out with the old?

Okay, so really, this isn't news but...I cleaned the studio today. I did a totally nerdy thing and sat down and figured out approximately how much time I spent last year cleaning my studio rather then working in it and it came out to around forty hours. (Don't ask me how I came up with that, its a totally patented scientific method that involves hours of calculation and complicated mathematics. (Okay, okay...I guessed. So sue me.))

The only thing more daunting then all the time I spent cleaning it was how much time I avoided it like the plague because it needed to be cleaned. Wasted time, I tell you, wasted time. I could have been using all that time to make things.

The biggest reason it often disintegrates into the work room from hell is that I never clean up after I am done with one project. I am so enthusiastic that I finished it that I flee from the room to take pictures and blog about it and don't pay any attention to the train wreck that I've left behind.

I'm making an effort to change that. I was resolute in the face of being sucked into stopping cleaning so I could work on something I forgot about (that's always a doosey, gets me every time.) But when I got to the pile of UFOs...well. I sat down in my chair and stared at them with a leery eye.

I just don't know what to do about them. I mean, if I haven't finished something, I'm not going to. I tend to start and finish whatever I really intend to complete. So the pile I have most likely will never see an exhibit or a blog post or even me waving it wildly at Dooley to see what he thinks.

So I thought I'd ask the blog: what do you do with the stuff you've no intention of finishing?

I can be pretty brutal with my work. I have no qualms about pitching it or taking a pair of scissors to it but I'm wondering if there is a kinder alternative that I haven't thought of. (Too late, though for the three knitting projects I frogged without a second thought. Heartless, that's me.)

Then there's the issue of the completed work pile...time to sell it? Give it away? Who knows...

In neater, less cluttered news, I just posted an interview with Kate of Oma's Patch over on the Mixed Bag Designs blog. Go check it out if you haven't met Kate yet, she's a lot of fun. I neglected poor Mixed Bag Designs over the holidays but now that I can see my the surface of my work table, I've got several wishing owls in the works. I love those little buggers.

And I cleaned up as I went. So far so good...