its been round about 321 days since my last post. the one that described how happy and excited i was about getting this blog together. 321 days since chaos, fun, laughter, work and some of the best experiences i could ever have wished for have taken my time away from this blog. 321 days (i repeat it because i have that stupid thing for numbers!) since i felt the need to sit, write and share with whoever you are!
what can have been so important to have taken me away from a blog that i felt i just HAD to update as often as possible...a hell of a lot of things! im actually stumped at where to begin. time and fate play funny roles in our lives and i have not only come to cherish the twist of fate, but to love it and to see such amazing-ness even in the bad things that fate and life do tend to throw.
in short...this is my past 321 days
finished up 2 lovely wedding invites and stationary, as a freelance designer when you don't know where your next job is coming from you start to worry and start thinking maybe, just maybe i should have taken out that ad on gumtree a while ago.
but alas
an evening of fun wining and dining with a friend of mine (mr chaos) led me to randomly meeting a woman, who knew of mr.s who was looking for a freelancer...
and therefore
i met and kept meeting up with this mr.s who not only wanted a freelancer, but wanted someone to work full-time
but...
i am me. i love my freedom of being able to take up jobs as they come, to have my few days a week to sit at my little studio space and get lost with no-one around me, to pick up and go if i choose to...to move my 'studio' into a neighbourhood coffee shop and get inspired by the comings and goings of said neighbourhood folk.
so
a big decision and lots of persuading from mr.s meant i was keen on possibly giving it a go. when a feeling is a good feeling, and your gut tells you this is good...i believe go with it!
therefore
i started on a contractual basis with a branding and private label cosmetics company. 3 days a week for a few months turned into me loving the companionship and laughter that work colleges bring and that helped me make the right decision to add a 4th day into my 'real work life'
but
on the side, as jobs for my freelance clients were ending, so were they beginning. me design studio's only advertisement has been word of mouth. the best form of advertising i believe one can have. i was juggling and juggling well...and this was still in 2011!
many more changes came about personally and work wise for me in 2012.
i not only moved out of living with my best friend who in turn can be and is a sister in all aspects of the word, who for a year put up with me constantly looking for a place while taking over her own. who knows me better than anyone around me can ever know me, and who has a heart as golden as can be...
as sad as i was to move away from her...i moved a whole 400m away
... into
what can only be described as a kaotic and life bonding apartment with 2 krazy (kle-ftiKo aka hear-no evil) krazy (tiko-stiKo aka eat-no evil) girls. Sometimes i realise the genetics we are born with really do make us, yet we can never deny family traits. the tiKo girls happen to be cousins who grew up many miles away from where i did, yet the similarity's that are sometimes revealed between us is shocking. we have moved into a place that has a power to it we cannot understand. because for all of us at this point in time magiKal happenings have begun to take shape and form.
work wise for me
on an ordinary day i received an email from someone whom i have never met saying they recommended me for a job...a big fun exciting job. later that evening i found out more as the author contacted me directly to set up a meeting. a few days later, and boom. i was working on Babel, a cookbook inspired by the restaurant on the unbelievable soul touching and inspiring Babylonstoren farm of which Maranda Engelbrecht is the genius behind the conception of this restaurant, and I would be working on the design layouts for this new book alongside her! I was blown away. (www.babylonstoren.com)
therefore
I packed my diary away for 2 months...brought my days at the cosmetics company down back to 3 again...and put my nose to the grindstone. 2 months led to 3...which led to 4 as this amazing farm has got so much to offer and the photographers had so many inspiring images that we landed up with more pages than what we had originally aimed for...but all was good, as a few more weeks of sitting and tweaking have taken the book to an amazing place.
reflecting on this experience
being a freelancer in cape town, means i work alone a lot of the times. i didn't study here, i don't have many peers i can turn to and when i meet someone from the industry who is great at what they do, i value them so much. i have had the most amazing time working on this book alongside maranda, who constantly blows me away with her ideas and vision. i have gotten to know a new group of people who i guess i can say have bonded with temporarily over the most unbelievable dishes served to us when we had group gatherings. i have a smile on my face knowing that going to bed at 3 or sometimes 4am and waking up at 6am for 2 months has not been a negative but such a positive on my life and my attitude and respect towards it!
yes...
living on less than 4hours sleep was a pretty constant in my life for a while. but as tired as my body was when i got into bed, the thought of waking up and going at it again made me smile. i also set forth a very rigid challenge for myself at this time. i had started doing a few classes of yoga and a month into these few classes...and many many hours of focusing on the book, i decided to take a 30day challenge.
this is
30 yoga sessions in 30 days. so missing a day meant doubling up the next day. i found this to be my 'out' for the day. where waking up at 6am was easy because i knew where i was going...i was going to a room which would be heated to above 30'c and loosing myself in the flow of poses. running/walking/gyming etc....none of them could and can clear my mind the way the yoga does. i completed the challenge during my hardest and longest work month, and i did it.
in the mean time
i haven't turned away any prospective future clients for me design studio. i have had so much come my way. branding/weddings/packaging/boardgames/charts/childrens invites/logos/business cards.... i cannot wait to share it all in upcoming made by me mondays! there have been over 321 amazing days that i wish i had diarised...but i didn't...a little backwards into looking at where i was will show you where i have been.
made by me mondays will be constants...they might not be completed mondays but they are inspired mondays...and drawing from inspirations around my beautiful life, well just wait and see. i think im back. and i think i am ready.
this is me for me by me
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