Ask Cindy - 'Finding' Time to Craft

It's time for another edition of 'Ask Cindy' - the feature where I answer questions you, the reader, may or may not have actually asked.  Today's question is one that I hear all the time: "I don't have time to craft.  How do you find the time?"

To be perfectly honest, this question drives me crazy.  As a stay-at-home mom, I'm already a bit sensitive about the "what do you do all day?" attitude that some people (but not you, of course) have.  And as a mom to one, I'm also a bit sensitive about the idea that some people (again, not you) have that raising one child is basically the same as raising no children.  When someone asks me how I find the time to craft, I want to ask how they find the time to watch TV, go shopping, or play games on Facebook .... because the answer is the same: I make the time.  I make time to do what is important to me and you make time to do what is important to you.  Crafting is important to me.  So I make the time.

 The clock in my scraproom.  I bought it years ago, when I was single.  

I love it, especially the wiggly second hand.

One example of how I make time to craft: I get up at 5:00 AM, seven days a week.  Trevor usually wakes up around 6:30, so that gives me around 90 minutes of uninterrupted time.

On weekdays, Trevor is in kindergarten for a little over 3 hours a day.  On the days when I'm not volunteering in his classroom, this is another prime scrapbooking or blogging time for me.  I also use this time block to photograph projects (since it's dark at 5:00 AM) or scan projects (since my scanner is just outside Trevor's bedroom and it would wake him if I scanned at 5:00 AM).

My dad and I belonged to a YMCA Father/Daughter group when I was young.  At one of our meetings, he provided clock kits for the dads and daughters to make together.  I was 12.  It's one of the few things I own that has traveled with me from my parents' house to every other place I have lived for the past few decades.

Once Trevor is home from school for the day (or during school vacations), any crafting that I do is with him.  (You'll notice that I do almost no scrapbooking during the summer, and the number of kids' crafts I do goes way up.)  Sometimes I plan a project for us to do together, and sometimes I just get out art supplies for free-for-all creating.  (And sometimes, Trevor plans a craft for me.)  Sometimes we cook together instead.  We don't craft together every single day, but I do try to make sure that he uses his creativity in some way each day.

There is one more major factor in how I make time to craft- my husband.  Steve is incredibly supportive of my crafting.  He encourages me to scrap with friends, do online crops, and attend scrapbook events, even though that means extra work for him.  When I have a deadline, he takes over all of the parenting duties to allow me some extra evening or weekend time to myself.  He recognizes that celebrating National Scrapbook Day is incredibly important to me, and always takes Trevor out of the house for the day so that I can have a marathon day of crafting.

The clock in our Bonus Room.  I bought it for Steve when we were newly dating.  While I think they 

are beautiful, I hate fish.  Never in a million years would I have guessed I'd marry a man who loves fish so 

much that our house would have fish decor.  Yet it's my own doing- 90% is stuff I've made or bought for him.  

How do you make time to craft?