Just Start… Somewhere, and Forget About Perfect.

Well embarrassing or not (it IS!) it’s been too close to 2 years since I made progress in blogging. Perfection can be debilitating can’t it! I had all sorts of enthusiasm, a HUGE amount of effort to develop, create and launch this blog, then… SPLAT! Doesn’t that just describe life sometimes? And maybe just a little of how your crafting/scrapping progress feels too? (We will come back to that I sure).

So I am here to tell you, if not through my own scrapbooking experience, then certainly through my blogging experience, that life can get in the way of the things we want to do. The things that seem VERY IMPORTANT sometimes never make it from that (imaginary or physical) TO-DO list, and become real tasks that we action. But tonight, I am no longer going to allow excuses to weigh me down, no longer going to worry that WHAT I write has to be perfect. I am just going to say hello and re-connect with all those that wonder WHERE ON EARTH HAS SHE BEEN?

The Wagon I fell off

I didn’t exactly fall off the planet, although at times I wanted to. And I promise not to list all the reasons WHY my blogging got sidelined. Does it really matter and will that help me to get it restarted? It MAY help me to avoid it happening again, but other than learning from my challenges I am mostly going to look forward instead of backwards. What did I learn? It’s taken me a long time, but I have learnt that it doesn’t have to be perfect. It (hopefully) doesn’t have to take a large block time to do it. And I CAN resurrect it in pieces.

Right now, that fire in my belly is telling me, “YOU IDIOT, you are gonna kick yourself for not (re)starting sooner!” I am already excited about rekindling my romance with this amazing tool which can connect me with all of you. I do LOVE writing… crazy huh? To me it is so, so sweet and therapeutic for me, and I love sharing my thoughts in the hope that it can give AT LEAST ONE person the inspiration to get back on your own wagon (whatever that may be).

Why Perfection is Over-rated.

Perfection is over-rated because it is through life’s little (and BIG) hiccups that we learn so much. Let’s look at Scrapbooking (because I have done enough of waffling for this post and isn’t that what you are REALLY here to do?). I love that from many of my “mistakes” have become my biggest “design features”. They may not have been planned, but that is even sweeter.

This layout is around a year old, and was when I was developing a bunch of layouts to show how you can MIX and MATCH all sorts of papers using TINTS, TONES & SHADES. At the time I wasn’t sure if I would use these photos in colour or B&W. So as I often do, I decided to print them in both, and make the decision when I was creating. There were only 3 photos in the serious and that is a little less than I usually like to put onto a double-page layout anyway. In concept I also knew I wanted to show a mix of one colour with some neutral grey to add some variation without taking away from the feature colour. I just wasn’t sure how to do this with these NOT SO PERFECT photos. The result was something a bit out-of-the-box, splitting some photos down the middle (because I could) so that there was some transition of the colour and yet comparison of the B&W and colour photos side-by-side. It was NEVER an exact plan, just an odd result from playing around and laying out the photos over the strips. It’s still a favourite layout of mine and using my Cricut to create the Titles (one of my other passions) just set it right for me. Is this sort of photo layout perfect? NO WAY. But in allowing myself to be imperfect I think I have created rather a unique piece that allows the photos to float along a little river or group of grey and teal puddles. And my journaling to my eldest son (K2) is what will be remembered as important at the end of the day.

Here’s another example of my approach to removing barriers to get on with my To-do list. It is from the 2017 (May-Aug) Close To My Heart Seasonal book using Prickly Pear paper(X7221B), and Complements(X7221C) and Memo Fundamentals (Z3294). At first you may be wondering what is IMPERFECT about this page? And then you may notice that my youngest (K3) has most of their head chopped off as they munch down on a rather large baguette, and the cropping on some of the other photos leaves a little to be desired too. So, have you ever printed your photos in standard 4″x6″ format when they should have been printed square? (Ahuh!) These photos were straight off my hubby’s iPhone after a trip to Bunnings with Dad and should have been printed square or reframed before printing. So, when I was creating this page, I just tacked down the photos with a little adhesive in the centre (the Close To My Heart Dots adhesive is very forgiving and great for this). And I had them reprinted for the final version. BUT – I forgot to get this organised before I did my photo shoot and shared these with my fellow CTMH Consultants at a training day so they definitely weren’t perfect. But you know, no one ever commented and I even forgot to excuse my shoddiness. It’s another layout I love, but probably more because its current just now. The kids had had their faces painted and they looked so cute (my youngest is 4.5yo now so it’s a few years ago). These photos also weren’t perfectly in focus but they were just screaming to be put on a page. And I have every intention of going back to journal.

IMPERFECT IS A START

Scrapbooking my kid’s photos is always a priority for me but I can understand how for others it might be your best intention, and then LIFE GETS IN THE WAY. But I am just here to remind you, that you can give life a little nudge back sometimes and just take time for whatever it is that you REALLY want to do. Do you want to get back to making some (more) layouts, cards or crafting? Don’t let waiting for the PERFECT TIME, the PERFECT PLACE and the PERFECT LIFE stop you. Maybe it isn’t crafting but some other passion or task/job you have really been wanting to start and/or complete. My pledge to myself, and to you, is to just start… after nearly 2 years… and here I am. I have huge, huge plans for this little blog, but I just needed to START… SOMEWHERE again. I have to refresh my memory with what size images should be (and how to get them here), where to put tags, and all sorts of techno and blog building stuff so it may not be perfect. But for today… I HAVE STARTED (WHOO-HOO!). Are you pleased I am back? Let me know by commenting on my blog.

WORKING TOWARDS THE NEXT STEP

My transition plan is to be posting more regularly (and that won’t be hard given that anything is more regular than 2 years). I will be human now and not commit to any specific timeframe but know that this is important to me and I am working on a lot of BIG PLANS to bring so much more to you here. I will be taking some of my regular features from my Monthly Close To My Heart Newsletter and placing them here first, and referring to this blog when the newsletter goes out via email. If you do already subscribe to my monthly newsletter, then you will know that I CAN and DO commit to getting that out EVERY SINGLE month. Occasionally its a few days later than I would hope, like my July newsletter that just went out tonight. To get it in your mailbox each month, look for the “Receive My Monthly Newsletter & NEWS” Form on this page (right-side, or further below if on a mobile format.)

I am going to be sharing all of the NEW and exciting products and releases and layouts I am creating. And some of the OLD in some “throw-back Thursday” posts which will talk about techniques and approaches to scrapping. So, I hope you can bear with me for a bit longer as I ramp things up slowly. But share your own “Just Start… Somewhere” experience in the comments. It will make me feel better… to know I am not alone. And even better if I know I got you back on our horse just from reading this.