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17 Sanity Saving Holiday Organizing Tips

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Each of these seventeen holiday organizing tips will help get you through the season with a bit more sanity & JOY!

After receiving new holiday gifts, donate used items you no longer need to charity (One in One out Rule).
Ditch the photo holiday cards…hate to say it but they end up in the trash (recycled hopeful) and people can see you more frequently via social media. How about a digital holiday card?
As you pull holiday items out, donate old ornaments and out of date holiday decorations.
Begin memento boxes for your kids holiday traditions, keep these separate so they can be given to your older kids when they leave home.
Clean out your attic, garage or basement space before you return your holiday decoration bins (vacuum, wipe down shelves if needed etc).
Have a Grab-A-Gift bag or bin with an assortment of “anyone” appropriate gifts (for last min hostess or holiday gift exchange items).
Clean out your spices, as your cooking and baking toss the old and make note of anything needed (put date of purchase on bottom in ink).
Spruce up your kitchen: spend 10-30 min’s a day tackling an appliance or area (fridge, stove, toaster, sink etc). You’ll feel healthier & I bet you’ll eat healthier! See my kitchen organizing post here.
Get your gift & wrap organized:use a gift tracking list & invest or DIY a great wrapping station—see Pinterest for ideas.
Don’t over book your holiday calendar. If you’ve been invited to a million parties and events, say no to a few and leave yourself some evening’s at home, either alone or with your family and just relax!
Schedule a date with your honey or yourself for a little holiday pampering. Dinner and a movie, a bubble bath and champagne, your pick but keep it easy and fun.
Plan for the next year! Get a planner or calendar to start mapping out large events such as vacation and business travel, important family occasions and setting personal and professional goals for at least the first 1-2 quarters of the year.
Create a vision board to really see what it is you want to create…it’s a beautiful thing!
Pick a Word of the Year-AKA-#WOTY
Take a thorough home inventory this year-don’t wait for a disaster! Join me for a virtual workshop “Home Inventory without Heartache”, more information coming soon. Subscribe to my mailing list or “like” my Facebook or Instagram for more frequent tips and inspiration!
Keep your body moving, do a little dance, hit the gym, take a walk…whatever your thing is, this is a great way to get out of your head and feel your way through the season.
Finally and most importantly, take time to Celebrate what is truly Sacred to you this season. Is that a tradition, time with family, a treat that you honor yourself with? Whatever it is this is the best season to celebrate the sacred!

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How to kill your creative darlings

by Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Creative process, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Tips & Resources, Wellness & Mindset Leave a Comment

Let’s start by asking ourselves what are creative darlings?

Darling is synonymous for precious, adored, favorite, beloved, loved, cherished, treasured, prized, esteemed, worshipped, idolized etc. You get the picture. Sometimes people think of creative darlings as things that are too precious. We are so attached to them that we might not be objective. I like to think of them as the unnecessary “fluff” that we use to embellish and in fact those darlings can detract from the essence of what you are trying to create. The term “kill your darlings” has been attributed to a 1914 writing lecture “On Style”:

If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.
Writer Arthur Quiller-Couch

Creative darlings can be the outcome of overthinking, overworking, exertion to try to MAKE something incredible. They can also be the outcome of decision fatigue, we get tired of editing and just leave stuff where it is, we get a little lazy and attached! It’s a scary prospect to decide to “kill” something we have created (curated, collected, envisioned) but when we get overly attached, we are not seeing what’s best for the big picture. It can be liberating to trust and believe that by letting go, something better might emerge!

Don’t get so blinded by what you’ve invested (time, $, emotions) that you lose sight of the big picture. We can get so caught up in our own thoughts & ideas that we may not realize when they are failing to pay off for us. Be willing to let go of your grip, trust the creative process, know that by severely pruning out the “dead wood” we will see the most vigorous and healthy lush new growth!

Kill your darlings in your creative process, kill your darlings when your editing your wardrobe, kill your darlings when you are looking around your home and decluttering.

How to kill your creative darlings…

Edit what doesn’t serve a purpose & leave a more meaningful creation.

My argument for keeping stuff…

by Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Creative process, In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

Lately I’ve been in the midst of decluttering my art studio and I’ve got a heap of stuff to get rid of! I’ve certainly waxed on and on here about letting stuff go but today I want to share my argument for keeping stuff. This argument is not necessarily one that can be applied to all categories of “stuff” in our homes or work life but it’s certainly relevant for “artists” who work a process.

As both an artist and an organizer, I often have partially (un) finished works in progress (WIP’s) laying around my studio. Unlike partially made food, most art projects don’t have an expiration date and reviewing older work can spark both joy and inspiration to grow and work in a new direction! Some of the artist I work with invite me to participate in the process of reviewing work they have made. Together we sort into the Keep or Toss piles just like we might do with anything else (clothes, books etc). A lot can be said for tossing some of our badly made, “UGLY” art! Seriously, sometimes I look at some things I made and it just makes me cringe. I don’t want to keep those things, in most cases, not even to re-purpose into something else or give away.

Then there’s the argument for keeping stuff that is worth exploring further. Maybe it’s a certain technique, a color combination, something striking about composition or something nostalgic that evokes a personal response. All of these are great reasons to hold onto some of our art that might not be “best work” or finished. One of the most challenging aspects of making works of any type of art is knowing when to say it’s done. If something is undercooked or we leave it on the burner too long, it’s no longer edible. Art can be like that too, if it’s under developed or overworked it might just have to go (into the trash). But we learn from our creative mistakes! Part of the process of developing our skills is to review our mistakes and our successes. Looking back at work we made that helps us to grow argues a strong case for keeping some things that might not have been finished or “successful”.

I once read an article on creative process where the artist Robbi Joy Eklow suggested a “Time Out Box” for works of this nature. We do this with kids and with kids toys, why not our art? Setting something that you are unsure of aside so that you can come back later, review it again to see if it “Sparks Joy” is a great way to learn from your creative process. I’ve gone back to sketchbooks from 20+ years ago and found ideas that I’ve revisited and been overjoyed with. I don’t think there’s any time limit on creative incubation, do you?

I’m an art studio voyeur…are you?

by Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize 2 Comments

I don’t mean this in a weird way! I just enjoy being an art studio voyeur…a bit of a peeping tom, ogling and sneaking a peek into artists studio spaces! Art (both the making of and viewing) can be a cure for stress and it’s certainly something I turn to when I need a break.

These photos are from a trip back in 2016 to Athens where a friend (MFA candidate at the time) gave me a tour around UGA Lamar Dodd Studio’s. I had the chance to wander the classrooms and studio spaces of students while it was virtually a ghost town.

We visited the whole textile school, including screen printing, the dye lab, weaving studio, paper making and the ceramics classrooms. There’s something intriguing about looking at work in progress, an artist space, their inspiration boards, materials, and equipment.

There’s so much possibility in the process of making, seeing ideas bubble up and dance across the surface with no idea of who’s behind it and where it’s headed.

UGA Lamar Dodd Studio’s

This is what I mean by being an art studio voyeur. It brings me pleasure to see the possibility of creative dreams on the horizon. In my organizing work-whether in a home, business or studio space, I hope to help others realize how important it is to recognize our creative voice. To create space for our creative dreams brings us one step closer to realizing them.

In the slideshow above, I don’t know who made the work, their background, their inspirations, their process and because no one was around this really did feel like I was art studio voyeur! Taking a peek into a moment of creative birth is a gift!

I celebrate the creative spirit with camera in hand and often questions for the maker. I am happy to capture a glimpse of that spark, inspiration, and creative dreams yet to be fully realized.

This curiosity led me to launch the Inside the Artist Studio series (which I will bring back!) and that thread led me to embark on a whole new adventure where the process of studio work, my interest in why makers make and digging into the cultural implications of our current “makers movement” have led me to return to Graduate School this year.

Starting in July, I will be attending Warren Wilson for my MA in Critical and Historical Craft Studies. I realize that a lot of people might wonder why a professional organizer might be embarking on this path and my answer is, because I’m a Weaver and I see connections where others may not. I am extremely excited to explore the intersections between making and organizing, artist process and observation of that process. There is a certain energy that emanates from both the maker and the objects/materials being used and being in that space to observe, pick up inspiration and carry it forward.

There is Chaos and there is Order in all creative cycles…what do you see when you peek into the creative process?

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Cultivate the 3 P’s of Creativity

by Filed Under: Art, Inspiration & Education

I love working with creative clients…both the one’s who realize they are creative AND those that might not realize it when we begin. I know in my heart that we are all born as creative beings. That’s why it’s vital for any and all of us to learn to cultivate the 3 P’s of Creativity!

Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, many of us are taught that we are not creative or that creativity is not as important as other skills.

Oh how wrong this is!

This is simply not true! But I can relate to not feeling creative…I would even go so far as to say I have experienced “Falling out of Love” with my creativity. This happens when we try to be creative, we pressure ourselves into thinking we have to do, create or invent something specific.

When it comes to creativity, remove the words TRY, DO and INVENT from your vocabulary.

Replace them with the three P’s below…

I personally experienced creative burn out after 15 years of commercial design in the textile industry. I choose to leave because I wanted to fall back in love with the creative process and find my personal creative voice again, which I’m still in the process of re-discovering and it will take as long as it takes…maybe the rest of my life!

I recently had several ah-ha moments about my own creativity…one was while I was meditating and it’s something I’ve heard other people talk about but at this moment it clicked for me and I realized I am not responsible for my creations, I do not own them, my ego doesn’t get to be proud of them or disappointed by them…my creations move through me-they do not come FROM me. I also realized that I can let go of any LABELS of who I am (artist, designer, craft person etc). What a release! I felt a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

I am now truly free to use and further cultivate the 3 P’s of creativity. These are the aspects of creating that I cultivate and without them I am lost:

Practice-I practice creating, creating is my practice!

Patience-I am patient with my creations-they can not be rushed or judged!

Play-Creativity is Play-release the outcome and experience the playfulness of creating again, like a child!

There’s one more P I think I should mention here…Perfectionism. This one thing can KILL creativity faster than a hard freeze on a tender plant so PLEASE don’t hold your creativity to any type of perfectionism. Learn from your mistakes, keep it playful, keep your patience and keep practicing!