Celebrating International Women's Month

I'm so excited to share my feature on Mighty Tea's blog this month for International Women's day/month! A time I am sure to celebrate, especially as a lady running her own business while encouraging other women to pursue their dreams and creativity.

I (Ladyfolk Studio) was named one of "Six Women Entrpreneurs to Inspire You This International Women’s Month." You can also read the interview from my feature below...

“The name of my business is Ladyfolk Studio. I have been working for myself for the past three years along with teaching part time at an art college (@lcadbfa).

What makes me mighty inside is my persistence. With art and business I think it really is key to continue to pursue what makes you happy and to continue to grow.

I strive to make the world a more beautiful place through my art, community and sharing my knowledge through teaching. I hope to inspire others to be more creative, kind and to find the beauty in the everyday.

This advice applies to artist and entrepreneurs wanting to start their own business, and it is don’t be afraid to fail. As a creative entrepreneur there are alot of ideas I want to try. Some end up more successful than others but I wouldn’t know unless I tried! Allowing for room for experimentation makes space for new ideas and growth. Also not being afraid to ask; for advice, a job, or a company about collaborating. I have been pleasantly surprised how much opportunity I have been given simply by asking.

My favorite kind of tea is green tea. I especially love the tropical green tea and adding frozen pineapple chucks to make it iced on these hot Laguna Beach days.”

Creative Ideas for Self Care Sunday

You might have remembered from a couple weeks back on the blog that one of my New Year's resolutions for a creative and happy New Year was to take time for self-care.

I mentioned a few self-care ideas in that post but I thought I would put together of a whole list of creative ideas for you to try. There is something on this self care idea list for just about everyone. I tried to include a wide range of cost too, from free and up! Let's be honest, we all want self-are but it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg which is totally defeating the purpose and causing you less self-care i.e. stress about money. 

For me personally, my creativity thrives on self-care. For those of you not working in a creative field, painting might actually be a really a good outlet to try for self care. It nourishes your creative spirit and can be a form of meditation when you get in that zen like flow. I also find spending time with my adorable dog Mr.Bailey a form of self care. it nurtures my bond with animals and I embrace his care free spirit in the moment.  It's definetitely self-care, especially with my dog who loves to play and go for along walks, i.e. self care.

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25 Creative Ideas for Self Care Sunday

1. buy yourself a variety of flowers and make your own arrangement, get creative!
2. meal prep and try out new healthy recipes
3. try journaling or sketching in a notebook
4. read a new book or pick up an inspiring magazine
5. go shopping for the perfect new perfume or essential oil for your personality
6. take your dog for a long walk in new neighborhood
7. or volunteer to walk a dog at an animal shelter
8. organize your closet, make three piles: donate, sell and keep!
9. clean and organize your jewelry
10. drink warm water with lemon first thing in the morning
11. have a social media free day
12. try meditating, use an app like clam or headspace
13. call a friend to catch up
14. meet a family member for lunch
15. play a board game with your roommates or spouse
16. go for a hike
17. make a beautiful smoothie bowl, see instagram for inspiration
18. try a new face or hair mask
19. deep clean a room in your home
20. write an email to someone you admire
21. write a letter to yourself about where you to be in a year and open it then
22. get a new plant for your home, they help filter the air!
23. give yourself a manicure or pedicure
24. try dry brushing
25. do a workout or yoga video on youtube

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go shopping for the perfect new perfume or essential oil for your personality

clean and organize your jewelry

2018 Resolutions for a Creative and Happy New Year

Happy New Year ladyfolk!

Let's talk New Years vibes...Feeling the motivation of the New Year? Are you someone who makes New Year's Resolutions? How about intention or goal setting? I like to think of resolutions similar to goals or intention setting.

I really like to set my intention at the start of every day, because really every day is a fresh start not just January 1st. New Years resolutions end up becoming more my over arching themes for the whole year and a little less specific. I use my daily/weekly/monthly intentions to really narrow down the details of what I want to accomplish to feel my best. What follows are resolutions to help you make 2018 creative and happy.. Let's make this the best year ever!

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2018 RESOLUTIONS

For 2018 my resolutions are aimed at making this my year the best year ever, with a focus on health, creativity and family/friends. This year if I am feeling creatively or personally drained i am going to reflect on these resolutions...

CONTINUE TO LEARN.

SPEND TIME WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

TAKE TIME FOR SELF CARE.

STAY ACTIVE.

EXPLORE AND GET CREATIVE.

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CONTINUE TO LEARN.

This could be taking a class or workshop. I am personally thinking a couple cooking classes (in particular knife skills and pasta making), a macrame workshop and possibly audited an art class at my alma mater. You could also always join me at a Watercolor and Wine workshop, their are always new subjects we paint. Continuing to learn could also be as simple as reading a book, taking a class online or watching an educational documentary on Netflix. 

SPEND TIME WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

I definitely find that friends and family encourage my creativity. It used to be easier to run into friends and family when everyone was closer but now I find I do really have to put in the effort to make plans. That's it, every week I am just trying to connect with someone to go for a hike, grab lunch, come over to the studio... it is lonely working from home so any social interaction I can have during the day keeps the creativity and happiness going. 

TAKE TIME FOR SELF CARE.

It's the latest buzz word, but so essential, self care. Whether a weekly face mask, meditation, taking vitamins, eating healthy food full of fruits and veggies, journaling, de-cluttering and cleaning, organizing, drinking warm lemon water first thing in the morning... all things I have the intention of remembering to implement.

STAY ACTIVE.

My personal Ideas include hiking, golfing, bowling, dance classes, walking to the farmers market saturdays, walking on the beach, walking my dog, signing up for a fun marathon. The goal here is for you to either find one thing or variety of things you love to keep you active. I still want to get my gym workouts in 3-4x a week but also want to just have fun being active as well with hobbies and friends. 

EXPLORE AND GET CREATIVE.

My husband and I are always trying to go explore new places by going camping. The problem is we go a couple times at the start of the year and then get so busy with work, holidays etc. we never go again for the rest of the year. This year I want to schedule and plan it so it actually happens. This will also help me have a happier year by giving me trips to look forward to. my goal is to mainly use these trips to relax and collect inspiration through photos, visiting new places and sketching. 

I think I'm actually going to hand-letter my resolutions in watercolor and hang them on my mood board as a daily visual reminder of my intentions for the year. I will be sharing more with you this  month to continue the inspiration and creativity throughout the New Year. Tell me in the comments what are some of your resolutions or intentions for the new year??? Let us connect and inspire each other!

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Escaping the Comparison Trap - A Creative Point of View

I think it's easy for any of us to fall into the comparison trap. With the overload of images thrown at us on the daily through instagram how can we not help but think should I be doing something else? Something more like them? Something different than them? Should I just give up? Are they copying me? Does anywhere care about what I'm doing?

Well I'm writing this post in hopes of getting some of my own thoughts out, as well as hopefully helping you to realize the trap we fall into. The past couples months I have lost a little momentum with my business. I like to easily blame that on the fact that summer was over and I had to go back to school to teach two days a week at LCAD. Yet the fact is, that is just an excuse. Things I had time for before I realized were slowly disappearing. I was comparing myself too much to what I was seeing and it had practically frozen me. 

Now here I am trying to get back on track. I haven't blogged or sent a newsletter for months, although I have had plenty to say and share. I just thought, who really cares? I don't have 10k followers or even 2k at that. I just stopped really caring because I have felt maybe I wasn't doing enough? or I don't look like so and so... or I'm not comfortable talking on instagram stories and thats what you have to do to be successful. Well I've had a talk with myself now and realized that simply isn't true. 

You need to learn to how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. - Elizabeth Gilbert

We are all on our own path and there is no right or wrong way, all we can do is keep moving forward. So here I am moving forward and staying in my own lane. Below are some things I am focusing on that have helped improved my focus and I hope they will help you too!

1. Monitor your time and thoughts as you scroll through social media. I'm not limited myself completely from instagram but I am going to try to allot myself specific times when I can post and look at who I'm following on instagram. As I'm scrolling I'm going to remind myself I'm doing great things too but others may simply be sharing more and that I don't have to do what everyone else is doing. Remind myself I am unique and special and instagram doesn't always show that.

2. Read more. I feel like I completely forgot how inspiring and uplifting reading books can be. In particular business or self help books. That way instead of wasting my time checking my social media, I can actually grow as a business owner and person by reading helpful books. I believe the more knowledge I have the less overwhelmed I will feel.

From my recent visit to The Riviera in Palm Springs, California. Get out and explore to find more inspiration away from the screen.

3. Live in the moment, get outside more and see friends. I get so trapped in my studio thinking I have to work all the time to "keep up" with everyone else on social media I forget about real life. I'm going to make an effort now to make more plans with friends and also to make new friends. Pre-instagram this is how people actually connected. Just the fact thatI found I am deficient in Vitamin D when I live in one of the sunniest parts of the nation reminds me I need to go the beach more. I could even combine my two goals of reading more with getting outside more and maybe meeting a friend for lunch after. We need to be reminded that sometimes the real inspiration comes from life not a screen.

4. Work on more personal projects. I have been so caught up working on client projects I completely forgot about my own projects. I plan to commit time each day now to work on something just for fun. An example would be Mr.Bailey's dog teepee I have been meaning to finish. I have had all the materials for months, just need to put it together and hand-paint the pattern I have planned. 

Watercolor doodles and donuts for a personal project.

So tell me in the comments, what tip will you try? How do you stay focused? How can we uplift each other without comparing?