Over the Winter Break at the end of last year, I thought about all the new and exciting possibilities in the coming year! I could finally make that new logo for L&N I've been wanting to do, I could stock pile some art so I would have new things to show you more often, I could finally launch the Patreon membership I've been dreaming of with happy mail tiers of beautiful little packages for my special group of fans and supporters to look forward to....
...and instead, I kinda found myself in a funk. There was the gentle sadness of taking my daughter back up to College after a wonderful 3 weeks together and the heaviness in the news filled with fear and anger. I felt pressure to stay relevant by making new things, but uninspired to make what I thought people expect of me.
I saw a reel on IG from @paintbyles where she just used scraps of fabric, paper, cardboard and thread and created the most charming little journal! I instantly wanted to try it, too! So I challenged myself to keep things simple and just use what was easy to grab. The finished little Journal made me so happy and helped me feel okay with giving in to creating for creation's sake. It surprisingly sold quickly, too, which was just one more validation that it is okay to play!
So, with that momentum, I slowly took small actions that would be baby steps to the bigger tasks to tackle later. An important one was creating a pop-up asking my wonderful website visitors to subscribe to emails! (You can get 10% off, too!) I can't tell you how long that has been a goal!
I listened to my muse and made some Valentine's Ghost Plushies which I would have never done before because it wasn't the right Season. Phooey! I will forever love Fall/Halloween and will infuse that love into more things! (I made a Shop Section called October 365 just so I can make and put things in there all year long!)
And, I'm actually writing a Blog Post to make a bit of a promise to myself, and a nudge to you, to allow small pockets of playtime into our schedules. What that looks like is different for everyone....but it is definitely the thing that feels like a waste of time, frivolous, or non-productive. Sad that we can label play like this. (I'm guilty of it, too!) I've decided to turn that narrative around and challenge it, instead! Is experiencing joy frivolous? Is something that let's your mind unwind non-productive? Is doing something with child-like giddiness a waste of time?
