4 Tips to Weave Creativity into Your Busy Life
If you have ever listened to our podcast, you would have heard our tag line: “weaving creativity into our busy lives”, and while the imagery of weaving is kinda cute, it takes intentional actions to ensure that it actually happens. I don’t know if it’s a girl thing or maybe a crafter’s thing, but it often feels quite “lazy” to spend intentional time crafting or making something with our hands. I know I definitely do and I am lucky enough to have embroidery as my job!! Weaving creativity into our lives requires active planning and intentionality (and you guessed it … permission!) to allow yourself to relax into the craft and not feel guilty that we’re not reducing our WIP pile! So here are our 4 tips to becoming more intentional with your stitching in 2024.
1. think of stitching as productive downtime
We all have busy lives, so the limited downtime you probably do allow yourself to have probably isn’t all that productive (and that’s totally fine). But if it helps to justify it, reframe your stitching as “productive downtime”. At the end of the day you will end up with something tangible in your hands to show for your time. And don’t feel guilty about booking time out in your calendar so it isn’t always an after thought.
2. make it social
Organise a little crafting social group or get comfortable stitching in public places. Take your stitching to the doctor’s office, to watch the kids at sport or for your lunch break at work. When I was learning how to crochet, I would never give myself permission to practice because I always felt like I should be doing other things. So I organised some crafting dates with my bestie where we would hang out together and craft together. The best of both worlds!
3. multitask
Now this is probably my favourite tip… multitask while you stitch. Embroidery is the type of craft where you can just switch off and relax (unlike crochet for me, cause I always loose count of my stitches haha). So I will often watch tv, or listen to an audiobook while I’m stitching – it helps me feel less guilty about both my stitching and my tv watching time. And hey I don’t think you can stitch while on the treadmill but give it a go haha.
4. swap it out
This one is a super easy one, just make some swaps to your routine – eg, swap out social media scrolling for stitching. Most people will tell you that spending a few hours stitching while listening to a podcast or a tv show, will make you feel less anxious and more relaxed than a few hours of doom scrolling. Making that swap is super easy and most of the time you will feel more productive with your time as well!
I hope you found these quick tips helpful to help make 2024 your best crafty year yet!!
