Do you keep a journal? People journal for many reasons: to organise themselves, to process ideas and reflect upon their life, to keep a record of travels and activities, or to enhance their wellbeing.

A creative journal isn’t like a regular journal. You don’t need to work on it every day (although you can, and I do); it doesn’t need to be neat and tidy, or organised – it’s a playspace. A playground for your imagination.

A fascinating place to explore, collect ideas, take risks, to record your sparks of creativity and try out new techniques. A chance to make and keep space for yourself among the clamour of everyday life’s demands and duties.

Creative journaling is self-love; you are giving yourself permission to be a creator; to answer the call of your artistic spirit, and join the swirl of dancers who give themselves up to the creative flow of the universe.

Sometimes, we want to do something creative, but we don’t quite know what it is we want to do. We feel frustrated and blocked, and disempowered. Grab a notebook (don’t overthink it; use the good notebook you were saving for… something, somewhen…) and try these ideas to ignite your creative spark, to help it grow and to nurture its everlasting, indistinguishable flame!  

Collect Textures

Do you remember when, as a child, you explored everything by touching it? Many creatives never lose that urge. We want to stroke and explore things with our hands – and galleries and museums can sometimes be a trial in this respect!

For this activity, I’m calling you to give in to the urge.

Collect textures wherever you go. Take photos; make wax crayon rubbings, write notes about how the textures felt under your hand. On walks, collect natural objects with gorgeous textures, like waxy leaves or silken petals. Add them to a spread in your journal, writing about your observations. Immerse yourself in the wonder of texture!

See Shapes

When you wander around town, go to the market, run errands or keep appointments, do you notice things around you? Do you rush from one place to another, head down, desperate to do something more interesting, or do you enjoy the journey?

We spend a lot of our time as human ‘doings’ rather than human ‘beings’. As you go about your daily chores, take time to notice shapes and patterns. Record them as photos, sketches or voice notes on your phone. Or take your journal with you (they are portable, you know!) and record your thoughts on the spot.

These shapes and patterns can spark ideas to use in your arts and crafts. Those railings by the bank? They could give you an idea for weaving. That brick pattern? It could become blocks on an art quilt. You get the idea!

Colours

Colour is the essence of how we express our creativity as humans: the clothes we choose, the way we decorate our homes, the food we cook; it’s everything. What colours and tones do you gravitate towards? Is it earthy tones? Coastal colours? Woodland hues? Or you may love vivid, acid colours.

Think about the way colour affects your mood. Make it a habit to take photos on your phone of colours that appeal. Don’t think about the way the photo looks or is framed – just concentrate on recording the colours. Back at home, record the colours in your journal. Print out the photos and stick them in; try to colour match by mixing watercolours to reproduce the shade.

Think about the way the colour is created. You could also make swatches of your print outs and add them to your journal. This can help you to choose colours and combinations that spark joy in you, so you can wear and decorate with them, and use the combinations in your artwork whether that is painting, embroidery, quilting or felting.

Where Do You Go to, My Lovely?

Have you ever smelled something and whooshed back through a sensory time-tunnel to another place and time? If I smell tart, juicy blackberries cooking, I’m transported back to helping my dad make jam in a kitchen hundreds of miles and five decades ago.

What smells resonate with you? Where – and when – do they take you? Jot down your ideas in your creative journal. I like to use transparent post-it notes so the images are still visible through the words. These descriptions will limber up your language skills and could spark a piece of descriptive writing or a poem.

Wonderful Watercolours

How long has it been since you played with a paintbox? Not tried to paint a flower, or a landscape, or any other *thing* – but just played? Mixing shades of the same colour, and creating a gradient that fades from intense to barely-there, or from dark to light is a wonderful creative exercise that will help you to lose yourself in the process of painting.

You could also play with complementary colours and mixtures. Painting like this in your journal also creates a gorgeous background for whatever you choose, whether it’s musings about your current project, or a technique you’d like to try. Give yourself permission to play!

Collage with Scraps

A great way to fire up creative thinking is to use collage and ephemera to create journal pages. As you tear images from glossy magazines and cut images from prints and paste them into your journal, you relax and return to the simple joy of creativity you felt in childhood, before you developed a fierce inner critic who told you art was never quite good enough…

Creating layers from images and words torn from advertising copy and articles, you take the fear out of creation. Nothing can be ‘wrong’ when there is no ‘right’ way to do things. Go with the flow; use anything that interests you. This exercise can help you to break through any creative blocks you are having as a result of perfectionism.

Repurpose an Old Book

For journaling of any kind, it can be fun to repurpose an old book instead of using a new notebook. Many damaged old books with torn pages and broken spines end up in landfills, which seems a sad end for once-beautiful objects.

When I found this book at a flea market, its pages were loose and the spine was missing. Perhaps I empathised a little too much with her battered beauty that day, but I scooped her up and with tender care made her cherished once more.

I used scraps of felt and crystal beads to strengthen her spine, reattached pages with bookbinding tape and painted pages with gesso. Gesso works as a primer and dries quickly. It makes an ideal surface for painting and writing upon, and stops book pages from buckling. Repurposing damaged books in this way creates a unique journal and embraces the green reuse and recycle ethos – a win-win situation!

Fabric Journal

Thinking outside of the box – if you enjoy working with fabric, why not make a creative scroll journal? You don’t have to be a sewing maven to enjoy this; I have only used running stitch and back stitch here. I stitch these fabric scrolls using scraps from my stash. I often dye pieces of old sheeting and tablecloths with botanical dyes and sew pieces together in a long strip.

You can print photographs and your writing onto printable fabric and add them to the stitched journal. This example is wound round a vintage bobbin from a textile mill, but you could use a lovely stick picked up from a walk in the woods, or a piece of driftwood. These scrolls also make gorgeous memory keepers as gifts for special birthdays or anniversaries.

Foraged Treasures

When you are out walking, or in the garden, collect beautiful things that catch your eye, with a view to adding them to your journal. Pressed leaves, sealed with mod podge to keep their colour; fragments of seaweed from the shore, butterfly wings from fallen beauties – if you are anything like me, you probably come home from every walk with a treasure or two.

Adding these to your journal makes it beautiful; the process of gathering encourages you to look at the world with wonder, finding beauty in the smallest of things.

Light and Shadow

Develop your artistic eye by looking for the contrast of light and shadow. This might be a dark alleyway leading to a bright main street in the town, or dappled light flickering through leaves onto grass below.

Record the light with photos, sketches, plein air painting or voice notes – whatever takes your fancy. Then add these collected shards of light to your journal, to reflect upon later and add to your own art, whichever form that takes.

Golden Moments

Use your journal to create a visual record of golden moments. These are the memories we cherish, that forge precious links to our past. Who were you, once? Have you forgotten any of the people you have been, who live in layers inside you, like nesting matryoshka dolls?

Print off old photographs of yourself on paper, and use paint, pastels or crayons to embellish the pictures. As you work, try to remember the moment the photo was taken, if you can, and write the fragments of your memories on the image.

You don’t need to worry about writing a perfect narrative – that way lies writer’s block – just write wisps of memory as they drift through your mind. This exercise helps you to reconnect with all of the people who you have been.

This is a wonderfully immersive exercise that brings your senses to life, and that can help you to write memoir, poetry, or short stories. A series of these memories, recorded in this way, can also create a cherished family heirloom giving a window into our personal world for the generations who come after us.

To explore these ideas for releasing your creative self, set up a creation station where you can leave supplies ready to go and your journal open so that you are always ready to dive in.

Go with the flow and trust the process; there are many ways here to unlock your creativity and avoid the dreaded choice paralysis we sometimes feel when we have the desire to do something creative, but we aren’t sure what we want to do. It’s time to give yourself permission to play!

If you try these ideas, we’d love to hear about your experiences and see your photos – so please share them here in the comments section and on our Facebook page.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What gets in the way of your artistic ambitions? Do you ever feel creatively ‘blocked’? What do you do to reconnect with your inner artist?

Knitting is a timeless craft that’s been around for centuries. It’s easy to learn how to knit as long as you have the right supplies and some patience, and you can do it nearly anywhere. Knitting is also an activity anyone can do, no matter their age or skill level.

If you’d like to learn this popular textile art, we’re here to help! Before you start, let’s look at what knitting supplies you’ll need. Then, we’ll cover the basic stitches every beginner should know before they dive into their first project.

Supplies You Need to Learn How to Knit

To start knitting, you’ll need a few basic tools. The first thing is knitting needles, which you use to create stitches and make the fabric of your project. You can buy them online or in craft stores, and they come in various sizes and lengths.

There are standard straight needles, circular needles and double-pointed needles. Straight needles are the easiest to learn on. A pattern will tell you what type, size and length of needles you need to complete a project.

The second thing is yarn, which creates the texture and color of your knitted item. There are many different yarns out there. Yarn comes in various weights, colors, and patterns and is made from many natural and synthetic materials. Some have special properties, like being machine washable. Most patterns specify what yarn weight suits a particular project.

You also need a yarn needle. You’ll use this to weave in your ends when completing a project. You also need a yarn needle to stitch knitted pieces together in some patterns.

Basic Stitches Every Beginner Needs to Know

• Knit stitch
• Purl stitch
• Garter stitch
• Stockinette stitch
• Rib stitch

Knit and purl stitches are the two main stitches you’ll use to create a knit fabric. The difference is that when you knit, you insert your needle into the next stitch from front to back, wrap the yarn around it and pull through. When you purl, you insert your needle from back to front, wrap the yarn around it and pull through.

Knitting every row is known as garter stitch, while alternating between knit and purl rows creates stockinette stitch. When you alternate between knitting and purling in the same row, it makes a stretchy rib stitch.

Choose a Simple Pattern

The first step is choosing a pattern. The pattern will detail how many stitches to cast on and what type of stitch to use, so it’s important to choose one that suits your level of knitting experience. It will also let you know what size needle and yarn weight you need. Choose something simple for your first project, like a basic scarf or dishcloth.

Cast on Your Stitches

Casting on stitches is the first step in knitting. These stitches create a foundation row and make it possible for you to knit back and forth or in the round.

The cast-on method used here is called “long-tail cast on.” It’s easy to learn and produces beautiful results every time. The long tail cast on creates a sturdy and even edge and is a great choice for many knitting projects.

How to Do a Long-Tail Cast On

1. Measure out a length of yarn roughly four times the width of your knitting project. Hold the tail in your left hand and drape the working yarn (attached to the skein) over your thumb and index finger, creating a slingshot shape.
2. Insert your knitting needle under the loop on your thumb and over the yarn on your index finger.
3. With your right hand, reach through the loop on your thumb, grab the working yarn, and pull it through.
4. Drop the loop from your thumb and tighten the stitch on the needle. This is your first cast-on stitch.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you have cast on the desired number of stitches for your project.

How to Knit a Stitch

After you cast your desired number of stitches, you’re ready to begin knitting. Here are the steps for doing a basic knit stitch:

1. Hold your knitting needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand. Hold the other needle in your right hand.
2. Insert the right-hand needle from front to back into the first stitch on the left-hand needle.
3. Bring the yarn over the right-hand needle from back to front.
4. Using the right-hand needle, draw the yarn through the first stitch on the left-hand needle, creating a loop on the right-hand needle.
5. Slip the original stitch off the left-hand needle to complete one knit stitch.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each stitch until you finish.
7. When you reach the end of the row, switch the needles to your opposite hands and begin again from step 1 to create the next row.

How to Purl a Stitch

The purl stitch creates a textured pattern on your knitting project and is often combined with the knit stitch to create different patterns and designs. Here’s how to purl a stitch:

• Hold your knitting needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand. Hold the second needle in your right hand.
• With the right needle, insert the tip into the first stitch on the left needle from right to left, as if you were going to knit.
• Instead of wrapping the yarn around the right needle, bring the yarn in front of your work, between the two needles.
• Use the right needle to scoop the yarn from front to back and through the loop of the first stitch on the left needle.
• Slip the old stitch off the left needle and onto the right needle. This completes one purl stitch.
• Repeat steps 2-5 for each stitch until you finish the row.
• Switch the needles to your other hands at the end of the row and begin the next row by purling each stitch.

What to Do If You Make a Mistake

If you make a mistake, don’t worry! You can fix it. Often, all you need to do is “tink” (knit backward). This process involves knitting in reverse until you reach the mistake in question and fixing it. If this sounds scary or too complicated, don’t worry; there are other options available as well.

Alternatively, you can unravel back to the mistake and re-knit from there. If you choose this method, be careful not to drop any stitches along the way or pick up extras.

How to Cast Off

To cast off, knit 1 stitch and then pass the next stitch over it and off the needle. Repeat until you have one stitch left on your left needle. Finally, pull your yarn tail through that last stitch to secure it, and weave in any loose ends by weaving them into nearby stitches or working them into a row below so they won’t show on top of your work.

Read WHY KNITTING MAKES ME FEEL COOL, CHIC, FUN, AND ACTIVE (IT’S NOT FOR OLD LADIES ANYMORE!)

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Are you a knitting beginner? Is this a hobby you always wanted to learn? How was your experience with knitting your first project? Do you have any tips for other beginners? We’d love to hear from you below!

The conversations about retirement sound different than they did 10 years ago. Baby Boomers are learning how to align retirement with our unique needs and individual desires.

There’s no “right way” to retire.

However, current research supports that there are elements to living successfully in retirement that most of us agree on despite the different ways we live out this life stage.

A recent study conducted by Edward Jones, a Fortune 500 financial services company, and Age Wave, under the leadership of Ken Dychtwald, revealed four key ingredients to living well in what they describe as “the new retirement.” They call these essentials the Four Pillars: Health, Family, Purpose and Finances.

These four components aren’t surprising; you’re probably nodding in agreement. But what’s revolutionary is the emergence of data to support that they are of equal importance to prospective retirees. 

Gone are the days when getting our financial house in order is the only thing needed for a successful retired life. A wholistic approach to retirement has taken center stage. 

We need resources for designing this “new retirement,” especially when we’re just starting out or if we’re retooling our retired lives. Here are three notions worth considering.

Take Time for Self-Reflection

A valuable question to ask as you approach (or re-evaluate) retirement is, “What do I truly want in this phase of my life?”

Your response may come quickly. Or you may need to revisit the question several times to get clarity. The goal is to get to the heart of your ideal retired life by asking how you want retired life to feel, who you want to be in retirement, in what ways you’d like to grow.

Let each of the Four Pillars be a lens through which you frame your response and notice what comes up for you.

Allow What You Value to Lead the Way

As you consider or re-examine retirement, take some time to identify your values and to note how and when (or if) they’re showing up.

Most people I speak with about retirement or aging mention how valuable their time is. They also count strong relationships among what they cherish. Health and well-being are priorities. Lifelong learning, creativity, and giving back often make the list.

Whatever you value deserves your full attention.

Pinpointing what you value most informs you about how you might spend your time or what you could focus on during retirement. You very well might find greater Meaning and Purpose along that trail, too.

Retirement Is a Process Not a Date

The celebrations are over. All the cabinets, closets and drawers in your house are organized. You face the rest of your retired life. For many people that can stretch many years.

And about the time you think you have retirement figured out, something occurs (or occurs to you) that sets you on a new path or gives you a new idea.

Cue change, which is constant no matter what stage of life we’re in.

Your retired life stage is no exception; it changes and develops along with you. So it helps to have a handle on your skill set for managing transition, and it helps to talk with others and get support. 

Retirement is a journey and not a destination. Like any journey, it’s filled with opportunity, wonder, and a little magic even as it’s fraught with uncertainty, complications, and surprises.

Fortunately, we’re living in a moment when we’re able to set our own “new retirement” course, using what we already know and what we care about as a map. There’s a lot of trial and error involved, but we can move forward step by step (or inch by inch) and face whatever lies ahead.

We still have a lot to learn. But we have even more to gain.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What are you learning about the retired life you want to live? What are you valuing most during your retirement years? How are you moving forward during retirement?

The email subject line included a heart emoji – “Calling Taylor Swift Fans” – and offered presale access to The Eras Tour, scheduled in nearby Tampa for shortly before my 70th birthday. “Maybe this could be an early present to myself,” I thought. And was it ever.

I learned a lot from beginning to end, and to mark my seven decades I noted seven lessons I picked up from participating.

Don’t Give Up Just Because Technology Is Typically a Fresh Hell of Frustration

As a Capital One customer, I was sent a link to the presale. I got kicked off the waiting screen twice, but on my third try, I got in! I paid face value for high-demand tickets and enjoyed five months of bragging rights for something that was due mostly to luck.

Facebook Remains Relevant After All

I joined the “Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tampa Shows” Facebook group, which gave me an insider’s view of Swiftie culture, listed neighborhood driveway alternatives to stadium parking, and clued me into where to find itty-bitty purses that complied with the stadium’s bag-size restrictions.

A question I posted about whether other older people were attending spawned 60 “you go, girl” comments and also caught the attention of a 75-year-old, non-ticket-holding superfan who eagerly snapped up my spare ticket since I was using only three of the four I’d purchased.

Dress Up Is Still Fun

I casually threw on a red top with jeans to honor the “Red” album, but most attendees thoughtfully put together outfits representing a favorite among the 10 Taylor Swift eras, a.k.a. albums.

The floor-length prairie dresses draping “Folklore” and “Evermore” fans contrasted with the middle eras’ glam of shorts and miniskirts beneath bustiers and midriff tops. The scene was Halloween on fringed, sequined, booted steroids – all colors and fabrics welcome, shine appreciated, tulle a plus.

The Best Concerts Are Singalongs

Live music is a group activity that fosters camaraderie as we experience it together. Two of my adult daughters joined me, making this an even more special pre-birthday occasion, but in a way the whole crowd felt like family. We sang in unison, and when the words failed me, I could take cues from Swifties facing each other to mirror animated pronunciation.

The Formula for Success – Talent+Drive – Hasn’t Changed

Taylor Swift arrived in Nashville as a 14-year-old singer-songwriter with a pile of songs already crafted. While it took a large team to bring a grand show like The Eras Tour to the concert stage, this was really the tour de force of one person.

Taylor provided all the vocals for the 44 self-penned songs, didn’t stop moving for three and a quarter hours, played piano, strummed guitar and worked the ever-changing choreography. In Tampa, she did this for three consecutive nights.

What Has Changed Is the Production

Architectural Digest devoted an entire article to The Eras Tour’s “intricate world-building” – the imaginative, mesmerizing staging that transformed seamlessly with each segment of the setlist. And we didn’t have to show appreciation by holding up a lighter as in the old days or flashing a cell phone as in the newer old days, because we were each handed a programmed bracelet that lit up periodically in multiple colors to create a bleachers sideshow.

Heed One of Taylor’s Biggest Hits: “You Need to Calm Down”

Anticipating the concert, I had a fair amount of anxiety, rooted partly in my TV news-fed doubts about whether a crowd of roughly 70,000 could be peaceful. And it felt like such an ordeal, from the chance-of-rain forecast to likely long concession lines to the late-night drive back to my home in Sarasota.

It would have been so much easier to just not go. But attendees couldn’t have been nicer or the weather better or the process more orderly or the stadium staff more polite. At 11pm, the women’s restrooms were stocked with thick toilet paper rolls. I was not expecting that.

My bottom line was that this experience was so worth the effort. I think the pandemic turned many of us into frightened homebodies, and maybe it’s time to shed our thin Covid skin. If you’re able to score tickets for The Eras Tour, perhaps coming to a city near you on one of the remaining dates, I suggest you pick yourself up, dig out your sparkly bodysuit and, as Taylor sings, “make the whole place shimmer.”

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you been to a concert recently? Whose concert was it? Did you feel anxiety before you went? What did you feel afterwards? Do you think it was worth it? What did you bring back home as lessons learned?

Ariana Madix’s Silver Metallic and Sheer Panel Dress in Her Reunion Sit Down with Andy Cohen

Vanderpump Rules Season 10 Reunion Fashion

The Vanderpump Rules Season 10 reunion we’ve all been waiting for finally arrived last night. And though we thought we had already seen Ariana Madix’s look, we were treated to another when she had a sit down with Andy Cohen. Her silver metallic dress was a bit sexy and edgy, which is definitely representative of it’s wearer as she embarks on a new phase of her life that we’re all totally pumped for.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to Shop her Mugler Metallic Mini Dress

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Originally posted at: Ariana Madix’s Silver Metallic and Sheer Panel Dress