Six Reasons Why I Journal

Why do I journal? 

1. I like the feeling of pen hitting paper--that's why it needs to be a good pen and great paper.           (Notice the emphasis on paper...)

2. I like the idea of emptying myself. Once the issue is described and out in the open (relatively) on the pages of my journal, it is no longer taking over my thoughts. There is a sense in which when it's on the paper, it won't be forgotten. My anxiety over an issue or an idea usually revolves around me worried that it won't get dealt with because I'll get distracted and forget about it.

3. Life starts to make a little more sense when I am able to organize the chaos in my mind by writing it out. Sometimes it's poorly formed, but that's okay.

4. There's no judgment. I can write embarrassing things or just pathetic thoughts and not feel judged. The pages just accept the words that come as if they were supposed to be there all along. This inspires honesty and only helps me get to know myself. There's nothing worse than trying to live a lie to myself.

5. I love the rambling and the rabbit trails that naturally occur when my mind is going a million miles an hour. The seed of dreams and great ideas lie in the illogical, not in the carefully conceived. A journal captures those seeds to be realized then and there... or discovered by a later read.

6. A person with as many emotions as I have needs a place to vent safely without hurting anyone. i hate to take things out on people. Hurtful words are remembered much longer than encouraging ones.


I know that most lists people make have a more round number of items on it, like 5 or 10, but that's all I got. So enjoy! I hope at least one or two things resonates with you.

Brain Dump

After a month of working long hours and some traveling, I'm back to normal life and excited to start blogging regularly and developing Kiss Kreativ with new energy. I was in Texas last week at a conference for work. When I came home I was stressed and anxious about time being wasted and not getting done what my creativity has been aching for.

·That is learning, creating, writing, readying, networking, etc·

To get some initial relief from the building pressure, I did an exercise called a "Brain Dump". The purpose was to list out every idea on my mind so my brain could relax without worrying that I would forget something important. Below is my Brain Dump:

From this list I'm going to choose 5-6 things to work on in the next 90 days. Then I will list smaller tasks to get done per item in the next three months to accomplish what I want. I highly recommend this exercise when you have so many ideas and have no clue where to start or what to do first.

A Word Study [Curious]

cu·ri·ous  (ˈkyo͝orēəs)

adj.

1. Eager to learn more: curious investigators; a trapdoor that made me curious.

2. Unduly inquisitive; prying.

3. Arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness: a curious fact.

Society has labeled curiosity as a dangerous characteristic. All these phrases like ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and movies where the main plot is a good guy who gets ‘curious’ and finds out too much about the bad guy so they try to kill him. That’s not real life people. Of course, meddling around in someone else’s business is much different than the kind of curiosity that I’m encouraging.

Flowers my Wonderful Husband Gave Me

I’m going to step on my soap box for just a few words on one of the problems people have in this generation of technology and the American dream. Now, not everyone is like this, but there are enough to be dangerous and I believe it is one of the reasons that more and more people are looking to antidepressants to lift their spirits. People aren’t curious enough anymore. We’re just not as interested in learning about other people, cultures, countries, traditions, rarities. Somehow we are content enough to stay in our own little bubble and focus on ourselves and the problems we have. Not that problems don’t need attention, but there are so many issues that get exaggerated in importance and if we just didn’t focus on ourselves so much to begin with, they probably wouldn’t even exist.

I’m going to step down now but this is what I want Kiss Kreativ to help address: inspiring curiosity… Provide an outlet for people to learn and ask the right questions. Now how I’m going to do that is another issue.

What does that look like? For me, these are the things I am practicing doing now:

1. Read a lot
2. As I’m reading, if I don’t know what something is, look it up—the internet is a great resource for curiosity (it just shouldn’t stop there)
3. Look to have conversations with people around me and not talk about yourself
4. Draw
5. Write—the more I write, the more I realize how much I don’t know

I have never regretted going out of my comfort zone to challenge my curiosity—not one time. Do it and write about it. That’s what I want to encourage. This blog is absolutely pulling me out of my comfort zone and I am enjoying every minute of it.

A Word Study [Creative]

»cre·a·tive  (krēātiv)

adj.

1. Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals.

2. Productive; creating.

3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing.

n.

One who displays productive originality: the creatives in the advertising department.

Peacock Feathers I Use to Decorate With

»As weird as I am always afraid that I am (did that make sense??), I have found that I am happiest when I am creating something. Whether it is through music, or drawing, or writing, or just giving a hug. If I am inspiring some feeling of productivity or goodness in either myself or another person I feel very full.

»We are designed in the image of the Creator of the Universe—don’t you think at least some of that creativity has rubbed off on us? Clearly not at a God-like level (we can’t make something out of nothing), but God loved designing and creating and I strongly feel that we don’t encourage our own urges enough.

»We get paralyzed by what other people might think of what we come up with, whether they will like it enough, and so we don’t do anything. How can that be right? I have had plenty of the same thoughts myself and am still working to overcome this fear of man that everyone in the world struggles with at some level.

»All I know is I want to leave something behind that shows some semblance of truly appreciating the beauty of this world and having contributed something to it myself. As small or insignificant as it might realistically be in the grand scheme of the universe, I still want to contribute. We can get so distracted by things that don’t really matter very much and miss opportunities to enjoy beauty and participate in it.

This is an exciting journey on which I hope everyone who reads this will want to join me.

Journal Entry: To Organize Passion

» Last year when I was working in my production rotation at Theo Davis—the printing company I work for—I was learning how to operate our press and we were printing an art book for NC State University. I was reading through it as the press sheets were coming through the press and found a quote that I identify with more than any other.

“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.” –Claude Monet

Lily~ One of My Favorite Flowers

» I have written so many journal entries about how I want to do so many things and never seem to have the time or don’t know how to start.
 
That’s one of the reasons Kiss Kreativ happened, because I just wanted an outlet for my love for paper and design and sharing those things with people. 

» I keep a lot of journals where I talk about the random ideas I have and my frustration with not having time to do them. Here is a page spread from my journal that I did last year, that actually inspired the title of this blog:
 

Journal Entry · November 30th, 2012

» One of the things I wrote in this ‘entry’ is “Am I crazy? Sometimes I feel like it. Why can’t I just dream about “normal” things?” But then you have to ask, what is normal? The next part of my entry here is “I am this way for a reason. It is time for me to figure out why. I’m only 22—I don’t want to waste it.”

Right??

Simply for their Charm

My new favorite place is the Reader’s Corner off Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. It is a small used bookstore with 10 and 25-cent books outside and a treasure trove inside. It is there that I discovered my love for old books. The below illustration holds a few of the characteristics I love about old books and why they should be enjoyed by everyone of all ages, simply for their charm and strength of character. 

Funny Old Lady with a Bow in her Hair Drawing

I recently bought an old American Literature book and created an art journal out of it to give to my dad for Father’s Day. He is also an artist—a very good one—and we share a love of the unusual together. Pictures of this project will go up one day on this blog. 

When Fancy Strikes

»So… I’ve been doing a little blog maintenance. I’m so new to blogging I didn’t know you could change the banner image and some other things. As I am also getting used to posting, I will be prettying things up to make my page a little more welcoming and homey.

I met up with a friend this past weekend to get some blogging advice and one of the big things I took away from our chat was to keep my posts shorter. This will be a challenge as I can be pretty long-winded and I get really excited about things so that also keeps me talking. Anyways I will be working on that.

Vogue-Inspired Drawing

»I wanted to share a few things about one of the ways that I get creative inspiration. I challenge everyone else to do something similar for yourselves. Vogue magazines inspire me. Maybe that’s cliché? It has been a long-standing, consistent source of new, interesting art, fashion, and stories about the world. My favorite parts of the magazine are the ridiculous pictures of clothing that no one in their right mind would wear on a daily and the articles about people in other countries. I live in those other countries and dream in the crazy clothing through Vogue. As the above drawing represents, along with many more in my sketchbooks, the explosion of interesting pictures in the pages inspires my art.

One of my favorite articles is about a woman who started a company selling high-end fashion through the Internet all over the world. She understood the power of selling to women and how good we are at spending money on luxury. [Well, maybe not me. I’m still a poor-just-got-married woman.] Net-a-Porter is headquartered in London and was founded by Natalie Massanet, who just made $76 million selling her portion of shares in the ten-year-old company.

·Now I understand this isn’t the typical story of most entrepreneurs around the world, but it’s still very cool·

»My take-aways from this story and how it affects my new project with Kiss Kreativ:

• Following an instinct is risky but worth it
• Originality is something to protect and encourage
• Women will spend a lot of money on something with a notable brand attached to it
• Don’t underestimate beauty
• Even when other people tell you it won’t work, keep on it

Kiss Kreativ is Born

»My progress has felt very inspired and I have been more than excited to work on this project. It’s starting to take over most of my thoughts as I think through different aspects of the branding and product I want to sell. One aspect of my inspiration has come from just brainstorming words I feel describe the essence of my brand. Words like the following:

Unique·Smile·Inspire·Creative·Contagious·Genuine·Original·Spark

Delight·Charm·Enchant·Flavor·Passion·Fresh·Free·Whimsy

A few of these words will show up on my business cards to further detail this project, that for me, has become a living, breathing entity. I feel so blessed to have it in my life. If I haven’t said this before, I have decided to start my brand by designing and selling notebooks with my artwork/design on them. Theo Davis will print them and do the finishing work. I still need to experiment with papers for the cover and text pages, as well as continue to explore options for binding. We (as in Theo Davis) can do several types of unique binding that would highlight our capabilities as a company well, but I also need to think practically on what would be easy to use. I want the notebooks to be convenient to use, while holding onto their uniqueness. As soon as I get a product nailed down, I’ll put a few designs on Etsy and see what happens.

»Research can be very helpful when trying to determine production and price points, as well as just to see what people are buying. So, I did a bit of research to see what people were selling and what my competition would be, especially on Etsy and I made a few interesting observations:

• Moleskines: The number of people selling decorated Moleskine notebooks far outweighed any other notebook type. It doesn’t surprise me though—Moleskines have very strong quality paper that feels good to write on. The paper I choose will emulate their feel.
• Kraft paper on the covers of notebooks is now very popular because it has a DIY feel to it—which is all the rage now. Just go on Pinterest and it’s all over the place. I am definitely a fan.
• The artistic nature of the design is crucial in decision-making for this market. The product needs to make a statement and carry value further than just something to write stuff in. If it has value that is recognizable, people will buy it.

»My brand name for my product design/potential business is:

kiss kreativ

The idea behind ‘kiss’ being my identifier is that, to me, this word inspires a feeling of light-heartedness, fun, and affection. Something that gives back and adds charm to the mundane. Plus, I wanted the name to be short and sweet. My notebooks can be called kissbooks…one word. Kreativ is ‘creative’ auf Deutsch. In my first post I listed German as one of my interests and I want it to be part of my brand as much as it is a part of me.

The first version of my new business card for kiss kreativ is complete. My title on the card is Chief Creative Mind…we’ll see how much I like it once I see it printed on a card. J The tagline that will be printed with my logo for kiss kreativ comes from a line I wrote earlier with a word change: kiss kreativ ·Infusing Charm Into the Mundane·. This is what the logo looks like:

I am running a few proofs of the business cards on different papers to see what looks best with the color/design I chose.

So… Step 1 is coming to a close—I’ve almost got some business cards that I can be handing out as I work on this project. What’s next??

»These are my next goals:

• Choose paper/finishing touches for business cards.
• Print business cards.
• Nail down papers, binding, etc for notebooks.
• Send out blog link to 30 of my friends.

»You can get involved by either sending me an email or commenting below with an answer to the following question:

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of paper? 

Noun/Adjective/Verb...whatever works!

Thanks for reading everybody!!

It's Now or Never

»[A brief introduction] Hi everyone, thank you for reading To Organize Passion! I have never kept up with a blog before so this is a big thing for me and I am super excited. This blog’s purpose is to provide me with a platform to catalog my thought process and progress in a creative endeavor within the realm of art and design, as well as get all of you on board. I graduated college with a business degree concentrated in entrepreneurship and ever since, I have dreamed about starting my own business. I’m not going to call this a business just yet—I feel better about the word ‘endeavor’; however after doing some experimenting and finding something that works, I might have something I can call official. For now, though, this is just me stepping out to pursue something I love.

 

»I am at a point in my life where I am mostly settled...[meaning] I have graduated college with a business degree (May 2012), officially moved into my own place (June 2012), started my first big-girl job (July 2012), and married my best friend (September 2012). No kids yet and I am not rushing.

 

The dust is starting to settle from all the craziness that was last year·I still don't know how I survived·and my creative urges are pushing me to do something with the ideas that have been floating crashing around in my head for years now.

 

Ideas like actually doing something with my love of art and drawing. Now that I work at a printing company, I get to be around all kinds of cool graphic design and I get excited about things like paper. I know...dork. But it has gotten me even more excited about everything that has made me crazy in the past. Dot dot dot.

»[A little bit about my past] This is the no judgment allowed zone... I used to spend hours upon hours playing paper dolls. Correction--drawing and coloring paper dolls. I never bought manufactured ones- I always drew my own. All I wanted to do was draw clothes for them and design their bedroom furniture, then create them with paper. I actually built a two-story house for my doll out of cardboard once. Then my cat peed on it and broke my heart so I quit. I rarely got around to playing because I always wanted to design and draw more. That (Paper Dolls) has stayed in my past but the love for drawing and creating fun things with paper has not. Now that I work at a printing company, where paper is a REALLY big deal, my childhood fascination with putting things on paper sometimes keeps me up at night.

 Secret: I actually sought counseling for the urges to draw during the night because I was concerned. I've now learned to funnel it better so it doesn’t literally keep me up at night anymore.

»The big question is, though, what do I do with it? This blog is called To Organize Passion because I am going to attempt to do just that. Funnel my strange passion for things made out of paper and drawing into something useful. Again though, how do I do this? I don't have the answer for this right now. BUT stay tuned as I grapple with this concept and come up with something of worth.

What's going to happen, I don't know. But that's the excitement of it! Everyone's got something they love that they might not know how to funnel into something other people can make use of. I want to create and there's no better time than now...

 »[Step 1. Create a brand] Design a business card for my individual marketing of this brand I am creating for myself. This business card will need my personality on it, as well as show off what Theo Davis as a printing company can do with creativity. I will need as much support as I can get from family and friends—as well as critique so there's no way for me not to get better at what I am doing.

 

Just for kicks: ten concepts that get my creative buzzing: Old Books · Journals · Drawings · Writing · German · Secrets · Fashion · Downtown · Art/Design · Vintage   This isn’t a super organized business plan, but if we’re being honest here, this is where my brain is at right now. As ideas flourish and come to life, I will do my best to update this blog. To Organize Passion exists to help me stay accountable to my dreams and not waste them. I’m depending on my readers as well to give me input and talk about it to friends so the circle of influence grows. Don’t hesitate to comment on this blog or contact me with your thoughts via email: rachel.loftis01@gmail.com. Thanks everybody!