Balancing. Or, Procrastinating. You Decide.

I’m asked often how I manage being involved in so many different things. Let me let you in on a big secret: I don’t manage it at all, which is why I am such a shit show.

Case and Point: One night last week, I realized I didn’t have the PTA debit card in my wallet. So I emailed our treasurer, who didn’t have it. So I emailed our Vice President, who didn’t have it. Neither did the last two chairs of events that we’ve held. Which caused me to have a minor heart attack. I texted everyone back to let them all know the situation – we’ve passed the card around too much and now we’ve lost it because WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT PASSING THE CARD AROUND.

I found the card in my wallet the next moring.

(heavy sigh)

So, that’s about how I handle things in my life. Also, I cancel things a lot. Not intentionally. But I book myself too full and then the slightest ruffle of the carefully planned schedule sends everything crashing down. This makes me look flaky and like I don’t have my shit together (which is true). But my heart is in the right place. I really WANT to do everything that I set out to do. But these pesky little things called details always get in the way.

To balance out my finely tuned (tightly wound?) life, I insist on a few stress relievers that make me stop thinking and worrying about all the balls that are in the air and instead focus for just a few minutes on something simple and easy – like a good book or my latest crochet project.

Turns out, I’m not much of a sitter. If I sit down for any time at all, I sleep. “Why sit when you can sleep?” I tell Chris. But I can’t just be falling asleep all the time, can I? So I use crocheting as a way to sit still and just BE for a while without completely checking out and sleeping through life (which I would do in a heartbeat if it wasn’t a severe sign of depression, of which I am not suffering. I just really like sleep.) .

Lately, I’ve been working on two really fun projects. The first is a baby blanket for sweet friends who are expecting their second daughter. I wish I could take credit for how this turned out, but it is the simplest pattern ever (a simple V-stitch, for those crocheters out there – I did a tassel edge instead of the border that comes with the pattern because border scare me). It’s really the yarn that makes this so beautiful. It’s Lion’s Brand Ice Cream Big Scoop and it works up so perfectly!

I bought a little set of baby headbands from Amazon that matched the blanket to complete the gift. These headbands are adorable and so affordable, too!

In addition to that project, I also started working on some items for animal rescue societies in Australia. After all the fires there, so many animal rescue organizations are in need of crafted items. I made several nesting baskets, which are for birds and other small rodents to nest in.

I also made two small “joey pouches,” which are used for marsupials who need pouches to snuggle into. These were much harder because they were single stitch, so they took forever to make. But they need the most of these.

If you’re a crafter and would like to help the animals in Australia, I’d encourage you to join the Animal Rescue Craft Guild on Facebook. They have wonderful resourced, including shipping information and patterns. They also know exactly what is needed, so you can make what will have the most impact.

(UPDATE: The Animal Rescue Craft Guild is no longer accepting donations as their needs have been met and exceeded. Instead, I called my local animal rescue and they also accept donations like these for their little animals and kittens. I’m sure yours will, too!)

So, those are a few of the projects I am working on right now. I’m getting ready to start back on baby blankets for the NICU. I’ll post about those when I get a package ready to send.

Happy crafting, friends!