Hello Reader,

I've been thinking about something all week and I wanted to chat about it a little.

As creatives who want to do "our thing" and hopefully make some $$ from it, we're always pushed to use social media to get ourselves out there. It's an amazing tool, one that wasn't always available and can be very powerful.

The problem for me is, when I'm in my zone and creating, the last thing I want to do is set up a tripod and figure out the best angle to film what I'm doing. 🙄 I want to just do my thing.

If I'm lucky, half way through I'm like: "damn, I should probably record this" and the best I do is take a couple of photos.

They're thoughtful and usually beautiful all on their own because...

Creativity is an expression of what it is to be human and that is unequivocally beautiful.

So what, as creatives, are we to do about this conundrum? Of wanting to be left alone to make but needing to document it so we can share it and make a living off of it.

Honestly, I don't have the answer. I think this is why this is a daily struggle, something we just need to keep working through to get better at each day.

I can tell you what I'm going to do. I don't know about you, but I find it incredibly inspiring when people show their works in progress; when they talk about what they're doing and you get to see how they arrive at what they do. And I especially love to see not just the "art" or "creativity" I follow them for, but all of their creativity as a whole person.

Because if you're creative, it spills over into everything you do. I don't think we appreciate how many creative decisions we make each day and how much time we actually spend being creative in many different ways.

So I'm going to let you into my world, which is full of lots of types creativity.

I struggle with consistency just like the next person (maybe even more thanks to my ADHD) but I'm going to show you what I do each week. We do this in the Creative Lab each Monday and it really sets us up for the week. My hope is that you'll feel like you're here with me, sharing in all the things I'm discovering. Most of all, I hope that it'll inspire you to do your own creative work, because adding beautiful things into the world is so gratifying!

What I've worked on this week

Illustration and Sewing

This week I started playing with some of the fabric I had printed with designs from my new collection Shelf Life. Aside from building it up in my regular channels like Zazzle and Etsy, I wanted to create physical items myself so I could create some pretty, limited edition items like these lined totes I'm working on here. Once they're ready you'll be the first to know about them! 😉

Crocheting Amigurumi

Crocheting for me has taken on two forms, amigurumi which are decorative and fun and garments which I can wear. 💛 Both are giftable but they also take a long time to work on. I'm currently working on mindset around these and reminding myself that it's ok for these things to take time. They are handmade and beautiful and that type of thing is special because of the amount of effort and time it takes. This is a little mouse I'm working on with a different type of stitch that I really like.

New Project

I don't really need a new project but life's too short to not try all the things you want to try. This isn't really "new" for me as I did etching and linocut a long time ago in middle school. I went to a magnet program in Miami where we did loads of cool stuff including photography and ceramics. So this is more like going back to a very fun place. I decided to take one of my illustrations as a base and work on it slowly to refresh my memory. Time also plays a role here because it's harder to see a project through in one sitting when you have to also work and take care of a family, but I'll show you how it progresses.

Baking & Cooking

This has become a bigger part of our lives since my husband shares this with me. Patrick is a FANTASTIC cook and loves trying out new things too. So the photos below include my sourdough bread (which I JUST finished baking about an hour ago), the jam I made from berries that were getting a little old in the fridge, and the pasta he made from scratch last night for the first time. Spoiler: It was AMAZING!

As you can see, it's been an exciting week around here. My boys told us last night that we definitely spoil them and they're not sure what they're going to do once they leave home. 🤭

So now it's your turn, what did you do this week? Hit reply and tell me all about it, photos and all. You know I read each and everyone.

Till next week,

xx Design delightful products with the best tools & training for product creation. Learn more about the Creative Lab and Creative Briefs!

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ps. I only want to share this with people who are genuinely interested, so if you're not interested in this series, just click here and you won't get these emails. No hard feelings.