Organization - Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Happy February!

I have been staying on track with my motivation, organization and expanding my jewelry line to sell in more local stores. Everything is running right on track!! 

The organization has been a bit of challenge, not gonna lie, and here I am going to bear it all!  It takes guts to show the bad with the good, and I am showing it to you. I work better in a jumbled chaos - it sparks my creativity and the ideas flow. What this chaos doesn't do, is allow the creativity to happen in a timely manner. This meaning, to be cost effective when pricing my jewelry, time goes into that formula. When I spend 20 minutes looking for my hole punchers, so I can package an order, that is 20 minutes lost in profit!!! When this revelation hit me, the organization began with a fury. As I rolled up my shirt sleeves and dug in, I realized I have been wasting a lot of time. 



Here you can see, holy cow!!! that is the only way to say it :) I dragged everything to the middle of the room, swept the floor, and started putting everything back. This process let me go through things, find things I haven't seen in years, and evaluate what I really need, and what is just hoarding. The purging is happening!!  I still have a ways to go, and it feels good!!

As we all know, February brings Valentintes Day, a day set aside to show love to those special someones in your life. A fun way to show someone your appreciation and love, is to enroll them in the Earring club! Choose, 1, 3 or 12 month membership, and let the fun begin! 

Friday is going to be an awesome night, with the Snow Moon (full moon), lunar eclipse AND a comet!! Grab your binoculars and see natures splendor! 
Talk to you soon!!!

And as always..

I send you love and peace.
Be blessed!

In The Process Of Organizing - Learning New Habits

Bit under the weather today, so I used the down time to my advantage and started the organizing process, and crossed a whole lot of things off my list. 

One of the things I am utilizing in this process, is the desk calendar. 

I should have started in pencil because I have changed my mind several times trying to come up with a good routine. Last week I broke out the calendar and started to add daily chores, and schedule out my to do list for the month. It really started to come around, and I saw a routine begin to happen. 

Routines are very good for me, and very bad. When I have a routine, I am a machine and can really get things done. When my routine is broken - it may take weeks to get back on track. I don't know why this happens, but it has countless times. 

I like breaking down the house chores to a little bit every day. That works well for me. It doesnt' feel like the house gets away from me, and I am not trying to do it all in one day. 

Setting up my blog posts, and then writing the topic down is an awesome help as well. As I get the ideas, I write them on the calendar, that way when blog day rolls around, I am not finger drumming on the table trying to think of something to say. 

I have also added more newsletter releases. So now they will be sent out weekly, as opposed to monthly. This is a good challenge, and lets me kinda recap the week before in a newsletter. 

I have also set aside time for creating. which I LOVE! Don't get me wrong, when the creativity hits, I will gladly succumb to it, but to know that Mondays are for jewelry, gets me excited and I start to jot down ideas, because I know on Mondays I am at the work bench. The same goes for posting new items on Tuesday. I stick to a schedule, and my fans and customers will know that on Tuesdays there will be new items in the shop, and they will start to anticipate what will be coming as well. I think this is starting to really come together. 

Don't get me wrong, I do run into some obstacles. Ms. Cookie here only seems to really need me when I am sitting at the work bench, or crunched in front of the worlds tinest computer table, trying to do some electronic work. It is a good lesson in flexibility, and accepting change, and I am grateful. 

What routines do you have? Do you organize electronically or still use a planner? Would love to hear from you!

And as always, Be peaceful, Be kind. 

Remember to explore, create, dream, imagine and discover!

National Craft Month Kick Off or How I was motivated to clean my studio

It's National Craft Month! I had committed to cleaning and organizing my craft room this month. I figured it would take me a month, but when I was reminded that March was National Craft Month I wanted to see how much I could get done by March 1.
It all started like this- and I had 3 days to get it in order.
I started to organize by color and type of bead in pee-tree dishes I had bought
I am making some head way
I emptied out over 20 different containers
Almost there...
And this is where I am after 3 days. I still have a lot left to do, but I am pretty pleased with my progress

This is so embarrassing, and at the same time, such a good lesson.
Does your work area get out of control? Are you willing to share your work area?
Have fun with National Craft Month and post links so we can see what you are doing!

Break Time!

Yesterday was my last show for the year. Now it is time to kick back for a few weeks and not feel so pressured.

I am going to use this time to seriously organize my work room. The goal (which will be reached!) is to have it done by the end of the year, focusing on starting out the year fresh, organized and getting some good energy flowing. I have my sights set on a prosperous 2010. Sales are really picking up in all of the retail locations my pieces are in, and will be focusing on adding more stores this coming year.

I am excited about a new year of blogger challenges with Rings & Things, Art Beads and Beadin Path. They are all so much fun to work with, supportive, and best of all, I feel I have made some new friends.

The organization began with tubs of 'homeless' beads. These are the beads that are scattered across my work table or in a central tub because I am too lazy to put them back into their baggies.


Here is a mess in a tub


Here is the mess separated out into: beads, findings, partially strung pieces, salvageable wire (this is my boredom killer at work)



From here I will separate it out even further till everything has it place. I got a lot ahead of me!