It's About Time

{Recycled bike part clock by 1byLiz on Etsy}

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted."
John Lennon

I have been thinking a lot about time lately.

One of the things that I never have enough of is time. How about you?

It slips through my fingers. I lose it on a daily basis. I am not a wasteful person, and yet I find ways to waste it all day long. And I am certain that I don't appreciate all of it I have.

There is no way to manufacture more, so it is a precious commodity.

The wisdom of the hours would be something different for each of us.

{Clock from MBArtStudios on Etsy}

I spend 1/3 of my daylight hours on work. I sit at a desk with a lovely picture window view of the Wisconsin River. There are tree tops swaying in the breeze turning colors as I type. There are flocks of ducks and geese bobbing in the water, gathering together to plot the best course south. There is the water that can at one moment be smooth and glass like and gray or choppy with frothy white caps. But although the view is lovely, I feel that it is wasted time because I don't feel as if what I do is valued, and that is a waste of time. But this waste is particularly painful since I can't do a thing about it.


I can spend only an average of 4 hours a night working on my business. That is time spent wisely, but it is not always my best time. I may be a night owl, but it is incredibly hard to spend all my night hours forcing creativity. Sometimes it just isn't going to happen. Maybe it is foolish to force it, and sometimes that forcing makes me feel crabby at the same time that I am energized to be creating. So maybe it is a good, if draining use of my time.

This weekend was a lovely weekend to have a fair. Our annual major fundraiser for the Catholic school system that my kids attend was this past weekend. hundreds of hours of volunteering, coupled with hundreds of volunteers amount to thousands of dollars raised through this good old fashioned fair. There were carnival rides and games (we welcomed home a whole menagerie of expensive plush pets!), we won a fish (that will live with my friend Lynna in her 50 gallon aquarium resort), we ate our fill of cheese curds and elephant ears and cotton candy and snow cones, we entered raffles for a shiny new cherry red Mustang convertible (which we didn't win, much to the chagrin of my 12 year old son who insists that he have a car like that in oh about 4 years! hahahaha!) and an iPad and a basket raffle by each of the homerooms in the system (we won nada. zip. zilch). But all that fun and all that money is going to a good cause. So it was a worthwhile way to spend all my time this past weekend.

{Clock by All15Designs on Etsy}

Which leaves precious little time to work on that which I know I should be doing. Because creating and growing and expanding my little beady empire takes time. A lot of time. Time spent planning and organizing and assembling and inventing. Time spent on paperwork (not enough by the stack that I have) and innovating and doodling. Yes, today while I sit here looking out the window on the river, I am also doodling my ideas for a special project that will be due soon. And daydreaming of spending my time actually creating it.

Tonight I will be dividing my time. There is the Rocket's 7th grade football game where I plan to step in as the unofficial staff photographer, the kick off to Tiny Dancer's modern dance lessons for the year, and then I am choosing to spending the first of 2 hours every other week attending the Working Artists Initiative. I think that this idea is definitely worth spending some of my precious time committing to.

My friend Rainy is involved with the International Arts Movement. According to their website, "IAM is a movement. A group of artists and creative catalysts united in wrestling with deep questions of art, faith and humanity. It is people who love art, who love others, and who love the world. This movement seeks to uphold and extol the work of all those who, by their craft, are rehumanizing our world."

The Working Artist Initiative is a pilot program of the IAM. I understand that there will be chapters in big cities like New York, but also here in the heartland where we are to prove it can be done. It is like a Mastermind group comprised solely of artists of various mediums all working on a 32 week goal-oriented program designed to not only help us stay on track with our individual goals, support each other through our various artistic mediums, but also expose us to opportunities in the arts.

I have to decide before this first meeting tonight where I want to focus my efforts, how I would like to spend my time. But I am not sure where to begin and I would love your input.

What do you think I would be a good way to focus my time during this process?

I need some sort of creative inspiration to make jewelry. I could focus on making one necklace or bracelet per week that is focused around a particular theme or color and chronicle the creative process through the blog.

I believe that I need to come up with something that could be a line of jewelry, something that I could call my own. I could focus on creating that line, making it the best I can make it and pursuing a market for it.

I would like to write a book and I am working toward that idea. I could focus on fleshing out that idea, outlining chapters, seeking other collaborators and making pieces that are worthy of being in print.

Or maybe you have some other ideas for me? I would be open to your suggestions.

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
~ Bill Watterson, 'Calvin & Hobbes'

How are you spending your time today?

Do you think you spend your time wisely?

Or is it foolish to think that you ever could?

Do tell!

Enjoy the day!