Tuesday 18 August 2015

Mood Board Curation

In between moving house, starting a fresh in a different part of the country and beginning the never ending mission that is finding a job, my slothenly procrastination ways have led to the creation of a series of distraction and beauty. Given that I'm a sucker for a bit of visual inspiration, lately I have been curating a collection of gorgeous, mood led images into daily boards and posting them over on my Faded Windmills facebook page.


This carefully selected array of hazy sunsets, striking fonts and current fashion favourites have been seriously brightening up my days, filling my mind with all manner of creative ideas and inspiring me to add a little beauty to my life in teeny tiny ways.


If you fancy strolling over to the original images you can find them and a spectacular amount more back at base, on my pinterest page, or for frequently updated exhibits of a gorgeous nature then head in the direction of my facebook page, but for now here are a handful of my favourite mood boards so far!


















Sending luck and wishes for the week ahead. Make it a colourful one!

Sunday 9 August 2015

Re evaluating & Reasoning



Sit down and just write.


Forget those worries. You know the ones, they pile up at the back of your mind, slowly pulling at your attention, demanding, forceful, sharp. No. Everyone has their fair share of doubts and fears where self confidence takes a step to the side allowing the critical thoughts to elbow their way to the front. Today you will take a deep breath. You will open the door, letting the light flood the room and the sound of a sleepy Sunday enter. You will ignore the gentle persuasion of tiredness and other poor excuses and you will begin to write.


Taking a moments pause from writing or blogging really set me back a few steps, when it came to jumping back into it. That daunting blank page filled me with unease. I know I'm not the only one to suffer from thoughts of 'is this good enough?', but when you think about it; who really cares? This is my blog, right? I write to entertain myself and hopefully as a result, one or two other people with similar interests, but that's sort of it. It is a way of sharing thoughts, feelings and ideas. A way of informing and entertaining. A wonderful tool to record particular moments and to open up conversations with a whole community. So why the worry?


We put incredible amounts of pressure on ourselves these days for all manner of things, so letting the fear of comparison and critique stop us from doing what it is we enjoy so much, when there are already many more important issues at hand- well, that really does put things in perspective and seems plain silly. Of course, people take pride in their work and care immensely about the quality of what they produce. Rightly so! But letting those worries pile up so high, that you can't see over them to even pick up a pen and create, well that is a real shame. So I have decided to attempt to conquer at least one worry in my life!


The strongest worry, regarding my blog, besides it looking relatively amateur layout wise (I'm working on it), was that I didn't really have a niche. I can't pin point an audience or narrow down my content to fit neatly in a typical blogging category. My friends, I simply enjoy too many things and being awful at making decisions anyway, have come to the conclusion that rather than limit myself by pigeon holing my thoughts, I'm just gonna post! Inconsistent, unregulated, eclectic as it comes, content!


This also goes for my Etsy store. I have been working at business plans, creating content, writing up proposals and budgets whilst beating away this nagging voice telling me the only way to succeed is to have A thing. A speciality, a theme, a style. This has put me off launching and opening a store since forever, as my work just doesn't follow this. I love knitting and crochet but I also love illustration. I want to create hand embroidered and beaded bridal accessories but have a million ideas for haberdashery goods. I understand the advice to stick to one thing and master it but I have really found that for me, this holds me back. This adds to those doubts and it has ground my project to a screeching halt; so a new tactic is in order. Create whatever I feel like, pour my heart into each peace and open up to opportunities! Relax, see where the pieces take me and adapt my handmade creations according to where my inspirations lie and what feedback I may receive along the way. My Aladdin's cave of treasures is on the horizon, no limitations and probably one heck of a mess but that's who I am, may as well own it, right?