I guess spending a good chunk of time hunting down album covers for iTunes is productive, in a sense. I mean, it's not like I ever use the full-scale iTunes player - I always use the mini player or the FoxyTunes extension on my brower, so my desperate obsession with having all my albums have covers is a little redundant.
I'm still working on some 'projects', mostly for my daughter. There's only one that has gone from the stuck-in-my-head phase, an animal mobile that will eventually hang over her change table. Maddy's fascinated with animals of all shapes and sizes, especially jungle/zoo animals. That probably comes from the overabundance of quilts in her room with that particular theme, but it's much easier (and cheaper) to go along with that kind of theme than some of the other ones available.
I didn't want to buy a mobile for her because a) I can make one and b) I'm cheap. I'm pretty sure the total cost for this mobile, with it's dozen or so animals will cost me in the range of $12, most of that on felt. I went to this site and downloaded some of the pages to use as templates to make the animals. The biggest challenge for me, the inept crafter, was figuring out how to keep the template on the felt while I cut it. I solved that problem the only way I could - with staples. Looking back, pins would have been an acceptable solution, but I don't have pins for some odd reason.
I do, however, have skeins and skeins of embroidery floss, which I've discovered is infinitely easier to use than yarn when sewing these animals up. They're only 4 or 5 inches high, some less than an inch wide, so the thinner the thread, the better. I'm not an expert sewer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know how to do a simple whip stitch along the side to at least attach the two pieces of felt together, keeping the stuffing inside, and make it somewhat attractive, perhaps even useful.So I've got a dozen or so random zoo/jungle animals- lion, tiger, elephant, gorilla, giraffe (Maddy's favourite animal EVER) - to go on this mobile. All cut out, ready to be sewn and stuffed. Because I'm a mom to an 8-month old who's started to move very, very quickly around the living room, I have no time to do the animals during the day. The two 1.5-2 hour blocks I have during the day are times I need to run errands, do housework, have breakfast, shower, etc. so I can feel somewhat normal and productive as a human being. I don't sit on the couch while Maddy plays in her gated area in the living room, or anything. Well, not always. If she's content playing with her toys by herself, I let her be. If she's constantly trying to climb into my lap, I try to grab a book to look at or find a show for her to watch (yes, I let her watch TV. She's going to be the worst. child. ever. because of it. Whatever.). We spend quality time together. And because of that, I can't work on her mobile - little bits of felt and thread and scissors and paper within her reach? Yeah, no.
So I've managed to finish a seal, dolphin, monkey, rhino, tiger and gorilla in just over a week. It's not quite the speed at which I'd hoped I would be going, but at least it's something. I'm still being dogged by procrastination and moderate fear over doing anything else, but maybe once this is done (I plan on attaching the finished animals to a circle-shaped metal coat hanger with yarn), I'll be well on the way to creating a lot more. I'm trying to imagine how I could not only make money doing this (that goes back to my whole 'I sure as hell don't plan on working 2 full-time jobs so I can put my daughter in day care' plan come December), but also how satisfying this would be for me to do as a half-assed job. I really, really, really don't want to be spending the rest of my working life bouncing from job to job, hoping that whatever one I land at is it and that I'll finally be happy. I don't want to go back to full-time, out-of-the-house work until my daughter is in school, and that's 5 years away. There's still a semi-plan to go to school next fall for culinary arts; that idea may be pushed right off the back burner if I can't figure out a way to go to school but not work at the same time (also falls in with the 2-jobs-to-pay-for-day-care' thing). I need to make a decision soon... I go back to work for 2 weeks in less than 3 months. I'm not going to be there beyond my required 2 weeks, but I still need to pay bills.But back to the point. I'm making a kick-ass mobile for my daughter. I may even try making a felt book for her next (one that I'll attempt to write) so she doesn't chew the hell out of her other books before she gets to actually enjoy them. I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself in my creative plans, but if I don't have something sort of lined up for the next project, I know I'll just fall back into that procrastination/fear trap that seems to be just one step away.
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