Saturday, September 11, 2010

Efficiency is a Virtue

I will probably not contribute as an author nearly as often as Dan. There will probably be less wit and humour in my posts. There will definitely be little to no talk about donkey anus hotdogs. In fact, it will probably be all around less flatulent. But here goes...

First off, I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a little environment-obsessed, and I try to instill this in Dan, or anyone, any chance I get, without being too pushy (I hope). I really like green grapes and candy coated chocolate (Smarties in particular, but M&Ms and Eggies are also very good). I !@#%#$% hate loud alarm clocks in the morning, but prefer to wake up to a nice melody or nature sounds. I actually set my alarm at least 15 minutes ahead of Dan's just so that I don't have to listen to his. My favourite band is AC/DC, whom I've had the pleasure of seeing in concert. I suck at sports of any kind that require a ball, and much prefer things like swimming (Water fun, really. I can't actually swim.) and hiking. I've spent the last year and a half grooming dogs as a living, moved here, to Houston, and started mobile grooming on my own. And, oh yeah, I'm a weaver.


I learned how to weave from Laura Fry. She refers to me in her blog (weavingalife.blogspot.com) as Mizz B. One of the values that she instilled upon me, particularly as someone who does this for a living, is efficiency. I've been living with Dan for a few months, now, but have all my equipment set up at my mom's. It was set up when I first moved into town, into my mother's house, and has yet to be moved.

Over this time, I've enjoyed the necessity to take a walk every morning to get to my studio. I've enjoyed seeing my mom for coffee in the morning and being undisturbed while I work after she goes off to work. However, particularly in the last few weeks, I've noticed that it makes it really difficult to get any weaving in during short openings in my schedule. Appointments, clubs, going to grooming appointments and cleaning a friend's house for a little extra cash can really chop up my day, so when it takes half an hour to walk to my studio and back, it's not really worth my time to try to get over there if I happen to have a forty-five minute space between scheduled events.

Dan's been trying to convince me to move my stuff downstairs, to have my studio in our basement. First, the thought of having to move everything (especially the loom) was daunting. Second, walking to my mom's house is basically the only activity I see, other than the occasional hike, so I wanted to maintain that necessity to walk. But I've been convinced that Dan was right (That's right, I'm a woman who admits that her partner is right.... sometimes.) and that I need to be able to access my equipment at any available moment. Thinking back to Laura's teachings, I finally agreed.



So, over the next little while, my main goals will be to get my equipment in the basement, make a certain dollar amount of inventory each week, and to finish my morning routine and start weaving, or working in any sense, by 9:30 at the latest each morning. There... I said it... My goals have been expressed to the world, so as to force myself to focus on them more, or be made a liar.

Keep thinking green! Cheers!

4 comments:

  1. It's truly amazing how those 15 minute chunks here and there add up in the day. :)
    Cheers,
    Laura

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  2. Hence the change of location. I'm trying to be more efficient. I have so many questions now that I've had a wee experience in selling my goods.

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  3. Good - don't know if I have answers but we can brain storm. :)

    btw - have you thought about using old cassette tape/video tape as weft????

    Cheers,
    Laura

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  4. I wish this didn't make me so sad.

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