Shuffling toward your dreams, a 2019 in flowers!
I have loved flowers, and really anything produced in nature since I was a kid. Being surrounded by nature (inside the house and out!), and working with it was a far off pipe dream for many years. But as 2019 comes to an end, I’m looking back on a dreamy year that has (amongst other things!) been full of making and flowers. From large shopfront installations to giant wreaths, floral clouds to huge garlands, teaching in some incredible venues, making more wreaths than I can count and teaching over 400 people in my online and in-person workshops. I mean. whoa. Past me wouldn't have believed it was possible!
This year I have gently pushed myself creatively because of some dreams I wrote down in a book a few years ago. That book became The January Life Book, the planning and goal setting process my husband and I came up with, and it has literally enriched all areas of my life and continues to do so. The first part of the process is figuring out your Big Picture; where you’d like to be in 10 or so years. I’ve been writing these big-picture goals for a long time, and it feels amazing to feel one grow into existence in my life. For me, doing something creative with my hands always features in my own big picture (but I wasn’t sure exactly what). I articulated the branchy, flowery part of my big picture maybe 4 years ago, and since then, I have been taking both big and small steps toward it.
The biggest step toward this dream was probably pivoting my work to focus more on styling and floristry, rather than on family and forest school stuff (I will always love being in nature with my family, but in 2016 I realised that I didn’t want it to be my job). The smaller shuffle steps I’ve taken since then include learning new skills from florist friends, watching youtube tutorials and making time to practice and play. I then slowly started sharing more of this content on my blog, website, and Instagram. And now here I am looking back on 2019 with a huge smile on my face- having worked with some wonderful brands, spent lots of time up to my elbows in flowers, and created work I’m really really proud of.
Note that this wasn’t an overnight success story. I didn’t berate and shame myself for not doing it sooner. It was born of love and kindness and a series of small but powerful shuffle steps in the right direction. 💪
You can replace ‘flowers’ with whatever is bubbling inside of you wanting to come out. What the thing is almost doesn’t matter; I was able to give myself space to articulate what I wanted, and take steps toward it in a super practical way- thanks to my planning and dreaming process.
There’s so much more I want to do- the thought of which makes me feel tingly with excitement. I have so much more I want to learn, more classes and workshops I want to take, people I’d love to learn from. And there are so many things I’d like to grow!
Working with flowers is just a tiny part of my own January Life Book, which covers everything; marriage, kids, health. Creating space for this sort of dreaming is such a wonderful, life and heart enriching thing to do. And it really does work, especially when you approach it with love and kindness. I’m gearing up for my own January Life Book and I’d love you to join me. (details here)
I’m doing a fuller 2019 review in a couple of days, but a) it was getting SO LONG, b) I know lots of my new followers and readers are here because of the flowers (hi and welcome!) so I wanted to focus on that first and c) because I’m really freaking proud of myself. Ha!
When you think back to 2019, What are you proud of yourself for?
