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Post by angela on Mar 16, 2015 23:20:30 GMT -5
Okay dear creativechaos, your post made me stand up, jump up, throw my hands up, and whoop out loud. Kind of like this:
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Post by papermoon on Mar 16, 2015 23:27:29 GMT -5
Should I keep this?
I have a bunch of cat-tails that I bought in the fall. I tried them in a flower arrangement with mums but didn't realize that they shouldn't go in water. I rescued them before the stems got too moldy and gross. I put them in a dry glass vase next to my kitchen sink. I don't really love them there (or anywhere), but they've become invisible. Harmless, but still kind of a faint buzz on my clutter radar.
Should I toss them in the compost bin? Put them in the Free Box and let them be somebody else's problem or joy? Leave them be?
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Post by Unswamping on Mar 16, 2015 23:34:14 GMT -5
papermoon compost bin. Thats a fall type decoration and spring is starting. I doubt anyone would take them and it might get messy. I wont let them be. They arent being you any joy now. They served their purpose. Let them complete their cycle.
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Post by creativechaos on Mar 16, 2015 23:35:56 GMT -5
if cattails are a noxious weed in your area, papermoon,and there's any chance that there is viable seed in them, i vote NOT the compost bin unless you can "cook" the seed at 160degrees. if you opt for the trash, bagged in black plastic. hereabouts we leave the plastic bag out in the sun to "cook" seeds of our noxious weeds. if there is no seed in these cattails, then freebox is fine. i think you've answered your own question - you don't love them anywhere and they've become invisible to you.
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Post by Unswamping on Mar 16, 2015 23:53:10 GMT -5
CC what a great post. I get what you are saying about loving your materials. A long time ago, i took a drawing class. Someone i knew who did pastels potraits for a living, told me to go and buy the best pastels i could afford, even if it was a very small box. So i showed up at class with a small box of good pastels. Everyone else compared notes about their dollar store and other cheap pastels. The teacher even laughed and said i wasted money. We started the drawing assignment. At the end of the class, we hung our work up for critique. The teacher came to mine and asked who did it. I said me. He didnt believe it. Instead of a tiny, faint drawing in a tiny corner of the page, i had completely filled a huge page with bright color. I left that class that night feeling euphoric, i had found my passion. Those rich, buttery pastels were what i was meant to use. I went home and gathered up all my cheap chalk pastels and donated them. The difference between the good pastels and the cheap chalk ones are worlds apart. Why fight the bad qualities of cheap materials when you have good stuff.
Thank you for the reminder. As i am moving my art supplies, i will weed out the cheap junk and focus on the quality materials.
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Post by razy on Mar 17, 2015 0:30:11 GMT -5
We deserve quality!
We deserve to use the stuff we have been saving for 'good'!
I know we keep saying we are not our mess/hoard but I think it is hard to deny there are close links. When we feel bad about ourselves we believe we don't deserve quality. Getting some of the crap out of our lives might help us get some of the crap out of our psyche
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Post by angela on Mar 17, 2015 0:31:40 GMT -5
Good materials really do some of the work for you. I don't draw but I have done designing on paper and over and over I have seen my amateurish marks be beautiful because of the richer, smoother surfaces and materials I have chosen. And often, when you get right down to prices, a $5 pastel instead of a $1 pastel, really isn't going to break the bank.
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Post by jendela on Mar 17, 2015 0:37:14 GMT -5
CC what a great post. I get what you are saying about loving your materials. A long time ago, i took a drawing class. Someone i knew who did pastels potraits for a living, told me to go and buy the best pastels i could afford, even if it was a very small box. So i showed up at class with a small box of good pastels. Everyone else compared notes about their dollar store and other cheap pastels. The teacher even laughed and said i wasted money. We started the drawing assignment. At the end of the class, we hung our work up for critique. The teacher came to mine and asked who did it. I said me. He didnt believe it. Instead of a tiny, faint drawing in a tiny corner of the page, i had completely filled a huge page with bright color. I left that class that night feeling euphoric, i had found my passion. Those rich, buttery pastels were what i was meant to use. I went home and gathered up all my cheap chalk pastels and donated them. The difference between the good pastels and the cheap chalk ones are worlds apart. Why fight the bad qualities of cheap materials when you have good stuff. Thank you for the reminder. As i am moving my art supplies, i will weed out the cheap junk and focus on the quality materials. Thank you for sharing this experience Unswamping - I think your example beautifully illustrates the saying 'fewer, finer things'. I am trying to get some of my 'good' things out of storage and into use and enjoyment, even if by doing this they get broken or worn out.
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Post by papermoon on Mar 17, 2015 1:15:37 GMT -5
Thanks, Swampy and CC, for the good nudges to let the cat-tails go. The kitchen corner looks soooo much cleaner and fresher with them gone. I've put them in the Free Box with a ribbon tied round them. Hope somebody else enjoys them for a while.
And this, I hope, is the last time I acquire dried flowers or leaves or somesuch. They always seem to end up as cluttery dust-catchers that I hang onto far past the time of enjoyment.
I'll hunt around for some more things I've been clinging to. I'm grateful for this thread's power to make me take decisive action.
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Post by cyn on Mar 18, 2015 9:09:08 GMT -5
Papermoon, in solidarity I'm going to toss some really nice (read: dusty as all get-out!) dried money tree plants I've been keeping for waaaay too long. Thanks for parting with your cat-tails! And thanks for starting this thread, swampy. I'm going to think of it today while I'm going through my 2 bins of memories/papers/treasures/junk. I might change it up a bit, though. I might make it into a 'what the heck are you thinking, keeping that crap?!' instead. I'll save this thread for the kinds of things that would be a struggle to make a decision over - things that would get donated instead. If it's not donatable, and it's only good to me (like the moldy old binder I wanted to keep last week, rotfl) then I'm going to get sassy with myself.
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Post by Unswamping on Mar 18, 2015 9:29:34 GMT -5
Good materials really do some of the work for you. I don't draw but I have done designing on paper and over and over I have seen my amateurish marks be beautiful because of the richer, smoother surfaces and materials I have chosen. And often, when you get right down to prices, a $5 pastel instead of a $1 pastel, really isn't going to break the bank. It wont break the bank unless you buy 500 of them. seriously though, i find the better quality materials actually get used, they are a joy to work with. So if i have $20 to spend on watercolor, i find its better to buy 3 tubes of good, artist quality watercolor then to buy the cheap ones with 30 tubes. I can mix paint to get the colors i want. I used to feel that i wasnt a good enough artist to use good materials. My watercolor teacher taught me a valuable lesson about that. I couldnt learn to be a good artist if i was spending all my time fighting the poor quality materials.
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Post by Unswamping on Mar 18, 2015 9:37:27 GMT -5
papermoon im glad you got rid of the cattails. As much as i love dried flower arrangements, ive learned they collect a lot of dust and are difficult if not impossible to clean. Maybe if they are treated more like fresh flowers, with a time limit on how long they are kept, its not too bad. creativechaos i didnt realize that cattails might be considered noxious weeds. I will check my states website before i plant some in the swampy area of my yard. cyn be kind and gentle with yourself. Youve kept those things for a reason and now youve changed and your reasons for having things in your life have changed. You can gently let things go. Beating yourself up doesnt help.
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Post by papermoon on Mar 18, 2015 13:53:13 GMT -5
Sometimes beating yourself up does help, if it gets you to change for the better.
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Post by razy on Mar 18, 2015 16:38:03 GMT -5
Sometimes beating yourself up does help, if it gets you to change for the better. Tough love on your self (that doesn't sound right) can be useful. 'you are an idiot' type of thinking is not so useful IMO. Often the way we beat ourselves up is the same way others in our life have abused or berated us for 'our own good'. It can leave us feeling worthless and needing to surround ourselves with stuff.
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Post by papermoon on Mar 18, 2015 17:11:10 GMT -5
True, razy, but I was referring to the helpful type of self-beating and berating... it's helpful if it makes us move forward and get out of our self-induced muck. Especially when the moving forward results in positive actions and not just a string of wishful intentions. Maybe I shouldn't say "us"... I'm really talking about myself. It isn't easy or particularly pleasant to kick my own behind into action but I do it. Tough self-love sounds right to me.
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