Doodle-Bug

http://www.nataliedee.com/

Anyone who knows me can tell you that one of my most adorable quirks in the “most-likely-to-be-featured-in-an-indie-movie (you know, the girl who is odd in a cute way and not a creepy way)” is that I am incredibly OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I know thee well.

Of course, this comes in handy in my job. Working at a library allows me to organize, alphabetize, and list away to my heart’s content along with others who crave order (librarians rock!). But, I take it to a completely new level. Behold:

• I eat my Fruit Loops one color at a time and alphabetized by color (the same with Skittles, M&Ms, and Starbursts).
• I have a very odd and complex method of choosing books from my TBR list which includes 3 sets of lists, relisting, and number combinations.
• Last night I organized my embroidery patterns by alphabetizing them by subject.

Now let me tell you I do have a better hand on my OCD fetishes than in years past. I go to work and bathe and have relationships and interact. And being engaged to an ADD artist and my having an ADHD daughter simply demands that someone organize for all three of us. Sometimes I create these little rituals to help me feel in control or just because it relaxes me when I am stressed. I suppose my listing and numbers could be seen as a sort of mystic fatalism. If I pick book #12 from list #3 to read because that is my number pattern, then maybe there is some sort of cosmic reason or maybe it is because I am overwhelmed by the gobs of wonderful books to read? Eh, who knows?

I am trying to experiment with randomness through crafting this year and I think I found my start: I’m going to make a Doodle Cloth. I covet the Amiee Ray book, although I haven’t bought it yet, and was inspired by the cover image. From what I gather, a Doodle Cloth is rather like an unorganized embroidery sampler. One is to experiment with stitches and designs on this said Doodle Cloth and behold, a lovely, colorful creation is born.

But here is the catch. I am going to do it TOTALLY random. See, if I were to start a Doodle Cloth in OCD mode, I would most likely end up with picking out the Apple pattern from the “A’s” and putting it neatlyin the right corner of the cloth, and then start with the third floss in the box. All of my designs would be in rows and an exact number in each row and they would most likely all be the same size. And a theme, there would have to be a theme.

In my daring random mode I am taking a cloth, and these little funky-retro-star-thingys (that most people put in a completed piece to fill-up blank areas) and flipping a coin to determine where they should go. This is going to drive me nuts, because then everything will be random because I will need to fit it around my chaotic stars. I might break into a nervous sweat, but I will harness that OCDness into making exceptionally neat stitches.

I will keep you updated on the progress!

When I leave work in a bit, I'm walking in the cold misty rain to Inman Perk to read Bleak House and partake of my new, favorite beverage: the Duke of Earl (a low-fat, sugar-free vanilla steamer with an Earl Grey teabag steeped in it and loads of light whipped topping).