Saturday, April 06, 2013

Feeling funky

I've been in something of a funk this year. I mostly attribute it to settling into a new house and new city and the fact that everything is disorganized, especially my craft room. My environment has to be organized, at least to a certain extent, before my brain can fully engage. OCD? Maybe a little.

So we bought three shelves from Ikea for my craft room, and I bought some plastic bins to organize all my stuff. Of course, that didn't take care everything. We then bought some wood and put up some shelves in the closet of my craft room (they still need painting). At last, almost everything was off the floor! I still have some things to hang, but I need to figure out where they need to go. At least I have room to work.

We also bought a new comfy chair (insert Monty Python quip here) for the bedroom so I could stitch. At last! I could enjoy stitching again!

I started on the last Teresa Wentzler fairy to complete my collection. I've finished the top border and bit of the sides.

Then today happened. When we moved here, I joined the Austing EGA chapter. I was very happy to be part of a group, but work and my general exhaustion after work prevented me from going to the meetings.  Today is their stitching show, and I entered some of what I thought was my best work. I showed up to volunteer today, and no one was there. At all. Then I saw the list of merit ribbon winners. Nope, my name wasn't on the list. OK. I didn't want to be childish, but I was hurt. My work is about as technically accurate as I can get it. I know my technique wasn't the problem. The subject matter? I don't do samplers or folk art, which seems to be all the rage. Cliquish behavior? No idea. I finally figured that this group just isn't into the kinds of things I do. So what's the point of being a part of this group? Defeated, I went home and emailed that I wouldn't be working today.

So yeah, I feel like a little kid who didn't win at the science fair. I'm an adult, right? Why am I sitting here depressed because some people didn't like my cross stitch? Grow up, don't take it personally, be mature.

I think I'll just take my toys and go home now.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Aww! You have every right to feel the way you do, I'd be disappointed and hurt too if that had happened to me! And I certainly wouldn't go to any of the group's meetings after that! What I would do, though, is contact them, via email if possible, and ask them why they didn't like my work. In a totally polite way of course, not showing them that my feelings were hurt. I might tell them that I want to know in case I want to show off my work at some future fair or something like that.

I took a look at your stitching site (the one where you've collected all your WIPs and finishes), and I think your work is beautiful! Congrats on all the gorgeous finishes and enjoy stitching the WIPs, I'm sure they'll be gorgeous too once finished!

I too need my environment to be clean, organised and beautiful. If it's dirty, cluttered and ugly, I start to have all sorts of negative feelings and bad moods and can't for the life of me relax or create anything.

Happy stitching, and please feel better! ♥

DebbieSFL said...

When I lived in Austin, I was a part of this group...please give them another chance. I learned a lot from them and met some great stitchers.

Giovanna said...

Obviously, I can't give an informed opinion on why it happened - but I can sympathize. Hugs.