Continuing our discussions about design and philosophy, I thought this week I would introduce you to another resource that I use to keep my creative juices flowing and motivated. A few months ago, a friend suggested that I check out Marie Forleo. She is a life and business coach, and I immediately connected with some of the guiding principals of her company:
- Everything is figureoutable.
- Intuition rules.
- Never create a product or service “just for the money.”
- Caring is the most powerful marketing strategy there is.
Once a week she publishes a new MarieTV video, and I really enjoyed the video from last week: “Feel Like It’s All Been Done Before?”
If you don’t have about 8 minutes to watch the video, here are the highlights that spoke the most to me.
- There is more than enough to go around.
- Every single pro starts off as an amateur.
- Train yourself to chose love over fear.
- Stop going down the “comparison rabbit hole”. Focus on love and you will find yourself feeling connected, whole, and respecting your inner genius.
Do you have any non-quilting related authors, bloggers, or resources that help keep you inspired?
I love Design Sponge. I have it delivered to my mailbox every Friday. It is not just home dec ideas – but a round-up of cool things. Some get me thinking – some don’t. I look forward to it every Friday. They also published a book that is all home dec. It is a lot of fun and full of inspiration too.
Don’t count out your public library. I am there a few days a week because I work part-time there. I am always coming across something – books, magazines, something in the newspaper, a children’s book with a great message and illustrations that wow me. We live in a digital world, and the library is no exception in keeping up with that. However, it is a free, yes I said free, treasure trove of physical items that you can borrow that are amazing.
If your local library is having financial issues and does not have a great collection – go to another branch in your consortium. Also, let your full-time reference or circulation librarian know you and what your into. Make friends with him or her. They see almost everything that comes in and out, and will put things aside for you. The good thing is if it’s not for you, it costs nothing to put it back in the return bin.
Lastly, most libraries are full of programs, especially having to do with the arts. You can find them on the library’s homepage. Our library offers a free jewelry making class – just earrings once a month. The woman who teaches this does this and brings all the supplies. In this class we make earrings for a woman in battered woman’s shelter. For every pair we make for a woman in a shelter, we can make one for ourselves.
I am off to go look up Design Sponge now! I also think your point about the local library is great and something that I do not utilize enough as a resource right now.
I have been obsessed with un-fancy.com, it’s a fashion blog that focuses on minimalism. I have spent the last couple month cleaning out the old and not fitting. It’s been liberating.
I really like the minimalist movement. It does feel liberating to get rid of things that are no longer needed or serving you, but it sounds like this website might have a cool bent. I’ll go check it out!
The only non-quilty blog I follow is my sister’s art blog, and she has only written one post in the last six months. 😉
I recently heard, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” Great food for thought.
🙂 That is a great quote. I am trying to embrace where I am today.
I like Blacksburg Belle and I follow a few photography sites too! Inbox gets crazy sometimes!
I can’t imagine you not following a photography site or three, Ruth! Blacksburg Belle looks great, I will probably be adding it to my list, too! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this post! It all is so true and the concepts she speaks about as well as the overall feeling that I think anyone feels about someone else already doing it… the fact is, even just speaking on the sewing/quilting end… there may be, but there are so many more people wanting what we do than there are people who make them. I have found that many are just unaware of you which branches into just getting out there and loving you and what you make; it will all come. Great find and great post, thanks for sharing it!! Truly.
I am glad it spoke to you, too, Megan. 🙂
A few of my favorites are Zen Habits, 101 Cookbooks, Design*Sponge (mentioned above), The Jealous Curator, and Design Mom. Often I’ll see something that I’ll interpret in my mind as a quilt design (not that I necessarily have time to MAKE these quilts in my mind — but that’s a different story!) and it keeps my mind feeling fresh. Its hard for me to keep up with the production speed on so many quilt blogs — I don’t necessarily have the time to sew or blog everyday — and sometimes I feel like I’m not “keeping up”. So reading other blogs keeps me inspired and keep me from feeling frustrated that I can’t be making as much as I’d like! It also is a good reminder that there is a great big world out there, and while it seems like so much has already been thought of, we’ve been recycling ideas and improving on them forever! If we get caught up in trying to be completely authentic or original it would be paralyzing. So, I just focus on trying to make things that I feel are worthy because they either help me to learn a new skill, or excite me for some reason — probably an idea that I saw elsewhere and want to tweak to make my own!
You make some really great points, Kim. It is really hard to read so many blogs and worry about “keeping up”, and I do like to have a mix of design input to help keep things in perspective.
I tend to just sing happy songs about the house and in the car: ‘Don’t worry be happy’, ‘The only way is up’, etc. I am naturally an optimist and not really into self-help stuff otherwise. (I do confess to hair envy of Marie’s shiny locks. Must use hairbrush more often! 🙂 )
Very true words again. I’m sure I do have books or words that have been inspiring, but my mind has gone blank on that one right now. But I do find I learn most about what’s important to me from seeing other people live their lives around me, and often learning from their mistakes as much as when they get it right. I think it’s sometimes easier to realise what it is that’s making someone else unhappy and then see that there are elements of that within myself, or to be sure to watch out for those pitfalls with myself.
Happy to stumble upon this today! I’ve heard of B-School from a bunch of directions, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched her show. This one was so apropos for me right now!