Adventures Ahead!

“When in doubt, Follow the compass of adventure.” – Unknown

As many of you who follow me may have realized, I have been going through a period of what some may call a ‘dry spell’ for the past several months.

While I have never run out of ideas for projects that I wanted to do in the future, I was having trouble feeling really excited about them. It has been difficult to go full steam ahead because of my own high standards of doing things. My enthusiasm just wasn’t there.

I was beginning to get very frightened because several of my creative friends thought that these feelings may have been an indication of what we all know as being ‘burned out.’ They may have been correct, but just the thought of that being true terrified me. I couldn’t allow it to happen.

Unfortunately, things like this are not always within our control. Our minds are very complicated and while we do have some abilities to consciously change the way we feel about some things (“we follow where we focus…”) it doesn’t always work that way. But we have to try – right?

So I have spent the past months working as best as I could and I feel that I did make some cute designs. But they weren’t something that I was over-the-moon-excited about. There was nothing wrong with them and they are actually pretty nice. But I think I missed feeling the passion that I feel for certain projects. I wanted to get that feeling back.

So I spent my time drawing, painting, and cutting wood, and searching for that magic project that would set my heart on fire again. There were times when I felt so muddled that I felt that I was heading backward. In my mind, I was crawling out of the sandpit, seeing the edge within reach, only to slide back down again and have to start all over. I kind of thought that maybe my career as a designer was over. I would need to spend the rest of my working days just doing production work and cutting other people’s designs. I was becoming quite depressed, which only fueled my self-doubts and stifled me even more.

But then one day, I had an idea.

It began as a glimmer in my mind and slowly materialized into something I feel has wonderful possibilities.

This didn’t happen overnight. I must give credit to my best friend Vera who has stuck by me through thick and thin and was an amazing sounding board.

Vera and I have been friends for many years. She has even come to visit me twice here in Nova Scotia and we had the best time imaginable. We are alike in many ways and share our basic values of living, and she is the kind of friend you may only find once in a lifetime.

One of the best things about her is that she is completely honest with me – as friends should be. I can ask her something and she doesn’t sugar-coat her answers or tell me what I want to hear, but her honest answer. I like that, and frankly, need that in my life. Because as a designer, when we are consumed in what we are doing, we need someone who can be completely objective to bounce things off of and give advice. It doesn’t help us if we listen only to those who give us answers that we want to hear. We need someone who cares enough to be honest. That’s my Vera.

So to make a long story short, for several weeks, this little seed of an idea began to grow.

As with anything growing, it has changed throughout the process. It has been tweaked and shaped, and with the help of another couple of friends and designers whom I look to as advisors, I could see the fog slowly lifting and things began coming together. As this happened, my excitement began to grow and I started to feel more like my old self again. My confidence returned and has been building each day. As things are falling into place, I feel like I know that this is going to be a breakthrough. My dry spell will be over. (At least I hope it is!)

For the first time in months, I can’t wait to get out of bed and get to work in the mornings. I will be honest with you all in that my business has been quite slow lately, but it hasn’t bothered me at all. In fact, I feel it is probably meant to be, as the Universe is allowing me time to work on and develop this new project that I am working on. If I were as busy now as I have been in the past, I wouldn’t have time to work on this. And I don’t want the distractions. Everything is falling into place.

I am getting to the point in the project where I can begin thinking about the ‘reveal’ date. The supplies I ordered have all come in now, and all that is left is to finish up the preliminaries and create the ‘presentation.’ I am hoping that by next Sunday’s post, I will have everything ready for the ‘reveal.’ I am beyond excited!

I asked in my Facebook group if I should post ‘teasers.’ Those who answered did so in the affirmative. So here you go . . .

For now, that is all I want to show. I will tell you all that this will all be presented in a new way (for me!) that I have never presented something before. If you enjoy receiving packages and orders from me, I think you will really enjoy this set. Even at my standards, it is something ‘special.’

So I have to ask you to come back next week to see the full reveal. While I am somewhat afraid to build things up ‘too much’ for fear that it may be a letdown to some, I feel confident enough that I don’t think that will be the case. It helps that my Vera is even more excited about it than I am. (If that is possible!) We have had many phone calls and I can feel her enthusiasm, which fuels my own. Together with her, we have solved logistic issues, tweaked things, and solved a lot of little ‘hiccups.’ If this works out well, it will be only the beginning of many projects in this format to follow.

I just can’t wait!

In other news, I did want to give a shoutout to my friend Lindsay Weirich (The Frugal Crafter). The other day, she launched a new Colored Pencil Class on her Teachable platform.

For those of you who have not taken a class with Lindsay, you are in for a wonderful treat. Her classes are fully comprehensive and are packed full of information. This one looks to be a real winner!

All of her classes have hours of videos that walk you through the projects. Once you purchase them, they are available forever. And you can buy them with the confidence that if you need anything from Lindsay, she will be there to help you. She has deep knowledge of so many mediums and a network of creative friends that she will direct you to if she is unable to help you herself.

I have taken many of her classes and have learned so much from her! I love her energy and love of creating and she has always helped me when I needed help. That is how we became friends.

She is launching the class with a generous 50% discount. She usually launches her classes in this way and while it is certainly worth the full price, the discount makes it even better. You can see the video and purchase the class if you like at the discounted price HERE.

I hope you go give it a try. I am going to be joining for sure.

So that is about it for today. I am going to be working on finishing up some things today and, hopefully, getting the rest of my design prototypes finished. The week ahead is going to be exciting, as I will be seeing everything that I have been thinking about and working on for the past several weeks coming together. It is going to be quite an adventure!

I wish you all a wonderful week ahead. Thank you to those who have stuck with me through my times of self-doubt and fog. I hope that you will all share in my excitement for my future. I am looking forward to many adventures to come.

Until next time …