2 posts tagged “quality vs. quantity”

It was an unexpectedly beautiful weekend, so I modified my indoor activities to include a few things outdoors. I'm glad that I did, too, as the cold weather will be back by the weekend - if you can believe the weatherman.

I planned to meet a friend for dinner at a favorite restaurant Saturday night. We ended up postponing our night out, but it's still very much on my mind. Maybe we'll have a glass of wine or two there before we go see George Carlin next month. Yes, sir. We've got the tickets already, too.

So, what is stashbusting? I am continuing to refine the quality versus quantity theme and it's time I came to terms with my stockpiling problem. For artists of any kind, stockpiling could be a dilemma. For me, it's reached near crisis proportions. I have a bead store, a yarn store, a fabric store, a book store and an art supply store (probably more, but I'll start here) in my little house. The problem is, I have too much 'stuff' to be inspired by it. Now when I get the inspiration to make something, and I go buy new materials to use for completion of the project. Enter stashbusting. I started a rather large blanket/bedspread on Saturday, using leftover stash yarn. As soon as it's finished, I'll post a photo of it. At any rate, once I got going on it, it was rather fun. Better a utilitarian blanket than a pile of yarn with no direction. The colors are remniscent of the boys' bedroom in the Brady Bunch house, so I am now affectionately calling it "I Slept With Peter Brady." Truth be told, I always preferred Peter to Greg (except as Johnny Bravo - "He fits the suit!"). More recently, though, I'd probably go for Bobby. Yes, Mike Lookinland, I'll post bail for your DUI. We all make mistakes, errors in judgement, whatever.

Finally, I wasn't actually Smokin' this weekend. I was hooking along on "I Slept With Peter Brady" when I heard on the news that Brad Delp, the lead singer for Boston, had died. I loved Boston and still do. I was more of a Scholz fan when they were in their heyday, but Brad had a sound as distinctive as Boston itself. So the upside to the tragic death of a classic rock singer like Delp is that radio stations, even lame ones, tend to play their music more. I heard Smokin' on the radio while I was driving to work today, so I turned it up as loud as it could go without distortion. It was heavenly, and it made me feel 20 years younger, at least. I can still remember the pop and hiss when I played the vinyl version on my turntable in high school. My taste in music is very diverse, however, so this afternoon I have been listening to Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins and Ben Folds. Chances are, I'll have a listen to a little more Boston tonight, too.

Someone at work the other day asked me if I had seen the previous day's episode of Oprah. When Oprah is on here, afternoons, I am either at work or in class, so I hadn't seen it. I looked up the highlights of the show on www.oprah.com , and became fascinated with this guy and his Tiny Houses.

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm

For a long time, I have been interested in eventually getting rid of all my 'stuff' (and there is a LOT of it, I assure you) and buying an Airstream travel trailer as my primary residence. The popularity of vintage Airstream trailers has driven the price up and therefore placed that project on the back burner for me. What a thrill it would be to break free of a mortgage and all my unnecessary posessions and be able to move along if and when I wanted to. These Tiny Houses are a viable alternative that is more realistic in many ways. I am fascinated about the prospect of buying plans, building a house myself on my existing property, then moving it to a more long-term location.

This is the S-House. It's 240 sf floor plan is on the Tumbleweed website. It is my current favorite, as I love the separation between the bathroom and the kitchen and the loft sleeping quarters. There is something I appreciate about every one of the houses this company offers, but just looking at the location of the one pictured here sets my heart racing at the possibilites.

If anyone reading this knows Jay Shafer, ask him how he feels about a woman and a dog moving in to his 95 sf house. I can make it work - I can! As of today, there is still a video feed to Jay giving Oprah viewers a tour of his house and he claims he can have four people in it at a time - comfortably no less! One more unrealized crush for me, I guess. 

All of this tiny house research brings me to two thoughts. One is the motto I started using when I first started thinking about trading my bungalow for a rolling silver castle: "Dream Big, Dream Small... Just Dream!" The other is that this change of lifestyle really fits into my new Quality versus Quantity philosophy. So far I have applied it to beer and coffee successfully, but I am taking baby steps to increase it's use in my day-to-day life. Sustainable living is quickly becoming a necessity more than just a lifestyle choice for the environmentally conscious individual. I've said it before, but art supplies are going to be an issue.