For a while there, I was feeling a lot like this:
(a dark cloud of gloomy-messy-backwards-unfinished-ness) LOL
...so this is a
wait, let's make that
'a crafty life chat'
This post is my attempt at an ultra honest (lengthy but hopefully not too heavy)
dialogue about trying to balance blogging-crafty-life with LIFE-life.
How do you balance it ALL?
...by balance it "ALL" I mean: how do you balance crafting and/or blogging (and all the activities that entails) with taking good care of yourself and your loved ones... while avoiding burn-out?
My Sweetie Charles's buzz word lately has been "balance" and while I love the concept (and he is beyond angelic to be unceasingly supportive of my non-paying full-time job) I am simply not sure how to go about actually achieving that balance.
I'd love to hear any of your pointers or your thoughts on the subject.
Throw in the towel syndrome?
Well, You Guys might have noticed that I've been struggling to keep up with everything... Not to be melodramatic, but I crashed the other day--badly. Maybe the evil perpetual-migraine-beast finally got to me, but I had seriously decided it was time for me to throw in the proverbial blogging towel for at least half a year, and it hasn't been the first time I've considered whether quitting for an extended period of time might be necessary.
However, there must be some compromise, right? (After my brain just about exploded from the thought of giving up this passion cold turkey and no longer participating in the crafting community... and after some rethinking "with a little help from my friends"...) I thought that there must be some way(s) to balance things--that I'd better try working smarter not harder...that I should Keep It Simple Stupid! (I mean, these are clichés for a reason, right?)
Please know that this is not meant as complaining at all. :0) I'm ever so grateful that anyone even visits my blog! This is just an attempt to open up some dialogue... to find a balance so I can keep blogging, but also get well... and I hoped that the subject is one that other bloggers might have ideas about or be interested in.
Some ways I had tried to manage
(a while back, and then gave up on):
As you can imagine, it was not pretty. Charles had been known to drag me from my chair & put me to bed. (He was kind of freaked out about the burn-out schedule I was keeping.)
LOL (but seriously) Cooking was awkward because it was noisy at night in our small condo (but I really do love to cook.) Leaving the house was tricky, because where do you go in the middle of the night? (Really, where is the 3 AM Craftmaniac Anonymous scrap-a-thon when you need one? (If these DO exist, please don't tell me; I might revert to my evil ways if I smell a hint of fresh ink on the evening breeze. hehehe)
All in all, I really really really love people, so I don't want to be a stamp-by-night shut-in. (And don't even let me get started about the "secretary spread" that insomnia and sitting 16 hours a day in a desk chair can get you!) ;o)
(a while back, and then gave up on):
At first, I gave up sleeping & became a stampire. ..
As you can imagine, it was not pretty. Charles had been known to drag me from my chair & put me to bed. (He was kind of freaked out about the burn-out schedule I was keeping.)
--------------
...so there I was, up all night & sleeping in the day. Hence, I became a toast-eating-zombie-hermit! (I gave up cooking & going out of the house.)
LOL (but seriously) Cooking was awkward because it was noisy at night in our small condo (but I really do love to cook.) Leaving the house was tricky, because where do you go in the middle of the night? (Really, where is the 3 AM Craftmaniac Anonymous scrap-a-thon when you need one? (If these DO exist, please don't tell me; I might revert to my evil ways if I smell a hint of fresh ink on the evening breeze. hehehe)
All in all, I really really really love people, so I don't want to be a stamp-by-night shut-in. (And don't even let me get started about the "secretary spread" that insomnia and sitting 16 hours a day in a desk chair can get you!) ;o)
--------------
...so then, I gave up TV watching & blurfing (blog surfing)
& quashed the impossible hope of trying keep up with emails...
I haven't missed the television & haven't reintroduced it, but blurfing!?! I've missed it like oxygen! Not making time to admire and leave appreciation for other people's work left a creative rift in me that felt like the "Chasm of Sorrow" or to quote the movie Labyrinth "bububaboom! Certain Death!!! wooooouuuuuuuuuu" The real dilemma for me in the blurfing department is how to comment on only some, because what if you (inevitably) miss someone?!?
...and not being able to answer each email, or each comment, with a long personal letter, ...or make custom requested templates for people and so on... (which I would love to be able to do)...
All of this, to be Frank, left me rather depressed and feeling like a failure and then I simply felt inert. Hmmm, a little equation maybe? --> insane perfectionism + humanness =potential depression & inertia (or the lack of ability to do anything...) maybe? sort of?
--------------
sadly, I had to give up almost all of my Design Team work...
...I do want to give everything I can to everyone under the sun. Maybe if I'm perfectly honest, I might be so insecure in myself that I fear saying "no." What if I hurt someones feelings, you know?
--------------
finally, most recently, having joined the living (non-inksucking non-stampire humans) in daylight hours, I had to cut way back on the blog posting schedule...
...but that leaves it pretty boring around the ol' blog for those of you who are amazingly sweet enough to visit daily. (a million-squigillion Thank Yous!)
...SO this all brings us to compromising...
Some ways that I hope might work to
bridge the "chasm"
between life & blog:
(I'd love to hear how you feel about these)
...new blog schedule: I was thinking every other day would be realistic.
...prepare much smaller posts ahead of time.
...which basically means being "normal" or un-insane and posting some cards all by their lonesome (in other words, cards that do not have a dissertation & 30-odd photograph tutorials attached to them.)
...only write some posts for beginners (I have no idea how many people who stop by here are beginners; I try to write for beginners all the time--just in case, but I know many of you are more advanced than I am....bso maybe I'm wasting space & time (or insulting your intelligence, heaven forbid) by repeating things--I mean am I preaching to the choir? ;o)
...write technique-based tutorial posts that don't have a fully finished sample project. (Is that just boring?)
...share some freebies (templates & digital elements) all by their lonesome (again, no finished sample)
...blog about life. I love reading other people's life posts, but somehow I feel that my own life stuff is a snore. However, in the interest in enriching our home-life in a healthier way, I thought why not include some life stuff here? Like recipes and photos and other snippets.
.......
Well, that's just a few random thoughts on the bloggy-crafty life subject.
I hope you don't mind that I shared them.
I'd love to hear your thoughts ever so much.
Thanks again for being You,
and for being there!
xox
Some ways that I hope might work to
bridge the "chasm"
between life & blog:
(I'd love to hear how you feel about these)
...new blog schedule: I was thinking every other day would be realistic.
...prepare much smaller posts ahead of time.
...which basically means being "normal" or un-insane and posting some cards all by their lonesome (in other words, cards that do not have a dissertation & 30-odd photograph tutorials attached to them.)
...only write some posts for beginners (I have no idea how many people who stop by here are beginners; I try to write for beginners all the time--just in case, but I know many of you are more advanced than I am....bso maybe I'm wasting space & time (or insulting your intelligence, heaven forbid) by repeating things--I mean am I preaching to the choir? ;o)
...write technique-based tutorial posts that don't have a fully finished sample project. (Is that just boring?)
...share some freebies (templates & digital elements) all by their lonesome (again, no finished sample)
...blog about life. I love reading other people's life posts, but somehow I feel that my own life stuff is a snore. However, in the interest in enriching our home-life in a healthier way, I thought why not include some life stuff here? Like recipes and photos and other snippets.
.......
Well, that's just a few random thoughts on the bloggy-crafty life subject.
I hope you don't mind that I shared them.
I'd love to hear your thoughts ever so much.
Thanks again for being You,
and for being there!
xox
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