Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts

November 1, 2013

Artful Blogging

Ever since my first story got published, I've always been a little giddy when I see something of mine in print. 

Some things never change. 

This time, I'm even more excited than usual. 

A little over a year after I started this blog, I'm now featured in the winter edition of Artful Blogging from Stampington & Company!


This magazine has inspired me on so many levels -- and it was one of the very things that prompted me to start this blog in the first place. I'm thrilled to be featured in their pages -- and I can't wait to sit down and read the rest of the stories of fellow bloggers, inside. 

If you've stumbled upon Typing Sunflowers as a result of reading Artful Blogging, then a very special welcome to you! 

October 13, 2013

The Incredible Itch...

Insanabile Cacoethes Scribendi 
- Juvenal

OR, simply... 

The Incredible Itch to Write


I'm working on a few things this week that I'll hopefully be able to share on the blog later. In the meantime, let's all raise a glass to the inventor of the cut and paste feature on the computer. While I learned to type on a vintage contraption like the typewriter above, I'm not sure I would be as prolific or productive if I had to type out everything on one today.


Stay tuned... later this week I'll be announcing another giveaway, as well as a few other fun things! In the meantime, I need to scratch an itch... Thankfully I don't have to change any typewriter ribbon.

March 4, 2013

Write it Out

I have been missing regular doses of writing lately. I know I've been posting things and writing about them... but occasionally I feel the need to hole myself up in a coffee shop and type and type and type for days on end.

It's how I tend to process things. It's the reason I stayed up late to finish that last post about my brother. I needed to write something... I needed to process what I couldn't verbalize to even friends and family.


I had a Psychology teacher at university tell our class that the best way to get through trauma and life in general is to pray it out, run it out, cry it out and write it out.

I have always loved this simplicity. And while I've replaced the running with walking instead over the years, I have definitely gone for the other three with vigor.

December 19, 2012

Head Start on New Year's Resolutions

In less than two weeks, it's likely most of us will be declaring our New Year's Resolutions to family, friends and collegues. 

Or, if you're more like me, you may scribble the resolutions down perhaps in a private journal -- a kind of insurance to make sure nobody knows whether or not you have succeeded by the end of the year.


Admit it -- most of us have high expectations. We want to lose (insert pounds/kilos/stones), we want to do more, be better, pass the exam and get the promotion. We want to look like and actually be one of the 'successful' people. 

A few years ago, I made myself a goal book. I had some lofty goals in mind. I wanted to read one book a week, lose weight, do various photography projects, and get rid of other 'baggage' in my life -- all in one go! 


I definitely had some high ambitions. Throughout the year I referred to the book and kept a tally of how far behind I was on various projects. At the end of 2010, I looked back on my goal book and felt like a failure. I read half as many books as I wanted to, lost only a few pounds (and then gained them all back) cooked less than I planned to, and still had some baggage lurking, both proverbially and physically. 


My procrastination skills got the better of me in 2011 and instead of creating a new goal book, I revisited the 2010 book and focused on what I DID actually accomplish. I realized that although I didn't read 56 books that year, I still read 25 -- and that was better than not reading anything. I noticed that while I didn't get to all of the recipes I wanted to try out, I still cooked and baked a slew of new ones. I was so focused on what I didn't get done that I totally missed the things I actually accomplished. 

For 2012, I casually kept track of the new recipes I tried on a piece of paper on the fridge, wrote down the books I read in the back of my journal, and took photos of every crafty project I completed -- more out of being a pedantic record-keeper than anything else. After a while, without the 'pressure' of checking to see that I was fulfilling my quota of goals, the resolutions actually became a habit

While I came up with generic mottos for the year: read more, write more, walk more, eat healthier, love others -- along the way I discovered that by letting go of measuring myself, I had actually completed more -- and the 'more' was in fact better quality. 


I'm a firm believe in writing down your goals -- I don't remember who proved the theory or when, but apparently you have a much higher chance of reaching your target if you physically WRITE down your goals -- even if you never look at that piece of paper ever again. 

(This own theory has been proven in my life. During my third year at University, I wrote down a page worth of what seemed to be impossible and absurd things I wanted to do in life. Ten years later, I found that piece of paper and nearly passed out. Nearly everything except 'learn the guitar' had actually happened...)


However, I do think New Year's Resolutions are often in a special pressure-cooker category. I think sometimes we compare ourselves to others, or even our own image (past, present and what we think should be the future), so much that we forget that a resolution or goal is a process and doesn't often happen overnight. 

So we make a resolution, and by January 31st, we feel like a failure because we didn't go to the gym three times that week, or because we devoured two helpings of chocolate cake, or because we got angry with a family member. And then we throw in the towel.

The truth is, resolutions are not easy. They take time. Bear in mind that you may fall off the resolution horse. But then you get back on.

As a child, I had a pony. She wasn't the most obedient thing -- she ran away once and she used to do numerous things at horse shows to purposely embarrass me, I think. She also bucked me off several times. Each time, my mother made me climb back up on her. 

I used to believe it was so I wouldn't be scared of riding after the fall. In reality, I had to get back on my stubborn pony to show her that I was still in charge -- and that she wasn't the boss of me. 

So as you plan your New Year's Resolutions, keep that in mind. No matter what pitfalls January brings, you still have 11 months after that to climb back onto the horse. (Then again, who made the rule that you have to get it all done in 12 months?) Just because your goal book is only half full at the end of this year or even next, it doesn't mean you've failed. It simply means that some things may take a little longer -- and that's okay.

Above all else, stop comparing yourself to others. I did that for a long time -- and once I actually stopped, I saw far more potential in myself than I realized. Read that story here.  

(Of course, this is my own method for accomplishing my personal New Year's Resolutions. Maybe you have a different story -- how do you stay on track?) 


December 14, 2012

Tickled Pink

I'm tickled pink to be one of many authors on the Pyrex Collective III blog. While I cannot boast of the collections that are posted there (nor would I have the same kind of space in my kitchen!) I do love to learn more about vintage items and to see other people's marvelous thrifty finds. 

And, of course, I love to write, so I'm excited to be included on the site. 

My first post about this fabulous Pink Daisy casserole from the 1950s can be found here 


October 18, 2012

The End of the Silence

Seven years ago I started a blog -- like Twitter today, it seemed to be the thing to do. I worked as a volunteer with an international non-profit at the time and relied upon monthly financial support to pay my fees. I posted fairly diligently on the blog so that friends, family and financial supporters could keep up with my whereabouts.

When I got married, I stopped writing on the blog and deleted the whole thing. Although I kept the domain name, I concluded my epic postings. Instead, I relied on Facebook to keep in touch with people, but even then, for a long while I felt that I needed to keep my private life sacred and well, private. The silence has lasted for several years.

It's not that I didn't have anything to say. I just wasn't sure how to say it all. My writing wasn't even the problem -- I have been crafting words my entire life. For as long as I can remember, I have also been creative, with an eye for photography, a penchant for handmade gifts, and a slight obsession with paper, scissors and glue. The thing is, I wanted to combine all of those things into something, but didn’t know how.

Then for a while, I only wanted to focus on writing. But I didn’t want to lose sight of all of the other things that make me, well, me.

Suddenly, I felt a little trapped. I had tried to separate all of my gifts into separate boxes. And while I tried to package them all into neatly tied separate categories: knitting, writing, cooking, crafting, and a whole host of others -- I seemed to lose a bit of my own identity. I compared myself with every other food blogger, knitting guru, photographer and writer out there.

The thing is -- I should never have compared myself to anyone else in the first place. 

I had been so busy trying to put everything into separate boxes, I forgot that I was the one who tied them together in the first place. I couldn't separate the things that made me, me. I needed to put the gifts all together -- in the same box -- and then leave the box open in order for those things to escape from within me.

My husband and I recently took an epic road trip to scope out some potential places to live. We have been wanting to move somewhere with a bit more of a creative vibe. I realized though, somewhere between Nashville and Austin that I didn’t necessarily need to live somewhere ‘creative’ or ‘artistic’. Creativity lies within. And it's time to share mine with the world -- no matter where I go.

So, I have decided to resurrect the blog. Starting today. Welcome to Typing Sunflowers.