My 9th Bloggiversary!

I think blogging for 9 years is a pretty amazing achievement💖 At my first bloggiversary I had done 120 posts and had 34 followers.

My Original Blog Header

This is post 1110 and I now get many more visits per post than that number of followers. I know many people have given up blogging for Facebook and Instagram which are a much quicker hit of art (and you can find me there too if you click on those links), but I've kept up my blog because it's more than just sharing a finished piece of art for me.

Blog Header 2016

I want to tell my story in the hope that I inspire others to be creative and find time for art in their lives; I want to share the inspiration I find in the form of excellent teachers, special workshops, and FREE online offerings; I want to help you discover fun new supplies and then where to purchase them; I want to engage with you via comments or emails; I want to share my love of all sorts of different kinds of creativity in my life.

I also want to capture my process so that I can look back and remember how I did something; to celebrate completing projects; 

to set myself challenges; to capture my journey both artistically and for self-growth; 

to be able to set goals and see how I'm making progress; to have a record of achievement when I feel like I'm not doing anything....

I've learned that we all have seasons of creativity, and sometimes you need a break, but sometimes what's needed is a look at what was happening last year to recognise how far you've come, or that this feeling of not wanting to do much is a regular response to this time of year. In short (which this isn't!) I am grateful to be here, in full colour, sharing my process and my thoughts about my creative life, and I'm especially grateful for your presence here as well. 

I am currently coming out of a time of low creativity for a variety of reasons. I love my monthly reviews as a chance to reflect and to plan ahead. I am now in the middle of school holidays and have been very grateful for the time to recover properly, and to have a chance to have a bit of tidy up as we look forward to the second half of the year. Here's a before and after photo from the beginning of the week

I am so lucky to have the space. Mine is very practical - I would rather art and organise my supplies than make it all really pretty. So while I do have pretty things around

my main focus this last few days has been to organise a few things. I've been very interested and inspired by Laly Mille's free 5-day email workshop of videos covering her favourite supplies. Find out more and sign up HERE.

Of course there was lots in there that I already knew, but she has such a lovely way of explaining things and as a result of watching her I've re-sorted all my pens/ pencils/ markers

as well as organised all my brushes by size and shape for paints

vs gesso and glues

and I feel like I can put my hands on things more practically than before

Today I've basted the quilt that's on my list for completion for the coming week 

and I'm planning my next move on this art journal page....

and after that - you just never know! For now, I am happy to be here, sharing my creativity with you and looking forward to seeing what the rest of July looks like. I hope you are inspired to continue on with me. I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the next 12 months.

 Talk soon 😊