Make Time for Creativity

A huge part of my need to be able to make time for things I love to do and those that matter is the need to create. I scrapbook – putting together photos + words in a layout – and it’s vital for me to make time for that. It’s my therapy. For others it can be watching movies, reading books, shopping but for me it’s really creating something. While reading books relaxes me, scrapbooking gives me a different high, like I’ve accomplished something. If I were to dig deeper, I think I can even say that I’ve done something more to leave a lasting legacy.

Making Time to Ensure My Stories Get Told

I used to be good at this (I’d like to think so). Remember when you start a hobby and you do everything so you can be good at it? That’s what I did. Though I never got to be someone who is thought of a scrapbooking industry icon or leader (like Ali Edwards or Cathy Zielske), I was able to get into creative teams, working with designers from Sweet Shoppe Designs, Nitwit Collections and many others. I have been able to make hundreds (if not thousands) of pages through the years. And I was quite good at printing them too. They are in albums in our shelf in the living room – open for perusing to any family member (even visitors).

I did albums and in 2012 I switched to Project Life. To date, I still have no completed Project Life album. Maybe I will complete one this year. (I’m going all digital, by the way).

So What’s the Game Plan?

When I attended Alessa Lanot’s Watercolor Lettering Workshop in Taal Vista last May, my biggest takeaway was making time for it. Alessa is very creative and her style very unique and branded – and she told us that she makes the time to really practice everyday. Before even opening her laptop each morning, she sets aside an hour to practice – whether it be lettering, painting or making patterns. That’s how she became good at what she does (on top of her outstanding talent already).

• Set aside 30 minutes a day to collate stuff for Project Life. I’m thinking I can stretch this to an hour as soon as I have my blog content editorial calendar filled. But as of the moment, this is the most realistic timeframe I can give.
• Weekends – create Project Life spreads through the Project Life app. This saves me so much time. I just journal on them once I export.
• Do one layout a week – yes baby, I’m going to do layouts again.
• Work on project albums, a bit a time.

These maybe vague plans for now but I will firm these up once I get to have a working knowledge how much I’d like to catch up on.

Let’s make time. Let’s do this!

This series, Making Time, was born out of my realization that for me to make things work, I need to find the time. Time is a precious commodity, much more valuable than money and I want to make sure I am rich of it. I still don’t know how to manage my time, this is not an expert advice column. But I can always share what it working for me.

**Featured Image created by Alessandra Lanot (lifeafterbreakfast.ph)

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Aggie Aviso

Aggie Aviso describes herself as her family’s storyteller and memory keeper. A mom to two kids ages 14 and 8, she is certainly past the age of sleepless nights and adorable pigtails. However, motherhood stays exciting, more meaningful and yes, more challenging. She takes it all in stride, knowing fully well that moments pass by in a blink of an eye. As Gretchen Rubin famously said, “The days are long, but the years are short.” She has discovered how wonderful it is to have those fleeting moments in time documented in their family books and has made it her personal mission and passion to be able to tell their stories for her future grandkids. You can read more about her here.. Subscribe to blog updates and the occasional letter here.

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