Spring Cleaning

Everyone I know is in purge mode right now.

I just got back from a great retreat in Tucson, where we worked from a few books - one of which was Essentialism.

It was a strange coincidence because both of my "texties" - my friends Kat and Mel - and I have been on a quest to minimize our possessions for about six months, maybe longer. The book is about much more than that, but clearly the concept is out there in our shared universe right now to sort of cut to the chase.

I love it when ideas line up like that - for one thing, it's much easier to do things like that with other people. So each time we attack a junk drawer or a closet, we text each other pictures of the ridiculous number of trial sized shampoos we have and we laugh at and with each other and it makes it easier.

I really am not much of a "stuff" person anyway - and I think if you came to my house, you'd think it's pretty minimalist (except for art supplies - minimalism will never contaminate my art supplies) and somewhat bare. I like space and I don't like clutter.

But "stuff" creeps up on you. It creeps into drawers and closets and cabinets and places that you don't see when you walk into your house and you have to fight it.

One thing that's been great for me is Facebook garage sale pages. I have a neighborhood one where the people are really nice and trustworthy, and I can sell things for just a few dollars, if it's an item I know someone would love, and it's maybe something that I wouldn't want to put in a donation bag because it's fragile, etc. It's fun to give someone something they think of as a real find for $2, and it helps you get rid of things if you get coffee money for them.

One of the things "stuff" takes away from you is your free time. So if you always feel guilty because you know you need to clean out your junk drawer, and it aggravates you every time you open it, that steals your time to be lazy and have fun. Or it makes you feel guilty about sitting down to enjoy your hobby because you have that little voice cussing at you about the drawer. So you just have to do it. What I do when I have a project like that to tackle is I put my headphones in with an audiobook, set a timer for an hour, and I do that thing for an hour. The hour flies by because of the book, and it's amazing how much you can get done in an hour with no distractions.

I decided to make that concept of free time into a card. What's funny is, the card really took almost no time, which sort of ruins my point about freeing up time :). BUT, I did use three different techniques in the eight minutes it took to make this card.

I was inspired by the Art Impressions class at Creativation. I was signed up for this class, but I had double-booked for the Gel Press class, so Iliana went and brought me my kit and showed me her samples. Their stamps are beautiful, and they teach a simple watercolor technique that starts with the "smackdown" technique. This technique is one of my favorites, and I used it a few years ago on my Unite & Excite ATC swap, but I didn't do that watercolor portion that Art Impressions does - and man, is it beautiful.

So I combined that with two other techniques - no-line watercolor and vintage watercolor, and came up with this little scene.

InLinkz.com

The sentiment is from the Hero Arts Meow set, and is perfect for what I wanted to convey.

Since this was such a quick card, I did a real-time video for you. I love it when a card takes less than ten minutes.



Lazy days ARE the best.

I hope your weekend is as happy and lazy as a kitty in a basket. :)

Loveyameanitbye.