paralyzed by piles

It's been 2 or 3 weeks since I've actually sat at my worktable to work.  Over the last few months, I've been collecting inspirational articles, get your game on links, how-to books, personal improvement programs started and stalled, guided meditation MP3's downloaded and not yet heard, interesting and usually expensive magazines - that's an ongoing addiction - unread and lord knows what else.  I feel like I'm drowning in piles.  There's also the various piles on my worktable ... jewelry repairs - I'm a horrible slug when it comes to repairs, Dave's new britches that need to be hemmed - well to my credit I've done 3 of the 4 pairs, custom work that needs to be mailed, my new order of steel metal clay that hasn't been unwrapped.  And the problem is, I can't seem to settle down to do anything with any of it. 

Itchy, that's how I feel - well itchy and tired.  My intention has been to get up when Dave leaves for work at 7:15, brush my teeth, rinse my face, either do a bit of yoga or sit down for a morning meditation before making tea and turning on the computer and getting sucked into emails and blogs and facebook.  What I've been doing instead ... going back to sleep and not waking until 8 or 8:30, brushing teeth, washing face, making tea, getting breakfast and parking my backside in front of this bloody computer for at least a couple of hours before I come to and realize I should be doing something productive.  Then I've had to go out every day this week for some errand or something and once I'm out of the house, I can kiss studio productivity goodbye.  Like I said ... itchy.   

So what am I doing right now?  I've snapped a couple of pics of my piles and am sharing them here ... I'm hoping to stop this annoying cycle, start sorting through my piles and see what's there.

the worktable piles .........

the computer table piles .......

the piles of books and printed articles and magazines - front ...........

and side ...........

I'm wanting to learn more about leatherwork, so I've been checking out all the books at the library pile .....

and then I'm switching sales reps, so I've go my samples that need to be cleaned up and new trays ordered for a new presentation and catalogs printed and all of it boxed up to ship back out west .........

All that momentum from October and November ... pfffft ... gone.  Maybe it wouldn't feel so annoying if it wasn't the New Year and everyone's making lists and planning and strategizing and I'm just sitting here paralyzed by my piles on top of piles.  

I know this will pass.  The ideas and inspiration are still there.  It's winter and this is a natural cycle and I probably go through this every year.  The planets are probably lined up all weird or something or hormones are shifting or my body is just recovering from all the holiday overindulging or whatever ... cripe ... doesn't make it any easier to be wallowing around in it. 

Stalling out again ...

time to stop, change my focus and see if I can find some motivation for something ... anything.

deep breaths

onward

to be continued ......

l i g a - kvk

food for thought

I got this list from the September newsletter of Colette Baron-Reid.  Seemed like a good thing to share ....

• What is the relationship to my service and my beliefs about prosperity?
• What is sacred to me?
• Do I trust and believe in what I say?
• Do my actions reflect my truest motives?
• In what way do I choose to dim my light rather than face disapproval from others?
• If I could do anything to change my life what would it be?
• Do I take responsibility for my part in disagreements?
• How does fear show up in my life’s expression?
• What do I love to do in my life?
• What makes my heart sing?
• What actions can I do to ensure my well-being? 

After a morning full of appointments and feeling completely distracted, I'd like to accomplish some little something this afternoon.

l i g a - kvk

in the studio

Woke up feeling a bit out of sorts and have been struggling to get things done.  I've made tea and showered and got the tumbler going and fired a new batch of sterling pmc and picked flowers for a couple of small arrangements and downloaded some new tunes and checked email and checked a couple of blogs and switched tumblers from steel to finishing and made some more tea and then took a few photos to chronicle my scattered thoughts.  Looks like maybe I have been getting things done, just not in any order.

So here I am doing a blog post, like that's really on my official to-do list ... trust me, it's not.  But I'm going to make a serious effort to hunker down after I finish here and there's a couple of things I was pretty excited about and I'll be better able to focus when I'm done ... really.

I just plunked these new sterling pmc components into the tumbler.  It was tempting to leave them as is, but the Angel Wing is a special order, so traditional finishing it will be.  It's about 4" long and I tucked in a tiny raw white sapphire at the top - not sure why, it just seemed like the thing to do.  It kind of takes my breath away ..........

And I've been thinking about this shape for weeks.  Inspired by another shell I picked up on the beach in St Augustine.  They're about 3" long and quite narrow.  Also, sterling pmc allows me to work very thin - really loving that.  Can't wait to see where they'll go .............

In my morning's agitated state, I couldn't decide what I wanted to listen to.  A favorite song popped up on one of my Pandora stations and I realized that was it.  So of course, I had to download what I could find and have had this song on repeat for the last couple of hours ... Ulrich Schnauss, Stars.



You can get more of an idea about my widespread focus (or lack thereof) by my current stack of reading material...

I'm a huge fan of Sibella Court and have been dying to get my hands on her new book, The Stylists Guide to NYC.  To order from Sibella from Australia, it was going to cost a small fortune.  There was one or two from Amazon sellers for even more astronomical sums.  Then I happened to check one day and there was one in the UK for $28 - I snagged it.  Of course if I'd waited 6 weeks there's a bunch of US Amazon sellers that have them for $24.  Oh well, I'm still a happy camper aside from the fact I really haven't had time to do a thorough perusal.  It's a great format, designed and set up for use ...

... and the pages are dark and lush and full of tantalizing little details - ABC Carpet and Home, one of my top five places to hit next time we're in NY ...

So what I'm really supposed to be doing is this ...

... a nice big wholesale order.  If I don't get my distracted self to work pretty soon, I may be working nights for the next couple of days.

Okay, I'm better now ... so back to it for this little peep. 

l i g a - kvk