First Love

I'm passionate about vintage.  I love the stories behind the garments.  I love that it's unique.  I love that it allows me to dress each day to suit my mood.  However, it is not my first love..

The Gatsby Necklace

My first love has always been creating.  It doesn't matter if it's sewing a new dress, painting, knitting, or writing.  So long as it goes directly from my imagination and comes straight to life in my hands.

For a long time, while my children were young, I considered it an indulgence.  I forgot how happy it made me just to putter around with a paint brush in my hand, or to be able to whip up a new top when I got tired of my old ones.

The Moulin Rouge Necklace

Recently, I've had the pleasure of being able to rediscover that happiness, and to share it with my girls.  I've started making things using my old skills, sewing dresses or sketching, and I've begun learning new skills, like creating jewelry out of mixed media.

The Birds of a Feather Necklace

And I am oh so happy.  When I'm making something, I sometimes catch myself humming a cheerful tune under my breath, or smiling to myself.  I can't wait to share some of my new items with you all in my shop.  I hope they make you smile too :)

Hugs and Smooches,
D

Book Review - Steal LIke an Artist

I'm an artist.

There, I said it.

It's been a long time coming for me.  It's been hard for me to embrace this label because I'm not Degas, Van Gogh or Georgia O'Keefe.  I'm a perfectionist and have never felt worthy of the title because what I produce (to my mind) is not perfect.

Here is a small example of something I recently created.  It's a mixed media cuff bracelet for my daughter.  I painted the miniature in water color, glazed it with modge podge and then banged out the words on my vintage typewriter.  It was a labor of love..and I guess it could be considered "art".

What Big Eyes You Have!

I paint murals on the walls in my home, doodle whenever I have a chance and carry a sketchbook in my purse to draw design ideas for new things to sew or make as they come to me.

Still, I've always just thought of it as a quirk of my character..like loving vintage clothes and my tendency to stick my bare feet out the window when riding in the passenger seat of the car.

Enter "Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative" by Austin Kleon.

Credit

I've been a follower of Austin's blog for a while now.  My favorite thing about his site (besides his creative blackout poems) is that he writes like he's talking to a friend.  This book is no exception. 

The premise of the book is twofold.  One - Be yourself.  Two - Nothing is original, so embrace the ideas that have come before you, mix them up with your own ideas and create something that is uniquely "you".

The concept that resounded with me the most (and refers back to the beginning of this post) was "Don't wait until you know who you are to get started."  I had been waiting..and waiting..and waiting to "feel" like an artist before I considered myself one.  This liberating idea that I could just create (and sometimes create badly) and be an artist set free about a thousand ideas for projects this weekend, many of which you will see in the ConstantlyAlice shop along side my vintage items...because, as another idea from the book explains, I don't have to be limited to "just" selling vintage, or "only" being an artist, they are all valid parts of who I am.

Hugs and Smooches,
D