An Ordinary Girl's World: Fashion, Love, Life

Sunday, 21 November 2010

Dearest Devotees: Laying it all down

07:14

Dearest Devotees,

After more than a year of blogging, I've been feeling pulled in many different directions lately and I must say that I am quite unsure of how to go forward. The past month and a half in particular has been extremely enlightening, crazy, fun-filled and engaging in my life, because I believe that I have found my Vocation. I can't explain much about it on here because it is very related to my religion but it is very much about helping people. I've finally realized how much it means to me give of myself to others, and to help them become happier people. For a year, I've been completely unsure as to how best to do that, and now that I have such a wonderful group of readers I would love to get your feedback on what you would want. I write this blog for you. I'd originally begun this blog to find myself and now that I have I've realised that all I want is to help people I want to know how best to do that. This is why I want to take the blog in a direction that you guys would be able to leave my blog after visit feeling happier and more fulfilled than when you came. Please let me know what you want. Are there any kinds of post you are more interested in? (Creative lifestyle, Seeking inspiration, Life's a Debate, If I had one wish, Dreaming of the Show, etc. Any particular topics you would like me to discuss? Pursuing an Artistic Career, Doing a little bit everyday, Muses, etc). Honestly you can suggest anything, even something I haven't done before. I am always up for a challenge. Going in though I must say that I will stay true to myself and will only do the things I feel called to.

Any advice or suggestions you could give me in the comments would be highly appreciated.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

7 comments

Saturday, 6 November 2010

Reasons for My Smile: Slumber Parties, Feeling He's Here, and a 100 Followers!

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Having a particularly awesome slumber party at my one of my darling friend's dorm and a random but equally wonderful sleepover at another friend's dorm :) It made me feel like a kid again :)
Watching 10 Things I Hate About You with friends. Seeing my favorite actors as little teenagers was oddly entertaining.

Feeling He is here :)

Doing my own version of NaNoWriMo and Art Every Day Month because I've realized working on and hopefully completing my anthology this month means more to me than working on a new novel right now. So excited!

Planning crafting parties

All the love shown to me when I was ill and finally getting well again.

Renovating my Halloween costume dress to turn it into something I can wear everyday. TeeHee.

Organizing my dorm room. I love having white space.

Getting my new inspiration board! It's here!!!! and it looks AWESOME!

Wishing My Dad a happy birthday!

Listening to some awesome TED talks on creativity. The links should be posted in my seeking inspiration post this week.

Choosing to learn River Flows In You by Yiruma for my piano final. So pretty and so different from anything I've ever done.

Loving Life :)

And last but definitely not least loving the fact that I now have 100 followers on Google reader! Thank you so much my darling devotees. You all always make me happy.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. What made you happy this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Labels: fun, love, Reasons for My Smile |

5 comments

Saturday, 23 October 2010

Are You a T.A.T.A ? To The Teen Artists Trapped in Academia

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Do you wake up every morning just longing for the chance to express yourself in art? Do you feel personally attacked by the existence of school uniforms and overly stringent dress codes? Do you long for the day that you will be free to learn the way you want to learn things, and about the things you want to learn? If so you may be a Teen Artist Trapped in Academia.

I feel like I can comment on the existence of the Teen Artists Trapped in Academia because I too was once a T.A.T.A. Trust me, the plight of a T.A.T.A is very sad. They are hardly difficult to identify and chances are that if you are not one yourself, you have at least run across some in the course of your life. Fitting into the conventions of academia is pretty hard especially if you are not a conventional person, and let's face it, the current state of academia can only appeal to so many people, because everyone is not the same, does not have the same goals and values and does not learn the same way. If you can't fit into the conventional academic structure, you might think that learning is not for you and that education is not a very worthwhile venture for you. You might think that school and education are equal to torture and may begin to look for several ways of fighting/escaping the system.

I can't blame you for wanting to stop the torture. I just think that it might be more worthwhile to try to work with it and to make it work for you.

Ever since Grade School I've known I was a little odd. I couldn't organise well. I would go through phases in my clothing during which I would pursue a particular style of dress for months at a time. I had a melange of mismatched bracelets, bangles and scrunchies on both hands, and took great delight in changing my hair style at least once a month. I spent weeks of my summer, reading in the public library, and hours creating and playing in my own incredibly intricate fantasy world, past the age of 10. By the time I was 12 I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer and literally counted down the years until I could go to University and start working on my dream. I hated learning traditionally, and always learnt better when I could physically be allowed to understand the concept holistically. Abstract cramming and random studying was never my thing, and classes in which you just sort of had to know something (i.e. commit something to memory), left me quaking under my sheets in horror. So if you do think that the traditional school system thing is not working for you believe me when I say I know how you feel. In fact, I was recently thinking about words of advice that I could give to current teen artists to help them learn to live with (and possibly love academia). Here are some of the tips I came up with:

Embrace the fact that you are different and that you, like everyone else, have your strengths and your weaknesses. Look for your strengths, and spend at least some time every day working on them/ enjoying them. If most of your school work doesn't inspire you, definitely work on it but try to spend some time, writing music if it's what you like doing or join a dance class as an after-school activity. Do something that makes you happy everyday. It works wonders for your self-esteem.
Don't put your dreams off until university. No. Scratch that. Don't put off your dreams period. Try to live them at least a little bit today. Do whatever you can for to work towards your dream in a little way today. It is never to early to start living the life you want to live.
Try to look for the bright side in learning everything that you have to learn in school. Sometimes you might discover a hidden talent or random interest in an unexpected subject. Sometimes all you'll learn is that whatever you are taking is not for you. At least you've learnt something.
Remember that no knowledge is wasted. Art is a reflection of life. Academia is awesome because it enables you to broaden your knowledge about the world around you and gives you the opportunity to build your well of experience. Creatives especially should be curious about the world around them because you can only improve what currently exists if you know what currently exists. So the next time you're trying to figure out how to survive another day in that class you hate, remember that inspiration can come from anywhere, and give the class (yet) another chance.
Study the way you want. Only you truly know how best you learn. If you realise that rote memorisation does not work for you, try to learn the material in another way. If you don't know how best you learn, try taking a learning style test. No matter what kind of learner you are (visual, kinesthetic, auditory, etc), learning in a way that uses various methods to learn to learn the same subject matter tends to help you learn better. For example, while studying from your notes, you could try making lists, diagrams and pneumonics to help you remember what you've learnt. You could also try explaining general concepts out loud to yourself, to make sure you understand what you've just read.
Adopt a more holistic approach to studying. I personally can not strictly memorize anything to save my life, so I try learning concepts and general ideas first, before attempting to place specifics into the mix. By getting the background info of a subject, I am able to paint a picture in my mind of what I'm trying to learn and then it becomes so much easier to remember the random facts that I need to know. One way in which you could make this easier to do would be to always know the why behind any particular fact. Knowing the why, even if its not necessary for the test, helps you make connections in your mind, and these connections can act as a guide leading you to the right answer if you ever get lost during a test.

Academia is not the devil. In fact, it can be a really powerful ally and can bring a whole new dimension to your art.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Are you a T.A.T.A? Do you know one? How did you adapt to the world of Academia? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Labels: art, life, survival guides |

2 comments

Seeking Inspiration: Creating from Chaos

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Dearest Devotees,

There is a wildly held belief that artists must not only be able to live with and accept chaos but must able to miraculously draw beauty from said chaos. Now, whether there is any truth in this statement or not I can not say, but I have noticed that creative minds are usually able to create connections between seemingly disparate things. This talent helps artists to be able to see things in a new light and helps us free our minds from the conventional roles in which something is used. Have you ever taken anything apart (be it an idea, an object or a problematic situation) to understand it better only to find that taking it apart leads you to come up with a new way of looking at it? This process of destroying to rebuild is at the core of the idea of creating from chaos. When things are taken apart you are forced to see each part as an individual piece, with all of its own possibilities and potential roles outside of the roles that it had been playing in the group. This inspires creative thinking that can honestly lead to anywhere. Some ways in which this kind of connective creative thinking can come in handy include:

Looking for a theme for your first clothing collection from your mood/ inspiration board.
Renovating your room/personal space
Creating a storyboard for your next short film/youtube vlog/music video
Finding inspiration for your NaNoWriMo Novel
Looking for a stylistic theme for your costume design project
Solving a mini-crisis-soon-to-be-epic-crisis at your new business or within your group of friends/family (like when one friend thinks someone said something about the other that the other didn't person didn't say i.e. one of those he said-she said situations. )

And so much more :)

So, how do you develop this amazingly useful skill?

Well you could start with this week's Seeking Inspiration Exercise...

First of all, gather loads of wildly different things together, taking care to include a mix of both 2D and 3D pieces mix, and throw in things that appeal to all your senses. Mix them together, and move them around in any way you want on a flat surface like a board (the desk or the floor works well too).

Then, ask yourself these questions...

Is there any common theme?

What is the mood that you get from the scene?

Is there anything you are most pulled to?

Study your answers to the above questions and choose one of your answers as a springboard for your next work.

Links I've loved this week:

I honestly don't know how I hadn't known about this site before. Ideas is like a well of inspiration in and of itself.

Have you got what it takes to be a creative entrepreneur?

If you haven't seen this awe-inspiring talk on where good ideas come from, you need to see it. Now.

Soo much truth. Honestly if you are a writer you'll agree with me.

Three simple steps to a Clutter Free Creative Space has some pretty good ideas.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

Labels: art, fun, seeking inspiration |

4 comments

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Reasons for My Smile: Beautiful music, letters from family and finding the silver lining

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Dearest Devotees,

I've gotta admit this week has been pretty trying, but if there is anything I've learnt this semester it's that there will always be trying times in life, the only way to get through them is by doing my best and refusing to let them get me down. If I let the bad things get me down, then I may get to that awful place where I am unable to do anything to get myself out of it. I know that bad experiences sometimes inspire people to create but I've also realised that I can become so paralyzed by negativity that I am unable to even create. To stop this from happening, and to stay strong even in the face of adversity, I have learnt to look for the good things in my life and be grateful for them. By taking time out of my week to focus on these good things I am able to see that everything usually really isn't as bad as it seems. This is why I've decided to start writing about the things that have made me happy during the week.

Some of the reasons for my smile this week include:

Decorating my dorm room and looking for fall things to add to it.
Finishing 2 of my midterms without going crazy over them.
Preparing for an amazing Theology of the Body seminar this weekend. It will be epic.
Finding out what Inception: A musical in limbo as well as what Inception: The Musical is.
Starting to ease my way back into a blogging schedule.
My new-to-me-vintage-thrifted trunk!!!
Buying fabric for my Halloween costume- I'm making it and I'm going as Susie Carmichael from Rugrats
Having a deep conversation about Harry Potter over dinner.
Realising that my heart has been healed :)
Realising that I no longer have self-esteem issues or stage fright :)
Starting to catch up with life and all my obligations.
Getting an awesome email from my parents :)
Listening to beautiful music like There For You by Flyleaf, Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade, and Girls and Boys by Ingrid Michaelson.
Contacting my siblings
Hanging out with the awesome people God has blessed me with.
Swing-Dancing: I'm getting really good.
Going for adoration- it's just amazing and really calming.
Trying to transition this blog into my new vision for it.
Reading Mini-Shopaholic on my Kindle!
Learning the true meaning of love.