Resources to Inspire Creativity

In case you haven't been around these parts long, I'm a very big fan of all things creative. Let me reassure you that my #yearofmaking project is still going strong, although I'm not succeeding with every single day as I was at the start of the year I am still making things waaay more regularly than I used to and now instead of buying things my first response is 'can I make this?'. Often, the answer is yes. There are days, however, when inspiration runs dry and so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite creativity inspiring resources!

Pinterest.com 

To be honest this is probably most people's go-to resource for inspiration and I've never heard anybody who uses it say anything bad about it besides how easy it is to lose hours (days, weeks) on it. Starting to look at pinterest is like falling down a rabbit hole of things you'd like to do, buy, make, cook, places you'd like to visit, books you'd like to read,activities you'd never thought of doing before but which are suddenly the most fascinating thing you've ever heard of. Also it's full of pretty pictures and quotes and all the stuff I love. 

Ravelry.com

If you're a knitter or crocheter and you're not already familiar with Ravelry you really need to be. It's free to sign up and they have patterns for literally everything. Some you have to pay for but there are a vast amount of free ones as well and you can stick everything that takes your fancy in your queue or library so you'll remember it.  Happify.com

Coursera.org

I find that when I'm in a creativity slump and can't motivate myself to do anything sometimes that act of sitting, watching a video lecture and learning about something - anything really, doesn't have to be in my comfort zone and sometimes it's especially good if it isn't - can really help my brain to start whirring again. All the courses on Coursera are free and it's free to sign up (although if you want verified certficates of completion you have to pay). Courses are run by major universities worldwide and cover a massive range of subjects. Expand your word. learn something new! They also have 'On Demand' courses now so you can learn at your own speed. Perfect for me

Magazines

I'm a huuuuuuge fan of magazines. Not the stuff I used to read as a teenager though - now I'm way more into craft magazines and home/lifestyle and writing ones. Favourites at the moment are Mollie Makes, Pretty Patches, The Simple Things, and Mslexia. Often they bring up completely new ideas and spur me into action. 

Books

Ah books. Of course books had to be on here! There are a plethora of creativity related books available. Currently I'm reading The Art of Doing by Alison Arden which is full of activities to help increase your creativity. I'm also a fan of The Right to Write by Julia Cameron (I have her book The Artists Way on order at the library) and Crafting Creativity by Colin Salter among others. Other books which have inspired me to do things include Little Women (after reading which I always want to start growing all my own food, sewing, and generally being productive), The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (just finished it and oh my god do I want to write again!), Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas (sock knitting. All the sock knitting), and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (start this blog!). Also Wild by Cheryl Strayed (hike. a lot.), The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell (visit every single independent bookshop ever),Teach with your Heart by Erin Gruwell (be an English teacher) and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (become self-sufficient). And now I'll stop although I could probably go on and on. That will do for now I think. 

Blogs

For the sake of brevity I'm not going to mention all the book bloggers I love who inspire me to do book -related things or blogs I love that have inspired me to do one thing once, but there are a few blogs I really love which are just generally inspiring to my life. These include:

Orangette, an incredible foody blog which always makes me want to cook stuff, eat stuff, visit places and take better photos, 

Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity. Trish's blog is always inspirational to me whether she's talking about books, craft stuff, motherhood or something else altogether. She always makes me want to get up off my bum and do things. 

Sophisticated Dorkiness is the blog which inspired me to read more nonfiction and continues to inspire me to read outside my comfort zone and about subjects I thought I had no interest in. An extra shout out to Kim for being the one who inspired me to jump on the One Little Word bandwagon this year. Love it. 

The Daily Create 

TED Talks (specifically on the subject of creativity) 

Where do you get your inspiration? How do you rejuvenate your creativity when you're in a slump? I'd love to know!

Bout of Books: Master Post

There is so much going on in the blogging world at the moment it's unreal! I didn't get a change to write a wrap up post for the Re-readathon so just let me say it was a big success from my point of view and I loved it and all of you who took part. I got four books finished and half way through Attachments which was awesome, and if you wrote a wrap up post you still have time to link up here for an extra giveaway entry before I draw a winner or two later tonight or tomorrow!

And now on to the business of the week, Bout of Books! I didn't get chance to post this yesterday as I was working all day and then we had to get the boys to bed and have date night, but I did get a lot of reading done: almost the entire of The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi which I'm loving! Here is my pile for this week:

And some goals:

* Visit at least two new to me blogs per day and say hi
* Read every day
* Talk to a few new people on the twitter hashtag
* Finish a couple of books
* Take part in all the daily events (although I unfortunately won't be able to make the twitter chats)
* Have an awesome time!

I'll be updating this post daily and reposting it on twitter so if you want to follow my reading feel free to follow me there (I'm mostly @NinjaBookSwap now, but also @fairybookgirl)

Monday's event was a bookish survey hosted by Writing My Own Fairy Tale which I'm going to answer despite the giveaway associated being closed, because surveys are fun.

Monday

Pages read:276
Books read from: The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin
Books finished: None yet but I'm not far off finishing The Icarus Girl
#todayinsixwords: Large amounts of buses and postcards

Bookish Survey

1. How do you organise your shelves?

I have separate shelves for my nonfiction, graphic novels, children's books (the ones that are really for me because they're too old for my boys as of yet), my 'keeper' shelf (books I love so much I never want to let them leave my house!), and fiction tbr. Then the fiction is organised alphabetically, nonfiction by subject (ish) and then alphabetically within that, and graphic novels currently keep getting rummaged by everyone who visits so they're in absolutely no order at all.

2. What is one of your favourite books that's not in one of your favourite genres?

I loved The Shining by Stephen King despite really really not being a horror fan. I only read it because my book group at the time made me but oh my god, so good.

3. What is the last five star book you read?

Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Amazing

4. What book are you most excited to read during the readathon?

Probably to finish Happier at Home or maybe Americanah as I've heard such good things!

5. What book do you recommend the most?

Either The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern or We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Tuesday 


Pages read: 79
Books read from: The Icarus Girl and The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Books finished: The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
#todayinsixwords: Playing outside isn't conducive to reading

Today the weather was gorgeous and Rhys was only working a short shift so we decided to go into town with him and spend the day walking by the river, feeding ducks, playing in the playground and generally being outside. That obviously didn't lend itself to much reading and then when we got home after having dinner out and eventually got the boys to bed Rhys and I did some music stuff so I only read for about an hour in the evening.  I finished The Icarus Girl in the morning before we went out though and I really enjoyed it, although it wasn't comfortable reading at all. Review will be coming soon!

Wednesday & Thursday 

Pages read: about 240
Books read from: The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin
Books finished: The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
#todayinsixwords: lots of tv and some work.

After all the activity on Tuesday we basically stayed home on Wednesday which meant I didn't get to read much as the boys require a lot of attention! We had fun though, and then on Thursday I was at work so I read a lot but didn't get a chance to blog about it! I am absolutely adoring The Rehearsal although I'm still not 100% sure what's going on but I'm really actually looking forward to reviewing it and I haven't looked forward to review writing for aaaages, so that's good!

Five Things That Have Made Me Happier

This post is inspired by Ellie from Lit Nerd and her 'Things That Made Me Happy This Week' posts. I hope she doesn't mind me borrowing her idea!

Back in January I posted about my One Little Word project for the year. I planned to write monthly updates about how it was going with my word (gratitude) but, as with many things it hasn't quite panned out that way. However I just finished reading The Happiness Project and I've been listening to Gretchen Rubin's podcast and both of these have inspired me to keep my word in mind at all times and give me ideas for new ways to incorporate it into my life!

One of the major ways I'm feeling myself being more grateful and thus happier is by thinking a lot more about the things that make me happy rather than focusing on those that don't. It may sound like such a simple thing but it's so easy to get bogged down in little things that piss me off and easy to forget to think about the positives and I think it's time to change that, so here are five things that have made me happier!

1. One Little Word - When I first heard about this at the end of 2014 I hesitated to actually join the class. I thought I could just kind of pick a word and take part unofficially, but I'm so glad I paid the £20 whatever it was because this community and the prompts and the experience have just been fantastic so far! As a lot of the people who take part are scrapbookers it's very that way oriented and I started off the year convinced that I wasn't going to have a scrapbook but by the time we got to March I'd totally caved and I now have a scrapbook of sorts. It's full of washi tape and scribbling and collage so it's waaaaay less organised and pristine than some of the others I've seen but I love it. I feel like it's very reflective of me, and I absolutely love having a more visual creative outlet again, it's been years!

The community surrounding it is amazing as well. There's a facebook group that I'm part of and on it people share their work on each months' prompts, their journey with their word and just things that happen or that they're struggling with or happy about on a daily basis. I have yet to see a single person respond negatively to anything anybody says no matter how trivial it may be. Everybody is really supportive and friendly and so willing to share their experience and try to help, it's an amazingly uplifting place to be.

The title page from my One Little Word scrapbook

2. The Happiness Project & Happier Podcast - It's all about the women this year. Along with Ali Edwards (founder of One Little Word), Gretchen Rubin is the other woman rocking my world at the moment. I finished The Happiness Project and picked up Happier at Home just before the rereadathon and I'm dying to get back to it on Monday! I'm thinking of officially starting my own happiness project, but in the meantime I've been trying to implement little things from the book and podcast such as the one minute rule - anything that can be done in one minute or less doesn't get left. Just do it! Little things, it transpires, can have a big effect on my levels of stress!

3. Our Garden - On the back of The Simple Things magazine last month there was a quote something along the lines of 'all you need to be happy is a garden and a library' and I so so agree. Our garden is full of things we've planted that are just starting to come out or which are now big enough to be planted outside and I love it. Just walking around it makes me feel productive and hopeful, and as well as the stuff growing there I love that the boys love it and run/crawl around like crazies and can ride their bikes and play hopscotch and stuff, and that it gives me and Rhys something outdoorsy to do together on our days off when we're not actually feeling that energetic. Gardens are literally the best.

I feel I should add that this was our strawberry basket like, months ago. It's now overflowing with strawberries!

4. M&S Dine in for 2 for £10/£20 - This is going to sound stupid but we did this for our second wedding anniversary because we couldn't get a babysitter and then Rhys surprised me the other day with some yummy food and drink he got on this offer and we've decided to do it from time to time as we attempt to reinstate some semblance of date night. It's just a really nice way to have a bit of a special meal without anybody having to make too much effort and a special meal makes the whole evening feel much more relaxed. Plus it's nicer than takeaway, and cheaper.

5. Podcasts in general - I've been listening to podcasts on my bus commute to work a couple of times a week and I love it! I'm so relaxed by the time I get to work, plus I've got food for thought for the upcoming day, amazing. Some favourites: The Art of Simple Podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, The Bookrageous Podcast, Book Riot. 

And actually, writing that post! What makes you happy? Got any recommendations for great podcasts or favourite happiness related reading?  

Re-Readathon Challenge!

We're almost half way through the re-readathon and I'm having the best time with it! I've loved chatting to people about it and discovering new to me bloggers and I decided it was time to announce a mini challenge, participation in which will get you another entry into the giveaway I'm running this week. The challenge is thus:

As some of you may know, I reread Little Women generally at least once a year. I've done this since I was approximately eight years old. It was the first book I ever read in one sitting and I remember sitting on our back step in the sun and when I got up I couldn't feel my legs. Somehow it always makes me feel better about the world and calms me down - I call it my comfort reading. The thing I want to know is, do you have a book that you read over and over (or one that you collect multiple copies of)? Why do you read it so much? What is it that keeps you coming back to it? Basically I want to know whatever you want to tell me about this particular rereading experience! 

You can blog about it or just tweet - be as lengthy or brief as you like! Once you're  done enter your link (as 'Your Name - Challenge entry) into the linky for an extra entry to the giveaway! 

Re-Readathon is Heeeeeere!

You'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit excited, I've been looking forward to this practically since I came up with the idea! Today is the first day of the re-readathon; a week long readathon dedicated solely to reading things you've already read before, and yes that is literally the only criteria for taking part. You must read things you've already read. You don't have to have a blog, you can take part on Twitter and Instagram (using #rereadathon) or Tumblr or wherever. 
Here are the rules (in handy bullet points so you won't forget);

* Starts Monday 4th May 2015. Ends 11:59pm Sunday 10th May
* Read stuff you've read before
* Talk about it on your blog/twitter/instagram/tumblr/in the comments of other people's posts/not at all. Silent re-readers are welcome too! (although I do like to chat)
* Post daily, a couple of times, just once, or not at all. Link up your posts here - each link gets an entry into the giveaway!
* Twitter chat Wednesday 6th 9pm GMT (@NinjaBookSwap/#rereadathon) 
* A challenge will be announced during the twitter chat. This is just for fun, obviously. 
* Use #rereadathon on social media so I can wave at you all :-) 
* HAVE FUN! 

I'm hoping there will be a few people joining in, mostly because I don't want to be chatting to myself on Wednesday evening, it wouldn't be good for my anxiety, but also because I've already been so excited to see people's TBR piles for the week and some of the fantastic stuff that's going to be read! Please feel free to leave comments on my posts telling me what you're reading, what you're loving about rereading or just generally share your excitement, keep the conversation going!

I'm diving in with Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley; the first in the series of books which became the amazing Scott Pilgrim vs the World movie. Happy rereading everyone, give me a wave if you're here!

Day 2 & 3

Pages read: 462

Books read from: Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan and Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery

Favourite rereading moment: Everything about Anne of Green Gables. I think I'm appreciating Marilla as a character so much more this time around!

I've read a lot this last couple of days which has mostly been because Rhys had an extra day off work today so I was able to finish Maine which was just as good as I remembered, and start Anne, which I've not reread for years and years! I'm having such a good time with this readathon so far and now I'm just hoping at least one other person remembers the twitter chat in half  an hour so I'm not talking to myself!

Day 1

Pages read: 368 (technically today and yesterday as I cheated slightly by reading Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life mostly yesterday)

Books read from: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life and Scott Pilgrim vs the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Books finished: Both of the Scott Pilgrim books.

Favourite rereading moment: "Bread makes you fat??". I get hysterics every single time I see this scene in the movie but had totally forgotten about it until I read it in volume 2 today and couldn't stop laughing for about forty minutes. I have no idea why it's so funny but it is. 

There will be a picture or two added to this later this evening after I've charged my phone as my charger is currently in the room that Rhys is trying to get Ben settled down for bed in. 

I love how many people are taking part. I'm trying to get around to everybody's blogs but if you could let me know you've posted/tweeted/instagrammed by linking up here or commenting that would be seriously helpful. How's everyone's first day been?

(just to clarify, I count pages because I'm a geek. I like knowing how much I've read, it gives me a sense of achievement. You in no way have to do this or even keep track of your reading in any way at all. Do whatever makes you happy)

I'm here, on twitter, Instagram and Facebook and I'll be talking about this all the time this week. Consider yourselves warned. 

Currently: April Wrap Up

I like doing these posts in the form of monthly wrap ups, despite not having done one since about February. It's good to keep track of what's been going on!

Time and place 8:20pm in my armchair in my living room, as always.

Reading Well that's a big question! April was 24 hour readathon month and it was the first time I'd participated since 2012. I wasn't expecting great things and yet great things happened! In total I finished eight books in April and started another three. Of those, one was by a diverse (in my definition) author - Every Day by David Levithan - which is total crap for my aim of one in four. Honestly I'm not doing great with my diversity goal this year but I aim to step it up a bit during Bout of Books in a couple of weeks. However on the plus side it's been over a month since I announced my charitable book buying ban and I have bought no books and six of the eight I read were books I own so that's a win!

The books I finished in April were:

* The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison : I liked this book, it was really thought provoking in parts and made me reconsider how much I subconsciously judge people. I don't think I loved it as much as some people did though, and I'm not sure why that is.

* Uprooted by Naomi Novik

* Flight by Isabel Ashdown : Really enjoyed this and will be reviewing it once the ReReadathon madness is over!

* Every Day by David Levithan

* The Diviners by Libba Bray

* Fairest: Wide Awake by Bill Willingham : I read this during the readathon and really enjoyed it. Another graphic novel series to keep up with!

* The Wreck of the Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo : Another readathon read and once I'm glad I finally read, but he's written better stuff.

* Saga: Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples : I think this is tied with Every Day for favourite book I read this month. Everyone's been going on about Saga for so long and I've been holding back... I don't know why? Oh wait, I do. Because I'm on a book buying ban and my library don't have the next one in the series! (I did just request that my library service buy it though, so we'll see)

Watching Lots of My Mad Fat Diary which I still absolutely adore. Also a rewatch of Our Zoo which was even better this time around after having been to Chester Zoo (which I highly recommend a visit to if you're a person who enjoys visiting zoos) and we watched Mirror Mirror last night, which Rhys had never seen but I had and it was as gorgeous and enjoyable as I remembered. That film is visually awesome. We also watched the recording of the stage show of Billy Elliot the Musical and that was pretty brilliant too. You've got to admire the stamina of the kid who played Billy - he has a pretty epic song interspersed with a pretty rigorous ballet section and finishing off with the highest of all the high notes. I was impressed.

Ben with his stack of 'werfun' (readathon) books. Hearbreakingly cute.

Blogging Allll the things! This year has been crazy (in the most awesome way) for blogging, I really seem to have hit my stride with it again. I think since I've been way less focused on my craft business that blogging has regained its special place in my heart (awwww. vom, right?). Anyway, here's what I blogged about in April:

- Re-Readathon
- Preordering: Yes or No and Why?
- Stuff I Want to Make Soon (for Inspiration on Mondays)
- Some idea of topics to post about for Fairytale Fridays (the next one is May 29th)
- On Being a Mother with Anxiety
- A post on Terry Pratchett adaptations for #TerryPratchettBlogTour
- Fairytale Fridays: How Does a Fairytale Become a Fairytale?
- Readathon, Readathon Challenges, End of Readathon Update
- Starting post for Re-Readathon and Bout of Books

So yeah, looooots of blogging! I like it :-)

Cooking An accidentally vegetarian meal of the 'can't be bothered to go to the shop, what's left in my

cupboard?' kind. Awesome chickpea curry with sweet potato chips and garlic bread (??). It was brilliant. Also not cooked but we went out with my mum and sister the other day when they visited and I had an amazing spicy calzone full of different kinds of meat, chillis and tomato sauce. Incredible.

Loving Visits. This month my best friend has visited, my sister and her lovely boyfriend, my other sister and lovely brother-in-law (yes, both my sisters are lovely too!), my mum and another sister for a day and father-in-law and his friend for the weekend. We've had so much company, so many lovely days and lots and lots of wonderful photographs taken for, by and of us.

How cute is Sam?? Taken by my friend Rachelle

Also really loving The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin which I technically finished in May but I really really loved it, only about two years after everybody else really really loved it but still. I'm finding myself still thinking a couple of days later about the things she changed to make herself happier and occasionally employing some of them myself. It's nice and I've just started her second happiness book, Happier at Home which I'll have to put aside for the Re-Readathon, but I'm really engrossed so far! They both tie in so well with my One Little Word project for this year too!

Anticipating The Re-Readathon this week! A few people have signed up to take part and I've already been chatting to people on twitter and instagram about their potential reads, it's so exciting! If you'd like to join in all the details are here and there will be things going on throughout the week as well as a giveaway of a book of your choice : every link you enter on to the master link up for the readathon (also at the above link) will gain you one entry to the giveaway!

Also excited about Bout of Books the week after as I've just decided while writing this book that I'm going to create my TBR for that readathon entirely from my shelves of diverse authors. It's always such a fun event, if you haven't signed up yet you really should!

That's it for my April, a pretty great month all around really! What are you most looking forward to in May?

Inspiration on Monday: TBR Tin

Inspiration on Monday is an awesome creative link up hosted by Trish at Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity.

Because this week is the Re-Readathon I decided to post about this a couple of days early rather than missing it (again).  

For this week's link up I decided to post about my recent excursion into making a TBR tin. A few weeks ago, when I made my resolution not to buy books for the rest of the year, I decided that I also needed a fall back for when none of my books were really calling to me, and after perusing Pinterest I decided the time had come to make myself a TBR jar. I will say that during the course of making it I did slightly come to regret that decision, but now that it's done it's already been immensely awesome so it's definitely worth the effort. 

So I looked at various people's posts about making beautiful jars and being really crafty, and then I decided to just be lazy and use this awesome tin we had lying around (there is minimal actual craftiness in this post). 

Honestly I thought that the addition of 700+ unread book titles to the tin was work enough without starting up with the paint and glitter, but I applaud those who do! 

After I found the tin I stared writing all the titles of my unread books out, then cutting the papers into strips and folding them like so:

I set myself a routine of doing at least one shelf per day and finally I was finished! I did make a lot of extra work for myself by putting each book in a series in, whereas it would have made sense to just write the name of the series instead and then keep putting it back in the tin until the series was finished (thanks instagram friend for that tip!) Ah well, we live we learn. 

Here's what it looked like when it was done:

I have already used it to pick out books for the 24 hour readathon, one and a half of which I actually ended up reading during it, so it's been successful so far, and having it does make me feel less stressed about what to read next and less likely to rush off to the library and get twenty books (although that does still happen from time to time!). Weirdly I think having it may be making me less wary of what to read next, if that makes any sense at all? Because I know I have something to make the decision for me, it's easier to make the decision for myself...

Anyway! If you'd like some examples of how to actually make your own TBR jar/tin/whatever, rather than just using what you have lying around and being lazy like me, here are some other posts:

Make a Book jar with different colours for different genres (why oh why did I not do this??)

Make a glittery book jar

How to put book pages on a jar (actually a candle tutorial but just don't do the cut out and it would work amazingly for this!)

A TBR Jar Reading Challenge