Focus - What Do You See?

Hilary Pullen (@Haptree at Craft Blog UK) has a great new book out for all you crafters out there who want to get your real virtual empire together.

Jonathan Fields makes some great points about taking ownership of the process – wish I could go to camp with GLP – maybe next year.

Alisa Burke has been busy decorating her daughter’s room as well as providing some great colour inspiration and prepping for a new workshop with her hubbie – a real family affair.

And as per usual Danielle LaPorte has been handing out some great advice especially the tweetable on underpleasing.

I’ve had a lovely week – hope you have too.

And that there's so much more good stuff to come.

Namaste

Catherine xxx

What do you draw with?

Gorgeous at Ailsa Burke

I was going through some old pieces I’d drafted and came across the pic above – this was all I had on the draft.  And in the spirit of using what I’ve got I’m doing just this.

The piece by Ailsa shows some gorgeous techniques for drawing with ballpoint pen – her sketch books always look great.

So I put together some tweets from recent Feedly feeds about different meduims for drawing.  I love that there is so much variety – no rules.

Pen, paint, paper – what do you love using?

Namaste

Catherine

xxx

Time For More BS

So, that was the week that was;

Checked in at Handmade Harbour on Monday and contemplated the concept of Christmas in July - the hottest July Ever.

I'm loving the Creative Mornings vibe and would so love to be involved in something like it at a local level - a theme that's kind of stuck, more later.

Wednesday I posted a piece about choices and my choosing not to be a Domestic Goddess.  My gut told me not to post the piece.  But I failed to listen and, at a time when the traffic to my blog is building up, this piece had the lowest hits ever.  Lesson learnt: Trust The Gut.  I had already said I'd only write 2 long pieces per week - that way I can focus on quality - and I can easily fill the other 4 days with Feedly and Pinterest finds, like the posts for Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

And, as always, Sunday is for the BS, round off one week and set up the next.

Branding was the key task for this week and I think I now have that sussed, I just have lots to do to put it all together, so watch out for the changes ringing through this week.  You may have noticed already that I've changed the name here.  Keeping it simple really, using the label I was born with Catherine McAtier.

Almost got the label sussed - just need to add the Paisley Touch

Whilst on the surface I'll be re branding everything in the background I'll be working on my first mini project.  I'm taking the advice of Marianne Cantwell being Free Range and jumping right in, giving myself 6 weeks to get the project off the ground.  I could say more but I'm still ironing out the creases.

Suffice it to say I'm still reading Lissa Rankin's Mind Over Medicine, and I'm thinking if my mind can help heal my body can it help heal my town too?  I wanted nothing more, when I finished college, than to move out of Paisley.  I so wanted to move to London - the grass is always greener etc.  I'm finally coming to love the beauty, history and possibilities held by Paisley.  There are a lot of positive Paisley vibes out there, it takes a little digging to find them.  But I've started digging and my first project will involve a lot more.  I believe it's time to be grateful for the history, be hopeful for the future and live and enjoy the now.

Namaste from a True Paisley Buddy

Casting wonderful wishes for the week ahead...

Catherine

xxx

Free Range Life - Starting with What I've Got

As mentioned in yesterday's post I'm finally working through Free Range Human and trying not to be too hard on myself for clearing the crap and realising what I already have or had.  Sometimes the whispers need to be spelled out or stamped on my forehead before I actually listen to them.  Other people's whispers I can hear at any level but the ones meant for me, they seem to get caught up in some kind of interference - usually caused by me.

Austin Kleon's version of putting a lot of work into getting back to where you already  had

I have found a lot of great counsel via some wonderful blogs, collecting many gems via Evernote, Pinterest and lately Feedly (which I've used to replace Google Reader).  Somehow in collecting all of this great advice I've gotten a little lost and overwhelmed in the volume and lost direction.  Granted there have been other things going on in my life and all I seem to have been doing lately is collecting data and not doing much of anything.  It's a hard habit to break but I'm working on it - Yes, I do seem to be working on a lot at the minute.

But big 'A-Ha' here, it's all toward the same end. It's all toward my living my Authentic Life and so I embark on my first 'pet project' writing Authentic Fit.  And so, it would seem, living Free Range is as simple as just starting from where you are.  And I am reminded of this each day I see my screen saver found via the lovely Oh My Handmade Goodness.

Happy Holiday Monday

Looking forward to completing my Free Range Journey

Catherine

xxx