And I'm back for arts and crafts

Yesterday after an inspiring morning of yoga, coffee+scone, and strolling along the Hudson, I went home, took a close look at my room, and spent an entire day re-styling my old t-shirts. I drew designs and measured, hemmed and trimmed, hand sewed stitches and buttons, the whole she-bang for like...1 t-shirt. I thought I would've done 5 by the end of the day, but I forgot how long it takes to sew without using a sewing machine. And even if I did have a sewing machine, it'd take longer to learn how to use it.

Anyhow the "inspiration" really came from me trying to budget strictly, vowing not to shop for clothes and shoes until August 2010. That's like, Lent on steroids, considering I haven't bought any clothes for 3 months already. I can be spiritual, see?

Then as I'm hacking away at this one "Greensburg, Kansas" t-shirt, I thought, if this go well, I can totally set up a shop and sell templated recycled t-shirt designs. Then for every t-shirt sold, I would do something related to non-profit. Like Tom's shoes - you buy a pair, he gives a pair to the needy. Then I was thinking, well what about all the other different projects that I've always bulleted in my head? I should think about creating a web destination that's just all about the "pieces" of my life. See below:

- A random animated comic series I dreamed up in college - I found scraps and pieces of a business plan I wrote on napkins and note pads and Word docs.

- Recycled t-shirts for sale and a non-profit tie-in that I can relate to

- This darn blog - just seeing that I haven't written a darn post over a year ago is disheartening, but life is full of distractions and complications, so why mope over it? I'm in this whole "Act now!" mode. See what old t-shirts can do to you?

- A "making of" video series on the screenplay I wrote (again, back in college). I finished Act 1, based on a short story I wrote. Now I need to dig through that box labeled "College Stuff" and actually finish something for once, considering I'm reading three different books, a chapter here, a few pages there, and then I just think to myself. Fuck. I'm never going to finish any of these books before Book 4 comes along and sweeps me off my feet.

- A whole series documenting my sometimes twisted budgeting tactics (i.e. make sure you have a willing mom to participate in the "freezer food for your kid" program where she cooks all the food you love as a child, put 'em in ziploc bags, freeze them, put 'em in that cooler bag you take with you on the plane back to wherever you're going. Then live off it for a long time.)

- And something else. There's gotta be. I just don't know what it is now. And I always try and find ways to complicate my life more.

With all the hours put into my day job, the co-workers go-away and birthday parties at the local pubs, the clubbin' days, brunch/lunch/shoppin/dinner/dancin with the gfs, I feel a certain guilt to purge a lot of that. But then again, how can I deliver against any of my own aspirations if I spend my time on everything else?

I've finally wiped the dust off my desk, the rather unwieldy and large one I bought 5 years ago thinking I'll be drawing and writing all over it like it was my own work studio. It felt so good, that there is no going back.