5 Ways to Get Your Mojo Back

So, I have been gone for a while.  First, it was Teacher Appreciation Week (our school did it March 24th-28th and I was in charge of the whole shebang).  Then I got pneumonia - again.  But now I'm back with a vengeance!  I'll do a quick recap of Teacher Appreciation Week tomorrow and talk about quilting on Friday -- unless I get sick again!

My last post, I'm so sorry to say, talked about how I was avoiding doing any sewing -- and it stayed up for more than a month.  How embarrassing!  I found my mojo within a week of writing that post, and I'm sad I haven't been able to share until now.  Here's how:

 

1. I gave myself a break.

After writing that post, I realized I really needed to stop feeling guilty about not wanting to sew.  I had so much going on, I really felt stressed – and I am NOT a huge fan of organizing parties, so Teacher Appreciation Week was really stressing me out!  I told myself that I didn’t have to do anything until after that week of craziness was over – and I didn’t!  It was amazing how much more motivated I felt after that week was over, too.  I wanted to sew again!  But before the week was over, I participated in a Rainbow Flashmob on Instagram. I was accidentally assigned two different colors - blue and orange - so I did both. It was so fun!

2. I organized some areas in my sewing room. 

I know it might not look any different to anyone else, but I completely organized my little bins, wrote down every single project I'm working on, and found some room for my kids' projects.  I don't know if I'm slightly OCD or what (and really, who isn't?), but I really can't focus on any project until I have a clean space to work.  I’ve discussed it with my sisters, and we all have the same problem.  We’ve decided that maybe it’s because we get overwhelmed by too much work, so we just don’t start.  I think it’s a perfectionist thing – if you can’t do it perfectly, why even try?  So, cleaning up the things that didn’t need to be there really helped me to focus on what I needed to do.

 

3. I started eating right & exercising.

I know this doesn’t necessarily correlate with quilting, but I really noticed a difference in my motivation when I started eating really healthy and exercising.  My sister’s sister-in-law had a health challenge, and it REALLY was a challenge!  We got a point or two for everything we did perfectly each day, and the points were for things like eating no sugary treats, no fried foods, and 5 fruits & veggies each day.  To get a perfect score you had to exercise FOUR HOURS a week!  It was so hard for me – but I was killing it until I got pneumonia!  Now I’m back to my sedentary ways (I’m still in recovery and don’t want to do too much too soon), but tomorrow I’m going running with a friend and have high hopes of being healthy again.

4. I made a design wall.

I used ideas from a couple of different tutorials (from Oh, Fransson! and Ellison Lane, mostly), but basically I got some foam insulation and taped batting around it.  I just used tape because I don’t have a staple gun – we are very basic on the tools around here – and I thought it would work out okay.  It looks so good, I think!  There was a cute little photobomber in this picture – I asked him to look tough with his “sword” and this is what I got!

5. I have a deadline.

There’s nothing like a deadline to really make you go go GO!  I am going to International Quilt Market in May, and my goal of four new patterns just can’t happen – since I lost a week and a half to pneumonia, I really can’t do one more thing.  But I do think I can get three new patterns done.  I really need to focus and work hard, but now that things are tidy and I’ve got my mojo back, I really think I can do it!  I'll have an update on Friday -- we'll see how I do!