iPhone Photography: Roses outside the studio

Clinging onto summer. Although life has picked up speed, I’m trying to hold on to pockets of easy and slow life. Simple cooking. Swims in the lake when the weather permits. Either there’s been a heat wave or else it’s been rainy and chilly, and it’s like summer never quite happened this year. Although, of course it did. Actually, it’s still summer, I’m just being a bit dramatic I suppose…

Despite a wonderful and inspiring journey to Visby during our vacation in June, I wouldn’t say no to another week, or two, of beautiful summer weather to recharge and soak up the sun before autumn begins.

How has your summer been? Are you ready for the promise of change in September, for a fresh start with sharpened pencils and leather boots, or would you rather linger on in sandals, dipping your toes in the warm lake?

iPhone Photography: Simple summer cooking

Tags: autumn, evolving, fresh start, growth, recharge, rest, summer

Welcome to the third roundup of useful and inspiring resources and links. This time the theme is recharging your creative batteries, connecting with the creative community and learning new things.

It’s still summer, but we’re reaching the back to school part. I still can’t help but think of this time as a perfect time for learning something new, connecting with people and starting new projects. Refreshed and rested from the summer.

CREATIVE COURSES

Sister Diane of CraftyPod offers a range of e-books and courses for creative entrepreneurs and has got such a talent for making the technical side of running a creative business, simple and easy to understand. I’ve just signed up for Diane’s new e-course Write, Publish, & Sell Your Crafty E-book. Seeing as I finally got the printer to work, I need to plant the seeds for a new long-term dream!

Author Stephanella Walsh created The Creative Identity eCourse as an offshoot of the live workshops she’s run in Manchester since the beginning of the year. “The online version is an expanded study of the eight constituents of our writing identity. During the course we shall investigate the products and the reasons of our creative endeavours while paying close attention to our fears. I have devised The Creative Identity Map as the starting point of the exploration, with pit-stops at Creative DNA, Creative Yearning and Creative Loss amongst others. The course will include Q&A sessions, podcasts, movie clips, live chat and lots of reading and writing. It begins on 19 September, join us now!”

Get started making beautiful mixed media art projects for your home using salt, sand, paint and charcoal with 4 Mixed Media Art Techniques from Cloth Paper Scissors. Free e-book with amazing paper craft techniques to inspire you to make creative gift tags, postcards and other mixed media art. Both for beginners and veterans.

Includes: “Who Can Resist Magic”,  ”Fusion-Dyed Collage”, “Mixed Media Watercolor Technique” and “Textured Backgrounds for Collage”.

Beginner Drawing Lessons (the first part of three). Written with kids in mind, but perfect for adults, too.

“This series is the result of many sketching sessions with my girls, during which I realized there are a few recurring concepts that I am always reminding them of. For these lessons, I have reduced lots of information into three basic ideas that can be utilized when drawing: Line, Value and Color.” By Amy at Elemental.

CREATIVE PROJECT

The Sketchbook Project – “it’s like a concert tour but with sketchbooks. Anyone – from anywhere in the world – can be a part of the project. To participate and have us send you a sketchbook that will go on tour, start by choosing a theme.”

(A big thank you to Wini who blogs beautifully at art love joy, for the suggestion!)

CONNECTING WITH THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

If you’re looking for a space to connect with other creatives, sharing the downs and celebrating the ups of your creative life, check out Celebrating Each Step on our Creative Path. Every first Sunday of the month. By Concetta at Glittering Shards.

Did you miss the first roundups of Resources For Creative Entrepreneurs?

• Here’s part one: Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs
• Part two: Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs. About Easy Blogging, Digital Downsizing and Inspiration for Life.

Have you got any useful reads or resources or inspiring projects around being a creative entrepreneur that you’d like to share?

Tags: community, connecting, courses, creativity, fresh start, how-to, inspiration, resources, tutorials

Magnolia

I’m reinventing my digital life. Again. It always seems to creep up on me, the increasing time I spend in my digital environment. The number of web sites on my RSS-feed and the jumble of e-mail in my inbox. Time with social media.

Today I saw a hedgehog outside the studio and took this photo of magnolia with my iPhone. And as I write this blog post, the evening breeze touches me with the scents of spring. This elusive time of year when each day the leaves on the trees open more. Shades of green, from lime to deep green. Blossoms…

It’s time to do some pruning and tiding up. Both in my balcony garden and in my digital life. The stream of information has become a flood. I need to take a step back to find some peace and quiet and to enjoy the summer. It’s time to spend more time out of doors than in my digital life.

This summer you’ll see less of me on Twitter and Facebook. I won’t be spending so much time visiting and commenting on blogs.

However, I’ll still be blogging regularly and Marmalade Moon will be updated each Tuesday, with an additional post later in the week if I have any extra news. I’ll soon be sending out the Spring Edition of Club Marmalade Moon and I’m putting the finishing touches to some desktop art soon to be released. So there’ll be lots going on. But I’ll also be making space for having some magnolia moments.

What are your plans for your digital life this summer? Will you be taking a vacation from your desktop environment or will it be a time when you perhaps enjoy spending a little more time on your computer projects?

Tags: creativity, digital environment, evolving, fresh start, growth, overwhelm, reevaluating, reinventing digital life, social media, spring

Increasing Your Productivity Using Computer Icons

Resources. Leather bound book with green apple.

Your productivity when you use your computer, is directly influenced by the ease with which you are able to find and launch your favourite applications, find the projects you are working on, your important files and folders and find, organize and retrieve your internet downloads.

This is why software developers spend a lot of time and money designing icons for their applications.

Doesn’t that indicate that we who use computers, can benefit from spending a few minutes customising our own projects?

Many of us spend more and more time working in a digital environment. A cluttered desktop environment will make you feel overwhelmed. Taking a few minutes to sort it out, make it personal and more functional will pay off by making work more fun and easy, so you can finish your work sooner and spend more time doing something else.

As en extra bonus, you get an overview of your projects when you customize your desktop icons which also helps and motivates in keeping your desktop uncluttered and tidy. Here are three different approaches to using icons as a productivity tool.

Color Coding Your Projects

Green Folder Icon

A simple way to create a more productive digital environment is to use Luminous Folder Icons to colour code your projects.

This is a technique that’s easy to personalize and adapt to different types of projects and files.

Besides, you can pick your favourite colours and bring a splash of color to your desktop into the bargain.

Using Icons To Support Your Workflow

To Do Icon

A quick and easy approach is to create a desktop environment that follows your workflow organically.

This example with an icon of a vintage clipboard from the Workflow Collection would make an excellent choice for a folder with projects to-do. The symbol is easy to understand and the icon stands out on the desktop making it easy to find.

The Workflow Collection brings an action-oriented, harmonious structure to your desktop with a minimum of effort or need for maintenance. Find out more about how to organize your desktop by naturally following your workflow.

Using Icons For Your Projects

Finances Icon

Using icons for the projects you’re working on will help you find and organize your files.

If your work consists of recurring projects, you could make a template project folder based on what’s needed, and simply copy the project when starting a fresh project.

Here’s an icon with a leather wallet and some coins from the Organizer Collection. This would make a great choice for a folder with documents related to money. Invoices, finances, the budget for a project, there are many possibilities.

Next an icon with a cotton reel with green thread from the Creative Collection that could be used for needlework, crafting, colour swatches, sewing, textiles, quilting, handmade, again these are just a few ideas.

These symbols can be used and redefined by the user in many different ways. Check out the Productive Icons and see how you can make use of them.

Creating a desktop you love to spend time in, will help you enjoy your computer time and focus on your projects rather than feel overwhelmed by desktop clutter. And you’ll be able to finish your work earlier too.

Not sure how to customize your icons? Here’s a tutorial for using icons on a Mac and here’s a tutorial for how to change the icons in Windows.

Tags: color code, desktop customization, digital environment, ease, focus, fresh start, getting organized, how-to, overwhelm, productivity, simplicity, tutorials

Autumn leaves.

Today is The Day. I can feel it clearly. The Snap. It’s as though a switch has been flipped. There’s a crisp lining to the day, a chilly backdrop, it’s the first day of autumn.

Autumn holds the promise of new beginnings for me. The glorious display of autumn leaves. Change. A fresh start. I think part of it comes from my childhood, from going to school. A new school year, new books, new subjects, new teachers, pencils and notebooks… Sometimes a new school, and a new route each morning and afternoon.

My theme for the autumn is to connect with my friends, inspiring artists, places and creativity. And to give myself some creative challenges.

The Creative Every Day Challenge is a fantastic, fun and simple way to infuse your life with a daily dose of creativity. It’s a low-pressure and freeform challenge to bring some focus and inspiration to your day-to-day life. Highly recommended! October’s theme is “Connect” – which also happens to be my theme for the autumn!

Next, I’ll be connecting with my senses in Unravelling Further: Exploring the Senses, a workshop where you stop to smell the roses. It’s about living a rich and enchanted sensual life, seizing the day, immersing yourself in taste, touch, sound, scent, sight and intuition through a series of photo assignments, projects and challenges. And I’m so looking forward to reconnecting to some of my online friends from this summer’s course, Unravelling: Ways of Seeing My Self, who also will be revelling in their senses this autumn! From unravelling to revelling…

Another project for my autumn is In The Fish Bowl: Life As An Artist Online with Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday. The transparency and exposure of being an artist online can make you feel like you are a fish in a bowl, and this course is about navigating the fish bowl by staying fiercely loyal to your vision. I’m incredibly excited, this really feels so right for me just now! The course started last week and I’m feeling elated and thankful for lovely Marisa’s first class and the wonderfully creative and inspiring community of women crafters, artists and designers who are all swimming in the fish bowl!

Dare I connect with my dreams too? Speak my wish out loud? Jamie Ridler hosts Full Moon Dreamboards, and I’m tempted to participate one of the dreamers!

Finally, and this is still in the works, I hope to take a trip to London this autumn. To connect with my English self. Family and friends in England. I’d like to take some courses at The Make Lounge. Return to the Tate, Greenwich Market. The Maison Blanc, Holland Park, Chinatown, The Chelsea Physic Garden, St. Martins in the Fields. Oh, so many favourite places…

Tags: carpe diem, community, connecting, courses, creativity, dreamboard, fresh start, inspiration, seize the day, senses, sensual