In my quest to declutter and organise the house I'm uncovering creative projects that haven't seen the light of day for years.  Organising cupboards is always a dangerous and distracting business - you just never know what you're going to find buried right at the back!  I found a whole lot of cardboard, gorgeous sheets of A4 paper and a stack of A5 paper.  All just waiting to be made into books.  One of my many passions is bookbinding.  I adore books.  Reading, writing, collecting and reviewing them on my A Little Bookshelf blog.  

I spent what was meant to be a couple of hours yesterday finishing these books.  The first one went so quickly that I decided to finish all the books in my craft hoard.  Nothing like the start of a new year to get motivated!  These books are Oriental side stitched books and are made with acid free papers and sewn with linen thread.  The one on top has an illustrated story inside for my daughters.  Like all good things, it took a lot longer than I had anticipated.

Ever since I attended an Eco Printing Spring Circle late last year, I have been more mindful of my thoughts while I am making.   And I noticed something interesting while I was making these books.  At the start when things were going well I felt happy and pleased.  It was easy and quick.  I thought to myself, "This is easy. I can make ten of these." and "This is going to be quick, I can also do x and y and z as well."  My thoughts started to wander to the future and that's when it happened.  It became unpleasant to make these books because I was making so many of them and thinking about all the other things I would be doing that day once I  had finished.  It felt too hard and I was regretting biting off more than I could chew.

But I ploughed on until the end thinking that rushing to the finish would somehow make all those unpleasant feelings go away.  Oddly enough, it didn't.  At the end, I felt flat and dissatisfied.  Not at all happy and proud of myself for my achievements.  Look at all those gorgeous books I made.  I should be dancing for joy, not looking for the next thing to make that will give me a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction.

I realised that this is my pattern when I am making things.  It's time to radically rethink my actual process of making.  To be more mindful of what I am doing and thinking while I am making.  In the future (there I go again, living in the future :0), I'm going to try and savour that feeling of "This is easy."  To really enjoy and appreciate it.  To be in that particular moment of ease and pleasure.  To turn the easy into the pleasurable as I learnt from Simon Thakur of Ancestral Movement.  To smile!  Because I need to learn to savour the pleasures of making.