True Calling - And Why You Can't Hear It

Blogging has taken a bit of a backseat these past few weeks for me.  I'm sorry if my posts are less frequent and/or less inspiring.  It's hard to juggle everything all at once.

I remember as a kid always wanting to do a million things all at once for a while and then, shortly afterwards, suffering from boredom.  'I'm Boooooooooooooored!' I would shout and whine through the house. One minute I'd be inventing and illustrating a fictional high-school's yearbook and the next none of that would make sense and I would wonder what else there was to do. It was either hyper-creativity or nothing and never a balance.

As I've grown I've learnt to accept these highs and lows of my creative ambition and activity with a bit more grace, but am still nowhere near to being balanced.  I think what happens is that I have moments of sparks and sometimes forest fires of creativity but haven't yet found the way to contain the flames into a nice cosy fireplace on a cold winter's day.  I wonder when I'll learn that, or at least not to suffer because of it... I guess for the fire a forest fire isn't a bad thing? Maybe even for the forest in the end... don't they say that when the fire dies the ground is more fertile for new growth?

Here's my current fire: In the past few weeks I've been making quite a bit of progress on Hick! my animated short film. Though I have very few people working with me at the moment I've been taking on a lot of the shots myself and blocking them out one by one resolving technical problems as I go.  It's taking a long time but with every shot the animatic looks a bit nicer and there's a bit less to do the next day.  I am still looking for more collaborators so if you know anyone who's an animator or interested in short-film production send them over to Hick! to sign up.

This of course impacts my blogging directly as I only have 3 hours a day to myself and in that I have to find time to meditate, clean the house if needed, prepare food for my family (including shopping) and get anything done on the computer I'd like to accomplish. I'm happy that the movie is moving forward again as it's always something hanging over my head, but at the same time I hate that I have to choose between other creative pursuits to accomplish it.

Here's a list of everything I'd also like to be working on. Maybe writing it down will help me to stay motivated on Hick! and get to these tasks gradually:

Check out this felt fishing game by Nenne on Etsy

• finish creating a knitting pattern for Converse All-Stars
• finish off Sera's chunky toddler hat and scarf set
• Make a post about felt finger puppets
• create my own version of a felt fishing game
• plan Sera's birthday party
• declutter the house an bring old belongings to a market to sell them

Oh well, one thing at a time I suppose... I'm going to get back to Hick now for what remains of the hour and will hopefully have something more interesting to blog you all about tomorrow.