Spring Cleaning -- Jewelry Organization Tips

Yep, it's that time of year again, the time when you realize you have so much stuff without a home and you need to do something about it. Actually, going off on a tangent here, but why do people call it "Spring Cleaning?" I mean, I get that Spring makes you want things to be all nice and new and clean, but why just limit it to spring?

Enough rhetorical questions - let's get down to business. 

Jewelry is one of the toughest things to organize in my opinion, because it comes in so many shapes and sizes. I always have trouble figuring out ways to store it, but I have found some solutions that might work for you! Or, at the very least, maybe they'll give you some ideas. And I'll just make a quick recommendation here - If you look for "jewelry organization" or "jewelry storage" on Pinterest, there are tons of ideas and DIYs that you can do.

Anyway, click the jump to see what I've done to keep my jewelry organized, along with some other ideas I found along the way.

Writing Stuff Is Hard

As hard as it may be to believe, I don't just sit down at my computer and words magically appear on the screen.

Okay, I didn't really mean that about myself. But I'm sure you've thought something along those lines about some of your favorite writers - "Wow, Scott Westerfeld is such an amazing author. It must be so easy for him to write stuff like this."





Allow me to let you in on a little secret: Writing is hard. Right now, you might be thinking, "Well, of course it's hard. I have to write a ten page paper for my English class by next week, and I have no idea where to start." But it's not just writing that people assign you. Even writing as a hobby is rough. Heck, even keeping up with these little posts on my is tough to do. Why is this so? I've thought about it a bit (actually, not that much, I'm sort of making this up as I go), and here's what I have to say.

Sometimes, I Just Don't Have Much To Say

People sometimes ask me why I don't talk very much. They're justified in asking, by the way, I'm not trying to put anyone down here. And it's not like I never say anything at all - There are just some situations where I'm more comfortable with speaking than others. If it's the right subject and the right situation, I could go on for hours for something. But not all the time. Sometimes, I seriously don't have anything to say.

So, if it happens that I'm with a group of people who are talking and I'm not saying much, it's really just because I don't have anything to say. It's not that I don't have anything nice to say - that's a different matter altogether - I just can't think of anything that would contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.

I don't really do "small talk," as some people call it. (Actually, I like the term "idle chitchat" better.) What I mean is, I like to be engaged in a conversation. It's not that I want to have a deep, philosophical discussion every time you call me on the phone, I just don't want to go through the motions, so to speak.

Also, it's not that I hate it when people don't include me in on their conversations. Most of the time, I perfectly happy just sitting and listening to what the people around me have to say to each other. I call it gathering ideas for writing, other people might call it eavesdropping.  Maybe it's just a writer thing, but I like to listen to others, whether they're talking to me or I just happen to be in the same room as them. The other day I found a quote about writing:

All this to say, if I'm with you and I'm not saying anything, please don't take it to mean that I'm aloof or bored. Really. I like to listen to you talk, and I feel bad if I intrude on your conversation with some random comment that barely relates. I'll contribute at some point, but in the meantime, I'll just listen.

(I hope this at least makes some degree of sense. I wrote it all out on a whim, so it might not be entirely coherent. This is just some stuff that's been on my mind lately, and I felt like I should blog about it. Thank you for reading it, and I'll see you next Friday!)