Brief Respite

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:11

I have an inspirational calendar in my kitchen that starts off each week with scripture from the Bible. This week it was the above quotation which amused me no end since this is exactly what I had planned for the week. In the course of doing this, I passed up an invitation to a Mary Kay make-over (not so difficult) and lunch with ladies from the church (a little more difficult). These are the sorts of outside distractions that I've succumbed to too easily and let derail my good studio work intentions.

It's been difficult to keep up my enthusiasm for the studio the last few days. The old, "I don't want to work, I want to goof off" attitude was setting in, perhaps because the work I had to do was not my favorite. Or because I was having to make uncomfortable decisions about it. At any rate, I could feel the rebellion building, and it boiled over today. I needed to go out shopping anyway, and I used that as an excuse to get out of finishing the quilting on the TIFC and/or the binding on the Chinese Poem Challenge.

I'm not being too hard on myself about it, though. After all, I've put in at least 4 hours every day since last Saturday. I guess a break was in order, and there's still Saturday and Sunday to get them finished up. I couldn't let the whole day go without some work, even with permission. This afternoon I sat outside appliqueing on the azalea mosaic. I am determined to make the most of my two week self-imposed isolation to "do the work." I'm really pleased at how this has gone and hoping that I am truly getting back into the creative habit.