Ooooh, the first of my trades arrived today! Wow, that was fast! And just in time for making me feel prettier, too. 😉 I traded this eye pillow set to Sandrandan in exchange for these fabulously blingy earrings and delicate bracelet:
So much SPARKLY!
It has been a really long time since I wore a bracelet, so I was taking a chance on this one. I’m glad I did. It has a magnetic clasp, which is just genius… it’s so easy to put it on. Amazing! Haha. I feel girly as heck now!
Today I did morning pages for the first time in a week, and remembered why it’s so important to do these… they siphon off the chatter at the top of my brain, and let my smarter brain figure out what to do with it. In today’s pages I realized that I’ve been restless and antsy for several days now, and this is because I’m really behind on a lot of projects — I’m so behind, I’m reluctant to get back to work because I feel like I can’t possibly finish everything in time and so I’m just setting myself up for failure, and who wants to fail? It was only after this fear emerged on the page that I discovered it was there and could talk myself down: if I don’t work now it will only get worse and worse, and any progress is better than none, so there’s no failure at all. This reassured me. Then I went over all the projects I’m behind on, and calculated how much time it would take to do the first steps of each, and found out that just working hard today really could accomplish a lot.
I also uncovered, while writing this all out, that the reason I get agitated when I’m behind on lots of things is that I don’t know where to start. David Allen said this in his book: all it takes to shut down our brains is a mere two open loops (unfinished projects)… not a huge pile of open loops, just two. We think “I’ve got to do Project A” and “I’ve got to do Project B,” and since (most of the time!) we can’t do both at once, our brains fizzle and freak out: “Oh no! Do one, get more behind on the other. Do the other, get more behind on the first. It’s a no-win situation! Acckkk!” The way to cope with this is to process our actions the same way he recommends processing the inbox: one item at a time, starting with what’s on top and going one by one until we get to the bottom. No skipping, no trying to process multiple things at once. On good days I remember this, but once I start getting hit by lots of behind-schedule projects, I panic and my avoidance brain kicks in immediately — and since it does this on a subconscious level, I don’t even know what’s happening, I just know I feel like everything is chaos. But writing today’s morning pages brought this all down to the conscious level, and now I know why I feel so pressured and I know how to stop it. The pages are brilliant, seriously. They are like having my own calm encouraging grown-up around to run to when I don’t know what to do. 🙂
I ran through several actions this morning, including a hefty brainstorming session for my March craft fair. I’m meeting with Jinny tomorrow to discuss; we’re going to share our booth at the event. Our whole booth space is only 6′ x 6′, so my table space will only be, at most, 3′ wide and as deep as the table… unless, I guess, we are doing something different than the usual table setup… hmmmm.
The photo shows a 3′ wide, 30″ deep space. Yikes.
If we do the usual table setup, I’ll need to keep my items very small. I was thinking of doing something different than my current shop and the FabMo fair, anyway. I might focus on brooches and jewelry (after a brainwave I had on Monday afternoon about how to do fabric jewelry), omiyage pouches, and decoupaged boxes this time, rather than all the big totes and things.
The world hasn’t really seen these boxes yet, though I’ve made at least five to date. I love making them, but the trouble is I haven’t quite figured out the finish yet. Mommy’s box is super-glossy, which so far is the most successful finish but isn’t always an appropriate look for the box. Al’s box lid stuck to the box and ripped the paper when we opened it. Angela’s and Alex’s box (wait, did I not take a photo of this before I gave it to them? I’m an idiot!) smelled highly chemical for days, and I don’t know whether it still does. The box pictured here stuck to the credenza a little when it had been sitting in the same spot for a while; I have yet to figure out what finish won’t do that. At any rate, if I want to have these boxes for sale in March, I need to finish a bunch of them ASAP, so I can test and cure all the finishes before the fair. (This is one of the open loops that’s been giving me the most grief lately!)
It’s almost time for yoga, but one more thing. I said yesterday that I bought six clear plastic shoebox-sized bins at Crate & Barrel. I’ve already found things to put in all of them, and am considering going back to the store to buy more. Two of them are on my office shelving, holding papercrafting supplies (punches, cutting mat, compass, etc) and calligraphy pens and inks. The other four have been called into use for my Etsy inventory (at last! sealed bins!): one for chamomile eye pillows, one for lavender, and two for the omiyage pouches. After I put all these into the bins last night, I crowed with pleasure and made Erik come over and look. I can’t wait to get a bigger bin for the totes and the rug, and another one for packing and shipping materials, so I can finally stop feeling like such an amateur-ass with the inventory storage!
I’m going to buy the big bins at Staples before yoga class! The $5 sale ends Sunday so I’m taking advantage. 😉
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
I really love the idea of Morning Pages. I’m going to have to give that a try starting tomorrow.
I totally know what you mean about feeling overwhelmed when you have loads of things to do and not really knowing where to start. I remember reading a passage in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in which the author is helping his son write a letter to his mother. He doesn’t know where to start, because he has so many things to say, and the author tells him to just write one of them down, then the next, and so on, and worry about the order of things later.
For me, when I have a huge to-do list, just doing one tiny thing is often enough to jump start the whole process, and then I can start chipping away at everything. It’s when I get into that frozen, panicky mode that I find myself spending an entire day procrastinating.
On another note, I wonder if you could build simple shelf risers like I did for my table. They’re super easy to cart around, and I keep finding different uses for them. If you want to give it a try, I just bought two pieces of wood that are just a tad shorter than the width of my table for the top of the risers, and then I had the Home Depot people cut a 2″ by 2″ piece of wood into the appropriate lengths for the legs (use an electric screwdriver to fasten them), two on each end so it’s like a skinny table. The front riser is about 5 inches lower than the back riser, and while my shelves are painted a pretty color, I usually end up covering them with paper or fabric just to change things up a bit.
Good luck with everything!
I highly, highly recommend the Pages. It took me a while to really do three pages of them every day, but now I rely on them as an internal compass. I still get lazy about them every now and then, but whenever that happens, I notice, and sooner or later I’m back on track.
Your Zen anecdote makes me think of the title one for Bird by Bird. 🙂 These nuggets of wisdom keep getting thrown out to us all eagerly waiting, and yet we have to keep getting reminded!!
Oh, thank you for the instructions on the risers! I may do that if I end up needing something in that shape. Funny you mentioned Home Depot because I was there today. Went to Staples and they were all sold out of the $5 bins; I was so upset! I ended up at Home Depot because it’s in the same plaza as my Yin Yoga class and I had some time… found slightly smaller bins for $4.97. Woot 🙂
Oh my god, I love Bird by Bird! Have you read either Stephen King’s On Writing or Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer? Both are fantastic.
Yay on finding your bins 🙂 I’ll let you know how the Morning Pages work out.
I know! I saw it on your Goodreads shelves and was excited to see it there! Erik gave it to me as a Christmas present years ago — one of the many early signs that he was a keeper. 😉
I haven’t read those others, but I’ll add them to my lengthy to-read list! I also love Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life, and everything I’ve ever read by George Orwell on writing.
love the earrings!
btw, i voted on your most recent satsumabug facebook poll… but as we discussed before, i think my vote is kind of skewed since i’m the type of person to want way too much info and photos before buying something 😛
Ooh, thank you for voting! Yes I’m afraid my own opinion is skewed that way too. ;b Well, if all I get is customers like you and me, I won’t complain! 😉