A Declaration On Doing More Better

Several years ago I decided to take a class called The Declaration of You with artist Jessica Swift and career coach Michelle Ward to help me figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Sadly, and to absolutely no fault of theirs (because they are amazing), I really didn't get anything out of it. Here's why... for a really long time I haven't really understood what or whom I wanted to be (or as a microcosm of this issue... what this blog is about).

On the one hand, I'm incredibly lucky/blessed to have a relatively stable 8+ year career in corporate public relations which has moved me around the country and afforded me a comfortable lifestyle for a practical chick.

On the other hand, I've always dabbled in the creative arts, and I absolutely love having many creative outlets. I started this blog during my first year in the corporate world when I really just wanted to share the doodles I was creating during long teleconferences with my family and friends.

My struggle has always been that these two things have often felt at odds. I have "work me" and "artsy/doodling/sewing/whatever me." I don't really aspire to quit my day job, but I also always feel like I should be doing MORE with my so-called hobbies. And my definition of "more" is very murky...

"Work me" = Peggy Olson... at least in my head

This has been causing me particular stress lately because, for probably the first time, I feel like I've actually been getting a tiny tiny bit of traction in various forums as a result of some of the classes I've taken  (1 contest win, 1 Spoonflower sale and 130 new Instagram followers to be exact). Suddenly, I feel this urgent and possibly ridiculous need to capitalize on this tiny tiny bit of momentum or god forbid I miss my chance to do "more."

However, because of my real-life job, I've always had a somewhat time-constrained approach to my creative output. I try things, some turn out ok, some are weird hot messes, some could be better if I actually practiced... and I've always posted all of it, you know, just because. If you look back through this blog you can see what I mean. It's a bit all over the place. And all of this new overthinking has made me feel like none of it is good enough.

I honestly don't know where I'm going with all of this except to say that after some long, hard thinking I've realized: 1. that I really want to do better. I want to practice and take more classes, I want to take less crappy photos, and I want to make things that people really like, and 2. I also want to embrace (and hope others are interested in following) this process I've been going through.

I think there are a lot of people out there like me, trying to do "more" with their hobbies while balancing a full time career (or family, or whatever). I just want to be open and honest about how that's going for me (even when I don't have the time/energy to take perfectly styled photos).

"Doing more better" could be making money, attracting more followers/readers, or just feeling fulfilled.... I haven't figured it out what the actual goal is yet, and it honestly doesn't matter, but I just hope some people will find this mishmash inspiring and join me in my sometimes sloppy/misdirected/messy efforts to doing more... better.

Illustration Friday: Bundled Up

It's Illustration Friday! (Well, Saturday actually). This week's word was 'hibernation' which is appropriate, because as you know I'm super depressed that summer is over. On top of that it's been a gross, cold rainy day so I'm ready to bundle up and not leave the house for a few months.

We spent today actually walking in the cold rain to head down to Crafty Bastards in D.C. It was fun to see all the interesting crafts, etc. 

We saw Jay McCarroll from season one of Project Runway which was pretty awesome, especially since it was Kevin who pointed him out. We also ran into Jessica from the Declaration of You and I commiserated that today would have been a PERFECT day for her new rain boots.

Block Prints Gone Digital

Woohoo, I have to keep this short because it's been a long day of "real life" work, additional "real life" work on top of work, grad school scariness and Declaration of You worksheet-filling-out. I just wanted to share the patterns I created with my block printing experiment over the weekend.

I love navy and white  as evidenced by my blog's design duh. Make sure you click this one so you can see the funky block printing mistakes details.

Next I tried to incorporate some colors from another design. In theory (maybe totally not based in reality because this is just something I'm inferring) if I want to make a line of fabrics, papers, pillows, dog costumes, there has to be a cohesive color theme thingie (lots of things around here are "thingies," I guess I need learn some of the vernacular). So I recycled the color from my beloved dot from two weeks ago.

So there ya go! I can't wait to start working on some other patterns using this method... as soon as I'm done with all this other stuff...

Happy September!

I'm trying to be happy that it's September, but really, I'm devastated. Summer is my favorite season by far because there's no way you can confuse it with my least favorite season... Winter. I'm a Florida girl at heart and I need my 100 degrees and 99 percent humidity days!

So along those lines I made this orang-ey fall-ish print to get pumped up. The inspiration actually came from this photo I found on  Design*Sponge.

Source: designsponge.com

Another reason I'm getting pumped up is that later this month I'm starting "The Declaration of You" with Michelle Ward and Jessica Swift. Wooo! I'm really excited about it because I'm hoping it will help me sort out some of this stuff I've been thinking about for a whiiilllee.

I've been trying to figure out what to do about sharing/selling my doodles and artwork and the level of committment I want to put into it. It's complicated and I have full confidence these wonderful ladies will help guide me through so of my questions. Stay tuned for updates!