Creativiting

The current mood board in my studio

Dear Reader! How art thou? I am feeling silly and excited and a flurry of activity!

Exciting things lay on the horizon - lots of fabulous feedback from the mens about their undie needs. I heard a lot about "the junk." But also some really giggly insights like boxer briefs being "not too creepy to cook breakfast in." And that boxers are "grave danger when biking!"

I'm reading "The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice" and have loved some of Todd Henry's insights about how to build structure into your schedule to nurture creativity. He's got lots of recommendations (which I will now boil down into a neat list of bullet points, but the book is totally worth checking out!):

• Focus - reframing challenges by asking questions (helpful list in the book) and scheduling time to deeply explore ideas/situation (without being a slave to the next task on your list or email in your inbox- so hard!)
• Relationships - carefully choosing who you spend time with, and surrounding yourself with mentors and others to bounce ideas off of and energy with (ideas about how to structure this too...)
• Energy - Planning for how the demands on your energy will be affected by the projects you're working on; recognizing that compartmentalizing ("work/life balance") isn't too realistic when you think for a living (this is a huge one for me)
• Stimuli - He recommends scheduling time to study things that interest you and paying close attention to the stimuli (news, books, tv, blogs, etc) you take in. Looking for diverse perspectives and dissenting opinions to challenge you in new ways
• Hours - Giving yourself time to just sit and come up with ideas. About anything. And taking time to create for the sake of creating. For yourself.

I've been reading lots of books about business lately (most of the recommendations from Making a Living Without a Job) and visiting lots of museums, but some of the topics Henry explored were challenging.

I sometimes use sewing time to keep up with pop culture and watch terrible tv. Jersey Shore? One episode was enough, thankyouverymuch. Toddlers and Tiaras? Same. Only a little bit of shame... :)

Some of his suggestions were really exciting:  like the importance of exploring topics that are personally intriguing even if you can't see a connection- I'm planning on reading some of the classics I've always neglected. And maybe studying modern dance.

One quote he cited that really got me was, "We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves."  -Alice Bloch. Alice! That hurts! But so true.

So I'm curious about what you do. Do you study or spend time exploring anything completely unrelated to your day job or side hustle? How do you nurture your curiosity and your creativity?

Please comment below!  (Feel free to include any recommendations for classics or dance anything...  :)) xoxo

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