Creative Planning with Amanda Brown

Designer: Amanda Brown

Instagram: @myfabricheart

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Do you plan out your creative year? Hi, I’m Amanda Brown (@myfabricheart) and I love taking the time every year  to plan out my creative direction with my friend Tania.  Planning creativity seems a little counter intuitive but since starting this process I really feel I’ve had more control of the direction of my fiber art.

 

 

Of course this process could be done alone, in an hour, but we feel like the secret to this planning session is having a lot of relaxation time to brainstorm and dream big. Tania and I set aside a weekend to do this and turn it into a mini retreat. My favorite planning year was when we splurged and rented a cute, cozy house in a different city. Who doesn’t love a weekend getaway with a good friend?

 

 

Friday night is for reflection. We deep dive into our social media, sketch books and photo reels and write down all the things we accomplished over the last year. We also talk about the things that moved us forward, and the things that held us back. There are always some good and hard lessons to carry forward to the next year.

 

Saturday we spend dreaming. It may seem like a full day of dreaming is a lot but we think this is when the magic happens. Sharing good food, getting outside and finding things that inspire us really helps to loosen up the creative juices so we can dream big! What projects do we want to work on? Where do we want those projects to end up? Where do we want our creativity to take us?

 

 

Sunday is when the real work starts. We take all the dreams from Saturday, incorporate the lessons we learned from the past year and we start making plans. Some have concrete steps and timelines,  others are more loose and some don’t have any plans attached but we are watching for opportunities.

 

 

We can’t leave it at that. We often find a way to display our dreams and goals around us all year so we can be reminded what we are working towards. This year I made colorful bubbles and taped them to my wall. I love taking a glance at them when I need a push forward. To top this all off Tania and I make sure to check in every month to talk about our success and where we are struggling. This really helps keep our momentum through the year.

 

 

Here’s to another creative year!