CREATIVITY + INNOVATION Page 20 of 50

Do What You Love Interview – Annie Sloan

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Everyone is talking about Annie Sloan… the paint lady. I first discovered her gorgeous range of Chalk Paint™ in a little interiors shop in Baslow, Derbyshire, and I just had to buy a pot. After watching a couple of her online tutorials I got stuck in, transforming a tired old wardrobe into a beautiful new piece of furniture. I  couldn’t believe how easy it was! I loved the no-prep formulation and completely understood why Chalk Paint™ has become an interiors phenomenon. 

As well as being a paint designer, Annie is an entrepreneur with an ever-expanding empire which covers a mail order business, a website, a shop in her home town of Oxford and over 1,000 stockists throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide. She’s also a teacher and an author of 24 books, which have sold over one and a half million copies.
 We’re delighted to catch up with her and talk paint, passion and projects. And in the spirit of sharing this month, don’t miss her lovely Christmas giveaway at the end of this interview… 

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Food for thought

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Brighton Cookery School - front

Celebrity chefs, cookery shows and recipe books… everywhere we look there’s advice about what to eat and how to eat it and yet how often do we stop to listen? How often do we take the time to plan a meal, gather the ingredients and prepare them with love? And how often do we sit around the table with family, friends, or just by ourselves, and savour every mouthful?

All too often we find ourselves grabbing fast food, eating on the go, or opting for quick fix ready meals to fuel our busy lifestyles. Yet food is nourishment, not just for our bodies and minds, but for our souls too. So last week, in order to help us re-connect with food and rediscover our passion for learning, cooking, and eating, the Do What You Love team went to cookery school!

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Curl up this winter with our FREE Winter Writing Workshop!

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Do you have a secret dream to write a book? Or publish a blog? Or pitch to write for a magazine? Or do you simply want to get into regular writing in your journal, or create poetry, for fun? Then join our FREE Winter Writing Workshop with seven days of prompts and inspiration to help you to discover your inner writer!

Here in England the time between Christmas and New Year is often quiet, after the hustle and bustle of preparations and the chaos of the festivities. It is also cold and dark, so we thought this would be the perfect time to get cosy next to a roaring fire, journal in hand, to write. We invite you to join us, whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out. (And if you live somewhere hot then of course you are still welcome – perhaps you will sit out in the sun writing?)

We have teamed up with Frances Booth, author of The Distraction Trap, to bring you seven days’ worth of writing exercises, so by the end of the week you will have made real progress on whatever piece of writing you choose to commit to.

Each day you will be emailed a short note from professional writer Frances, along with those daily writing prompts, writer development exercises and some special tips from well known writers. At the end of the series you will also receive a PDF of 100 writing prompts to keep you writing all year long.

The workshop runs over the New Year period, from December 29 – Jan 4 and is the perfect way to kick start your writing for 2015.

It is completely free, and is our Christmas gift to you!

See https://dev.dowhatyouloveforlife.com/www for more details and to book your place. Please tell all your friends too!

Beth and team

Do What You Love Interview – Shane Weisfeld

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This week we’re excited to bring you an interview with screenwriter Shane Weisfeld from Toronto, Canada. Shane is the co-writer of the feature film Freezer, a one-location crime-thriller which was released on DVD earlier this year. He became a produced writer for the first time at the age of 38 after years of rejection. He says: “It’s taken over 16 years for me to get to this point but I’m glad things happened for me this late because I cherish any success all the more knowing what I’ve put into it.”

Shane talks screenplays, stamina and shares the lessons he’s learnt along the way…

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Why next year has to be different

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My little family – well again after a month of sickness telling us we need to slow down

In many ways this has been the most precious year of my life. In others it has been one of the hardest. With the birth of our baby girl on Christmas Day 2013 came a world of new priorities, warped time, new responsibility and so many distractions. At the same time our business grew exponentially, and a lot of exciting opportunities came our way, which we kept saying yes to.

The result? Burnout. For the entire month of October our whole family was sick (hence the unusual lack of newsletters from me!). We experienced every parent’s nightmare of hospital visits and paramedics, were exhausted but couldn’t sleep, needed nutrition but were too tired to cook proper food. It was really hard. And I think it was a massive lesson to us. Looking back now everyone is well again and all our big deadlines have passed, it seems like the universe was literally shouting at us to slow down.

I’ll admit – and not at all proudly – that this is something of a pattern for me. I work and work until I can work no more, take a break, refill the well and get re-inspired, then go 100 miles an hour putting all my new ideas into action. But this last month has told us that even if it sort of worked before, it is not sustainable with a new baby.

And so we have decided to take December off – no classes, no deadlines, no stress. A delicious month to slow down, enjoy the Christmas festivities and recharge for 2015 (which is already shaping up to be an exciting year). Our team will be running a few short programmes, including a free winter writing workshop (details coming next week!). But generally we will mostly be having a merry time with family and friends, hopefully laughing and sleeping a lot.

I have given myself the gift of saying no this December, because it’s OK not to do everything, all the time. And I really hope you will do the same, if that’s what you need.

This time of year is a good time to step away from the day-to-day and reflect on the year gone by, and make plans about you want from the year ahead. I am going to be using our New Year’s Revolution 2015 toolkit to help me do this and I’d like to offer it to you as a gift to do the same.

This completely free toolkit will help you work out what you really want from the year ahead, and then plan how you are going to get it.

We have updated and expanded this resource based on feedback from some of the thousands of people who downloaded it last year. (If you were one of those who gave us feedback, thank you. The feedback givewaway winner was DEBBIE BERNA)

Download your free New Year’s Revolution Toolkit here and start planning to make things different next year.

I know I need to take this really seriously and put things in place to be less frantic and less overworked, to create space for more adventure, more opportunities, and more fun. I hope you will too!

Beth

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Do What You Love Interview – Jo Klima

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This week’s interview is with Jo Klima, an Australian designer and artist who’s passionate about exploring creative projects which support our desire to live a beautiful and authentic life. Jo runs The Darling Tree, an art and design studio in Brisbane, where she spends her days creating stunning websites, custom art and pattern designs for amazing women, businesses and products.

ProfilePhoto by Carter & Rose Photography

I was introduced to Jo a while ago and I loved her work so much that I commissioned her to overhaul our branding and website. She’s one of those incredible people who has an uncanny knack of just ‘getting’ what you are trying to communicate and coming up with ideas that truly represent the heart and soul of your brand.

It’s been a while since our last interview so I thought it would be nice to catch up with Jo and find out about her blossoming business and exciting new product range – leggings for darling legs! Don’t miss her generous giveaway at the end of this interview!

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Use your hands – Our review of the TEDxBrighton 2014 event

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Last Friday saw the annual TEDxBrighton event take over Brighton Dome to offer a series of inspiring talks from speakers of all backgrounds. From knife-maker to journalist, from Frog Agent to poet and from truffle hunter to novelist, there really was something for everyone!

This year’s theme was “Many Hands” and it was fascinating to get the speakers’ views on topics like collaboration, consumerism, sharing messages and knowledge, and using our hands. Most importantly, they spoke about their passion for doing what they love, with real genuine passion and we’d like to share some of it with you.

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Do What You Love Interview – Amelia Critchlow

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Amelia Critchlow is a Visual Artist living and working in London. After completing an MA in Fine Art in 2012 Amelia went on to open and co-direct ArtLacuna Space in South London. Her work encompasses collage, mixed media, photography and moving image. In this interview she shares an insight into how doing what you love is a requirement of the soul, but how the journey there is not always easy…

Amelia Portrait 2013

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Let the PaperLovin’ begin!

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Are you a paper lover?

Do you obsess about stationery, love the idea of creating your own books and boxes, enjoy sending real snail mail, and lust over the delight of words?

If so this course is for you, and it begins TODAY!

PaperLove is a five-week papery adventure, where we unwrap the possibilities of paper – getting stuck into a host of creative projects, sharing inspiration, hearing from people who have made paper love into their careers, learning about the fascinating history of paper, and connecting with other paper lovers from around the world.

Join us to discover the delights of PAPER (week 1), COLLAGE (week 2), WORD (week 3), BOOK (week 4), MAIL (week 5).

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During this online course you will be encouraged to tap into your own stories, discover the book inside you, get creative and have fun. The clear step-by-step instructions will help you confidently create stitched books, gift boxes and all manner of other papery goodies, while the stories, images and resources shared will provide a feast of papery inspiration.

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This online course has been specially designed to get as close to an in-person workshop as possible, but to allow you to join in from anywhere in the world. Please see our FAQ page for more details on how it works.

Is this course for you? Find out more here.

Pretty much all the paper-knowledge our good friend Rachel Hazell has has been assembled in to this beautiful and inspiring five week course.

The feeling that it is now spreading round the world is enormous. Join us! PaperLove has just begun!