Working with Limitations.

I have to say, I feel pretty limited in where I currently am. It seems to stifle my creativity.

On a practical level, I live in a very small apartment. It is one room. And I really love it, but it does have it's drawbacks. We have one VERY SMALL closet. There just isn't much space to A. store materials for projects or B. actually do them. My slightly OCD nature makes it really difficult for me to leave materials and partially finished projects out in the my general living area where I have to see them all the time. So my choices are leave all the stuff out and try to ignore it when I'm not using it, or trying to put it all away and pull it out again every time I want to work on the project, which is not appealing in the least. However, I am trying to make the best of my resources. For example. We never eat at our table. So why not use my kitchen table for my sewing machine? Perhaps I will come up with other creative storage ideas along the way.

The other major limitation I find is that this town is pretty devoid of inspiration. There isn't much natural beauty, and it is lacking in cultural or artistic experiences to be had. This town is actually a very stagnant place. In fact, as perfect example, the most beautiful thing about this town is the downtown, which has really lovely, picturesque buildings. But for the most part they sit empty and unused. There is a neat old theater that is supposed to be getting renovated, but I don't think I've ever seen any work being done on it. It probably will never be finished because it will never get funded. This town just isn't interested in improving. Meanwhile, it seems like a new "payday loan" place springs up every month. It's sad. This town wants to be mediocre, and it's difficult not to just be mediocre along with it. It doesn't really foster creativity at all. At least in me. I've been checking out Craftgawker, however, and trying to draw inspiration from there. I also want to start reading more again (I've always loved reading, but have sort of gotten out of the habit). I figure if I don't put anything in, nothing is going to come out. So I want to try and look for inspiration where I can find it.

Another limitation is a lack of funds to spend on materials for projects (even for really cheap materials sometimes) and even if the funds are to be had, sometimes the materials are not. For example, if I wanted to cook a special meal, I might not be able to get the ingredients I needed. And the only craft type stores here are the small, local ones. And I would love to shop local and support them, but I honestly just don't have the money. And I can't make a trip half an hour away (which is where the nearest craft/decent grocery stores are) very often. But I do like to try and make do with what I have. We actually have a pretty decent Goodwill and Salvation Army here, and if I can get some ideas going, I can utilize them. Perhaps even draw inspiration from the items I find.

I've actually been working on a few projects today, and I have a few others in mind which I hope to debut in a future post.

I have great hopes that Moberly will not be my permanent home, but I'm starting to try to make the best of it while I'm here. It's taken me a while to come to that point, but I feel like I'm losing part of myself to Moberly, and it scares me. If I don't start going in the other direction now, I'm worried I may never escape this slow descent into mediocrity.