Jack of Many Trades

New Year, New You: Nothing To It But To Do It

Originally posted: 2012-02-01

For this week’s New Year, New You, Deb asks what I've been putting off, and then tells me to do it.

Well. Ouch.

Amber spent several days last week working on her craft space, which included cannibalising the kitchen table for a sewing table (we didn't eat at it anyway, and the kitchen is much too small for even a folding table) and installing new storage. I very much enjoyed watching and helping her do it, and by the end she was very excited about getting in there and working more.

This, combined with the fact that I made my first paining in months last week while sitting on the kitchen floor, using a chair as a easel, brought to a head the fact that I don't really have a workspace. And this isn't anyone's fault - I didn't think I needed one. I figured I could sit in a chair, or on the futon, with my laptop and be perfectly happy. This worked in our old apartment, after all.

But in our old apartment, the "hang out" space was the front room, and the bed was in the bedroom. The current apartment is a studio, and so that's just not an option. Because of the temperatures, we have the bed in front of the only heater in the apartment. Sitting on the bed is just not conducive to writing for me. The chairs, while comfy for movie-watching or game-playing, are not so good for novel-writing.

I need a desk. And I need to figure out where in the apartment to put a desk, for that matter. But mostly I just need a workspace for myself, someplace where I can sit down and focus. Because sitting down and focusing is the thing I've been struggling with.

Time to go buy some MDF and some table legs, I guess...

The upside of this is that I always feel more accomplished and happier when I've built something, so hopefully this project will scratch that itch, too.