Updated: Feb 8, 2021
It’s a Saturday night in February of 2021 so where am I?
HOME! I’m home in my studio possibly enjoying a craft beer... making crafts. The same thing I’ve done almost every Saturday for the past ten months. Finally, it feels routine. It feels good to be home in my little pink room filled with treasures and supplies and cats and twinkle lights. I mean, what’s not to love, right?
It took a pandemic for me to understand how important it is for me to make time to make something.
It took a global lockdown for me to realize that what was right in front of me, at my fingertips, was the thing I was neglecting. I made time for beers, friendship, Instagram, smoking cigarettes on my porch, creating outfits and watching television on the weekends. I made time to look at what everyone else was doing. I made time to justify why it worked for them and why it would never work for me.
I have always prioritized creativity, but I have not always made the physical space for it. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but hear me out. Identifying as a creative person and prioritizing all things creative can actually deter you from setting aside the actual time in your busy life to simply sit down and make something. We scroll, scroll, scroll through Instagram and TikTok and soak it all in and feel inspired, but by the time we are done with that, Oh! It’s time to make dinner and then... the list goes on. I want to help you make time to make something. You might spend your Saturday making a collage, but you also might spend it making pancakes with your family. Making breakfast for your family is still you making time to make something. I think it’s all about mindset. It’s about reclaiming and reframing our time.
Instead of spending every Friday and Saturday night longing for the late night debauchery I used to take part in, eventually I started recognizing that I was accustomed to spending my weekends slightly hungover and they were overall less enjoyable than I once thought. I started noticing (and embracing) how wonderful it was to plant myself in my studio with a podcast or some moody music and make that my Saturday night debauchery. After adjusting my mindset and my expectations I was able to really dig in and enjoy my new routine.
Like making a collage: sift, cut out the bad stuff, reframe, shift and remake it until it looks juuuuust how you want it. Something intriguing, fun and completely your own.
