Obsession

Okay, so I have a tendency to get a little...well...obsessive.

Take beading, for example. A couple years ago, I got this idea that I could make beautiful and unique jewelry by learning how to bead. I didn't take classes, I simply got all the materials and tools (and I mean ALL) and a few how-to books (sound familiar?) and taught myself the basics.

I spent ALL my free time (and then some, stealing time from housekeeping, etc) learning to bead and making admitedly awefull stuff!

Then I lost interest. I think because I wasn't seeing progress fast enough.

Then I found a great fiction author, and then another, until I was reading ALL the time!

And these are not two isolated examples. I tend to get obsessive when I find something I enjoy. Now it's yard sales. I'm going away for the weekend coming up and I'm incredibly dissapointed that I won't be able to go to any yard sales! Even to the point that I wondered if there was a way to see if there were yard sales in the area we're going to (because Saturday morning will be pretty much free time).

Enough!! Wow. Seriously. So hubby and I talked and I have to be carefull about how much stuff I get, even if it's free (did I mention my addiction to craigslist and freecycle?). So this weekend away will be good for me.

Another thing I'm obsessive about is clothes. I clothes shop a lot. Even if it's cheap stuff, it's still money spent and it adds up quick! So I'm taking a good hard look at what I've got, what I've ignored, what I can maybe alter. Growing up in a wicked*rural part of the western US, (over a hundred miles to the nearest large city), my mom made a lot of clothes and I became familiar with the concept. (picture is of the road out to Lowel Point in Seward, AK where I was born and raised until age 8. Note the pale green/blue of the water - that's no photo trick! It really is that color!!)

Except. Our sewing machine was always breaking down and very touchy and I was too impatient to deal with it, so I learned to handsew everything. I know...turns a couple-hour project into a couple-day project, but that's what I was comfortable with.

Well I got obsessed about sewing a couple years ago and now have a brand-spankin-new sewing machine...that I have not used since. Now that I'm determined to change my shopping ways, I'm getting excited again about sewing and doubly determined to "make friends" with my machine. I may take a class instead of following along my old pattern of teach-yourself-until-you-get-bored-or-frustrated-then-quit.

So I suppose the game plan is to be aware of my obsessions and to not jump into new things without really thinking about time, expense, etc.

Wish me luck!


*wicked is New England slang for communicating an extreme, like it was so cold, or the movie was incredibly funny.