The Penny Worthy Project

The Penny Worthy Project:

The objective of the Penny Worthy Project is undefined as of right now. It's an idea rolling around in my head begging to get out and that's why I'm starting it without a clearly defined goal. It's a link party, it's inspiration, it's thrifted Sunday, it's your Etsy store, it's your weekly craft check-in, Ebay listings, art journal posts, recipes to share, presents to make, decorating on a budget, book selling and anything else you want it to be.

It's a study in how you are making it, surviving life with or without a job, with or with out your own home. With kids without kids. With special materials or nothing at all. What inspires you? What drives you to be creative? How are creatively making your money go farther?

Our week has been spent playing with trains, cleaning closets, painting an empty bedroom and just being together. It's been nice, although loud, to have my middle son here instead of in school. While the reverse is also true it has been weirdly quiet at times NOT having my oldest son Hero here for Christmas. I have been doing a reverse of my usual thrifting, dropping off a truck load of stuff we can no longer use and only bringing one thing home. I may be sick.

We are heading into the new year with goals for our house and ourselves:

1. get the stuff we don't use out of here
2. streamline our lives 
3. and put things back where they go

I'd like to believe we can cut our time spent on cleanup way down if we have less stuff and put it away when we are done using it. So it's an experiment of sorts, a paradigm shift, moving to living with less stuff to deal with. It already feels great, I keep looking in my closet and saying "good grief when was the last time I wore that? you're outta here!" I'm also looking for mental clarity along the same lines if our house is not cluttered I'll feel less cluttered in my head. And if we can put all these together in one major goal for myself at least it will look something like this: less stuff=less time doing things like clean up=MORE time for things I like and want to do=win/win.

A couple things of note this week, a great old book: The Tometen

looking at the Tomten illustrations I get the feeling I'll be making a few of these guys to tuck into corners in our house. And I'll make them in my studio which I have been planning for almost a year and am finally getting the chance to create. I spent time this week mudding, painting and dreaming in this empty bedroom working hard to create a space for me. Where I can work on reselling, sewing, making and escaping, ahhhhhhh.














And our final act of 2010 was adopting a very sad yellow lab from the pound. She was a puppy mill mama, 5 years with an estimated 10 litters of pups under her belt. Can you imagine? What a sad life, she doesn't even know how to go down stairs or smile that fantastic lab smile. That won't last for long in fact she's already a different dog, she lays down wherever I go, and has quit shivering and shaking. We will save this dog!















How are you living creatively?





Peace and Love--