Creativity takes Courage

Part of my re-organising process was to put up this little chalk board that one of my students gave me as a Christmas present. It now sits above me while I sit here typing and it's the first thing I see when I go down into the "beading room".

After a hectic year of markets and full time work in 2016, I really needed a break from all my beads over the Christmas period. Wow! I never thought I would say that! In fact I think it's the largest break I've ever had out of what we all call the 'beading room', but when I stumbled along this quote in the endless world of pinterest, I suddenly found some of my mojo again. I started planning, designing, drawing, making endless idea lists and basically getting into the swing of things.

But it's not always that easy. I know so many gorgeous crafting artists who struggle with so many doubts and insecurities about their product, pricing, marketing, the list can be endless and I must admit at times I feel these things too but then I felt something 'click' when I saw this quote.

CREATIVITY DOES TAKE COURAGE!  You are putting yourself out there for everyone to see a little piece of you.
*What if they don't like it?
*What if they love it, but they balk at the cost?
*Or maybe they do the "Oh I could make that for less than that".

Unfortunately, what a lot of people don't understand is that whatever you make has a little piece of you inside, some of your LOVE and that takes an extraordinary amount of courage. So for all the handmadies out there; the seamstresses, crocheters, knitters, bag makers, candle makers, glass makers, jewellers and artists of any form putting love into the world, thank you. You make this world a better place, a place where old traditions won't be lost, creativity is valued, and generations to come will have something to teach the new generations. This blog post is for you. Creativity takes Courage and you have it in spades!!
Liz xxx

Welcome 2017!

Well I don't know about you, but I'm super happy that 2017 is finally here. Last year was a big one!

With a daughter graduating high school and getting her L plates, road tripping to attend different markets, 3 different venues for our local market, working full time, being our netball club's treasurer and trying to create inspiring jewellery to sell, I'm pooped!

My beautiful family

"CQ Eat Street" Music Bowl Market

So it's no surprise that I've been a little quite on the tech side of things over the Christmas break (of course technical issues of internet dropping out 20 times a day hasn't helped). Of course with tech being off the table for a while it has given me a chance to clean (blah). Like most people I really don't like cleaning but I do love the end result. And for me the beading room was in a serious 'oh my you really need to put that stuff away' and re-organise, plan, and be inspired to get 2017 off with a bang!

So to that end I thought I'd start the 2017 year with a "Before and After" blog post.

So here for all to see, is the mess I can get into.

But with the help of my trusty sidekick and motivational cleaner (aka Ben) 2017 is starting on the right foot. 

Plus I see that Carlisle (my gorgeous but ever so lazy boy kitty) really likes the lovely clean desk surface and is ready to distract me with cuddles (which is far more distracting than fb, instagram and pinterest all put together).

So if I can get Carlisle to move (preferably not to my chair or other table) than I might actually get stuck into my business for 2017! 

I hope everyone has had a great start to the New Year and you have clean and clutter free work spaces to get the inspiration buzzing. 

Liz xxx