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IMPERFECTION IS OKAY

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Yes I am back!

Happily refreshed by sunshine, holidays and lots of laughter and good times with friends and family.

While I have been silent out there in Social Media Land, my brain and heart have both been busily percolating lots of ideas. In, out, yes, no until yesterday, bobbing in the clear ocean waters at Balmoral Beach, I finally realized it doesn’t have to be perfect.

The swim was worth the traffic

The swim was worth the traffic

Imperfect is okay, actually it is more than okay, kind of perfect really!

If I waited until I had the perfect newsletter or the perfect printable to gift you, then I would miss out on learning new skills, making new friendships and a whole lot of joy along the way.

I realized that the gorgeous souls of The Stamp Collective are far more interested in exploring new ideas, asking questions and being inspired than they are in perfection.

Danielle La Porte, Leonie Dawson and Chris Brogan amongst numerous others talk about having a guiding word for the year rather than a goal. Danielle writes how you should pick four words that describe how you want to feel in her book The Desire Map.  Chris Brogan talks about four influencing words, for example Green might be your word and it would influence the food you ate, the way you considered your energy consumption or that you wanted to exercise outdoors that year.

Mine you ask?

ACTION and CHOICES.

I want the end of 2014 to look different to the end of 2013 so, for me, it comes down to those two words. Big scary, audacious words that mean embracing imperfection, just having a go, not worrying about what people will think and opening up to the surprises that I have no doubt will come along for the ride!

So The Stamp Collective blog will post weekly inspired by colour, travel, flowers, relationships, the choices we make, people being brave and sometimes even stamps. I will master MailChimp and Canva and there will newsletters and printables!

A fabulously imperfect place to talk, share or just be silent and listen.

So looking forward to being imperfect together!

Liska x

EUDAIMONIA

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Eudaimonia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*with thanks to Smile Chickie

I am a long, long time subscriber to Vogue Living. Love ripping off the plastic cover and reading it from cover to cover.

A couple editions ago they introduced an opinion piece called The Word with a guest writer each edition. This month’s contribution got me right up on my soapbox.  For the first time I have seriously thought about cancelling my subscription all on the back of “The War Against Cliché” by Anne Marie Kiely. Let me share with you the closing three paragraphs.

“Oh, it was all so much easier when a clearly defined culture of criticism (as closed as it was to the educated, the expert and the editor) placed talent on an understandable hierarchy.

That was before ‘digital’ went and democratized media and destabilised structure such that all sentiment assumed equal weight. Yes, everyone is now a ‘creative’ (the word has been reported by LinkedIn to be the most used in Australia’s self-penned profiles) capable of tooling up and talking.

But as English author Martin Amis asserts in his collection of critical essays, ‘The War against Cliché’, you can become rich without having any talent, you can become famous without having any talent, but you cannot become talented without having any talent’”

In essence, Ms Keily is railing against the devaluation of design in her opinion piece. An intellectual exercise of the head not the heart.  According to her talent should be placed on an understandable hierarchy.

I have never met Ms Keily and my knowledge of her is limited to her opinion piece yet I feel for her. I wonder when she goes home at night and kicks off her shoes and looks around her does she see a house replete with hierarchical talented design or does she feel a home with heart and soul?

Is her need to eschew the democratization of creativity grounded in the need to feel intellectually superior, the need for the approval of the design tribe she identifies with or she is having a laugh at the expense of the design elite. Not so sure about that.

I would have let this go except for the article that appeared in the October 2013 edition of Vogue Australia (that’s the fashion edition of Vogue) entitled ‘In the Loop’, a six-page exploration of the modern craft movement.  And let me quote (again) from the opening paragraph this time,

“ It’s macramé but not as you know it. From paper sculptures to flower bombs, Natasha Inchley meets the creatives who are making CRAFT fashionable”

and the closing paragraph

“The consensus according to to this particular coterie of artists, is that anyone can be creative. (sic) Often, it just comes down to finding the beautiful solution.”

Creative and Craft is good in the fashion world just not so much in the design world!

Laugh out loud!

Give me heart over head any day. Make me brave enough to own my identity as a creative being. Make me an artist and not a critic. Let me live in actions not words and then maybe I to can be a ‘human flourishing’ living in a state of eudaimonia.

If this post resonated with you please share it with your friends or subscribe here for a weekly update.

Liska x