|
|
Monday March 26, 2012  Have you ever passed judgement on someone doing something you would never do? Have you ever told your kids “stop doing that” when there really was no harm done? We do these things because our minds are restricted in our way of thinking. Our minds get stuck in thinking that our way is the only way. But if you stop to ask yourself “why not?”, then you may discover that there really isn’t anything wrong with doing things differently than you’re used to. To be truly creative, you need to exercise open-mindedness. You need to free your mind and let yourself ponder all of the “what if’s” and “why not’s”. Exploring these questions will open your mind up to new possibilities and discoveries which will lead to new connections… and new connections = creativity! So if you find yourself saying “no” automatically, or frowning upon a certain behavior, step back and ask yourself “why not?”. You may just discover a whole new set of doors to explore. Do you find yourself being stuck in a certain way of thinking? Do you find it hard to “let it go” when you see your kids or someone else doing something you don’t agree with? Leave a comment below!
Monday March 19, 2012 I’ve been trying to juggle so many things at once lately, that when I finally get into the studio (or more accurately, the porch) to get creative, my mind is still thinking about the laundry that needs to get done, worrying about other projects I haven’t finished yet, and whatever else that is running through my head that day. All of this worrying, over analyzing, and pointless repetitive thoughts are standing between me and my creativity. Does this happen to you too?
 Luckily I have discovered a way to make it all go away. I grab a notebook and just write it all out until its gone. I call it my “brain dump”, because it’s like dumping out the trash that gets jammed in my brain.
Give it a try next time you’re trying to be creative, or trying to come up with an idea but you’re stuck with a bunch of other thoughts in your head. Grab some paper and start writing. Don’t think about it too hard, just start writing whatever comes to mind; even if its “I don’t know what to write.” Keep going, and eventually you will feel the thoughts pouring out of your head, through your arm, and out through your pen. It’s a wonderful feeling to let it all out.
Most of what you write will often be negative, fragmented, or complaints; but once you get it all out, you’ll feel more free, and have room to finally think about the project or problem at hand. And as a bonus, every once in a while you may discover in your writings, a surprise bit of insight or a great idea that was stuck up in that head of yours!
Does your mind get cluttered with everyday thoughts when you’re trying to be creative? Do you have any tips of your own to help clear your mind? Leave a comment below!
Monday March 12, 2012 With most of our lives now living through the internet and technology, its getting harder and harder to find our unique voice for our creative projects. When most of your inspiration comes from other artists and online photos, your mind can’t make any new connections based on your own experiences in life. But if you step back from technology every once in a while and go hunting for your muse in your own life, your creative work becomes more authentic. It will reflect more of who you are as a person because its coming from your own experiences and the world around you.
Alisa Burke recently released a free workshop called Finding Your Muse. I would highly suggest you check it out! She gives tips on going out and looking for inspiration in your everyday life… an essential skill for becoming a true creative no matter what your medium is.
 - A set of my daughter’s toys inspired a beautiful color pallet!
Whether or not you decide to go through her free class, be sure to take the time to look around you for inspiration. Don’t keep your eyes focused on the internet. Maybe plan an “artist date” with yourself where you go out to a special place like a museum, the beach, or a park and just take everything in around you. Bring a sketch book or a camera and document shapes, colors, patterns, or anything that inspires you. You will quickly see how your creative work can greatly benefit from it.
 - A telephone pole with tons of staples inspired me. I love the colors and textures!
What kind of places do you like to go when looking for inspiration? Leave me a comment below!
Friday March 09, 2012 I recently read a beautifully written article by Kelly Diels in which she told the absolute truth about making things happen. It doesn’t matter what type of space you work in, how much money you have, or how little time you think you have available… what really matters is how hard you’re willing to fight for what you want in life. I have been working as a creative entrepreneur for over ten years now, and I admit, I was among those that told myself, if only my studio was more inspiring, if only it was bigger with more space, more organization… If only I had more time… I would get more done.
“And maybe angels are singing and the sun is shining and a kitten just slid down a rainbow and handed you a cupcake with a cheque for a million dollars signed by a team of unicorns. Because they exist. Just like those fantastic conditions for creativity.” ~Kelly Diels
The truth is, conditions will never be perfect for you to create. If you want to create, then you must create. Work with what you have instead of giving yourself false excuses of why you “can’t”. It was only until recently that I finally discovered that it was pointless to wish for more space. Pointless to just sit back and wish for more time. All I was doing was making excuses to not get my work done. My work space was actually pretty big at our last home, and very functional.
 The photo above is of my old craft room, before I rearranged and added my table skirts.
I couldn’t find a photo of the way I left it. :(
Oh, what I would give to get my old space back! I didn’t know how lucky I was to have it. Now, in our new home, I am stuck in the corner of our three season porch. Wearing extra sweaters because its chilly in the winter. Everything crammed in on a tiny little desk. Children running and screaming around me because I have no door to shut. The distracting TV blaring behind me. But it doesn’t matter. I’m still getting my work done. I’m still finding inspiration. I’m still blogging, still drawing. Sure, I’ve had a couple panic attacks because I couldn’t find something that was packed away; but overall, I don’t really mind it. As long as I’m getting my work done, it’s all I need.
This is my work space… other than my two current projects – the stained tags and my stamp carving, the rest of that clutter stays there everyday. Sure its cramped and over run by children’s toys, and some day I hope to build a new room in our new basement. But until then, I’m not going to complain or make excuses to not get my work done. I’m going to be a fighter!
Read the mentioned article by Kelly HERE. You’ll be glad you did.
What kind of space do you work in? Does it inhibit your work? Leave me a comment below!
Monday March 05, 2012 The wandering mind is a creative mind. The more freely you think, the more creative ideas will come to you. Do you ever notice how children can sometimes be more creative than us? One of the reasons why I think this falls true is because they do not have a preconceived notion as to how the world works. Unlike us, they are moving through life constantly asking questions and exploring new outcomes. They believe anything is possible, so they experiment more.
Our minds are too constricted to work this way. We have gone through life collecting certain outcomes and believe those are the only true outcomes that are possible. As we grow up, we slowly loose are ambition to experiment and ask questions.
“Every child is born an artist, the problem is to remain one once they grow up.” ~Pablo Picasso
So this week, your creative exercise is to constantly ask questions, without necessarily pursuing the answers. Be curious. Wonder about things. Like, “Why are those little styrofoam pieces called peanuts?” or “If you blew a bubble in space would it pop?”.
Asking questions like this all day will help you to gain a new perspective on everything around you. If you stop yourself from pursuing the answers, it will also help your mind to think freely without the pressure to know or learn something. Just let your mind wander and be curious. Focus on asking silly questions as often as you can today or all week, and perhaps your mind will surprise you with some inspiring thoughts!
Come back and let me know what kinds of questions you come up with by leaving a comment below!
Friday March 02, 2012 Have you ever wished that you could draw, but thought you didn’t have the “talent” to do it? Its that kind of thinking that’s holding you back in life. Do you think da Vinci just picked up a pencil and drew a masterpiece? Not likely. Drawing, as with anything in life takes practice. LOTS of practice. If you picked up a pencil right now, and drew something, yeah it would probably suck. But if you stick with it, and draw for even just 5 minutes a day, everyday, you will improve. It’s a known fact. Do anything consistently and you will naturally improve upon it.
I’ve known this little fact for many years. And yet, even myself, I would see other artists’ drawings and say “Oh I wish I could draw like that!”. But I was too lazy to practice religiously. Whenever I did draw, I couldn’t get it just right, it was like a disappointment to me. So I quit. But here I am, in my early 30′s, wishing that I had the ambition years ago to keep up with my drawings.
SO, I’m starting today. (Or to be correct, yesterday.)
In my new handmade sketchbook I made. Yup, because I can. But really because I couldn’t wait for a trip to the store to buy a book before I started sketching. I needed to start right then and there when I had the urge to do it!
This drawing that I did yesterday was inspired by the talented Alisa Burke. It was fun to do something all in one color.
I did the below drawing/painting today. Last night when I was putting my four year old to bed, we read a book called “A Shell For Seahorse” and I just loved the images in the book. It inspired this page.
Starting this new habit of drawing everyday will be hard. But, with continued determination and ambition, it will help me to draw the way I feel I should be drawing, the way I see it in my head. You could do it too. If you wish you could draw, then draw. Start today, and continue everyday. If you want to do anything in life well, you need to push yourself to work on it continuously. And when you feel discouraged, watch this video again.
What have you always wished you could do (or do better)? What’s stopping you? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
Monday February 27, 2012 For today’s Monday’s Muse, I want to share with you a quote I came across recently:
“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast -
you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” ~Eddie Cantor  I love this, because not only does it apply to living a happier life, but it also applies to living a more creative life. You need to slow down, become present in life, and take in everything around you. When you do this, you feel more alive, and what’s more, you’ll feel more inspired. :)
Friday February 24, 2012 
Working as a creative professional can be very overwhelming at times. Between answering emails, writing blog posts, packing orders, managing stock, making time for your creative work, and not to mention the huge to-do list you probably have for your personal home life as well… its easy to feel like there’s just too much to do with too little time. But letting that feeling overcome you, will easily produce a vicious cycle of constant overwhelm.
For the past week I have been struggling with this myself. I found myself wasting time “organizing my thoughts” and making three page long to-do lists. All the time making myself feel even more overwhelmed because I was avoiding the actual work. Finally, while re-organizing my notebook, I came across some notes on the feeling of overwhelm and I came back to my senses.
The feeling of being overwhelmed is just a state of mind
which can be altered. It’s just another emotion based on our fear of the future. Once I remembered this, I got back to reality and realized that I had been going about things all wrong. I cleared my mind and reminded myself to take things one at a time. Its all about focus. If your running around like crazy worrying about everything that needs to be done, and trying to do it all at once… guess what, NOTHING will get done.
Instead, give this a try:
Write down, in order of importance, no more than five of the most important things you need to. (Really, it should be more like three. Three is way easier to tackle, plus its my favorite number!) Then, tackle the first thing on your list. Focus on just that one thing and work on it until its finished. Next, do the same with the second item, and so on, until its time to quit for the day. Don’t stress too much if you don’t get everything on your list finished. Be proud of the fact that you got the most important task finished, then work on the rest tomorrow.
The reason this will work, is because not only are you focusing on one item at a time, but you’re only allowing yourself to see a short to-do list. It gives you the empowerment that you can get these things done.
So, take back control, and get yourself focused! Your mind and business will thank you for it.
Do you struggle with being overwhelmed often? What do you do to overcome this feeling? Leave a comment below!
Monday February 20, 2012  Do I really have to tell you to go out and play? It boggles my mind. Play is so crucial to creativity and generating new ideas, and yet so many creative professionals don’t give themselves any time for play. I hope you’re not one of them. Please don’t be one of them. But if you are, there’s always time to change. All you need to do is to take a time out, and go PLAY. Take a pen, and write it into your calendar. Right now. Yup, right now. I’ll wait… Done? Have a self play-date on your calendar? You better! So now you might be asking, “Play what? What am I scheduling here?”. Anything really. You can go out and play basketball for all I care. Just go out and be a kid again. Free yourself and your mind from all of the constraints you have put yourself into. Do something without rules, or worries. How about some finger painting? If you’re a painter, and you allow yourself to just play with your paint once in a while instead of worrying if your peers will like it or if your customers will want to buy it, it will set you free. It will explode your mind with inspiration. If you’re always focused on what your customers want from you, then you are stifling yourself to come up with original ideas. And that hurts business, doesn’t it? If you want to be the one always surprising your clients with amazing products or services, you need to keep that creativity flowing. The number one thing on my list to do that? Yup, you guessed it. PLAY! After you make a date with yourself on the calendar, click that comment button below and tell us, what do you plan to do on your play date?
Friday February 17, 2012 We all have. Some larger than others. Some LOUDER than others. Some sneakier than others. And we call him the Inner Critic.
 photo by tessolivia via flickr It’s true. We have created this inner critic, we weren’t born with it. Your mind creates a voice that mocks all of the people whom knowingly and unknowingly put you down and criticized you over the years. Believe it or not, your mind created this voice originally to try and help you. It thinks that if you can know what your family, friends, and peers want from you, you can avoid their disapproval and ultimately win their love and approval. But is this really helping you? Obviously not, as its based on the untrue fact that you believe what other people think of you is correct. It inhibits you. It holds you back from doing what you want to do, what you were MEANT to do.
So, come to the realization that the voice inside your head is not YOU. It is a voice manifested from all of the hurt feelings you’ve had over the years. Ignore it. I know its hard, but you must learn to just ignore it. Follow your heart and intuition instead. They’re much more in tune to what you really want and need in life.
|
