What I've Gained from Blogging

A while back I mentioned my intention to write up a post about things I've learned from starting a blog...This is that post. I started the Eclectic Otter just over 7 months ago with the intention of sharing my information about craft projects and things created for our tabletop roleplaying games. As an added bonus I hoped it would provide me with some extra motivation to actually complete some long standing projects.

 So, the question is, what's changed in that time?

First of all, over the past months I've taken an abundance of pictures. I've always taken the camera when we did things like visit the zoo but now I have pictures of our more everyday life as well. Just having the camera out to get pictures for the blog means it's more accessible for taking photos of our kittens and pretty weather. As a result we have a much more complete record of our lives this year.

Like this photo of our new kitten trying to steal a fortune cookie

I also learned that I need to revise my approach to projects. When I planned out what days I wanted to post I tried to leave time between them to get projects done, but it doesn't really work that way. I've learned that I need to break things up and work in smaller bits. I'm also trying to get to the point where I work ahead (so I work on a project now for a post in two weeks). I need to try to complete at least some bit of crafting everyday. In line with that even though this week is crazy I spent part of yesterday evening transferring designs for embroidery.

And that brings us to my biggest realization, I really, REALLY need to organize my craft supplies.  Tracing the design to fabric should have been quick and easy but I wasn't. I had to dig through a pile of stuff to find the tape to tape up the designs, run to another room for the iron and ironing board to prepare the fabric, then spent more time digging for washable fabric pencils that I'm sure I have. In the end I called my Mom borrowed one from her. Luckily she lives near by but after all my wasted time I only had time to trace one of the designs.

Cabinet of Craft Clutter

Right now I have craft supplies in at least 3 different rooms in our house. The sewing machine and a cabinet for fabric and scrapbook stuff are in the dining room. The iron and ironing board stay in our laundry room but have to be carried to the dining room to use. Our office has an organizer full of yarn and ....who knows what else. We've been talking it over and decided that we're going to move everything into the office. The picture below shows the awesome desk that we built in our office. The original plan was to have the PC on one side and leave the other open for my husband's laptop so we could both sit in there and work or play games together. That hasn't really happened and since we got a second laptop we actually rarely use the office.

Excuse the messyness 

So we can set everything up with the sewing machine on one side of the desk. It can stay set up all the time instead of getting cleared away anytime we eat. I can move the cabinet in there too and the then it will all be in one room. The only thing I'd need to use the dining room table for would be laying out and cutting patterns. We even got a few storage tubs to put on the shelf to hold all the little things like washi tape and beads.

So that's the three biggest lessons I've had so far with keeping this blog. You can expect to see more details about my attempts to get organized and some projects involved with that. It may be a while though because it's a really big job.