My second project sort of landed on my lap. Blissfully floating around on the smug glow of starting a new blogging project, I was feeling a lot of love for everybody, and very amenable to doing nice things for other people. Last weekend, we had the family over, and I got to spend some time with the delightful daughters of my cousin. Are they second cousins? I always start to work it out, then get distracted thinking of that particular bit in Mean Girls….”So, you have your cousins, and your first cousins….wait, that’s wrong, isn’t it?” “That is SO wrong”….
Anywho, putting distractions aside, one of the girls was particularly taken with a jacket I’d embellished myself; a shrunken black blazer with rhinestones on the lapel. She did a Michael Jackson dance in it. She was BRILLIANT. She LOVED this jacket. And I felt horrible for taking it back from her, like some sort of evil Dickens character.
Ping! Second project, I thought. I’ll just make her another one! Since a large portion of this blog is about me learning to not think/worry about myself for a few minutes, and actually do something kind and positive for other people, it seemed like an excellent thing to do. Plus, because I’m doing it for someone else, it means -ohmygod- I’ll actually have to do it all proper like. Instead of this cycle:
1. get really enthusiastic about making something
2. spend heaps of money to equip myself with ‘essentials’
3. start out, still enthusiastically
4. do it haphazardly in my best ‘cheerful five year old’ manner (remember that kid who stuck out their tongue because they were concentrating so hard? Yeah.)
5 do far too much, too sloppily, in the first day
6. get bored of it, leave for a few weeks
7. attempt to finish, without finesse
8. FIND A NEW PROJECT.
That’s what I’m trying to break out of. That’s been my life up until this point. NO MORE, I tells ya! I WILL do things properly, and finish them, and you should too!
Look out for upcoming posts…stay cheerful…do something different.
Good luck! xxx
ameliaflorencesimmons 
What a great idea for a project! If last weekend's cakes were any indication, you'll have another rhinestone jacket no time flat. Granted, you may stress and forget to breathe, but that's part of the experience. People love and support you. Fact.Also, this is the best way for me to remember the cousin thing: first cousins have the same grandparents, second cousins have the same great-grandparents. Your guests were first cousins, once removed. If/when you breed, your children and the new Ms. Jackson (if we're nasty) will be second cousins. Hope that helps.
Yes! This is my enthusiasm cycle exactly! For reference, see my aborted blog. Or my knocked down, re-built, plastered, yet to be painted walls!
Thanks Lazy Chef! Although….a discarded craft project is one thing, but having no walls is a different beast entirely! So yes, I'm DETERMINED to start seeing things through!
I have walls thank you! Just no colour on them. Or skirting boards. Or door frames. Or inclination to rectify any of the above. I fear Mrs. Lazy Chef might soon offer some forceful encouragement!
the cycle in your 2nd comment is SO me also!! but i very much enjoyed reading it and think it's a very good idea! this i hatty btw, i couldn't be bothered to set up a username so i'm 'anonymous'
Lazy Chef: forceful encouragement is the best kind of encouragement!Hatty: thanks! I know…hoping this blog will literally FORCE me to finish things. I was very inspired by your advice!
All good stuff and excellent for a new year. I too take on new stuff on the basis that I'll make myself see it through but that's not always conducive to good work.Maybe this year less quantity and more quality although said yes to a new play this evening.Definitely more preparation I think….
That's why I started the blog – because around New Year, every year, I have an extremely long list of all the improvements I want to make in my life. All very selfish, and all mostly unfinished/unstarted, because I hadn't made them quantifiable, or…fun. I wanted to start doing projects I could actually finish and be proud of, so it's one a week, meaning long enough to complete it, but not so long that I lose my focus.Anyway, it's a start. Thanks for reading!