Is It Time for a Change?
It's a New Year, What do You Want to Do?
I’ve been art journaling professionally for nearly 10 years and I’m considering a change. At heart, I’m a mixed-media artist and crafter. I love doing all sorts of things. If I’m not learning something new, I’m not doing it!
I got started in art journaling by teaching in-person classes. I would bring all the supplies to these classes, and I found myself buying way too many supplies to keep up with all my class ideas. I got to a breaking point, something had to give. My body and my bank account couldn’t keep up with this.
That all changed when I started focusing exclusively on art journaling. Keeping up with the supplies became much simpler and my spending habits (boarding on addiction) got a break. It was so much easier and I could still bring tons of variety to my classes.
When the pandemic shut down my classes in 2020, I started taking them online. I did live Zoom classes and recorded videos, too. I really enjoyed the recording part, but the online classes posed a lot of problems for me, so I dropped live classes and stuck with video recording.
In 2023, I made a big push to be a success on YouTube. Before that, I was publishing on Skillshare and my Creative Soul Club. But when Skillshare doubled their subscription rates (reducing the number of people I could reach) and they started removing my older classes I went looking for better options.
YouTube seemed like the perfect solution. And I love posting on YouTube but to appease the YouTube algorithm I had to narrow my focus to one particular type of art journaling and keep up with a publishing schedule. But that’s not who I am! So I stopped posting videos in the summer of 2024.
Since then, I’ve had so much fun doing all sorts of projects. Some of them included finishing old craft projects others are new ones.
One project that I started back in 1995 was a model ship. With the hull complete all I needed to do was finish the sails (no small feat), but up until now, I was too afraid to try. It’s funny how getting older can change your perspective.
I love it when wonderful things show up when I least expect them. Shortly after I stopped recording and just before I started working on my ship, an antique Japanese tansu magically appeared. It was in pretty bad shape (but it was free) and a few months later I had restored this little beauty, turning it into a sewing chest.
With the New Year upon us, I want to return to sharing my creative spirit with all of you. I thought I would get back to art journaling after I took a short break, but with all my projects keeping my creative soul happy I have not. This weighs heavily on me now as 2025 spreads out before me.
Speaking of projects keeping me distracted, I got a vintage dollhouse kit for Christmas. This is something I’ve dreamed about building since I was a little girl. This is one of those things I get to take my time on. Beyond the building of the house, I get to decorate and furnish it too! I plan on taking photos and videos in case I decide to share this adventure with you, but I’m not sure at this point.
I want to do it all. I want my life to be filled with creative magic. I don’t want to be limited! Let’s face it, life by nature is limited. We only have so long to live and there’s only so much time we have to do the things we want to do.
It’s all too easy to waste away our precious time on meaningless things, like shopping and watching Netflix, not to mention all the drama of life that keeps us in spirals.
I crave a deeper meaning in my life too. I need to know who I am and what truly matters to me. I believe I’m here for a reason, and that reason is my purpose. This purpose may change as the years roll forward, but for me, things have a way of fitting together. It all matters, every piece of the puzzle is needed.
I’ve also had a couple of health scares in the past year. I like to think of these as the universe kicking me in the butt, reminding me that life is precious. And I’m not one to ignore these valuable hints. So I don’t want to waste any more time.
I would love to hear your thoughts. What does this bring up for you? What dreams have you let slip away? What do you REALLY want to do with your time? What are you wasting it away on? What might change for you in the next year?