And we're off... #100DaysOfJoy is here!
Find out what I have in store for #The100DayProject this year alongside my first couple of days of joy!
Yesterday was Day 1 of #The100DayProject and the start of my 100 Days of Joy. This is the fourth time I’ve completed the project (I shared a little about my past experiences of it in this post) and I really love having it as part of my life every year, it acts as a way for me to refocus on making space for regular creativity in different ways.
This year I want to use it to focus on the little - and big - moments of joy that fuel my creativity. A couple of years ago, early on in setting my monthly creative theme, I did a wildflower challenge with a couple of fellow artists, where we made the effort to notice the wild nature around us every day for a month and turn that into a creative project.
It was so beneficial to both my mental health and my creativity, as I do find living in the very built up suburbs of a city centre hard. Throughout my life I’ve lived in lots of different places, but having grown up within minutes walk of sand dunes, and not far from the beach, then spending a good chunk of my adult life living in a suburb of Durham, where my daily walk to work was through countryside and along the river, I really miss the ease of escaping into proper nature. So building the habit of spotting nature in my every day where I live now was something I really needed, and lead to my calm in the chaos design for my members back in September 2021 (which might be making another appearance in it’s refreshed form very soon!)
Knowing the impact that little creative challenge had on my wellbeing and creativity, and finding myself having a bit of a hard time at the moment with the joy increasingly getting lost in feeling under pressure and feeling low, it felt like I needed something similar for my 100 days this year.
So this year for #100DaysOfJoy I will be intentionally noticing the things around me that bring me joy, including every day sharing one thing that bring me the kind of joy that fuels my creativity. My project is very loose and open, I have no idea where it will lead, but my hope is that it will help me develop creatively, as well as supporting my health so I have a bit more oomph to tackle some other challenges I need to make progress with in my life.
My aim is to share my joys daily in my Substack notes and in my insta stories (if you want to follow along on instagram you can find me @unicornfactoryuk) and I’ll aim to do a weekly round up post on here too!
Day 1 - Inspired Collective
Yesterday was a super easy start to my #100DaysOfJoy because it was an Inspired Collective CREATE session.
I joined the Inspired Collective, run by writers Amie McNee and James Winestock, almost a year ago, and it has been the best decision. It’s total creative therapy - a space with so much understanding, validation and support of artists and the challenges they face. It’s both super compassionate, recognising that making a career as an artist can be so hard for many different reasons (emotionally, culturally etc) while also empowering artists to go for it, in our own way, despite all the challenges we might face.
There’s usually two masterclasses a month, where we do collective journalling and sharing to explore our challenges as artists and how to move forward with them. Alongside that there’s a couple of CREATE sessions, where we come together online to create alongside other artists, or just use the time for whatever we want, including chatting to and supporting each other.
It is so important to me, especially when I’m lost in things been tough, or just generally feeling crappy and low. The compassion in the space, both from Amie and fellow artists, helps me process all kinds of challenging things and also reconnect with my creativity when I’m feeling meh. And being in the space generally just brings me so much joy, every single session I leave feeling better for having prioritised the time to be there. It has played a huge part in me keeping going with everything this past years, and making decisions and changes that are very slowly building some momentum for me.
Yesterday it shifted my mood enough to help me work on a challenging design for an upcoming Spoonflower design challenge! Any time spent in an Inspired Collective session is always a joy that fuels my creativity!
p.s. If Inspired Collective sounds like your kind of thing they are opening enrollments again in March and Amie is doing a taster session for anyone interested. This isn’t one of those get rich quick with your creative business schemes, there’s no affiliate marketing going on and I don’t get anything for sharing about it, I just know how much I appreciate the space and how much being a part of it this past year has supported my creativity and my health. Happy to answer any Qs and really recommend the free taster session if you’re curious.
Day 2 - Vibrant Vans
Today it’s back to the school run after the half-term holidays, and my creative joy came from a new addition on one of the roads we walk along each day - a yellow van!
In recent months there’s been a couple of new additions to the road, in the form of vibrant orange and green VW vans, which bring a smile to my face anyway, but the addition of a yellow alongside them just makes my inner colour lover so happy… especially on a damp winter morning! And it’s definitely a good colour combo for a future pattern!
Bright and bold colours really do lift my day - and in winter they seem to fall out of my life a bit, as many my warmer clothes are darker and everything else seems a little darker too! So the little pop of colourful joy today is very much appreciated!
Keep any eye out on my notes for my daily moments of joy - and look out for a roundup of the first full week of #The100DayProject early next week.
If you’re doing #The100DayProject this year I’d love to hear about what you’re up to - and if you’re sharing on Substack and/or Insta leave your links in the comments too so I can follow along!