Day Six: Swap-a-Lot

So I’m finally putting something (small) in motion. I’ve been on swap-bot for over three years now. Swap-bot is a pretty neat, free site, that allows users to host and participate in swaps of almost anything: letters, cards, craft supplies, jewelry, photos, pretty much anything you can come up with. Some of the people are a little nutty about things, but if you carefully steer clear of those swaps, it can actually be a lot of fun! 

I’ve participated in over 200 swaps, but only ever “hosted” one: Scissors Beats Paper, a cut paper page.  I just started a new swap today- I’m going to try to host a monthly swap for handmade earrings, since that’s what I’m currently working on, and hopefully expand from there. I think it will be nice to see what other people make, as well as help spread the word about my own jewelry. Plus, let’s face it- I LOVE earrings and could always use another (free) pair!! 

I also added links to my etsy shop and to this blog in hopes of slowly starting to branch out from my comfort zone. 

The year before last I used swap-bot as a way to find participants for a travelling art journal project I was working on. The project itself didn’t last too long, but I’m still hoping some of those journals make their way back to me. I also plan on re-vamping the project into something on-going in the near future.

Baby steps…

Day One: A Day Late & Quite a Few Dollars Short

I already have a countdown going for when we can move into a new apartment: 364 days  

I’m honestly more than a little bummed that we ended up signing another lease here. I had my heart set on a different apartment, a yard, a garden, a porch and most importantly; a dog! I was hoping that we’d be in the position to make all of these things happen after the year that we’ve already spent in this apartment, but unfortunately, that didn’t end up being the case…

So what now? 

Well, there’s the obvious option of moping and being disappointed that I have to stay here another year and wasting all of that time being unproductive.
But I’m thinking I should do something else instead... I’m thinking of treating this year of wait as its own little project. See what I can accomplish in the next year, keep track of the adventures that I have, big and small, and just try to make the most of the year ahead, even if it’s not how I was originally planning it. 

My best friend and I are in the midst of a project called 100 happy days, which is basically posting a picture of something that makes you happy, every day, for 100 days in a row: http://100happydays.com/ And it’s actually going really great! We’re on day 56 and so far have outlasted every other person I’ve seen doing the project so that’s what gave me the idea. 

One of the projects I want to start working on is actually a series of Travelling Art Journals, so I thought this image would be perfect for day one (this image is not mine): 

Just do something, already!

I started this blog…3 years ago, now? And have not posted in it since.

Originally, I think it was supposed to be some sort of way to keep track of what I was working on and a way to motivate me to continue working/hold myself accountable. I had participated in a couple of blogs during college and was missing the opportunity to show my projects to others, as well as the interaction of writing about and getting feedback for them. 

(Who'd have ever thought I would say I missed writing???)

One of the things that I’ve always gotten hung up on is this idea that I need to find one thing to dedicate myself to: one craft, one medium, one body of work. And in my search to find that ONE thing that I wanted to do, I’ve essentially done nothing (-okay, so maybe not nothing, although most days that’s what it feels like). Because the truth is I like to do a lot of different things! I get bored easily, have a million things I'd like to try, like to have 57 projects going on at once, that I can flit back and forth from, and maybe that’s okay…

So that’s what I’m going to try running with.

I’m still going to use this as a platform to keep track of & share whatever it is that I’m working on. But, I’m letting go of the notion that one needs to be related to the next, that step one needs to be followed by step two, and so forth. I’m just going to make/do/create whatever I feel like making/doing/creating and hopefully find my way forward from there.

Maybe it'll just turn into some sort of journal of my everyday adventures. Either way, that's more interesting than what it is now.

This is day one.