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Crappy days crappy ideas

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Somedays we just have crappy ideas.

We think something is going to fully pull off and it doesn’t.

Sometimes we don’t respond in the way we wish we did.

Somedays it doesn’t matter what you do but your photos are flat and your heart is dull and your mind is cloudy.

We all reserve the right to have crappy ideas.

It’s not until we get the bad ones out that the best ones surface.

When I was a creative director full time, some of the crappiest ideas gave birth to the best ones.

It is in the flow of the expression of them that we free ourselves up to think beyond the boundaries that confine.

If you feel like everything you are producing is a little blah.

Keep going, gold is about to be unsurfaced.

Till tomorrow

Amanda

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beneath your beautiful

generations of women

I recently was the guest writer on a beautiful blog Tea Cups Too by Em, my post was called Beneath Your Beautiful.

Em is one of the best Mums I know. Her blog shines light beautifully onto the season of motherhood.

Parts of this post are extremely poignant for this Mother’s Day. Link through to this blog and have a read today.

I remember being a teenager (okay maybe young adult) and very early on the morning my Dad was to leave for the airport, I ran up to him and begged that he bring me a Russian doll home.

Legend states that each of these dolls have many smaller versions of ourselves within them. Each doll representing the seed of generation that each of us as women carry within us.

I have never been more aware of this as I am today, (26 weeks pregnant with my second child, a little girl). I am awakened to the fact that she holds the potential to future women in my family within her tiny frame and the lineage continues on.

Woman to girl, little girl, to tiny newborn baby.

I have always been someone who attempts and is drawn to outrageously brave things. Dreaming of writing a book, okay let’s do it, Travelling to the middle east as a 20 year old by myself, check, Leading groups of people into slums in Asia, bucket list item tick!

Despite all this, I have never been more filled with fear and doubt about anything since I embarked upon the journey of motherhood.

Whether you are a mother or not, looking at the generational layers in our hearts and confronting the quiet words that mock us, is an important thought process on this day.

What is beneath your beautiful?

Read the blog.

Listen to the song.

And write and reflect on what your response is.

This will be an amazing exercise to do on a day like today.

Mothers day, can bring out so many different expectations and emotions in all of us.

Happy days.

Deep days.

All my love

Amanda

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Create

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On the 14th of June I am speaking at a women’s event called ‘Create’ for essence a women’s organisation.

Everyone can be creative.

It is not just a personality type or a giftedness.

There is a creative legacy everyone can bring and leave in our world.

What is your creative bent?

make it

I can’t wait.

If you would like to come along and hang, I will be 37 weeks pregnant so if you are a midwife maybe I could buy you a free ticket! { Ha jokes. }

Tickets are $10

To buy a ticket today click here: Create Tickets online

9:45am- 12noon

Mount Pleasant Baptist Community College

497 Marmion Street, Booragoon WA

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Culture of Scarcity

Scarcity one

scarcity 2

Recently I read a quote in Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly and it stopped me in my tracks.

“For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is “I didnt get enough sleep.” The next one is “I don’t have enough time.” Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don’t have enough of… Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack… This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life”

Lynne Twist

I realise as a Mum of a toddler, as a creative inspiration addict, I live in a constant state of needing and wanting more.

How can we constantly create more, when we believe that we don’t have enough?

Being 28 weeks pregnant I could wear this T-shirt with my PJ pants and Ugg boots all day long and be a happy little camper.

 

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The question I have been contemplating though, is when will enough be enough?

When will I have enough sleep?

When will I have enough time?

When will I have a big enough house?

As I contemplate those who are thriving around me, they are the ones who are content with their enough today and are enjoying the moments presented to them.

How do we dream with courage, but be satisfied with the beauty in our today?

As Lynne explains in the quote above we need to question our motives and our complaints. It is easy to say I am so tired, when we have actually had a decent amount of sleep.

It is easy to say ‘I don’t have anything to wear.’, when we have a whole cupboard full of clothes.

It is easy to say ‘I am bored!’, when we are one radical thought away from changing the world.

It is easy to say ‘I am alone, I have no friends.’, when you could take that courageous act and just ring someone for a chat.

We live in a culture of scarcity, that is constantly scrambling to keep up with the neighbours, keep up with our thoughts, keep up with our expectations.

Today I am going to revel in my now and be satisfied with the health of my family and the amazing provisions that I have been given.

I am truly blessed.

I have a healthy family, a loving environment, a safe house, food in my fridge and encouragement on my heart.

Today I have more than enough.

How about you?

Speak tomorrow

Amanda

 

 

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my inspiration catalogue

max and books

Most days I am sure this is what my brain looks like.

I don’t have a slick cataloguing system for my writing.

I don’t have journals that are neatly lined up with words and quotes to boot.

My brain is a sponge that is constantly picking up little bits and pieces like a wall of post it notes that are each competing for space.

What I do collect though is memories?

My brain is like a massive Pinterest board that is constantly soaking up moments, memories and opportunities to be inspired.

My eyes are ever seeking, ever open, an inspiration junkie looking for its next inspiration fix.

This is how I design.

This is how I write.

This is how I produce.

This is why my instagram feed will never be slick and predictable.

This is why my style, my brand and my voice is ever changing.

I am unique and today I am brave in my expression of it.

I am organised in a very disorganised way.

I am driven in a very random way.

I am colourful with my moments of grey

I am unpredictable and expressive.

I am becoming okay with my mis-matching clothes and messy hair.

I am not seeking to be cool or hip or wanted.

I am not seeking to be noticed or popular or followed.

I am seeking truth.

I am seeking God.

I am seeking that which is often difficult to find.

Honesty, brilliance, care, friendship, creativity, innovation, deep spirited souls, imperfect offerings of courage.

An inspiration addict right here.

With my own little creative catalogue in my brain.

My first book Capture; 30 days of inspiration takes you through a 30 day guided journey of inspiration if you are looking for a kind of inspiration system.

For today, I am happy to sit in the middle of the floor surrounded by my crazy ideas and revel in creativity.

Speak tomorrow

Amanda