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More Crafting, Less Stress

There is something about a new year that feels fresh and full of promise, with planned and unplanned opportunities sprinkled with hope and optimism. I acknowledge the privilege that allows me to write that sentence, and if I could be queen for a day, I would wrap the world in a warm blanket with a nice cup of tea.

This year, I plan to spend more time crafting, gardening, working with organizing clients and traveling. It would be nice to worry less, but it’s an unrealistic goal unless I can fit in a months-long Buddhist retreat, which leads me back to more crafting and gardening.

I revamped my crafting area, tweaked it, and then tweaked it again. Our home office/den was the family hub when the boys were young. It’s furnished with long-in-the-tooth IKEA desks and overhead cabinets. I removed the closet doors years ago and created additional space with shelves and a work surface instead of space for hanging clothes.

After a year of inhabiting the two desks the boys once used, I realized I preferred my curved desk and not the two long desks side by side. It also put me closer to the converted closet, so now everything is within arm’s reach, and I can look out the window when I craft.

The side-by-side desks hold our printer and supplies, Mike’s flight simulator, and the assorted detritus that lands on one’s desk. It feels good to have settled on the space, and while it’s often messy, it’s also easy to clean up.

Most of my crafting is paper-related these days. I used to sew, knit, and create scrapbooks, but card-making is an excellent way to relax, and the results are fun to share with friends.

At the end of each season, I gather my scraps and create small crafting kits to put next to our children’s Little Free Library or participate in Kate’s ScrapHappy challenge. That’s good fun, too. Yesterday, I helped my sister organize her crafting area and came home with stickers for more crafting kits. We recalled how, as girls, we loved stickers, so it’s fun to imagine another boy or girl having fun with them. Here we are in a Walgreen’s photo booth, circa 1970 and again about twenty years later.

On the gardening front, the off-season sunflowers continue to grow. It’s so unexpected. I had Mike snap some pics for height comparison, and then he steadied the footstool so I could see if a flower opened. As a bonus, we spotted a ladybug, a brilliant standout against the green foliage. A friend gave me another cyclamen as a new-year’s gift so its featured in the gallery as well.

We’re dreaming about our next travel adventure. Closer to home, we drove to Lexington Reservoir on the first day of the year and enjoyed the sunshine reflecting on the water, the scent of California oak and redwood trees, and simply being out in nature.

I hope the start of your year has you feeling energized and ready to take on the day.

32 thoughts on “More Crafting, Less Stress”

  1. Alsy, I love all the glimpses into your crafting space. My dream is to move (again, oh God!) into a bigger space before too long so I can set up a crafting/office space where the girls can also have a place to stay when they visit. Glad you’re having a peaceful start to the New Year. 💖

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  2. Happy New Year, dear Alys! It’s so nice to see all the ways you are embracing this fresh beginning. I love peeking into your creative space where the magic happens! Your special photos with your sister are true treasures. I think of your garden often, while my garden sleeps. Your New Year’s celebration was a perfect start, with time in nature, near water… just you and Mike together. While my parents lived in Arizona, they would also plan a New Year’s picnic by a pretty lake every New Year’s Day. It makes my heart so happy to know that you and Mike did the very same thing!
    It has been a quiet week here. Snowflakes are just beginning to fall. So, my garden will soon be covered with a blanket of white. So quiet and peaceful.
    Take extra-good care, my friend! Sending warmest hugs from Illinois!
    🩷 Dawn

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    • Dawn, thank you for sharing the beautiful memory of your parents picnicking on the first day of the year. They must have loved that warm weather opportunity.

      Snow fall brings about a calm and beautiful landscape, not to mention a blanket for your lovely garden. I hope you can be indoors to enjoy it, and if you do walk, that the sidewalks are ice-free.

      Happy new year and thank you for all the love. xo

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  5. Beautiful photos Alys – of nature but also of you and your sister.
    I am determined to sort my sewing room out this year as I need room to put a sofa bed in there but I don’t know where to start. If you lived nearby you’d be the person I’d commission to help.

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    • Thank you, Lynn. Those photos have survived moves, excess moisture and age. I’m so glad to finally have them digitized.

      The challenge with a sofa bed as that you need the space for when it’s open, even if it is closed most of the time. I’m a fan of using vertical space as much as possible, ruthless purging, and movable storage in rooms that need to be multi-purpose. If you had a few carts that could be rolled in and out of the room when guests stay, then you wouldn’t have to bundle things out of the way. Feel free to send a pic of your room to my contact form. I can give you a free consult from afar. I love that sort of thing.

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  6. I’m not sure I am ready for a month-long retreat but I would love to attend one for a week. Sounds like you are in a good place within for enjoying the year ahead. Beautiful photos Alys. Have a good week.

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  7. That sounds like a very satisfying tidy-up, and I hope it provides the impetus you want for 2024 creativity. Although my sewing room doesn’t actually hinder me (much), I constantly look at it and wonder how I could reorganise to make it flow better and offer better storage solutions. It’s had one re-do. Maybe it’s time for another.

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    • Kate, yes! It’s immensely satisfying to tidy up, remove the excess, and find the best way to organize what you need. I like to envision what’s not working well and then find ways to improve it. I’m a saver of small boxes which I put to use in drawers and cabinets for sorting small items. When I’m on a tear, they work well on the desk to temporarily store ephemera that will be used for a project.

      I’m a colour/color person, so I store my paper in rainbow order. Others like to store by designer, but I don’t keep that much on hand to make that worth while.

      I

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      • I save the Husband’s boot boxes, my own shoe boxes and any tool box around the right size! Also any gift box I receive that’s too nice to throw out. it does help corral the chaos somewhat, but increasingly I’m eyeing my workspace critically, thinking that a radical redesign may be called for…

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  9. Sounds like a very good plan for this new year. I like your curved desks. Sometimes, any change is good for the creative mind. I’ll be heading into the sewing room shortly to do much the same. Paring down again and trying to bring fresh order. I have projects that I wanted done before the holidays. That obviously didn’t happen. The rest of the apt looks quite lovely with all of the holiday stuff back in storage for the year. I’m glad you are both taking time for yourselves and as a couple. You’ve had so many challenges that down time can help you both a lot. We had snow and more wind and snow are due in tonight so no gardening here.

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    • Thank you, Marlene. I agree…change gives us new perspectives and a chance to hone new skills. Part of my routine is to minimize new paper until I’ve used what I have, with the exception of keeping solid paper in black and white, along with vellum, staples for my cards.

      I think creative people have to continuously tidy and reorganize as things ebb and flow. Of course I love that aspect of it, but I understand it feels like drudgery for others.

      It feels good to put away the holiday decor. I’m with you there. The only thing I miss is the tree lights, and I can remedy that with a few candles.

      Thank you for understanding that profound need for down time.

      I’ll bet that snow is cold and beautiful. We had a lovely day of rain Saturday, but today is clear and cold with a breeze. We’re down to the low forties this week, cold by San Jose standards, but a mild day for you. We just added another quilt to the bed. xo

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  10. Hello Alys, I also took a walk in nature on Monday. We’ve had so much rain here for many weeks, but 2024 started with sunshine and so far so good.

    I wish I had space for a craft room but yours does look great. I can see the appeal of card making – we still use the supplies you sent us. Thank you once again for such a generous gift.

    I hope that there will be less stress for you, moving forward. All the best, Helen

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    • Helen, it is so nice to find your comment here. I’m glad you too enjoyed nature on the first of the year. I’ve been hearing some of the weather news via Derrick Knight.

      I’m pleased to hear you are using the supplies, and further, thank you for sending a card late last year. It was a wonderful surprise.

      I wish you would consider blogging again, though I understand your hesitation. Has enough time passed that you could start anew?

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      • Hello Alys,

        I’m glad the card reached you.

        I am actually reconsidering my blog, as it has been great to catch up with old friends. I think my blogging will be different now, though.

        This post is public and moving forward I will continue to post publicly again. At the same time, I’m probably not going to be posting about my garden so much, having discovered the joys of crafting big time.

        Anyway, let’s see what 2024 brings – in a good way of course 😊

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  11. Lovely photos of your New Year’s Day in the countryside. I think crafting is like gardening… you can lose yourself in it and leave the world and all its cares behind for a while. Wishing you lots of crafting and gardening time in 2024 Alys, and a happy New Year! 🤗

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    • Judging by the number of organization pics on the web, you are in good company. I organize other people for a living and I still love looking at images of other spaces. Thank you for your kind words.

      I love having that photo from our childhood. It’s funny to think how many photos we have since the advent of the iPhone, but in the day, photos were far less common. Say hi to Mike for me. :-)

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