new directions in 2015 and the truth about blogging

 

Hello all and Happy New Year to you!  A brand spanking new year is an amazing gift isn’t it?  A huge blank slate.  A time to plan, to start over, and to dream of all the wonderful things you can accomplish this year.

I have been thinking a lot in the past six months about this blog, whether to continue doing it, feeling guilty about not posting frequently enough, toying with the idea of creating other blogs for other topics, wondering if anyone still reads this one?

If you’ve been here before you’ll know that my blog is predominantly a craft blog with a few wee sprinkles of other parts of my life.  I’ve read a lot of blog tips and advice and one major point has always been to find your niche and stick to it like glue.  I always thought crafts, particular paper crafts was my niche and my passion but honestly I have many passions and I really want to share them with anyone who will listen (or read them).

So I have made the executive decision to write about all my passions right here on this single blog.  The truth about blogging is that you are the owner of your blog, it’s yours, you are in controland you have absolute power.  I like the sound of that.  It really comes down to this – if I want to write about plucking my eyebrows then I can and will, even though it’s not craft related (or it could be if I plucked them into a pretty pattern I suppose).  In life there is always going to lots of advice around about anything and everything but in the end you need to go with your gut or your heart or whichever body part you wish.  This to ME feels like the right thing.

Yes my dear friends there will be a shift of focus in 2015, but don’t worry I still intend on posting lots of crafty goodness, after all it is a rather large passion of mine!

Wondering what to expect from now on?  Here’s a list of some of the topics I’d like to talk about in 2015…

Simplifying

Cooking/Baking

Decluttering

Organising

Finance and Saving Money

Cleaning

Gardening (or my poor attempts at it)

Relationships

Careers/Early Retirement

Arts and Crafts

Blogging

Health

It’s a pretty big list I know but I’m hoping there will be enough variety for everyone.  Are you planning any big changes in 2015?  Which direction are you going in?  I’d love to hear about it and if you’re a fellow blogger please leave a comment so I can come visit!

 

Happy New Year

Welcome to krismakes 2014!

Change is in the air – can you feel it? Last year was a bit all over the place (for me anyway) so my intentions for 2014 are to SIMPLIFY. I think this will be a popular goal for many people this year. There is a lot going on out there in blogland about people wanting to change their lives for the better, slow down, get back to basics, and I for one, love it …so let’s go!

Do you have a word for 2014? Many creative types have taken on this yearly ritual of selecting a word that they want to use in their year through everything they do. I think this lady started the trend, but it’s actually a nice trend to follow I think. I’ve not really had a word for the year before, I’ve certainly thought about it but not been able to pin down the perfect word. Is there a perfect word? Probably not, so I should just pick one and not succumb to my inevitable analysis paralysis. This year I will pick one word. I want to keep to my theme of simplifying, being deliberate, committed and intentional. I feel I need to think on this a little bit longer, not too much longer I promise.

This year I want to create a little something everyday and I’m hoping to use my new journal to make it happen. This is the Iconic Journal, they make all sorts of lovely booky things. I just found it on ebay after countless hours searching and deciding.

This journal or diary if you will is fairly plain which I thought would be good to start with and put my own stamp on it, pardon the pun. It has lovely smooth pages and plenty of room on each day as well as a large section at the bottom of the page for notes and what-not.

There’s also a whopping 26 blank pages at the back to play with.

Am I going to have enough bits and bobs to fill in this journal? Oh I forgot to mention it starts in November 2013 and I only got it last week so um yeah, more pages to fill up! I decided with the November month view to use the wee little squares as doodling squares. I can’t remember how big a Zentangle is but I’m sure these are smaller which is good for me – less pressure ha ha. I’m not very good at the freehand stuff, I feel much safer with a rubber stamp in my hand so this will be a good challenge for me.

That’s what I’ve done so far. The pens I ordered are so fine, I’ve never used any like these before and I didn’t think I’d like them but I can write really teeny tiny now and the ink does not bleed through the pages at all either. I’ll keep taking photo’s of my 2014 journal as I go. You may have noticed some of these pics on Instagram already but I wanted to put words to them and explain a bit more about my intentions. After discovering the filofax mania I’m already thinking about one of those but not until next year…simple remember?

See you next week

Kris