Crafts and the Obsessive-Compulsive

I have a tendency to think a project to death. I'll deliberate about all sorts of decisions until the deadline for actually doing the project has come and gone. I'm learning this about myself. So . . . yesterday when I saw this Thanksgiving idea at {in}courage, I got right to work.

I saw the project.

I started the project.

I conquered the project.

And now, I'm blogging about the project. The project entails making a count-down calendar to Thanksgiving with a pocket for each day containing a card for listing each day's blessings and a fun activity to do as a family. Here are some observations I made about my "old self" and "new self" during this process:

1. In the past, I would've spent copious amounts of time thinking about "how" to do this project. The "new me" didn't waste time planning how I was going to do it. I started actually putting it together within minutes of seeing the idea.

2. The "old me" would've felt this project was impossible to do without buying the "perfect" supplies. The "new me" grabbed what I already had in my craft cabinet. No shopping meant saving money. (Saving money is new to me as well.)

3. Back in the day (as in last week), I would've felt greatly conflicted about starting this type of count-down, do-something-daily project when days on the calendar had already lapsed. Starting five days into it would've seemed imperfect--not allowable or desirable, for that matter. It would've been filed away for another year when I could "do it right." Yesterday, I toyed with the idea of trying to make up the four days, but allowed my "new self" to prevail. Today, we started on Day Five and the world hasn't fallen apart.

4. Before yesterday, I would never have joyfully allowed a child to participate in constructing the calendar. Many joint-creative projects of the past have ended with a disapponted child walking away saying, "Mommy, you just do it" after I had corrected, repositioned, over-instructed, and hovered over his shoulder the entire time. I didn't totally conquer this one, but I did allow seven-year-old child (not four-year-old child) in on the fun, and we were able to happily work together in such a way that he felt he contributed. And my need for symmetry wasn't violated. To my credit, four-year-old child was completely uninterested in helping--thank goodness!

5. Finally, in times gone by, I would've been hyper-focused on finishing this project once having started it. I am not a multi-tasker, so stopping the project to take care of other needs would've been difficult for me. Not this time! I was forced to work in snippets of time over the last 24 hours to complete it. I managed to set it aside, when necessary, rather than neglecting other duties to finish it. However, I did forget to thaw meat for dinner, and emergency pizza had to be ordered. I'm not sure that can totally be blamed on the project!

I obviously haven't attained total victory from my Type-A, obsessive-compulsive tendencies as noted by the sheer fact that I've entered into serious self-analysis over a Thanksgiving craft, but it is refreshing when an otherwise uptight person gets a glimpse of how the other half lives. This may not be a lasting change. I might be back to a Type-A Advent in December, but I'll do my best to remember the joy of fuss-free crafting.

By the way, here's how my little project turned out:






Since this is a Thanksgiving craft, I might mention that I am very thankful for mounting stickers--you know, little tiny double-sided sticky squares that make scrapbooking and other projects much easier.