A guest post by Jessika Hepburn from Oh My! Handmade
I had a different post written for Mayi and you, her beautiful readers. If you are a regular visitor to the magical world of heartmade then I like you already and know we are going to be great friends! And I believe friends share honestly with each other. So instead of a success story about writing an ebook, I wanted to share the heart of why I made Cultivate Your Creativity and sending it out into the world.
Sometimes when things are going so perfectly right, they are also falling apart at the same time. I have been having success everywhere- a year worth of putting in 40+ hours a week on my website has payed off and things are snowballing, carrying me with them. I love everything that I am doing to the point of bursting with happiness. But my house is a mess, I'm answering emails at 4am and juggling two small girls full time. Time to create? Yeah right! Meditation? Sure. Picture meditating as a two year old pees on the furniture with a diaper on her head while the 6 year old sings Mr Sun for the 500th time in a row.
What I needed (besides house elves) was 5 minutes to breathe, reflect, and just be in the midst of the chaos. So I started drawing and brainstorming on paper again. In fits and starts-while the kids played, at the park, in the car, even in bed while my hubby snored and the girls blissfully slept. It was time just for me and it felt GOOD! I wasn't any less busy, but I felt more centered and focused, more ideas started flowing.
When I worked with youth at-risk I used to journal with my group of teens to help them find clarity. I would make them illustrated workbooks and we would work through the prompts together. It was always a really beautiful experience to watch them take the struggles they were feeling inside and channel them safely onto paper. How had I forgotten that? Finding it again was like coming home. As I was drawing and venting to myself I thought-why not share this? Make it beautiful and see if others are also needing that space to cultivate their own creativity. I had wanted a way to give something of value to the community but also help sustain my own creative dreams-it was an aha! moment of the best kind.
From multiple pen and ink sketches I decided on 11 designs, cleaned them up and added color in Illustrator. The whole time I thought about what my dreams were for Oh My! Handmade, for myself and for our creative community. I wanted to make the book a place to pause and draw strength from the world around us and everything that is going right in this moment-even when it isn't. Because something is always going right-we just don't always step back far enough to see it. I also found inspiration in some of my favorite quotes and books, words that fit the heart of what I wanted to say, and in old journals of my own.
When I was looking through my old writing books I found this quote & illustration from back in 2003, the night before my 21st birthday and two weeks before I found out I was pregnant for the first time. It is still exactly how I feel today and what I hope Cultivate Your Creativity brings to the world. Plant each day like a seed-water it with your ideas and dreams, rejoice! We are here, right now, alive-that is reason enough to celebrate.
Jessika Hepburn
Jessika Hepburn is an artist, writer, community builder, change maker, entrepreneur, mama to two and lover of all things handmade. She's a creative fire-starter and has used her skills to start diverse projects from art empowerment camps for inner city youth to marketing campaigns for small businesses. Hop to Oh My! Handmade to say hi. Follow Jessikas tweets @ohmyhandmade + on facebook here.
editor's note
Thank you so much Jessika for bringing your light + spilling open + sharing so much goodness with us today. I'm holding a copy of your e-book as I type (wink) + I'm loving every little corner of it. So much so, that I decided to give away a copy to one lucky reader to celebrate our blogaversaries. Hip hip hooray.
giveaway
All you have to do to win a copy of Cultivate Your Creativity is leave a comment below sharing how you nourish your creative heart. You can get extra entries by sharing this giveaway on twitter + facebook or via your blog. Sharing is beautiful.
Giveaway will be open until Sunday, July 23 at midnight.
Winner will be choosen at random + announced shortly after.
