I used to spend a lot more time here, on the ol’ blog.  I could spend hours and hours giving it facelifts: pinning and tucking the sidebars, the fonts, the archives.  In search of my own style, I’d peruse other blogs and websites to try to mimic this or that element of their space.  Then, after all the time I put into it, I’d get bored of my design, and start over.  Ridiculous.

And that’s not even the most of it, I also spent who-knows-many-hours, working on free tutorials and e-courses over the last year and a half.  Projects that I didn’t need to do, but thought readers might like.

I had people visiting, commenting, pinning, and even recreating my projects.  I loved that!  But it just wasn’t my thing.  Most of what I made, I didn’t keep, and one day I realized, if I don’t care about this stuff, why would anyone else?  So I decided to start honing my energy into something that meant something to me, and I did a little spring cleaning in my life, and on my blog.  I’m sure you noticed (if you still even read this blog) that I traded in my crafting shoes for entrepreneurial ones.  This space shifted gears from Yellow Spool: one of thousands of sewing tutorial sites, to Yellow Spool: quilted maps.

I found something that made my heart sing!  I moved this blog from the homepage, to an archive page, making room for a new shop.  I decluttered the face of my webspace, omitting gadgets and frills for whitespace and simple functionality.  I stopped worrying about whether or not people liked the content of the blog, and starting focusing on whether or not I like the overall content of my LIFE.  I took control to do what I want to do, and you know what?  It feels awesome.

I think the most valuable outcome from all of this, however, is the whitespace I’ve been able to introduce into my real life.

DON’T STEAL TIME; MAKE TIME.

So, I don’t know if that’s a real quote or if I made it up, but it’s true, either way.  I used to steal time for this blog.  I would steal it from my kids, every time I told them “five more minutes, I’m almost done, and then I’ll come play”.  I would steal time from my husband when I sat at the computer editing photos at night instead of turning my chair around to have a real conversation with him.  I think the biggest change in my life the past few months is that I’ve promised to make time, rather than steal it.  I have set up “work hours” for myself that I really try to stick to.  This means I wake up really early every morning so I can work for a few hours before my kids wake up, and  I work through their napping hours.  If I’m not “on the clock” I try not to think about Yellow Spool, so I can enjoy my little cutie pies.  And man, are they worth it!