creativity unleashed :: my new challenge to myself and my blog

hello and happy monday beautiful people!

i have had a little break from my day job these past four days thanks to my conveniently located chicago office and the nato summit. i cannot remember the last time i took off of work for a non-wanderlustings related reason {which usually entails more work!}. so it has literally felt like i've taken a sabbatical or something.

one of the things i have been struggling with lately has been unleashing my creativity. recently, i get all of these ideas that float in and out of my creative consciousness and i have to put them aside because i am busy with {day job} work or busy with blogging or busy with making jewelry. luckily, i have come to realize that this 'setting aside' in no way benefits myself - so lately i have been indulging it in every way possible.

i have never felt so refreshed, so alive and so true to myself.

it struck me when i was watching a few ted talks - specifically the ones with tavi gevinson and gala darling. they are such inspirational women. they are fearless and unapologetic of who they are. they embrace it. i realized then that i needed to be more aware of who i am and fully embrace it.

well, my entire life i have been a little ball of creativity. making art, playing pretend and creating visions in my head was an everyday occurrence. it still is today - but i became so adjusted to stifling these musings to make way for  what i deemed as more 'productive' work.

so when i began conceptualizing my new line of jewelry for the nyigf this year, i was scared. i hadn't let my creativity run willy nilly since...i can't remember when. it took some getting used to that is for sure.

i think something sparked inside of me when i saw the charles and ray eames documentary called the architect and the painter when i attended the architecture and design film festival this past april. the way charles and ray experimented was dumbfounding. they were fearless, especially charles; handling enormous contracts with no clear end result in mind. he would just focus on the process of creating - not the end result. he would do seemingly absurd things like concentrating on filmmaking even though he was a designer. but what people seemed to miss was the fact that charles was not just a designer - he was a creative truly in touch with his process of creativity and experimentation.

suddenly, everything came full circle for me::
why was i stifling this part of me?
it's okay to do things differently.
it's okay to see things differently.
it's okay to use your imagination.
it's okay to play pretend.
it's okay to just create - for no reason at all.
that's the best part about creativity.
it has no limits. it has no restrictions or rules.
it's unbridled minds at their best.

i've started to look at things much differently. and i must say that i like being who i am - even though to quite a few people it may be 'different.' i like that about myself. in fact, i LOVE that about myself.

so i am encouraging all of you out there to be 100% true to yourself, find out what you may be stifling and take this incredible journey with me. wanderlustings is a purely judgment-free zone as of today. let's be fearless together. have fun with our creativity and keep on wandering our own paths.

from here on out wanderlustings will be about::
- exercising your creativity
- looking at things in unorthodox ways
- embracing uniqueness
- applauding others who are fearlessly unique
- how to build your creativity into a business

i hope you like what's to come!