Muse 4: Procrastination & Rodents

Those who have known me a long time know this:

I am awesome under pressure.

I am awesome in a crisis. 

If you sprain your ankle or your spouse leaves or you have emergency surgery, I'm your gal. I can immediately see what needs doing with the sharp eye of woman who grew up  with periods of nuclear family normality punctuated by sudden chaos and no clear leader. (At least that's how I internalized it.) It creates an ability to assess a situation in the moment and care for the others in the pack. I can stay calm and keep others calm, too. I am totally the one you want on your team in a zombie apocalypse.

However, being skilled at awesomeness-under-stress leaves you with two other fringe "benefits":

• You think you can leave everything to the last minute and it will all turn out swell. 
• You become addicted to the adrenalin rush of stress rewarded with accomplishment. 

That's not the good kind of stress, let me tell you. That's the kind that wreaks havoc on your heart and brain and produces that "cortisol" crap that all the weight loss commercials talk about adding weight to your mid-section. (Hey! Stop looking at my muffin top!)

So, you know how they say "adventure adrenalin junkies" go out and look for opportunities to get a rush by bungee jumping, free climbing, or pretending to be paparazzi while following Alec Baldwin? 

Stress adrenalin junkies procrastinate and then, in the last minute, attempt to come through with flying colors and get the "A". This is my opinion but I think we can all agree it could and should be proven as medical fact. And it usually ends not in accomplishment but in tears. Because this is not something we are planning for or prepared to handle should it come up. We're literally pushing it off and creating the scramble at the end. Which is completely different than an emergency. Importantly, I have learned to NOT do this in life. But in small ways it still sneaks through. (Hence, this blog.)

And now to the card. My friend G has a birthday in February. When I first knew her and asked G what day her birthday fell on she said, "I don't want to tell you, you'll make jokes." (She already knew me pretty well, I guess.) Finally, she admitted her birthday was Feb. 2. Which meant nothing to me. She said, "It's Groundhog Day." 

Now I would like to say in my defense that HAD SHE NOT SAID ALL THAT I wouldn't have made jokes. At least, not every year. I didn't even know that was Groundhog Day. But now I am committed. This year, I tried to be kind. I made a nice Groundhog card. Not the kind who forecasts more snow.

Here is where I procrastinated: I had the idea all planned out but did nothing to get it into physical form. I have been known to tell someone that something is completely designed and when they ask to see the sketch I point to my head. And it's true. The drawing board up there somehow holds onto detailed project plans for months even when I can't remember why I came in the kitchen, dammit.

This card I literally put off until the morning of a birthday breakfast. It was already belated. I was already running late. But I couldn't NOT bring the card. (This is my own personal thought police. She would not have judged. Teased, but not judged.)

So I pulled up the project that I had planned a month before on my brain's drawing board. (Wait, I think Sherlock calls it his "mind castle" which sounds much better.) So I accessed my "mind castle" and pulled out some kraft and white card stock, my Stampin' Up markers and my fussy-cut scissors. And look, it's the Martha Stewart Bird On A Wire border punch again! I told you it would be coming back! *

The front I made with two pieces of torn white card stock to represent the drifts. I dotted white ink pen for falling snow - also added to the tops of all the black sharpie hand lettering, as if snow had fallen on them. Inside, it is Spring!

I colored the birds into bluebirds and added a handwritten message, "The Groundhog says winter will end, and you still look like a Spring Chicken!" The pop up is a quickly drawn rodent, cut to shape and added to the pop up mechanism. (The card is meant to be viewed open and flat from the side.) If I had taken more time, the groundhog would have been larger. Furrier. Arms that didn't look like he was half-T-Rex. G poo-pooed all these comments at breakfast, because she is a good friend.

Further proof of procrastination? The photos herein were taken AT THE RESTAURANT on the table. I actually had to ask G for the card back so I could take pictures. I was called something politically incorrect like "Native American Take-r Back-er", meaning I was the cheating pioneer trader I assume. But I did give it back. 

I hope I inspired you to not put off for tomorrow what can be crafted today! A sense of accomplishment on time is much better than a sense of getting it done eventually!

Liza

*(I don't get anything for these links, BTW, they are there if you want to know more about the tools and supplies. Or my obscure references.)