In which I should be making art

I have been thinking about Art a lot. These thoughts have been mostly along the lines of I’m not good enough/I don’t do enough of it. I have been dwelling, in a fairly meloncholy way, on jealousy and a sense of failure. I used to do a lot of art in a structured way: art lessons at school, creative writing lessons or projects, running my jewellery business, or even the way my degree inspired writing. All of these creative outlets have dropped off along the way and I am really in need of a new kick. I need to make things and share things and just see how it goes.

I have lately found myself surrounded by good advice on how to do just that. I think everyone with an interest in creativity should be following Brain Pickings, one of the most beautiful blogs on the internet. It is a well of inspiration, but amongst the thoughts it reaches out with (of love, Lego and lost letters) are words about writing and making. There are so many snippets of advice about originality, audience and self-doubt.

The advice is generally: just do art.
Like Neil Gaiman says in so many ways.
Sometimes like this:
“When people come to me and say, ‘I want to be a writer. What should I do?’, I say, ‘You have to write.’ And sometimes they say, ‘I’m already doing that. What else should I do?’ I say, ‘You have to finish things.’ Because that’s where you learn from; you learn by finishing things.”
(Sometimes like this)

Like Vihart says:

 
Like Tanya Davis says:

.

I find myself humming
‘Art, art, art I want you.
Art you make it pretty hard not to.
And I’m trying hard here to follow you,
but I can’t always tell if I ought to’.

A few months ago I left a job and bought a sketchbook. For me a new sketchbook is a world of possibilities. So I wrote a couple of poems and sketched some maps, designed some Lego figures. Then that little burst of energy was gone. So I am going to do my best to take all this advice and just sit down and write. Me and the boy are going to set aside some time every week to do out Things. His with his viola and me with some writing or crafting or drawing.

 I hope it works!

In which I have found The Hat.

I always thought of myself as being a big hat-girl. I mean a person who has a lot of hats rather than that I, or the hats, are big. In fact I’m pretty small.

Anyway. At the start of university I remember a friend joking that maybe I didn’t have hair as he had only ever seen me with a hat on. Although that has changed a little (partly due to confidence switches. I used to hide my face under hats, now I am less confident about the hats themselves). I have five berets, a couple of trilbies, various summer hats, costume hats and a few posh vintage hats. Then along came the internet, specifically fashion blogs. I thought I was into berets, but I only have five different ones. Not enough! Lauren has even more! The bloggers I follow have hats like these: 

Roaslind, Clothes, Cameras and Coffee has a seeingly endless supply of vintage clothes, but I especially pine over her hats.

Lauren, Someone Like You, introduced me to the concept that I may need more than five berets

Annika, The Pineneedle Collective, wears this gorgeous hat in most of her posts at the moment. A constant reminder of how cute it is.

Across the internet I see people with the most beautiful of vintage hats, combined with the courage to wear them. I have some outlandish hats, including a vintage train driver hat, that I feel self-conscious and silly wearing them.  However I have found myself the Hat of Summer. In a charity shop I saw this beautifully bright har with blue fake flowers and a turquoise ribbon. It is exactly what I was looking for. I feel cute and colourful rather than odd and it matches my turquoise nail varnish perfectly. These things are important. I also like that I can wear an all grey outfit, pop on the hat, and I feel cheerful and interesting. 

 

On a very different note, I read a news article online recently about how keeping a blog makes you less attractive to employees. It was rather odd because the employer writing it had some strange ideas about how your blog reflected you. In one example her gave, someone had a blog about tinkering with computers, but was applying for a humanities job. The employer said he feared they would “lose him to the computer department”. How strange that as a an adult you would believe that a hobby in a different field implies incompetence. To get back on point, I have been very careful to not mention work on this blog. I have mentioned when I have been unemployed, because unemployment is an all-consuming constant state of depression and guilt. It is hard not to mention it.  However, I want to have a career at some point and so mentioning work at all is problematic, if I listen to this guy. It is not just mentioning what I do now that is an issue, but a future employer might fear that I would ‘gossip’ about them on here if I set a precedent. Yet, on the other hand what about things I am proud of and want to share? But more importantly, things I am learning and knowledge stemming from my work that is important? You see almost all the jobs I have had have been in the public sector (NGOs, charities) and so I want to share some of their work because I believe in it, whilst at the same time respecting work/home divisions. It is a tricky one.

So I have decided to just mention related stuff without making a big deal out of it when it comes up. But what do you other bloggers think about it? Do you stick to your chosen blogging topic or mention your work life?

In which I am inspired by other bloggers

I think I am officially back into blogging after my December break because I was genuinely quite excited about coming home from work today and blogging. After my previous post about a failure to find work clothes I had a wonderful weekend’s shopping.

(Girlnextdoorfashion, Weekend Remix: Red Zara Blazer)

I confess to being inspired/copying off others bloggers this weekend. Firstly, Charlotte from Girlnextdoorfashion –even more so than I first realised. I have been envious for some time of her collection of coloured blazers and determined that they were the next item I really needed for my work wardrobe –especially to add colour to a monochrome look. I bought this fantastic red blazer (shown below) which is really comfy –and then came home to find that she had done a whole post of red blazers. I hope I don’t come across as dull now.

(Someonelikeyou, Surprise Snow)

The other blogger I was inspired by was Lauren of SomeoneLikeYou. I wasn’t actually copying her clothes this time, more her style… in that she takes pictures in the freezing cold and shamed me into taking some clothes off. Well, just my coat actually. On Saturday for shopping I put a lot into my outfit, wearing a nice dress etc. and took the camera. However, when it came to actually taking the photos I wussed out and stayed all wrapped up. On Sunday I was determined not to be out-done and finally took some photos!

#

(The blazer and belt are new from New Look)

Although I managed to buy lots of new things on Saturday (including some new Lego figures) I found myself feeling rather depressed in Tkmaxx and coming down the escalators turned to my boyfriend and commented that I feel that Tkmaxx is like an entranceway to Hell. With its bright lights and clashing orange and red signs and clothes laid out without logic the whole place gives me a headache. Then I really got a headache because I was squinting so much in the bright lights that I was temporarily blinded and banged my head on a metal pole I wasn’t expecting whilst an attendant watched calmly, expressing no concern like a patient vampire. When I looked in the mirror in the changing rooms I had an expression of pain on my face I hadn’t even realised was there. I am sorry to anyone who has worked there, but I have decided that TKMaxx is my limit to high street shopping.

I hope to show off my other purchases in the future. In fact, as most of them were for work, I hope to do a series of my work outfits at some point when the evenings are lighter and longer. I hope they won't be boring because I do like to wear things that are still 'me' to work.

Jumping on from clothes I would just like to add that if anyone wants to buy mini-figures series 6 I desperately want this clockwork robot:

I bought 3 packets at the weekend in an attempt to find this one little Lego and only ended up getting 2 pajama-wearers and 1 butcher! I need more friends to get into Lego. Please let me know if you do. I would love to have people to do swapses with.