What are my WIPs telling me?
Elliot and Clementine are back to school as of yesterday. Woooooohoo. I crave the beginning of school not because I want to see less of my kiddos, but because I love the feeling of turning over a new leaf (I do miss them, but honestly I think the structure of the school schedule is good for all of us after the many many weeks of vacation). The start of the school year is a chance for a new start. Forget New Year’s. A set of resolutions in the dead of winter when you’re still full from Christmas cookies. Who came up with that dumb idea? September is the time for new beginnings, I say!!! Even if I am at the same time sentimental about the end of summer.
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I knew I would have a few days this summer when all three of my children would miraculously end up in camps or daycare at the same time when I would have a chance to work, and my goal for the summer was mainly to work on finishing up a long list of my unfinished projects. My assistant Tashina finished college and moved away at the end of July (waaah!!!), and Karen, the other person who works with me in Ann Arbor was home with her daughter for the summer, so it was a fine chance to work by myself for a bit. Sadly, that list of things to finish seems only to have grown. I think I just completely lack the ability to hunker down and focus on anything anymore. At any rate, I managed to take a few pictures of the WIPs (works in progress) I have lingering on my sewing table that are still taunting me as this school year begins. I was thinking that maybe if I had them visually in one place, I would be motivated to finish them, but...
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What really is the point of trying to cajole myself into finishing things I’m dragging my heels on? I don’t like to waste time or fabric, so that part of me hates to just give up on something, even if it goes to the thrift store so someone else can repurpose it. But from an artistic standpoint I feel like I should intuit some meaning from the things that cause the most serious procrastination. If I’m not passionate about it then should I even be wasting time on it at all? Maybe I should just move on to the things I really truly want to do. I always liked Nancy Pearl’s approach to books: read the first 50 pages and if you’re not hooked, walk away. And that Magic Art of Tidying Up lady has a similar philosophy: rid yourself of the things in your home that don’t make you happy, seriously just throw it all away. That axe-it-all attitude is awfully appealing to me, as a philosophy for life in general as well as around my house (of course I’m only about half way through that book so the question of what happens if it doesn’t make me happy but I need it anyway, like my toothbrush or the toilet plunger? hasn’t been covered yet, hopefully she will address that because that’s my biggest question so far). When you’re a creative person, the non-passion-inducing projects are things like “why did I just lose an entire afternoon rooting around Quickbooks because it won’t freaking sync with my Paypal properly #?@!?!” Unfortunately, it can’t all be fondling fabrics and sewing the beautiful things. I can’t toss stupid dum dum Quickbooks out the window. Much as I might like to. But I could definitely be better about tossing away sewing projects that induce malaise.
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Moving on. I have some fun ideas planned for this new season, but it's like a suspense novel over here, even I have no idea which ones if any will come to fruition. I'm keenly aware that even with Hugo in daycare two days a week, my life as a mother of three will always be somewhat of a hindrance to professional progress. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not whining, I choose it, and love it, it just is what it is. I'm just saying, it's still fair for me to feel mildly jealous of the sewing bloggers who prolifically post lined jackets and trendy rayon jumpsuits betwixt fun updates on their latest pair of handmade Ginger Jeans. Meanwhile, I'll be dutifully plugging away at my humble pile of WIPs. Maybe you can guess what some of them will become? And what do you think, is it better to power through and finish the things you start on principle, or just pursue the projects you love?