create | Lifesmile Scribbler

I’m not religious. That’s not to say I haven’t given things up for lent before, I have (tried). Just not for religious reasons. Yes, I understand lent is about penance and self-denial, but deprivation isn’t what I’m looking for right now. I’m looking for enrichment. That’s why I’m using lent as a reason to add something to my days, rather than take something away.

This year, there will be no commitment to giving up chocolate. There will instead be a commitment to write. Outside of work. Every. Single. Day. It will be tough. Especially as I’ll be on holiday for a week of it.

Lent is about challenging yourself to do without, but I’m challenging myself to do with. To do with a pen and paper or a keyboard and screen. To do with thoughts and words and ideas. To do with taking a blank page and embellishing it in whatever way I feel like. I’m not giving myself minimum word counts to achieve – I’m someone who believes firmly in quality over quantity – but I am pledging to create something, every 24 hours.

Doing this will hopefully bring me closer to the elusive sense of purpose I seek. Seeing things come to life, literally through my fingers, in a few short weeks. Seeing how far I can go. How much I can grow. No more ‘I don’t have time’, ‘I’m too tired’, or ‘Shall we stick Netflix on?’.

Having ambition is one thing, but achieving ambition is another.

I’ve been getting my craft on recently, having developed a little obsession with the humble button. Long gone are the days of art teachers looking at my drawings with pity. I can do button art now, suckers! Useless with a pencil but a whiz with a button, and that’s fine by me. Ok, so my little creations won’t win any design prizes, but I think they could make rather unique and personal gifts.

The subject of my longing for a more creative life will certainly feature in future posts, particularly the reasons why I quit being a lawyer. Recently I felt that I needed to find ways to ignite the creative juices lying dormant somewhere inside me. Buttons were my salvation (they weren’t really, that’s rather extreme). They were, however, good fun to work with, especially after I was introduced to my new friend mod podge. That’s why I’ve made button art a new hobby and opened up a little Etsy shop called Suzi’s Crafty Buttons! I would love to know what you think.

Even if you feel like the most useless artist ever, which I honestly am (my sister was blessed with that gene), just try something new and see what happens. Enjoying the creative process is much more important than having a perfect finished product. To chuck in an oxymoron, go create your own beautiful mess!