am figuring out who I am, what I really want and what works for me.   Naturally, it’s not what seems to work for the rest of the civilized world.  Hopefully, it won’t take another 40 years to get to my new, mysterious destination.  Until then, we’ll all just have to accept that I will blog intermittently at best. *whew*

Lets say you’re an artist or crafter who sells their wares and find yourself in need of business cards.  You sit down to order (or design) them and are suddenly faced with that little section where you are expected to fill in your title..If you weren’t prepared for the question, would  your mind suddenly flood with seemingly conflicting images and terms, swirling in a maelstrom of equally conflicting feelings?  OK, perhaps that’s a bit dramatic but it happens for those of us who are still in the throes of self-discovery on some level (and over-think and question absolutely everything).  Some of us automatically think of the deeper ramifications of the question, as if there’s some all-powerful force that will pin you permanently to the wall you’ve defined in that moment.  So, you either leave that part blank or bite your lip and type what you think is expected.  (Remember, were talking about you here, not me.)

After reading Tara Gentile’s post about labeling ourselves on Scoutie Girl this morning, all these carefully repressed feeling have resurfaced.  Thanks a lot, Tara!

Seriously, though, it is an important issue in regards to our dreams and the goals we set.  What we say about ourselves not only influences what others think of us (unfortunately, this does matter to a degree if you aren’t a hermit) but what we believe about ourselves, who we are and what we can achieve..

Silly though it may seem to the supremely self-confident, I have spent painful hours of internal debate deciding what title to give myself on my business cards!  I’m still not comfortable with owner/designer.   Why?  Because there’s so much more to what I do.  Because I don’t want to seem arrogant.  Because I want to be liked.   Because it depends where I am, who’s asking and what I need or want them to know.  Because I have issues!  OK?  ok…

Of course, this is much deeper than business cards.  Tara was likely asking us to look beyond the surface.  She’s like that… We define ourselves every day.  Who am I?  Someone’s mom? Someone’s wife, daughter, sister, cousin, friend?  Office manager, business owner, artist, crafter, designer?  Computer addict, gamer, closet Trekkie?   Yes.  And so very much more.

Then there are the things we don’t necessarily want other people to know.  We don’t need to go there, do we?  Didn’t think so.

So, what’s your label?  Who are you?  Do you struggle with labels, too?  Maybe we could start a support group: Label Rejectors Anonymous.