Chaos

Color play: Golds, Bt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue & Dioxazine Violet

For the past year I have been doing a daily online course through DailyOM - A Year to Clear.  It's a lovely slow drip that helps people learn to tackle the mess. Soon you see that the real treasure it offers is this:  It guides you, in equal parts, to put in order your outer life and your inner life.

It's been enlightening.

I'm on day #337/365.  I realized this morning that even though I started this course to find a way to deal with the chaos of a huge, several-years-long house remodel and the never-ending mess, that in addition, what I needed to learn was to *allow* chaos into certain parts of my life. 

I need to let my studio stay messy - so that I can see the things that inspire me and so that it's easy to maintain a creative practice. Because I could not impose order on the house, I had imposed too much order on the studio. I have found a better balance now: There is one area of neatness and visual peace, with another area behind me that is a working space where I can leave the supplies and inspirations out and create on the fly. This has helped my creative practice enormously.

But there's more.

As I explored more deeply, I found that 'chaotic' was a part of myself I have kept punched way down and locked away. This class was another attempt to eradicate it from myself completely, when really what it needed was to come out and play.

Organizing Seeds

I finally found a way to organize all my seeds.   I put them in a photo box and then labelled the dividers for the categories that made the most sense to how we garden.

I use separate dividers for the normal stuff that we plant like peas and melons and squash and tomatoes and peppers, etc.

I combined the onions and leek type stuff.  Also all the greens.    Also the herbs.  Also the root vegetables because I want to try some new ones and they'll get lost if I put them under Parsnips, because seriously, who remembers parsnips??

So far I love the system.  Everything stays contained and I don't have to use rubber bands.  The seeds I save, I just put in envelopes and file with the others.

Now that I have this and the seed viability lists, I can toss out the old stuff that won't last and know exactly what I already have so I don't re-order any more than I really need.