Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  My favorite holiday.  I have lots of favorite holidays, but New Year is always especially wonderful.  For most of my life it was a most depressing holiday.  Christmas was over and there was the let-down from that, plus going back to school was depressing to me.  It was the middle of winter, which in itself I didn't mind, but it seems that every year of my childhood, I had a very bad cold at New Year, probably from od'ing on sugar at Christmas!

When I got to be in my 30's, I realized just how much I dreaded New Year every year.  I decided I had to change that.  I decided from that point on, I was going to take New Year as my very own and make it what I want it to be!  Every since then it has truly been my MOST favorite holiday!!

I use it as a launching pad from all the frustrations that I have experienced from the previous year, to make those changes that will improve my life.  Some people call them resolutions.  I don't really have a problem calling them that.  I like making firm decisions about what I want to do.  I think commitment is a very powerful tool, when it is taken seriously.

So what are some of my goals for this new year?  First, and I think most important, is that my "no" will really mean NO from now on.  No more being talked out of my NO.  People can beg, plead, cajole, jab, complain, whine, manipulate, disbelieve, disregard, or just plain dis my NO, but I will say it just once.  After that I will repeat my new mantra, "You have my answer", for however many times they insist that they want to hear it.  I will resist the temptation to explain myself - to the best of my ability.  I will learn to take my NO seriously and that will translate to others.

Next is a goal that I set almost every new year, and that is to SIMPLIFY!!!  It is a never ending challenge to keep my house simple.  I tend to grab a lot of things from the thrift stores and I end up with more things than I really have room for.  I know I'm not alone in this!  But with my hubby who runs a computer business in addition to his full-time job, the computers are now filling the basement, and the "spare" bedroom.  Don't you love that word "spare", as if I could live without it!!  Plus my daughter has many many deliveries and therefore boxes, that fill the garage...oh me oh my...I really have to keep my stuff down to a minimum if I am to have any semblance of order around here!!  I have relinquished ownership of the spare bedroom, the basement, and the garage.  Maybe someday I'll get them redeemed.  But for now, I just have to maintain the rest of the house.

This sign hangs on the wall behind my computer screen where I can always be reminded.

So I have spent this week doing a lot of decluttering in my studio/desk area, and I've gone through the kitchen and the dining room.  Next is the family room.  The piles have moved westward all week, room by room and it's just one more room to the garage and then OUT for good!

I cleaned out my jewelry supplies area and ended up with four EMPTY small drawers!!!  Empty space is a good thing.  You don't have to try to fill it.  Trust me, it will fill itself in no time.  But while it is empty, try to enjoy the open space.  Whenever I clear a new spot, whether it be a counter in the kitchen, or some shelf that was filled and now is only half full, there is a desire to fill that spot with something - anything, just to fill it up!  But with a little effort, I can leave those empty spaces here and there and just let them be.  It really helps to promote a peaceful feeling and a more restful creativity can come as a result.

See my empty drawers?

As a musician, I am often reminded that the rests, those places of silence between the notes, are just as important as the parts when we are making sounds.  It is so true and you can apply that to your physical world as well.  There's a reason those empty spaces are called "rests".  So now I think of my empty drawers as rests.  If you feel a lack of rest in your life try creating some brand new empty spaces.


I also decided I needed to simplify my photography setup.  I worked long and hard on the light box, but it was just too big and too complicated and I couldn't use the table it occupied because it took all the space.  So I made a very simple display board that stands on its own, and I put my photo lights right at my desk.  That way they serve me while I work on my jewelry as well as for the picture taking.  I use clamp lights so it's easy to move them around and clamp them onto the shelf or to the pole lamp I have.  I can just tuck the display board behind the computer, or put it up on the shelf when it's not in use.

Simplified display 

  Here's my little "studio" all cozy in the corner.