Work In Progress

Here's what I've been doing today. Well, at least part of what I've been doing. The Short One is normally not a good napper. On average, he only sleeps for about an hour - hour-and-a-half. His pediatrician has told me flatly that this is not enough sleep for a child his age, and we grapple with this issue on a daily basis. (For some reason, my asking him nicely to sleep a little longer doesn't seem to have much of an effect. Weird, huh?) As a result, on days that he does take that age-appropriate, longer nap, either 1) I am completely unprepared to take advantage of the extra time to get things done, or 2) I completely freak out and wonder if he's actually still breathing up there. So you will understand when I say I feel pretty proud that, during his unusual three hour nap today, I managed to get a bunch of chores done and a little beading. If only we could schedule these longer naps into the calendar. I wonder if I could ask the SO...

Anyway, obviously, this necklace is still a work in progress. It does, however, give an idea of how I work. I generally start out by opening up my stash and putting together color groupings. After I have determined color, I then weed out based on shape. Whatever is left, is what I end up spreading out on the table for my project. (Of course, this is sort of a generalization - sometimes I will have specific beads in mind for specific projects from the get go.) Then I usually gnash my teeth, pull my hair and agonize over composition for an indeterminate period of time. A friend of mine, who makes really beautiful beads and jewelry, told me that she aims to spend no more than an hour on any given beading project. I find this mind-boggling (bear in mind, again, that her stuff is really lovely and very original). I can see that becoming more efficient in this process is a goal I need to pursue - I definitely cannot get anything finished in an hour or less. I don't know, perhaps I should aim for getting something done in less than three days? (Okay, that is a slight exaggerating, but you get my drift.)

To this end, I've decided to try and get at least four-six projects finished this week. I had the foresight, for once, to check the editorial calendar of a magazine in which I've been interested. I've managed to miss the issue deadlines three times, due to complete absent-mindedness. As it stands, the next deadline is in a week, hence my suddenly ambitious (ambitous for me, at any rate) goal. So, if I seem as if I'm blithering a little more than usual this week, that'll be why.

Fortunately, my Ornament Thursday project is finished, and the next two posts will be OT-related. The format this month will be a little different. Tomorrow (and I may just post before going to bed tonight for Wednesday), I will offer a short sneak peek at the OT project. On Thursday, I will revise the same post to offer the full OT project. The reasoning is a little complicated, but this is the best way we've been able to organize the whole OT project. So, if you have this blog on bloglines, you will not get a notice about a new blog entry for Thursday. However, there will be a new entry - it will just be an edited version of the Wednesday posting. Clear as mud? Just stop by on Thursday - I guarantee that there will be something new to read. There won't be any project instructions this month, but I will offer some background on the piece.

Having said all this, I should probably get to work. Thanks for stopping by!