So many talents, so little time! was my motto for so long, and now I am making the difficult decision to banish some mediums from my life for, basically, ever.
With tremulous hands I picked through my baskets of crafting supplies, hesitant to be rid of anything that might come in handy, craft-wise, in the future. But here my things lay, powdered with at least five years' worth of dust motes, untouched save by the odd carelessly flung sock that may have landed in a basket as they moldered in the closet corner. And then, steeling my resolve, I began to heft whole baskets into a garbage bag.
What brought about this sudden, relentless purge? To tell the truth, I was more than a little exhausted by how many projects I have scattered about, woebegone and half-finished, some of which had been lying in wait for me to finish the for more than three years now. I can blame my new-found love of chucking things out, at least partially, on the fact that I am moving into an apartment and thus need to consolidate my space while I can. But those idle projects have been gnawing on the edge of my consciousness for a while now, disconsolate zombies of decoupage and paint, and I keep coming back to a realization I had a few weeks ago.
Just because I *CAN* do it doesn't mean I *HAVE TO* do it.
So what if I have the capacity to make collages? Do I even *like* making them? Well, the end result might look nice, but it's a heck of a lot of mess, honestly. And all of those odds and ends of jewelry donated to me by friends who thought "this might be useful in your jewelry making!" well, thanks, but they were pretty useless after five years, so boop! Into the rubbish bin they go. I don't need to be stockpiling fabric if I have no ambitions to be a seamstress, and who is going to care if I only make a handful of earring styles? Everyone needs a niche, right?
If I do decide to embark on a solo oil painting exercise, I will buy what I need for the project and donate the rest. No need to drain all of my thin energy into fifteen canvasses, a quart of phthalo blue paint, and hours of frustration staring at all of that crap piled into a corner when I run out of ideas for what to do with it (besides making a bonfire, of course).
Already I am feeling my spirits lighten, having less to distract me from the things I really like to do - although until Netflix goes belly-up, there will always be *that* to distract me - and my cats are enjoying all of the new spaces they can explore in the closet and under the bed.
Plus, my space is a hell of a lot cleaner right now.
