Finding Time to Bead

A real challenge for me these days, with 2 small children, is finding time for beading. After my daughter was conceived and then born, my creativity dropped to an all-time low. It picked back up just in time for me to conceive my son. Since then, it has been steadily picking back up but I still find two main issues.

The first is kid safety. I actually took up crochet for a while, as a creative outlet, because beading needles and even knitting needles seemed too challenging to have around babies. The skills I picked up will easily add to my jewelry ability, so it was a well thought intermediate step, plus my kids got some cute hats out of the deal. Now as my kids have reached 5 and 2, I am moving back into tiny beads, breakable glass and sharp needles, albeit when they are out of the room and otherwise occupied.

The second issue is me time; finding someone else to be in charge of watching the munchkins! Time for me, just me, is hard to come by. Kids need lots of time, as do husbands, and there is always house work, exercise and other tasks, plus just getting off my feet and reading for a bit.

I schedule time, I plan time, I find a few minutes here and there to sneak off but it’s hard to get a lot accomplished. Plus there is always the lure of surfing for bead ideas, reading bead books and magazines and writing out notes and pictures for new projects that sit on my desk for weeks and months. It’s sometime nice to find these and start on them and sometimes sad to find the inspirations for them has vanished.

I have started a bead journal, a log of what I work on each time I sit down (hopefully each day). I try and capture a list of my plans and notes, projects worked on and other business notes like this Blog and such. I have a long list of updating my website, writing blog posts and book reviews, setting up Linked In and Instagram and posting to Mystic’s facebook page.This journal helps me decide what to do when I have finally found a few minutes to sneak away to my desk or bead nook.

After a few weeks of not getting my Blog updated, I am back to it with the goal of at least a post a week. Another goal is to get some of this year’s ideas and projects to completion. My journal is helping me remember what projects are current and which ones need more design time, which ones need to go back to the drawing board and which ones simply need time to complete.

           

I have finally finished to first of my 2 part circle project, the symmetric necklace. The asymmetric one needs a bit more time as I am far more comfortable with symmetry. I hope to compete it before the end of the months.