I Talk To Myself

I am finished!  It is funny how the one thing that holds you back from finishing something is often the easiest thing to do.  For my doll project, it was the hair, particularly the boy hair.  I knew I didn't what to tie the hair like I did for the girls, that meant I had to learn something new, which in my mind would be hard.  As it turned out, it was the easiest part of the entire project. I am grateful I was able to finish these projects that have been weighing on me since 2010!  8 years I have held onto these unfinished dolls, bibs and potluck holders.  That is a long time to hold onto anything weighing on you.  My bibs have been given away, potluck holders gifted and now my dolls will go to a new home today at a home daycare center.  I know they will be loved and played, just the way I intended for them when I first started to create them. Now on to my many books in my head all the art work that comes with them.  I hope this has inspi...

I have made some progress on my unfinished projects.  I was able to finish the rest of the bibs that I had, as well as get all of the bibs out of storage that I have made over the years and get them out of my house.  I gave a few to a friend who knows someone that is having a baby and I gave the rest, a whole bag full, to our local women's shelter. My next project was my potluck holders.  I had no takers on these, so I finished them up and decided to fill them with cookies and give them away to friends. Still have yet to work on those dolls.  I hope I get the energy to actually finish them by the end of the year.  Seriously, they only need hair and faces, you'd think I could just jump right on those and get them done, but I just don't know what to do with them when they're finished.

If you're creative like me, you probably have a few unfinished projects around the house. Creative clutter weighs down on you, sometimes to the point of depression where you can't even do what you used to enjoy. There are simple ways you can go about cleaning up your creative clutter so that you have room for inspiration and opportunities to arise in your life. One of the first things you can do to help clear the creative clutter is is get out every unfinished project and set it in front of you.  Now I know this can be quite a task, I had a room full of them when I did this the first time. I was overwhelmed at the amount I had stored away over the years.  Well over 20 projects that I had started or bought stuff for and never started. Then you take each project and inspect it with love. Touch every piece of the unfinished item. Ask yourself why you started it, was if for someone or something.  Remember the feelings you had when you begun the project or bought the items...

I thought it would be interesting to document my process of finishing my unfinished projects.  I actually have several unfinished projects and like I said in the last post, I have gone through them once before.  Getting rid of things that no longer brought me joy or didn't like to begin with, and kept the ones I really liked and did want eventually finish.  I did finish some of those projects and it felt great, but then I lost steam and left others still unfinished.  So I went and looked at what I still have left to finish.  Not too much and I really have no excuses as I just have my sewing machine serviced and everything is super easy to do, just a matter of sitting down and doing it. One project that I have left are 6 rag dolls that just need hair and faces.  I had started them with the intent of using them as multi cultural dolls for the day care I worked for at the time.  That was over 5 years ago, and now I work as a children's librarian....