One Part Vision Board, Two Parts Want.It.Bad.Enough. - Part I

Seriously, people. You need a vision board in your life. Assuming of course you haven't already got one - then you'll know exactly how magical these things really are and you'll just smile and nod in agreement through this post.

Backing the train up here to my first vision board, without even knowing it was one. I wish I still had the photos, but in all of my MANY moves, it's long since been lost and/or recycled. RRR peeps.   

Long story short now. 

Source: http://community.boredofstudies.org/

Ok. Long story long.  

I was 20 years old and flipping through the local paper on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I always read the real estate section with the hopes of either a) selling it and getting rich or b) buying/flipping it and getting rich. Either way #goals.

I caught a full page ad for a new industrial loft project, going up in the heart of Downtown, Toronto.   My 20 year old couldn't-wait-to-move-out-of-my-parents-house-heart was smitten kitten <-- promise to never say that again.  

Just kidding.  

The project was called SPACE. I wanted to live in SPACE. Don't you wanna live in SPACE?! Humour me here... 

Beavis: "Hey, where do you live?"

Butthead: "SPACE." 

Beavis: *bugeyes* "Woahhhhhh, cool.  With like martians and stuff?!"  

Source: www.ernstchan.com

Ok, I'm done.

I tore the ad out of the paper and taped it to my wall, along with the other 2 things I was longing for - a red sports car (don't judge) and to live in the Caribbean.  Now you know where this is heading...

Fast forward 6 months. I came home from work one afternoon to find that my car had been stolen. Meh - happens all the time. Until it came to light that it was stolen by a guy who decided that robbing a bank and using it as a getaway car would be a good idea that day. Needless to say - car in ditch + covered in thieving finger prints = Time for a new car. That was of course, after convincing the police that it wasn't me. Pfft... 

Seven days later, I was the proud owner of a shiny, red, Toyota Celica, that just happened to be for sale the day I was scouring the AutoTrader. It was much like this one, rims and all. Gangster. As gangster as a blond haired, 20 year old, legal assistant could be. I did live in Scarlem, er, Scarborough. #sorrynotsorry 

Source: http://carphotos.cardomain.com

Manifested one of the three so far, but yet hadn't clued in to the vision board/manifestation process yet. Chalk it up to being too busy cruising around the city, deafening myself with the badrillion decibel bass pounding on the system in this beauty. Nelly's "Ride wit Me". Oh I know you feel me, 90's music babies.   

  

I always buy myself a present on my birthday. The year of my 21st, I was driving down to Mamma's Pizza to pick up the birthday fare. They didn't deliver where I lived (and not because it was 'Scarlem').  They hands down, have the best pizza E.V.E.R. So I hopped in the car for the 20 minute drive. Yes, THAT worth it. Along the way, I passed a billboard for SPACE condos and lofts. Hang on a second...I pulled over, toured the model suite, told my story to the salesperson and bought a loft! You only live once people.    

Go out for pizza, come home owning a property.  (Still hadn't clued in to the vision board yet...)

Source: www.loftscondosandhomes.com

I was 27 years years old and working at a law firm in downtown, Toronto. I was sorting legal report gazettes to distribute to the lawyers in the firm.  I knocked a pile of them over on my desk and one flipped open to an ad for a legal assistant job. Wait for it...in the Cayman Islands.

That was September 2007. On February 1, 2008, in the middle of one of Toronto's record breaking snowstorms, my parents drove me to the airport to send me off on my new adventure to Grand Cayman.  

Source: Castillocaribe.com

Oh don't worry - I TOTALLY clued into the vision board, after this one!!!  

I wanted those three things for whatever reason, that badly, that I was able to manifest them into my reality. I got the car, I got the loft (the exact loft at that), and I was moving to the Caribbean.  WTF RIGHT?!  Unfortunately, it did mean selling both the car, and the loft, in order to fund the move to Grand Cayman.  I didn't even waver, it was a total no brainer! <--Told you. Gangster. Shoulda been a rapper. 

There would be other cars and other homes, but probably not other jobs, at this firm, on this island. 

Source: www.41.media.tumblr.com

Disclaimer time* There are countless books, movies, articles and blogs on the power of Manifestation and manifesting things into (and out of) your life. I highly suggest you read them. All of them. But - by no means am I promising that the same will ring true for all of your wants, dreams and wishes. 

It doesn't hurt to want them so bad that you'll try, though.  

A Japanese Prayer, A Teatowel & A Dream

I'm often asked how this whole "thing" started, so what better way to share my story than with my first ever blog post *eeek*. 

I was 10 years old and it was better than Christmas! I found $110 on the ground outside our local corner store (and in 1990 that was a crap ton of money to a 10 year old). Yes, I realize that I just completely dated myself here. 35 is the new 22 *clears throat*. 

I stood outside that shop with my Dad for what felt like 10 episodes of 60 Minutes. Zzz... BUT- he told me if no one came by in search of their lost power paper within that 20 minute period (good Samaritan that he is) I could have it #mindblown. I must have prayed in 19 different languages (seriously!) that not a soul would cross our path for those 1,200 seconds. 

Well, my version of Japanese must have worked, because literally, not.a.soul. appeared (南無). As we walked home, Dad asked me how I was going to spend it. My response? "Duh. At Lewiscraft". (R.I.P. Canada's version of Hobby Lobby.) And spend it I did. Every last, sweet, free money cent of it.  

The crazy spender crafter in me, was born.                                                                                 

Source:  www.knitty.com

 

From that day forward, it was all crafts, all the time. Oh, and I didn't discriminate, nuh-uh.  I obsessed over:

* Gimp (If you have to ask what this is, we're no longer friends. I kid, I kid) 

* Knitting

* Looming

* Paper crafting (I was a legend at building condos out of shoeboxes. Donald Trump eat your heart out!) 

* Paper Mache and 3D art

* Embroidery

* Sewing

* Mod Podge-ing everything that wasn't a fridge, stove, microwave or other un-liftable 

It was the combination of those forms of expression that led me to my niche and love for all.things.paper. Read: I turned into a budget blowing, ephemera hoarding, Project Life card obsessor (Hi Becky) and washi tape junkie zombie. Yup Junkie. Yup Zombie.

But then life happened...

Fast forward through many, MANY, awkward teenage years of angst and self loathing. I became far to busy with wearing makeup (blue eye shadow, brown lip liner, #ohyesidid) and chasing boys, to make friendship bracelets or Mum's next "Christmas scarf".  Life moved at the speed of light (as it still does-slow down time) and years passed without a single glance in the direction of my creativity. 

Sweet Summer of 2013.

A girlfriend of mine was offloading a serious scrapbooking haul for a Kevin-Hart-kinda-tiny price, and I think I had the bag in hand and was halfway to my car before she could finish her sentence. I went straight home and had at it...until the sun came up...By morning, my sleepless eyes were burning like rings of fire (bet you you're singing the lyrics to the song now, aren't you??).  But, I had championed a handful of greeting cards, tags, scrapbook layouts, and had even planned out my 54 handmade wedding thank you cards to show for it. BAM!  

I knew from that morning onwards, that I would never again abandon my creativity, as long as I had breath in me (I nursed its wounds with ice cream and gummy coke bottles, so we're square now!)

I carried on for months, basically DIY-ing anything and everything possible.  I made my own gift wrap, gift bags, tags, bows, cards and gift baskets.

Source: www.pinterest.com

Then I fell better-than-puppy-love in love with the Travelers Notebook system, planning, and art journaling (I know you feel me here!), and there was no stopping me. During every creative session, I gabbed on about how amazing it would be to craft and create for a living. My incredibly supportive husband turned around and said "Well do it, then".  

Lightbulb moment.

What was stopping me, other than me?! A thousand ideas swirled through my crafty brain like gelatos through texture paste, and I created a vision board to help me manifest my plan. More on this in a future post, kiddos.

Thank you HGTV Magazine!

One night, I was flipping through an old issue and came across a gorgeous kitchen article. It featured a series of different tea towel prints for easy summer decorating (who doesn't love easy, summer and decorating. Hello?!) I was smitten with two of the dozen or so prints. One was covered in vibrant green artichokes (random, right?!) and the other, elephants (even random-er). I interrupted my husband to see which he favoured (because for some reason I thought he'd actually care?!) and I said "I love the artichokes and elephants, how about you?" I paused for a split second and was subsequently sucker punched in the gut with the warm and fuzzies. I knew right then and there that whatever direction this crazy creative adventure was going to take, it was going to be named Artichokes & Elephants.

While I'm not yet creating full time, I'm crazy levels of blessed to be able to share my creativity with the world, all by the light of the moon, in the form of handmade travelers notebook inserts and journals #holyrunonsentence.  To top it off, I've found my jam creating memory keeping layouts for my daughter, within the pages of my handmade inserts. So.much.awesome. 

Well, you know how this story ends, my darlings. Shop your little hearts out, right here

I hear you loud and clear!

1. That you're curious about my memory keeping process. Thank you in 19 languages (because I've known that many since I was 10, remember?) for your interest and kind words; and 

2. That you're probably well over this blog post by now.  

Lucky for you, we're nearly at the finish line.  

Watch this space for a future post, detailing my process.

Finish ______.  See, told ya!

Yours in creativity,

x Natalie