Little Big

While Isobel was sick with the sniffles and incapable of doing anything except watching episode after episode of My Little Pony and demanding constant “nose wipies” I took some time to tidy up some of the vintage clutter that has accumulated on our shelves. I know that some people (ahem, Marie) think my house is a pristine clutter-free environment. That is a big fat lie, but one I would like to help circulate. Also, my legs are hair-free, my vegetables never go bad in the refrigerator, and my farts smell as fresh and clean as the ocean breeze.

Although there are ample areas of my house that could use some organization attention, I worked on my shelves in the library because I could still be within sight of Snuffles McSnotface in case she needed anything. And also because the tops of my shelves have become a monument to vintage clutter. I tended to shove stuff up there after many a thrifting trip because that way I was sure not to walk in to find Isobel using say, a vintage globe as dry erase-board. I could barely reach up there myself, so I knew that crap stashed up there would be safe from furry kitties’, or sticky toddler, hands.

I was relieved to find that with the exception of one or two things all my shelves needed were some rearranging, instead of decluttering, and things looked a whole lot better up there.

I worked on my fire place and the shelves in the living room a bit, too, after Sneezle McMouthbreather took a nap. I know it’s way too early for Christmas decorations, but I found those julbocken at an estate sale and I love them so much I’m just going to keep them out till the holidays are over. Their presence gives me the impetus to regale Isobel with tales of the wondrous Christmas goat.

I also found a few crocheted lap blankets recently, and at first I thought they’d make great tea party blankets for Isobel, but I keep using them myself in the evenings. It’s nice to have a blanket over your legs that doesn’t take up a bunch of space.

Pay no attention to the completely dead plant in the terrarium up there. If anyone comes over I’ll just tell them it’s a Halloween decoration.

My friend Angela found this while we were playing Thrift Store Gore Bingo. I can’t believe she didn’t want it! Well, maybe I can. But her loss is my gain. My magical, magical gain. Of course, as soon as I got home it was Isobel’s gain.

The other day I received this question from my lovely friend Laura:

How do you blog: write every day or write a lot then schedule? Also, how do you manage to upload everything, everywhere, all the time? I am dizzy: flickr, blog, twitter, FB, etc.  GOOD HEAVENS.

I think this is a really interesting question because it’s the kind of thing I like to know about other people. I’m always just as interested in the process and the methods behind things as I am in the product themselves, at least when it comes to any creative endeavor.

I post to my blog every day, and I know that might seem overwhelming to some and certainly blogging like that isn’t for everyone. When I first started I struggled a bit with the rhythm and trying to figure out what I liked. Did I want to take the weekends off, or just one day? Did I want to commit myself to any regular schedule at all or just post when the spirit moved me? Answering these questions  came down to one simple thing: I have a lot of ideas.

I’m left-handed. Did you know that? I have a theory about this. I read one time that the right-handed person’s brain operates by process of elimination while the left-handed person’s brain operates by generating possible solutions until one fits. I really don’t know how accurate my assumptions are but this is what I tell myself to explain why I think the way I do. I have a lot of ideas and I think anyone who has lots of ideas will tell you that plenty of them are really bad ideas. This is why we have a lot of them. Some of them turn out to be not so bad and even fewer of them are actually interesting. I have a lot of ideas for posts and that is why I post blog everyday. I can’t bare wasted food and I can’t bare wasted ideas.

It should be noted that I love what I do. I work on this blog so much because I truly enjoy it. It’ s fun and it’s one of the things I choose to do when I have free time. But I don’t work on it every day and I keep my work time limited and as separate from family time as much as possible. I still manage to post daily because I’m faithful to my calendaring, scheduling, and time management skills.

I’d be lost without my binder and my calendar to keep all of my posts in order and I have a little notebook just for jotting down post ideas when they come to me. I really couldn’t blog at all without the calendar and careful time management. I tend to outline my ideas a month at a time though I don’t stick to it very strictly. It’s just helpful for planning. I really like the posting schedule I have for themes. The structure it gives me is like a trellis for my ideas for posts to grow along.

I try to write in batches and I complete each post in stages.  At any given time I’ll have several posts cooking at each stage. I try to be as efficient as possible and have come up with ways to streamline my work. I usually write posts while Isobel is with my mom or Anthony, but occasionally I can get stuff done while she plays contentedly on my lap.

Social media is weird, because often it seems like you can be everything everywhere, but it’s all an illusion. The secret is to limit social media to what you can handle. I cannot, and never have been, able to manage Facebook, so I don’t even try. It’s too, too much information. I’ve posted links to my blog there maybe three times and that’s about it.

This is why I love Twitter and IG. I can pop in and participate and pop out again. I gave up trying to keep tabs on everyone at all times and letting go of that guilt feels goooood.  I used to be really active with the social aspect of Flickr, but that’s just too hard to manage on my phone so while I still use it every day of my life it’s primarily for photo hosting, storage, and organization. IG and twitter are easy to use from my phone so that’s where I am most often. Basically, I try to keep things as simple as possible and while I’ll use Goodreads or Ravelry or Pinterest for their functionality I don’t engage in the social aspect because I don’t have the time.

Do you have a question for me? I’d love to answer it! You can leave your question in the comments, @-reply me on twitter, email it to me at alittlebigblog@gmail.com or send me a messenger pigeon. Don’t actually do the last one, though. My cat will eat it.