Your Brave

Last night I was over at my parents' and they have been performing an archeological dig of their home office this past week, unearthing thousands of power cords to devices that probably don't exist any more, tons of documents that are useful only for shredding and recycling, and old laptops which function mostly as external hard drives for photo storage.  Anyway, they'd pulled out my mom's old laptop from circa '06-'08 and it's screen saver was a slideshow of old photos taken during those years.  One of the big things that happened was our 2007 family cross-country RV trip and hidden amongst the photos of us standing in front of national monuments and at national parks, there's a photo of a 70's Winnebago RV.  It's not a Brave, but it's the same generation as my Braves, and I remembered how that trip galvanized my love for them, and my desire to live mobile.  I went back to college that fall and started making art about and of Winnebagos, and a year after graduation, got my first Brave.  

As far as talismans go, I don't recommend something that takes an oversized garage to house, but we all have those talismans that we hold dear that represent more than just the object itself.  While what the Brave represents for me has always been in my heart, that summer of 2007, being on the road with fellow RV residents, and finding my love for 70's Winnebagos galvanized that meaning into something more tangible and real.  My Brave represents freedom, living life on my terms, living sustainably, feeling wild and untamed, exploration, creativity, the beauty of necessity, being in nature, the sacred sanctuary of the road, meeting new adventurous humans, and so much more.  The Brave encapsulates so many of the things I most value in life.  Like a locket worn daily, I keep the image of her close to my heart, reminding me of those things.

My talisman is a ridiculously large vehicle, what is yours?  What is the image or object that always hones in on what you value, what you desire for your life, what makes your creativity come alive?  

3 simple ways to invest in your creative self

Investing in your own creative self can be hard to focus on, especially if you're also running your own business, wrangling kids, working full time, or just getting through life in general.  Doing anything that fosters your own creative life can feel like a luxury that you just can't afford, but there are some simple little things that can help infuse that creativity into your life and help grow that aspect of yourself.  A lot of us spend too much time looking at other creative people and thinking about how green the grass of their creative lives looks, wishing ours was as lush, while we neglect watering our own creative grass.  It can feel daunting to even start watering when we look at the crunchy, ugly, brown grass we're sporting, so here are three easy, simple ways to begin caring for your creativity.

1. Journal every day

This one can be hard to stick to, but I find that it's much easier if I get into a routine with it.  I find that I like to end my day with a journal sesh, so I can decompress and hash through everything that happened that day, but I also know that starting your day with writing a few pages in your journal can be great too.  Having a blank slate mentally, without all the crap from your day cluttering your mind, can be really good for getting into your true thoughts.  I used to be a crazy good at journaling in high school and college, I have notebooks full of entries for years, but once I started blogging I pretty much stopped altogether.  I've been trying to instill this habit again because, honestly, blogging publicly is no replacement for having a personal, private journal where you can be 110% uncensored and really just get it all out there.  It's therapeutic and, even if you don't express yourself creatively through writing, journaling can really help a creative mind feel more fresh and inspired.  Maybe it's the process of just getting all the stuff out that's clogging our brains creatively.  Clearing the headspace and making room for creative thoughts to flourish.

If you have a hard time with figuring out what to write, or blank out when your pencil hits the page, having some prompts can really help get your brain flowing.  Googling "journal prompts" is a great way to find, literally, thousands of prompts to give you direction, and you can even search for more specific directions like, "journal prompts on creativity."  Sometimes it just takes a while for your brain to be able to open the floodgates, so you have to prime it a little bit and get the juices flowing.

2. Find your play

Creativity is inherently playful.  When you think about kids, they're SO creative, and SO good at playing.  They don't care about what something is supposed to look like or supposed to be.  There is no right or wrong way to play.  As adults we've un-learned this and become really good at feeling like we're doing things wrong.  A lot of us have to re-train our brains to be able to even accept playing, especially playing with no goal or purpose, as something acceptable to do.  I am incredibly guilty of this.  I feel like everything I do has to have a goal or serve a purpose and if it doesn't, then I'm wasting time that should be spent working one something.  It's hard to convince my brain to release that and to just do something purely for play.  But play and creativity are intertwined and squelching one can only squelch the other, so investing in things that are purely play for you will infuse your creative self with new life

3. Commit to actually making

With stuff like pinterest and instagram and infinite scrolling, it's easy to do a lot of "becoming inspired" and consuming of inspiring ideas... but never actually doing anything.  We want to do stuff because we're so damn inspired all the time, but it's easier to scroll through pinterest one more time than actually get off our butts and actually make.  Being inspired can certainly be great for creativity, but when the ratio of getting inspired time versus actually making stuff tilts so heavily in the direction of getting inspired, you don't actually do anything with all that inspiration.  I fall into this trap all the time, because being inspired kind of feels like making.  But nothing can take the place of actually making stuff when it comes to cultivating your creativity.  And while getting inspired by others' work can be nice, there's nothing that can replace making your own work for growing as an artist and honing your own personal style, regardless of what kind of medium you prefer working in!

Creativity and the importance of inhalation

I didn't really anticipate waiting till I was over halfway done with this pregnancy to let it out into the "wild," but I'm really glad I chose to just let this time be for me.  I always knew that being pregnant would be something somewhat difficult for my brain to wrap itself around.  Years ago, when I was style blogging daily, I figured I'd announce pretty early on, that way I'd get to blog through the whole thing.  But the timing of this actually ended up being during a time when I was taking a creative "inhale," stepping back from sharing so much of my life.  If you guys have read Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking (which I highly recommend), you're familiar with her concept of creative inhale and exhale periods.  Basically, in order to keep creating externally (like, stuff that other people can see and experience), you have to take periods of creative inhalation.  Times when you are letting yourself be quiet and recuperate.  Let your creative juices build back up.  Constantly creating can completely drain your ability to keep creating and letting yourself take a step back for some self care time is so necessary.  I didn't realize that constantly running my blog, solo, for almost 7 years was probably unsustainable.  I would feel bad about myself for not being able to keep up the pace of posting and creating that I had in the early days, and I also couldn't figure out the focus of the blog once I started doing more than just outfit posts.  "Lifestyle" was what it fell under but I could never quite get a grasp on my focus, and as I continued, it felt more and more scattered.

It's important to me now, knowing that constant creative exhalation unsustainable, to build in creative inhalation time more consistently in my life.  No one likes feeling burned out, especially when you're burned out on something you actually love.  As I head back into a season of re-entering a creative exhale, I'm staying super mindful of giving myself the inhalation time that I need to recharge my creativity.  Especially with having a kid in the near future, this will be even more important.  

There's a lot of talk in the blogosphere about balance.  Finding it, trying to figure out if balance is even possible, keeping it.  When I think about balance, I think it is possible, but I also keep in mind that balance is never something easy or something that can happen without intention.  If you're walking a tightrope you have to focus on balance constantly, especially at first.  I can't imagine trying to walk a tightrope and being able to do anything else.  Balance takes a lot of focus and intention.  Eventually, like actual tightrope walkers, being able to balance comes more easily.  You've taught your mind and body what balance looks and feels like and it's easier for it to do it second nature.  I sure don't have this balance thing figured out, and as soon as this bebe is born a whole new wrench will be thrown into my balance which I'll have to factor in.  I'm trying to approach balance as more of one of those things that is a practice, not something you find and keep (or lose).  

Delightfully Tacky has been many things over the years. It's changed and evolved, waxed and waned.  It has always been important to me that this space be focused on something I'm passionate about.  With this re-launch, my focus is living a creative and joyful life.  And more importantly, being joyful and creative, not just looking like it on social media.  I want this space to answer the question, "how can I be more creative and joyful today?" not just for me but for you guys too!

So, longwinded as that may be (you guys know how I can get), welcome to the new Delightfully Tacky!  I'm excited for this space to be inspiring and fun, empowering and lighthearted.  I feel like  a bit of a dinosaur in the blogging world these days, but I'm happy to be a part of this community and can't wait to be an active contributor again!