Well goodness, what a year so far! So now we're in Autumn and the leaves are falling but back in February I imagined that by October I'd be happily running regular jewellery courses in my newly fitted out Sleaford workshop and heading off around the country selling my wares at jewellery and craft shows ready for the busy run up to Christmas. I don't think any of us saw this one coming!
In trying to take positives from the last few months, this experience has definitely taught me to appreciate and have gratitude for many things and not to take anything for granted... my loved ones, the nhs and keyworkers, the availability of regular food orders, the right to education and much less important simple things like having a garden.....
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So after a few bewildered and frankly quite scary months where it felt as though we were in some kind of horrible movie, in the spirit of a post that I found on Pinterest, when it comes to hilomilo I have decided to yell 'Plot twist!' and try to adapt to this new way of doing things. For us as a household with a member of the family with leukaemia and therefore in the extremely vulnerable category, this has meant approaching things very cautiously now that shielding has ended. Jewellery courses and shows aren't really possible so I've decided to move hilomilo fully online which needless to say has led to a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to my tech abilities!
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It's actually been interesting.... the website and social media has always been a part of the business that I kind of knew I needed to spend more time on but well, what can I say, I'm a creative person (my excuse for everything...being untidy, being late...etc...) and I'm happiest sat at my bench making lovely things not staring into the glaring blue light of humming frustration that is my computer... soooo the tech side of things was gathering dust a bit.
However, I have recently discovered two new small joys in life, both of which offer to satisfy my deeply buried inner control freak. During lockdown I had no access to my bench or my tools which was tricky for me as making jewellery gives me headspace and a way to manage my mental health on a day to day basis, so I was actively seeking new creative outlets during this time. The first that I came across was unexpectedly the Wix website builder.......
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If anybody is considering setting up a website for anything do consider using Wix (I'm not getting anything in return for this, this is a genuine recommendation). It is a totally customisable platform with templates, so for someone like me it's actually a really enjoyable creative process. Who knew that I would actually really like spending hours at a time staring at a screen juggling text boxes, image galleries and updating my SEO (search engine optimisation....no I didn't know what that stood for either)?! I can control everything about this site now, the colours, the style, whether there's a blog or not (ahem) and in this chaotic, unpredictable and everchanging situation that we're all in, having absolute control over just one tiny aspect of life feels weirdly and immensely satisfying.
Do please have a look, you can click on the hilomilo logo at the top of this page and take a look at my recent efforts, I'd love to hear your feedback on the newly refreshed homepage and I'm always open to suggestions about things I could improve or change about the site.... any excuse to flex my fingers on the keyboard now!
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The other new and totally unexpected creative joy that I discovered during the frustration of lockdown is a joy of gardening. I am someone that is universally feared by houseplants, I can almost feel them leaning away from me in garden centres as though they can somehow sense how many of their kind have died in my hands before them. I love plants and always have the very best of intentions but my heart sinks now whenever someone gifts me a plant as I know I will have to carry the guilt of yet another yellowing sacrificial houseplant death on my conscience ...but lockdown has introduced me to a totally different form of gardening...vegetables!! Pumpkins, turnips, carrots and brassicas seem immune to my over enthusiastic watering and for the first time ever I actually feel that I might be able to maintain a proper, colourful and productive garden, maybe not quite as good as Mr McGregor's of Peter Rabbit fame but it's on the right path and how great to be out in the fresh air!
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So now I spend my time organising my website and photographing jewellery for new product listings, and I’m looking forward to expanding the website further but I'm also getting outside more and getting my hands in the earth now too and I can't recommend anything better than growing something, making something, digital or not and generally finding some way, any way to be creative for a healthy dose of mindfulness and a way to find some moments of peace in these strange and turbulent times.
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I'd love to hear how you've been creative or found a way to cope with lockdown, how do you find your headspace?....Do let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for reading and take care x
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