More Time to Craft!

Joy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. We all experience joy in different ways but narrowing down on the things that bring us joy and peace can change every aspect of our life. My family, friends, pets, (wildlife in general), plants, being outside and knowing the laundry is done for the week are a few examples of things that bring me joy. However, the urge to create is one of the things that brings me joy {AND} inner peace. So that is the “adventure” I am constantly seeking.

It is important to note though, that we have to plan time and take steps each day so we can experience those key things that bring us inner peace and joy, but we will get to that in a moment. My things that I try to do each day are the following

my morning tag time where I spend time in the Word
spending time in my planner (making list, completing list, even doodling)
any yarn related project
games with the family
cooking with the family
just watching a show with the hubs

to be able to do any and all of those things above I have to get done with all the other things I am called to do. That all boils down to time management and making some hard choices with how I spend my waking hours.

>>>Which promoted the idea for this post… What are some of the things YOU do that allow for your creativity to be able to flow each day?

>>>What do you find KEEPING You from expressing your creativity??

I thought I would share a few things I do, and provide you with a tool in keeping your projects organized so you can have more time crafting!

I am not an organizing professional, but I am pretty good at it and it has been a part of me since I was a kid. When my friends were out playing I was the kid taking things down in her closet to organize them and wipe down the shelves, true story!

Setting a Realistic Time Line/ Schedule

Being a caretaker, homeschool mom, small business owner and a blogger…. ok I am not the best at being a vlogger/blogger YET, but it still something I strive to do because I do find {JOY} in it.

The reality is, in a moment from someone waking up sick, my mother in law having a hard day, or something random happening with weather etc my day can be turned upside down in an instant! I have learned over the years that you have to expect the unexpected and no one has EVER been upset they were “over-prepared” for a situation. I think this same mindset applies to carving out time for creativity in our day.

I have learned that my day will always fall under the same line of events, so if I can stick to my “time line” as close as possible I can have more time for crafts and consider the day, for the most part a complete win!

Queue the song from the Lion King “Be Prepared” to be playing in your head. lol

I have also learned to set up various days in my own schedule to do certain chores… This allows me to be able to swap days around. Flexibility is a key to success and one of my favorite quotes from my corporate retail life is:

“Action and Flexibility Create Opportunity!”

I was an operations manager for Circuit City for a long time. One of the best things looking back with my time with the company, besides marrying my boss lol, is the belief systems they instilled in their management teams. They had us going to so many meetings and reading so many books on how to be successful… but the crazy thing is all that “Stuff” stuck with us and the Hubs and I still use that information today!

Somewhat of a side note but there was a documentary done on Circuit City through Amazon. You can see by clicking the photo. Even if you do not watch the video, just reading the comments about it you can see that others felt the same… They really instilled information in us to drive us to be successful and to be balanced, and for that I am grateful.

What if I work out of the home, there is never time!

While I understand for someone working out of the home it may not seem feasible but trust me it can work. I worked outside the home for years and still had my planned days set and somewhat stuck to them. Being organized I think is even more of a MUST when you are working outside of the home and add on top of that a parent. As I begin building my creative space, I will be sharing ways I organize all my craft supplies. Even looking over the past post I brought over to this blog I have oodles amounts of post on organization. I will say there are some post that have videos that are no longer working as they were on my old YouTube channel that was deleted because of a spammer… I am slowly working my way through the old post and updating them, and apologize for those post I have not gotten to.

Honesty

I also became honest with myself about the amount of sleep I actually needed vs wanted. This was hard and it meant to have the life I wanted full of creativity, I have to get up early. Time management is vital, even as a stay at home mom, it is key. For several years I set my alarm to 5:00-5:30am because I realized I needed that morning time for me Tag time. This time of coffee and quietness soothed my soul and helped me get ready for whatever the day threw at me. I read in my Bible, and try to get in a few rows before everyone in the house got up.

After a while my body just got use to it and now I do not even set an alarm but wake daily at 5:30ish ready for the day. I can tell when I skip this time, it shows in my spirit and my reaction to the things around me.

Other Chores

I do have various chores that are in a rotation. There is a daily chore list and a more monthly chore list. I can share those if someone wants to see them but I think those list tend to vary around the activities, jobs and lifestyle we each have. For instance, I am pretty sure not everyone has a weekly check the charge on the power tools batteries before the weekend… lol and yet I do!

Everyone, even the kiddos should be involved

I do want to add that our kids have their own chores and responsibilities and have for a very long time. If you have a younger kiddo and wanting to set them up on some habits that they can build on to be productive little humans as they grow check out Focus On the Family, they have age appropriate kid chore list.

Also son’t be afraid to teach your kids to cook, our boys LOVE to cook and have done so for so many years. When our now 15 year old was 8 you know what he asked for?? His own George Forman Grill so he could make his own steak!

Meal Planning

This has got to be one of the most time saving things we have ever got into the habit of as a family.

Planning our meals for the whole week has been another one of those things we consider a key in our families life. Since we cook for two families daily it does keep the stress down, makes it easy to move days around but the major benefit is it really helps cut down on your grocery bill! For us, we figured out that Sundays, when everyone was home, was the easiest day to call everyone in the kitchen to do a quick meal plan. Each person puts in what they want to eat, we pick 5 meals, write down, list what is needed and then everyone adds the extras they want for the week. The process used to take about 20 minutes but now can easily be done in under 10.

Mondays are grocery buying/errand days here and even though I buy for 2 families I get it ALL done in one day. This involves going to 2-3 stores, and even carrying an ice chest in the summer. I would be lying if I did not say it was a lot of work and it can take up to 3-4 hours to get it all done but by the end of the day it is ALL done, and do not have to leave the house again till about Friday in case anything else comes up.

What if I forgot to get something needed for a meal?

We do without it and have a make it work moment. I am not a shopper, I do not window shop and you will be surprised how much money you can save by just staying at home. lol It was a hard concept at first but even our kids go with it. We have saved so much money by cutting out the “quick” runs for this and that. We have a list, get what is on the list and do not go back till the next week. We only eat out maybe once every 2-3 weeks if even that… and when I say “eat out” I am referring to getting pick up meals or fast food. I think in the past 3 years we have only went into a restaurant 2 times to eat.

Our Process

During the week, we keep a small note pad on the counter and as we use something we write it down, this ensures that none of our staple products run out. As I mentioned above, Sundays we all come together for a menu planning chat.

I bought a Happy Planner Recipe Planner, that helps with this process, actually we have two! One is for every day meals and the other is only for the air fryer and the insta-pot. These also play a pivotal role in making the meal planning go smoothly. Any recipe we try and enjoy gets copied over to them. I think they have allowed the kids to have a say in meal planning which has made them great healthy eaters. They even get the planners out and cook for themselves and done so for years. My kids will even say “make sure you add that to the planner!” When we have tried a meal they like.

Craft Organization

This is so big! You can not squeeze in time to craft if it take you the entire time to find your stuff needed to craft. Sometimes in todays world we may only get 15 mins a day to squeeze in some stitches, that can not be done if 10 mins of that is spent looking for the crochet hook!

Organize the Stuff!

Set up some sort of organization for your crafty things! You can use boxes, baggies, make up bags all kinds of things and have a process that happens each time you finish a project where you put the hooks, needles and extra yarn away when you are done. I really have gotten into the Marie Kondo method of “Tiddying Up”. She has an amazing YouTube Channel where she shows you how to handle all your stuff! I found her process of handling clothes to be very helpful as I have had a hard time of letting clothes go in my past, again I am a sentimental person and have memories tied to things.

Knit and Crochet Pattern, Tools, Books and Magazines Organization

I personally like to use Ravelry to keep up with each of my projects, yarns, and patterns. I have a whole series on how to use Ravelry that can be seen by clicking here.

I also use notebooks to also make notes and even talked about some past notebooks in this youtube video >> Looking back at my beginnings<<

The Printables

The video I made lead to some conversations about knitting and crochet journals… and then I was in a live, I can not remember who’s it was but I learned that y’all want to get your craft things organized and I want to do all I can to help!

I came up with these pages that can be printed on front and back of a page or printed off as is and put in a binder/planner etc. I hope you find them useful and I would love to hear feedback on what you think about them. If I get some feed back I can edit them, if need be. I do have other printables I have made over the years that I will be sharing very soon as well.

Again, as I begin my video series on setting up my #yarnbarnyarntopia I will be sharing lots of ways to organize your stuff to make it easier to grab and create! So make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel so you do not miss a video.

Thoughts?

Now its your turn!

I want to hear about how you stay organized and how you carve out time for your creativity. Do you have some tips and tricks to share?? Please leave a comment bellow and let me know them!

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