Unfinished business

I don't finish things well.

Today I made a list on a post-it note of things that I have been procrastinating on/about for a while now:

1. The biggie - I have this counted cross stitch sampler I started (before my first kid was born, as far as I can remember I bought this at least 12 years ago) It is all 50 states and this is what it should look like (finished)

this is what it does look like - (not finished) . It bugs me that it's not done but I seem to be unable or unwilling to start working on it again. Mr. Carly likes to say that by the time I finish it Puerto Rico will be a state. Isn't he just the funniest guy? (not)

2. I inherited all my great aunt Helena's photos. Awesome things like photos of my great great grandparents, like this... my great grandmother is the girl on the left and those are her siblings. So in otherwords, Helena's mother, and her sister Augusta, and their brothers, whose names I have written down SOMEWHERE, and that piece of paper/ family tree is with my scrapbooking stuff.

Ms. Carly Scrapbooker had great visions of organizing all of the photos (including 3 boxes of slides - Helena traveled around the world in her lifetime and took slides everywhere. I had this idea that I could print a few from each trip and include them in the album. Mmmmyeahright.) Haven't looked at that stuff in a while. It is sort of merged into the scrapbook goodies I have accumulated and I'm not touching those lately either. When I first started scrapbooking I had this vision of doing a family album and one for each of my kids and let me tell you, that's a bad idea. I can not keep ONE up to date much less three sets.

3. Jewelry - I learned how to make beaded necklaces/ bracelets, loved it, bought some beads and made a few pieces, ( including but not limited to pink, purple, & the fish ) and now I have a bunch of beads all bought, organized and sitting untouched. I've made and sold exactly one piece and I had a couple of other people interested in buying "something" from me.

4. Recipes- I had this vision of taking the cookbook magazines and the loose recipes I've torn out over the years and organizing them into one or more binders so that I don't have chicken, hamburgers, and spaghetti over and over and over. Said piles are still in the bottom of the hutch in my kitchen. No links here, I bet you're bored with them :o)

5. Little painting projects. You know, go to the arts & craft store, buy something wood and paint it to decorate. I have a shelf that I need to paint for my son's trophies. I have some ornaments I was going to do with the kids to give as Christmas gifts (they're some sort of plaster that I can use the acrylic paint on, and not have to fire them)


What is the lesson here?

a. Carly's husband is very patient with her and her piles of artsy-craftsy stuff that she buys and doesn't really finish/use up. Someone called me a collector once. I love to buy the stuff, I just never get around to using it. Bad, bad, bad.

b. I need to win the megamillions lotto (sorry Sarah, we here in Albany are going to win it this week but I will send you a nice housewarming present), then I need to build a big house with plenty of storage and a large studio/workroom for some of these projects, and then I need to quit this pesky job that keeps me too busy to spend time on my projects, and hire someone to come to my new house and make me spend time doing these things. Kinda like a personal trainer. A personal anti-procrastinator who will cut my pinkie off each time I look at the computer when I am supposed to be working on a project.

c. Failing that, I need to incorporate regular time to spend on this stuff instead of ... hmmm... well, blogging and reading other people's blogs quite so much.

Is there a self-help group or a "steps" program for this?This disorganization and failure to focus on end goal also affects me in other ways - failure to budget my money effectively, and so on. Geez, now I feel like a total loser. Do I have ADD or something? I'm not even kidding.

P.S. - I got Rob Thomas' new CD, "...something to be" and it's awesome but I didn't finish my post about it yet....