The Week That Was: Inspiration & Rejuvenation
What can I tell you about the past week. Well, things have been hotting up here as I have just signed on the dotted line for a very exciting new project – one that has the mother of all tight deadlines. The last few days have been catching up and finishing up on prior commitments – which, let me tell you is perhaps the hardest things about working freelance and a new opportunity jumps out at you. It is almost impossible to focus on the ‘here and now’, when your head is off on the ‘what can be and what will be’. There is a lot to be said about clearing the decks before starting the next big project, a luxury we don’t see enough of in this game, that’s for sure. My focus lately has been for getting the right work/life balance - and things are starting to come together little by little. There has been more time spent relaxing. Which is strange for me, as down-time usually involves ‘working’ on a little project here or there. There has been reading, movie watching, dog hiking, coffee dates, renovation projects and hangs with friends. The kind of all the things that normal life should be including. Letting go of the ‘must work all hours’ mentality is a pretty hard one to shake, let me left you! But, I have to confess, I feel more energised, more excited about the weeks ahead and there is no frantic clock watching or list checking going on. For the next few weeks I’ll be stepping away from the sewing machine. Which is the oddest feeling as right up until now this has almost been my go-to workhorse. I know that it will be glad of the break from the constant stitching and seaming. While it will be good to work on something other than stitching, and getting busy with yarns for a pleasant change, it is also pretty strange. In fact, I did wonder if this might need to be surgically removed from my body! 
It is wall-to-wall new challenges round these parts. The lasers are set to supreme focus and my work game is going to have to be pretty tight to get everything done in time. Love them or loath them, deadlines are what makes this freelance world go round. One thing that I have learnt about managing deadlines is being organised, being on top of dates, briefs and schedules. It is like a game of Jenga sometimes, you have to keep on moving those bricks, carefully carefully hoping that the whole thing wont come crashing down on you. Time management spreadsheets, lists and keeping up-to-date with admin – Gah! I know what your thinking, win;t nothing sexy about a spreadsheet. Well, your half right on that one. I don’t find them the most exciting thing on the planet, but, I do find that it helps me to keep track of all those plates I’m juggling. I know where my headspace needs to be and when and so far deadlines and real life are working together more harmoniously. The last few days I have learnt that being creative and finding inspiration- to a brief – is both challenging and can feel a little haphazard at times. I mean, you want to approach a new project in the best possible way, but you can’t always guarantee you’ll have the ideas right when you need them. I wrote a while back about banishing a creative slump, and much in the same way, having a flood of inspiration and no means to organise them into a logical process can also result in getting nowhere fast! This time round I have been applying some organisation to the muddle of ideas for this new project, bringing them together to help me to work both creatively and efficiently. So, for those of you looking to find a way to focus all that inspiration and creativity here’s how I’ve been Organising My Inspiration (and not a spreadsheet in sight…well, not unless you want one that is!) 
Four Ways to Organise Your Inspiration 1 Smart Start What do you want to do – what have you been commissioned to do? Here is where you focus you thoughts on what it is you actually want (or need) to achieve. Note down a couple of sentences or scribble out some key phrases that sum up what you want to, or have been asked to work on. While this sounds lame, this is the first step in really honing in your inspiration. I mean, it is great if you are coming up with a billion new designs for quilt tops…unless of course you have been commissioned to create a menagerie of amigurumi animals. See, this is the first hurdle for creative folks! One sure fire way to get all the inspiration in the world is to have to focus on something specific. Don’t completely disregard your other, not-relevant-at-this-time, ideas – just make a notes of them someplace else to allow you to focus on the task in hand. 2 Sketch, doodle & draw I’m no artist, not by a long shot. But, I can work on sketches that communicate the initial ideas into a working guide (for myself and others) for each of the makes. Keep a notebook and pencil with you and be sure to make notes doodles or sketches as they pop into your head. Having them all stowed in one place will help you to note reoccurring themes, style points and can even highlight things that are missing for the design or collection of designs. No one needs to see these, if you a little sketch shy, or you can put them out there, ask others for advice and feedback which you’ll welcome a lot more than when your showing your finished piece. 3 Colours, Supplies & Tools Ok – so I’ll confess, I used a spreadsheet here…but, you don’t have to, you can create a simple list – the principle is the same. Once you have your ideas for the final piece, or collection of pieces. You can work over the pictures with ideas for colours, materials and accent that you might want to include. For commissions you might have set instructions for the materials you need to use, or you might have started out with a skein of yarn and that formed the inspiration for the sketch. Either way, this is the place where you can make a formal ‘shopping’ list of what you need and the tools and supplies that you must have to hand. Setting out all your materials upfront is a sure fire way to keep you on track. 4 Progress & Development There are very few creative projects that don’t teach us a thing or two – be it that you hate using the colour green or that you much prefer twisted rib over standard rib for you knits. During a make you will be learning lots of things about the materials you are using them and the techniques you are using. I find it handy to work back over my notes and add in any little updates or changes that I have made to the original design. This will prove to be a fantastic resource is you every want to remake the item, or if you need to create ‘how to’ instructions, or even for working back over the ideas when you are looking for fresh inspiration for a new make. This has been my creative process recently as I embark on a new project, how do you like to organise your creative inspiration?
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