And yet, half-done.

I apologize! I forgot all about Thursday’s post, which is up now. (And backdated. I love that the Internets will never know that I was behind!)

It has been a bit of an odd week. An old friend sent me a link about Seth Graham-Smith, the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. He has brokered a two-book deal for over half a million dollars based on the success of P&P&Z.

After the flash of pure jealous frustration, I had a bit of an epiphany. First, no matter how much I like to doubt myself and no matter what the world at large (and in specificity) says, a) money is still changing hands and b) being a starving artist is an affectation, not a requirement. I’ve spent a good deal of time trying to do everything I could think of to do something I won’t find abhorrent ‘while I work on my art.’

Time that I suddenly see now should really have just been spent *working on my art*. I am really now in the place that I want to clear up these lingering projects that I’ve assigned myself and focus on what I love doing. I should have seen from the endless ways in which I sabotage myself when trying to turn to a ‘reasonable, logical’ pursuit that they were things that I was wasting my life doing. Sometimes doing the simplest tasks I stumble over finishing, however projects like this blog and promoting I still manage to get done, consistently.

And so in that vein, I have finished my latch hook rug! It is the first one of the half-dozen or so I’ve started over my life. Sometime this week I’ll head to Michael’s and look for matting and a frame and it will be done. Because finishing things, these days, has become very, very (symbolically) important to me.

Rainbow Unicorn Latch Hook Rug DONE

In much more fun news, right when I am feeling down, something lovely happens. In this case, I got a lovely comment from one of my favorite artists, Thalia Took. It really is all worth it, in the end.

A couple months ago, I bought possibly the most hideous unicorn latch hook kit ever to have graced the shelves at WalMart. I worked on it rather diligently over TV watching for a couple months, but then gave up on it.

I’ve been giving up on a lot of projects of late. It is not that I am no longer interested, because I am, I just have lots of great ideas and tend to drop an unfinished project for a new one. Lately I have been faced with financial issues, and as I flitter about trying to find a way to make ends meet without going back into a profession I loathe, I have dropped and picked up even more projects to see which will end up most profitable in the shortest amount of time.

I’m sure you can imagine for yourself how well that has gone.

So I am back to my latch hook rug. I bought it because I had overwhelmed myself with projects and wanted something direct, simple, and easy. And because the triumph of finishing anything would cheer me immensely.

Unicorn Latch Hook Rug

So now every day I have resolved to work on this ridiculous rug until it is done. And I have picked a project or two (including this one!) to keep up and have put all the rest on hiatus. It might take a few more hideous rug choices to keep me motivated enough to get me through my personal projects, but that is ok with me. Because the world always needs more ugly crafts to sell at craft fairs?