Necessity is the mother of invention

That's it.  That's my secret to staying creative.  This picture symbolises this truth for me, because you're actually looking at my peg bag.  When I moved into my first house 16 years ago I had no spare cash at all.  I bought pegs, but didn't have a peg bag.  I did have this old doctor's style handbag that I wasn't using.  It turned out to be an excellent peg bag - I hang it across my body, with the bag at the front, and it sits open with the pegs within perfect reach.  My mother in law felt sorry for me once, and bought me a new peg bag.  It was very attractive, but made its way to the op shop without so much as being used (sorry A!), as I'm totally sold on what I already have.

For me, sometimes necessity is a financial imperative like this.  Other times its not wanting to see something go to waste (such as the bookcases I inverted here, or any of my fantastic finds), the endless optimism of my children ("of COURSE you can make a Flash / dragon / Trash Gordon costume mum"), or a self-imposed challenge (eg. Pillowcases 6 ways).

If necessity fosters my creativity, for me its hampered by disorganisation.  I'm all for taking time to ponder things, but taking time out of the creative process to search for things is just frustrating.  I'm getting better at this, and my craft cupboard is now neatly boxed and labelled (the boxes and labels are 75% actual and 25% aspirational at this point in time).  That didn't stop me from spending over an hour last Friday morning looking for the curtain wire I needed to attach the fabric to the desk screen I was finally finishing 8+ months on from moving office, but it has helped.  If nothing else it has introduced a new necessity - the need to use up my stash and stop buying fabric, so that everything will actually fit in the boxes!

I have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest too - great for organising ideas, and stopping myself from endlessly trying to find 'that' picture I saw on 'that' blog 'somewhere', but also a time waster in itself.

I'm off to do 1/2 hour of actual crafting (the Cyclist is on the school run as its a blue moon), but later I'll be back to see what everyone else places as their top tips.  See you soon!