On my happy list – candy coloured beach huts
So June is here and Summer is on its way. As the days get longer and the evenings warmer, so much to be thankful for this month.
Each month we share a free downloadable ‘Happy List’ as a place for you to capture the things – small and big – that have made you happy and inspired you each day. Get yours here.
Wishing you a very happy June
Beth
Inside Issue 6 (which is completely free) you can find:
PLUS: Product inspiration from Tree Couture, Guirado Design and Susy Pilgrim Waters
A couple of days ago I was pushing my baby’s pram round a nearby park in the sunshine when we came across a couple of buskers. They were pretty good, and they smiled a lot. And I gave them a five pound note. That is TEN times what I normally give buskers, but they weren’t ten times as good as any others.
So why did they get the note not a coin? Because of this:
They sold me on their romantic dream to “get to America”. I could see them in a convertible racing along Route 66. I could imagine them strumming a tune in Central Park. I took the journey with them in my head, and I wanted to help them.
If they hadn’t told me what their dream was I wouldn’t have known how to help. It took guts to stand up in the park, sing and declare their dreams, but they did it, rallied me and others to help them and, with every pound that dropped into their guitar case, they got a step closer to their plan.
Sharing your dreams can be scary. It can make you feel vulnerable and afraid. But if you share them with the right people, you might just get more help and support than you could have hoped for. And then maybe those dreams will actually come true…
Do it. Share your dreams with someone you trust today.
Beth and Paul
A few years ago Mr K and I went on holiday to Thailand. It was our first overseas trip together, and we were lying on a beach on Ko Phi Phi for the third day in a row. We were a bit bored sunbathing, and it wasn’t very sunny anyway, so when Mr K said “What shall we do today” I said “Let’s go to Hong Kong!”
I remember him laughing out loud and saying “I thought you might say ‘Let’s get a massage’, or ‘Let’s go for a swim’, not ‘Let’s get on a plane and go to another country’…” But why not? We were half way round the world anyway, and I thought it would be fun to see the place where Mr K spent much of his childhood. So we went to an internet café, booked the plane for the next day and went. We had a brilliant time.
To me this was kind of normal – it’s just the way I do things. But over the years I have come to understand that this isn’t necessarily ‘normal’ at all… I like doing random things, taking myself and others by surprise and not knowing what the outcome is going to be, but I have come to discover that not everyone does. I think this openness to the unknown is really helpful when it comes to strengthening your capacity for risk taking, so I’d love to encourage you to try it now and again if you don’t normally do ‘random’ things.
In one of the Do What You Love classes a couple of years back I challenged the participants to do something random, and one of them went up to a sad looking old guy in Walmart and gave him a hug,just because. It turns out the man had lost his wife the month before, and it was “the nicest thing that had ever randomly happened to him”. Love that.
Why don’t you do something random today? Surprise someone. Surprise yourself. Mix it up. Make your day more interesting…
We’d love to hear what you get up to! Feel free to share on Facebook or Twitter.
Beth and the team
Fill your Summer with inspiration and creativity, by joining the Make It In Design* Summer School – for FREE! There are three options – beginner, intermediate and advanced. Please feel free to sign up for one or more options, and use this opportunity to stretch yourself and grow your portfolio. (*This is brought to you by Do What You Love and designer Rachael Taylor)
Beginners will be able to tackle the briefs either on the computer (Illustrator/Photoshop) or traditionally off the computer. Please note this Summer School does not include any technical guidance.
The intermediate creative briefs will be aimed at Illustrator/Photoshop users. Please note this Summer School does not include any technical guidance.
The advanced creative briefs will be aimed at Illustrator/Photoshop users. Please note this Summer School does not include any technical guidance.
(1) Register by clicking on the track of your choice and filling in the simple form (you are welcome to join more than one track if you wish)
(2) On Monday July 28 2014 you will be sent your first creative brief.
– If you want to be included in our online public gallery you will need to submit your work by Thursday 7 August.
– The gallery will go live on Friday 8 August and we will share it widely on social media
(3) On Monday 11 August you will be sent your second creative brief.
– If you want to be included in our online public gallery you will need to submit your work by Thursday 21 August.
– The gallery will go live on Friday 22 August and we will share it widely on social media
(4) On Monday 25 August you will be sent your first creative brief.
– If you want to be included in our online public gallery you will need to submit your work by Thursday 4 September.
– The gallery will go live on Friday 5 September and we will share it widely on social media
(5) On Friday 5 September we will publish a round up on www.makeitindesign.com/blog with links to all the galleries and an announcement of the giveaway winners.
PLUS We will feature a round up of our favourite entries in the October edition of MOYO Magazine!
Everyone submitting work to the gallery for all three creative briefs in their track (Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced) will be entered into a draw to win a free place on The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design as follows:
– One person from the Beginner track will win a free place on Module 1 ‘Designing your way’, starting October 27 2014
– One person from the Intermediate track will win a free place on Module 2 ‘Creating your professional identity’, starting October 27 2014
– One person from the Advanced track will win a free place on Module 3 ‘Monetising your designs’, starting January 12, 2015
Click on the buttons below depending on which track you want to join. Please note you are welcome to join more than one track (they are all free) but you will need to register for each one separately.
At very long last here is the Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap round up and winner announcement. Please accept my most sincere apologies for the considerable delay. As a first time mum with a tiny baby and a business to run, I didn’t quite anticipate how much work would be involved this time round, and for that I apologise.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding, and for participating in our biggest swap ever – hope you enjoyed it! Here is a snapshot of some of the many cards which crisscrossed the globe:
Here’s the postcard I created and sent off to South Africa:
You can see many of the postcards created in our special Facebook album here. If yours hasn’t been featured, please feel free to email it to [email protected] so we can add it. Thank you to our friends at Coats for supporting this swap.
We are excited to unveil the winner of the giveaway….
Congratulations! You will receive the full range of new Anchor Postcard Kits from Coats (a total of 20 postcards), a delicious package of 80 skeins of Anchor Stranded Cotton from Coats, a free place on the upcoming PaperLove online course (starts June 2) and a treasure box of stationery and other crafty delights in the PaperLove kit. We will be in touch directly with further details shortly.
For everyone else, as a token of our gratitude for your participation, and by way of apology that this is so late, we would like to offer you a large discount on the PaperLove ecourse which begins June 2. (If you liked the swap you’ll LOVE the course!) You can join this gorgeous five week online course for just £69 if you book via this link by Wednesday 14 May. Hope you will join us for a feast of creativity, with paper lovers just like you from all around the world!
Tomorrow I turn 37. I love birthdays, not just because it’s time to celebrate, but because it’s a good moment to take stock and think about how I want the next year to feel. Ahead of this birthday I have been thinking about this a fair bit, and have been wondering how different things would be if I changed what I prioritise.
Of course with a young family, their needs will naturally come first, and it goes without saying that I absolutely love spending time with Mr K and little Sienna. But after that, in the pockets of time and space left over, what should I put first?
The truth is I usually put work first. I love what I do and that is fine, but lately I have been working far too much, to the point that it has become my default thing to do in any spare moment. (Zen for Ten in April helped, but my to-do list is still far too long!)
So what to do? I have decided to try reframing things and choosing to put something else, not work, first. I have been asking myself questions like…
There are so many words I could put in the gap of ‘If you put [XXX] first?’ Tomorrow, on my birthday, I’m going to spend some time deciding which one of these to try on, to try out, and see how it goes.
How about you? What will you put first in the spare pockets of time you have this week?
Beth
PS If you want to put CREATIVITY first I’d really encourage you to join Bloom True – the online painting (& life) course from Flora Bowley which starts on May 12. It’s an amazing personal adventure, and the daily posts for the five weeks of class are the perfect way to help you put your creativity first, every day, until it becomes a habit! You can register here.
On my happy list today – a long walk and a hot coffee by the sea, baby girl beside me
Can you believe we are in May already? This is one of my absolute favourite months of the year. Apart from being my birthday month, it’s the month when so many flowers shrug off the last signs of winter and come into full bloom. So much to be thankful for this month.
Each month we share a free downloadable ‘Happy List’ as a place for you to capture the things – small and big – that have made you happy and inspired you each day. Get yours here.
Wishing you a very happy May
Beth
When we planned the facelift for our flagship online course Do What You Love (which is back after a two year break!) we knew we wanted to really bring it to life with the video aspect of the class. In week one of class I share a story about an experience on a boat aged 17 which changed everything for me, and we joked about chartering a yacht to film it on there. And then we thought, well actually, why not? And booked the boat!
We had a fun day filming with the lovely team at Ben Simon Media, and the crew from Lagoon Watersports in Brighton Marina. It was so good to get out on the water and put myself back in the situation I had been in when I had the greatest a-ha moment of my life. Here are a few pics from behind-the-scenes of filming (we even managed to give Mr K a cameo role!)
In truth I was pretty self-conscious with my extra 40lbs of baby weight, but in the end I decided that making the videos was more important than my embarrassment at what I looked like, and I did it anyway. Yay mama!
The Do What You Love course has just begun but you can still join us if you are quick. Registration is open here until tomorrow for latecomers. Participants have already started to have some significant breakthroughs and realisations, and the atmosphere in the class community is already more open, honest and supportive than any online community I have experienced. It is quite amazing. Join us here.
