Taking small steps to reach your creative goals

Last week I talked about thinking bigger in terms of our art and life. As such, this week lent me to thinking about giving ourselves praise for the small, everyday accomplishments that may often seem to go unnoticed. As artists our work needs an audience. However, very often we find ourselves at points in our career where we lack an audience or a community in which to share, nurture, and develop our creative work. We could call this a creative dry season, when we are wondering when our work will flower and be acknowledged by the larger community.

I have struggled during many creative dry seasons, searching for a community and friends to acknowledge my work and achievements. And the ironic thing is, the more desperate I am to find acknowledgement, the more I seem to alienate those that may take interest in what I am doing. It is during these dry periods that we need to congratulate ourselves for the small, daily steps we take to nurture our artistic life, whether it be a first draft, a first note, a first step, or for me, the first stitch.

My goal for this week is to do one small creative action that will take me closer to my creative goals (which include better developing this blog, creating my own knitting patterns, and getting certified by the craft yarn council.) Feel free to share with me any small victories of you own this week, and have a creatively abundant week!

Think Bigger

In my never ending quest to find the people, places, and things that are going to help me grow artistically, I had this thought come to me out of the blue this week. This little idea popped into my head, saying "You're thinking too small." "Thinking too small?," I thought. "What does that mean?" For me that means that I am not setting my goals high enough. It means I need to stop limiting myself to opportunities that don't require much experience or many qualifications.

How often do we think too small in our day to day lives? How often do we choose what is safe and easy because it provides us with a predictable outcome?  All of us are meant to set the bar higher and dream bigger. This means if you want to run a marathon, do it! If you want to write a book, do it! If you want to paint, sing, or dance, then just do it! It is easy to get caught in limiting ideas of what is possible. Often people will give what seems to be well meaning advice, such as that's only for the young, rich, healthy, etc. I beg to differ. I think if you can see it in you're mind's eye, you have the answer inside of you on how to achieve it. It might take some stumbling along the way, but anything is possible if you believe in yourself and your dreams, no matter what age you are.

In the spirit of thinking bigger, I am posting an image of a soft, knit, city sculpture that I created from Anna Hrachovec's book Knitting Mochimochi. If you are looking for some cute and funny patterns for soft sculptures, I recommend checking out her site http://mochimochiland.com

And remember THINK BIGGER!

Felted Lunch Bag

Well, here it is, my felted lunch bag off the lion brand yarn website. I am now watermarking my photos because I found my photos posted on other websites and if they are going to end up other places, I want people to know that they're mine.

Other then that, not much is new here. The weather has been quite cold, but no snow here on the East Coast. I often wish that I had more time to travel to more rural places. Being in an urban environment is great for meeting other artists, but one also needs to experience nature as often as possible. I think it is important for keeping one connected to what is real. With "reality" TV, Facebook "friends" and everything else that to some extent seems to draw us from what is tangible and concrete, a good walk in the forest is what one needs to keep him or herself connected to him/herself, the earth, and other people.

So it's been forever since I last posted....

Hello blog community!
Well, it has been a millennia since I last posted. (Well, maybe not that long, but it sure seems that way.) I suppose in essence, it makes it a good time to reflect on the year behind us and my hopes for the year ahead. I have been knitting a lot, maybe in essence to keep some sense of place in a world that changes too much too fast. I've been working a lot with developing new skills in the knitting arena, and right now I am working on a fair aisle cowl off the lion brand yarn website.  The link for the pattern is here: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90660AD.html?noImages=.

In addition, I recently completed a felted lunch bag pattern (also off the lion brand website, http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0618.html?noImages=&utm_source=20111104_Nov04&utm_medium=Emails&utm_campaign=Weeklynewsletter&utm_content=P-KnitFeltedLunchBag) As soon as I get photos taken, I will upload images of the bag.

As for my hopes for this year, well, I for one am hoping that people feel a greater sense of abundance in their lives this year. This is something that I need to work on in my own life and a lot of it relates to gratitude and mindset. In addition, I also hope to regularly post blog updates! I still have an attachment to this little blog, and my goal is to update once a week if possible.

Anyhoo...please feel free to comment about your hopes and goals for the year, and have a blessed and super abundant week and year!

Cheers!