the downside

I'm a crafter with a full time job that I absolutely love which means outside of work and sleeping I only get about about 64.5 hours a week to craft, have a social life, read, do housework, and buy groceries.  I know it sounds like a bunch of time, and maybe it is, but right now it just doesn't feel like it.  Basically this means I end up with nights like last night; nights where I lay in bed thinking of all the things I could make, things I would be proud to sale, things I would want to keep as my own because of how cute they are.  Last night's awake dreaming was brought on by the idea of embroidered pillows.  The color of fabric, the color of thread, the color of button, which colors look best together, should I make them coordinating, should I try to put them in groups and if so how many per group, do I want to repeat colors, do I let the buyer choose colors, and ending with "I really should be sleeping now."  I knew trying to get things up and running would be difficult, I knew I would have to learn how to manage my time better.  I believe the hardest part about this is going to end up being trying not to force myself to craft and to be able to maintain the passion and love for it which basically means I'll have to say no more often than I like.  I wonder how many other crafters out there have full time jobs and how they manage to maintain a balance without stressing too much.  A night of little sleep isn't the norm and I am used to the occassional one but I just don't want this to become a regular thing.  The past 2 quilt-a-thons I've done didn't stop my passion of quilting in the slightest but they both required a significant amount of downtime afterwards to recharge not only my spirit but to also heal ... quilting fingers are gnarley!

 

Just some of the color combos that kept me up last night ... no worries my embroidery skills are much better than my paint skills on a computer!

I planning on getting started on one of the quilts for my nieces this weekend which means tons of pictures for my first ever tutorial!  Y'all keep a look out next week ... things are going to get darn crafty in here!