Friday, May 1, 2015

Design Notebook: Pink & Sparkles & Everything Girly

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Yesterday, in between teaching gigs, I wandered into my friendly neighborhood big box craft store and got majorly inspired by all the sparkles. I've already written a bit about my conflicting feelings about stereotypically girly things, but thanks to some really interesting articles on the systemic devaluing of activities, objects, and people marked as feminine by culture, I've been reexamining those feelings. (A huge thank you to Sasa, who was kind enough to share those resources with me.)

So, in the past month, I've been trying to explore and embrace those more feminine aspects of my identity, by taking an open-hearted and clear-headed look at things that give my heart joy - no matter how girly or silly they might be. That, combined with an effort to let go of the paralyzing fear and perfectionism that often plague my creative work, has been a huge but extremely rewarding challenge.

So yesterday, on a complete whim, I got sparkly pom-poms, a grosgrain bow, glitter tulle, and pastel embroidery floss, and I'm making an epic, fluffy, sparkly pink and turquoise bow for my head. Who knows why? Not me!

But in the end, it's part of the process I'm discovering: the honoring of small things, the wonder of finding bright paths previously unconsidered.

Happy Friday, friends.
<3
Cory

2 comments:

sparkle said...

nothing wrong with sparkly, pretty stuff!

Unknown said...

I do love a bit of pink and sparkly! Cheers me up everytime!