Some days it's bedtime and you feel like you've accomplished nothing. Housework need to be done, errands run, meals prepared, bosses appeased, etc. Of course there's no time to pull out your beads, let along spend time in bead contemplation and serious work.
Here are some creative ways to find just a little more time to enjoy your beads and beading. Who knows, maybe you'll create your own beaded masterpiece over a series of lunch breaks at work!
Here are some creative ways to find just a little more time to enjoy your beads and beading. Who knows, maybe you'll create your own beaded masterpiece over a series of lunch breaks at work!
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: Any you can find - which will be more with the help of this How To!
Here's How:
- Pack bead projects for travel. Make up kits of projects you have going. Once a week or so, look through your inspiration (magazines, books, Internet sites, etc) and decide on a project. Pull the beads you'll need for that item and pack them into something you can carry with you. Plastic food containers work great for bead transport.
- Take a good look at your schedule. Most people have blocks of "down time" that is spent in places other than home. Do you have kids in sports? Take a project along to a game! Have a long commute? Keep a small tape recorder and dictate ideas to yourself. If you ride a carpool or public transport and if you can't bead due to motion sickness, take that time to look at bead magazines and beading books. Take a small notepad and draw or write about beading ideas.
- Get up an hour earlier on weekends. You'll have a bit of quite time to yourself while other family members sleep. It can be a very productive hour, especially if you can lay out the night before everything you want to work on. One bit of advice: do not short yourself of sleep in order to bead. Sleep depravation is can cause long-term health issues. If you are overtired, rest and find time for beads a bit later.
- Organize your housework chores and do them efficiently and quickly. Invest insome of the new "miracle tools" for house cleaning. There is a whole assortment of new-fangled mops, wall cleaning sticks, dusters and dust cloths, etc. Stock up on these items and make your housework go faster. Organize your home to make cleaning go faster. Use the leftover time to bead.
- Give yourself a 1 or 2 hour time "allowance" each week. Discuss this with your family members and see if any of them have ways to help you attain this time goal or if they can take over one or two time-consuming chores or errands. You might be surprised at the creative way your family can help you gain a little time.
- Take your notepad and/or sketchpad everywhere! If you can't bead, you can think about and write or draw about beading. If you begin looking at things from a "bead's-eye view" it won't be long before you see beading inspiration everywhere. Jot down notes to help you recall the inspiration once you can access your beads again.
- Wear your beadwork creations! Touching and seeing your beading will keep you in the "bead zone" so that when you do have a chance to sit down and bead, it will take less time to switch gears from the day to the beads if you have them on and can see or feel them.
- Unless you have small children or pets, keep projects accessible and at hand throughout the house. Grab a beading project to work during a long phone call or while you are supervising homework or the kid's chores. Keep several bead projects near your favorite chair so you just pick up the beading while you watch a bit of TV.
- Keep a small project or two in the car. Then, if you find yourself waiting for car servicing, medical appointments or the like, you will have a project at hand.
- Take an occasional beading holiday - use a whole or half-day of personal or vacation time from work and spend the time beading. If you do not work outside the home, hire a childcare provider for a few hours and close the door to your bead area or go to a park, coffeehouse or library to do some beading.
- Swap a few hours of childcare with a like-minded beading friend, giving each other a few hours break to bead. Send your kids to her house so you can pull out your beading then have her kids over to your place so that she may do likewise. You could, every now and then, even plan an overnight stay so that you can stay up late and get up early to bead, bead, bead! Think of all you could accomplish!
- Save time at the bead store by having a list of the items you need, including item numbers and color descriptions and by treating the store visit like an errand instead of a leisure trip. Keep a regular record of the items you need, what things are getting low (clasps, jump rings, glue, etc) and new products you want to look at. Go inside the bead store, purchase the items on your list and leave. Don't hang out and browse. Plan a long visit later and use the extra time now to bead.
Tips:
- Keep projects handy and in your purse, car and near your chairs for those bits of time.
- Don't get obsessed with cramming beadwork into each and every monetn of free time. You need to relax, sleep and recharge, too. You can't do good beading if you're all stressed out.
- Get into the habit of writing about projects you'd like to do. If you try to keep it all in your head, it will end up making you feel stressed.
- Take a few minutes every now & then to sort and organize your beading notes. Recheck project ideads and look over your beads. Plan your bead shopping in advance if you need additional items.
What You Need:
- Organized beads and beading materials
- Projects packed "to go"
- Projects at the ready, all around your house
- Books and magazines along with a great bag to carry them in
- Helpful travel items; needle cases, bags, small plastic containers
- Ideas for quick and easy projects to bead on the run
- Some cooperation from your family members
- Notebooks, sketchbooks, pens, pencils and colored pencils