Announcement time... drumroll, please... I have launched an Etsy store!

If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter this might be old news for you, but to me, it's a big enough deal that it deserves an entire blog post of its own. Currently, in my Etsy store Chloe Harriets Creates, I'm selling scrunchies, and I have sleep masks, facemasks and home decor bits in the works - If you any request you can always send them my way too!

How the store came about?!

Back when the blog first began, I was finishing up my degree in Fashion (You can see my graduate collection in this old post), spending my day sewing was a standard. And then I graduated (blog post here and vlog here) and put my sewing machine in a cupboard, while my focus moved to my blog, writing and searching for that perfect career (which I'm still yet to find). 

For a while now, I've found myself missing the familiar sound of the sewing machine and that satisfaction of sewing the final seam and thinking 'I made this'. But I didn't know what to make. Making clothes comes with a whole design process and the need for pattern cutting - I know I could just buy a paper pattern, but when you're used to making your own patterns, that kind of feels like cheating. Plus it just felt like a lot to reignite my love for sewing with such a huge project - so I continued pushing my desire to sew to the back of my mind, ignoring my intuition.



Browsing Instagram one day, I found myself watching this video by Robyn Poppy: 5 hairstyles using scrunchies. Each of them so adorable, I found myself thinking, I should wear scrunchies more... I wish I had more scrunchies to wear. And then I clicked that I could kill two birds with one stone, make myself some new scrunchies, and get my sewing machine back out.

So that was what I did - on my second attempt I was happier with the results (For the first one, I didn't use enough fabric so there wasn't much scrunch to my scrunchie)

I posted a picture of my successful scrunchie on my Instagram story. I captioned it "I made myself a scrunchie" and added gif which said cute, before going to make another - my scrunchie obsession clearly taking over.

When I returned to my phone, I was surprised to see several messages - people liked the scrunchie and wanted there own.

That's when the idea for my Etsy store came about. I could get my sewing fix, whilst putting the skills I learned in my degree to good use and make things for people to love. Plus I might also earn a bit of extra cash, which would be nice.

So I made the store on a whim - expecting no sales, but sure enough, I found myself posting out 9 different parcels already, so filled which multiply scrunchies - all of which were made with love, and wrapped with care. I wasn't expecting any sales, yet already had to restock, which is crazy - and wonderful.

This new project has got me passionate and excited about the future. I've been creating visionboards and dreaming up where I can take Chloe Harriets Creates - but I'll tell you something, I feel like it will go places.

So please, if you have any suggestions and idea of what you'd like to see from my store, please comment below. It would mean the world to me if you could check out my store - I've also made a chloeharrietscreates Instagram account where I will be sharing the goings-on of the store and all things creative.

C x




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I wanted to write a blog post to go alongside my 'vision board with me' video which I recently posted to my Youtube channel (and can be found at the end of this blog post). I found myself wanting to continue rambling about vision boards, but twenty minutes for one Youtube video is already enough.

There are a few reasons I vision board. For manifestation, for clarity, for the creative process and for aesthetics.

I initially began vision-boarding when hitting a low led me to read self-help books, which led me to the law of attraction. One day I decided enough was enough and finally created a vision board as I'd noticed them popping up all over the place in the things I was reading and watching. I felt an urgency to create my vision board at that moment, so I made do with what I could find in the house, which was an old board for artwork.


When I removed everything from the vision board at the start of the year, I'd assumed most it would go back on, however, I wanted a fresh start, so still, I proceeded to take down the magazine clippings.
I was surprised when the majority of these pieces ended up in the recycling rather than back on my new vision board.

When it comes to choosing what makes the cut, I completely trust my gut. I go for what jumps out at me, and sometimes read things in my own way. The thing with going with your gut is that you end up pulling things from magazines that you didn't know you wanted. For me, a few things which unexpectedly made my pile centred around love and romance, something I was unaware I was looking for or rather convinced myself I had no interest in.

I was intending to write, to scribble quotes and the specifics of what I was after on my vision board, but once I finished sticking, I realised it said enough. The aesthetics of this mood board were different than before, it felt calming to look at, and that reflected mindfulness I'm trying to take forward into the new year.



All in all, I enjoy the process,  I find myself feeling grounded, and centred when creating something with my hands (it's what draws me to painting, drawing and crocheting). Coming away from the process I find a new self-awareness. It's somewhere to focus my attention. When I lose direction, it's somewhere to look, a reminder of what I want, and the journey I'm on.


I thought about writing a list of what I wanted from the year before beginning the process so I had some idea what I wanted to add to the vision board, why I was creating it. I decided against that, as I flicked through endless magazines, my gut told me, and that's something I've learned to trust.


It gave me clarity on some many things which I want to bring into my life, so I knew I was looking for, others I blindly chased, here are some of those things:
a positive state of mind
love
books
writing
to find my purpose
career success
and so much more.


I just wanted to discuss why I vision board and my process a bit more as it's something which changes both everything and nothing.


If you're interested in seeing my previous vision board and reading a little about it, it gets a little mention and some pictures in this blog post, and the video I mentioned earlier is below!

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Vision Boarding

Something I'd been meaning to do since I read The Secret last year was to create a vision board, but I only recently got round to it. I hadn't planned to do this day, so I didn't have a magazine I bought especially, I just used what I had. I picked out the things my eyes lingered a little longer over. This is definitely something I'll do again (I cannot wait to get myself some house magazine and plan my future home)

Go out 

Go for a walk, see your friends, treat yourself to lunch. Anything that will get into a different space. Inspiration isn't going to come if you don't see anything new.

Reorganise your space 

Your surrounding matter. If your belonging has been in the same places or too long, they begin to feel a little
lifeless. Moving them around will give energy back to
them, and make things feel a little fresher.

Ignore it 

Stop thinking "I wish I felt inspired" and concentrate
on something else.

Exercise 

I personally like to do yoga when I need a little mind
refresh, concentrating on your body does great things
for your mind.

Do something else creative 

I like to either paint or crochet when I'm feeling uninspired in other areas. Doing something else which is creative keeps that energy alive. This is one of the
main points of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert I took
away with me.

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It's official, Mum is cleaning the house and faffing around with flowers, while Flo is drinking wine, and listening to Christmas music whilst wearing a Santa hat. They both just coordinated a 'HoHoHo' to which they joyfully chanted to me as I type away at this post. Whilst I can't decide if this makes my family amazing, or super uncool, they've got me feeling festive, so I thought I'd put together little Christmasy post.

December has well and truly flow by the year. I haven't had the chance to get optimal use out of my tacky Christmas cardi, and Christmas activities have been in the few because where has the time gone? But there have been a few wonderful ones.

The month began dressed in Christmas Jumpers on a coach to London to visit Winter Wonderland with close friends. Despite not being the biggest fan of rides, I had the best time. I could not imagine a more perfect way to start December.

Rather than write something new about it, I thought I'd share a caption I wrote for an Instagram post.


"I felt the excitement build, as I pulled on my vibrant knit over my head. Candy canes and snowflakes across my chest as a not so subtle reminder it’s the time of year where savouring the days and counting them down walk hand in hand. Enduring a hours on a stuffy coach, was worth every second when we saw the twinkles of lights, satisfied our tastebud and heard the screams of excitement. The chill in the air, the laughter of friends, everything singing Christmas. We were really walking in a Winter  Wonderland"


Despite being in the midst of redecorating, we've managed to create some Christmas magic amongst the wall which is awaiting its wallpaper, and the piles of floorboards which sit on our worn carpet. Complete with more Santas than you can count, lights that twinkle and the most bizarre tree ornaments, home always feels wrapped up with an extra bit of wonderful this time of year.


No matter how much others claim they see it as a chore - wrapping presents is well and truly one of my favourite bits activities in wait for that big guy to come down your chimney. I love using my creative energy, getting tangled in ribbons and trying my best to add that extra bit of magic to gifts I give.

I recently read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and to be honest, it took me far longer than I like to admit to finish, I found I kept putting it down and then forgetting about it, until the next time I picked it up, however, as I read it, I found there were a lot of things which just clicked. This perspective on creativity just made a lot of sense to me.

In short, Big Magic explores the idea of living creatively and inspiration. If you're a creative person (especially a writer) I'd recommend having a read, if nothing else, it's a really interesting viewpoint.

In today post, I thought I'd tell you the things which really made me think "yeah that really makes sense, why have a never thought of it like that before" There were a lot of light bulb moments as I read, which I felt were worth sharing.


1) The whole idea of personifying inspiration - which is basically what Big Magic is. Inspiration finds us, and if we're not kind to it, it will leave us again. I find inspiration very much comes to me, and it decides what I'm doing. This just makes a lot of sense to me.

2) Don't expect your creativity to pay you. It's serving you already, you needn't demand money from it. “But to yell at your creativity, saying, “You must earn money for me!” is sort of like yelling at a cat; it has no idea what you’re talking about, and all you’re doing is scaring it away because you’re making really loud noises and your face looks weird when you do that.”  Expecting payment will scare your creativity away, you need a purpose beyond money to create.


3) You have to write you own permission slip - no one is going to tell you it's okay to do the creative thing you want to do, people have a habit of waiting until they feel as though they have permission to do something when we are the people capable of giving ourselves permission.

4) Curiosity is important. You should follow all curiosity, as it's got the potential to lead you to a great place.

5) Do something else creative. If your inspiration in your usual art is lacking, do something else creative - you'll soon get past that block.

6) It's not you baby, be less precious...“Done is better than good.” You will never finish something if you're obsessed with perfecting it. Also, other people will not love your art as much as you. Some people will dislike it and some people won't be so nice about it. As soon as you personify it as your baby, that all becomes a lot more hurtful.

7) It's important to show up... "Even if you feel like an idiot, you made it there.  But you must stubbornly walk into that room, regardless, and you must hold your head high. You made it; you get to put it out there. Never apologise for it, never explain it away, never be ashamed of it. You did your best with what you knew, and you worked with what you had, in the time that you were given. You were invited, and you showed up, and you simply cannot do more than that. They might throw you out - but then again, they might not."  The quote says it all, right?

8) What if you knew you were going to fail? You should love your art enough that success and failure become irrelevant, Failure is supposed to test us, it's about how we deal with the failure.
 “failure has a function. It asks you whether you really want to go on making things.”  
"What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially become irrelevant?” 

9)  There are more important things. "You're not required to save the world with your creativity" Enjoy being creative, you might become successful from it, you might not. If you're doing what you love, you'll be happy because you're doing what you love, as long as you remember there are more important things.

10) Don't play the tortured artist. "Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy." Somewhere along the lines, we glorified this whole tortured artist idea, there is no shame in enjoying your art. You can be creative for the love of it and enjoy it.


As you might be able to tell, I took a lot away from this book. I'd recommend giving it a read, especially if you want some clarification on what I'm trying to say in any of the points above.

I recently started writing poetry again, and I'll be the first to say it's bad, really bad - but we all start somewhere, right?! I thought something which might keep me motivated with this hobby is blogging my writing, then hopefully I'll be able to see an improvement through each blog post. Now these are quite personal to me, so it's kinda strange to share them with the internet, nonetheless here goes:

From yesterdays post you might have been able to tell I was having a bit of a down day. We all have off days where we're either feeling a little sad, sensitive or even angry, so after having a day like that yesterday I thought I would address how I go about coming out of the sad mist, and prevent myself from heading down a downward spiral of unhappiness, as life doesn't always turn out as planned and can therefore sometimes feel quite disappointed, to say the least.

First off I want to say I think sometimes it is quite important to let ourselves feel sad (or angry, or hurt, whatever negative emotion you might be feeling), it's a human emotion and I like to think there is a reason we sometimes feel sad. Of course, I only mean to a certain extent, it is no good feeling sorry for yourself (I'm a bit of a hypocrite I admit I have previously been guilty of this), but sometimes we need to cry. Emotions can get too much and they're not used in letting to build up to an extent you feel like you and going to explode - as I'm sure you might think you did a good job of hiding all these emotions but your friends may notice your slightly shorter fuse, you may also explode with emotion at the wrong time, wrong place, and around the wrong people. You get my point, right? Be sad if you need to be, if you feel sad. Don't feel sad for the sake of feeling sad.

Once you've felt sad, maybe had a bit of a cry and all these emotions swirling around in your mess of a head seem to have dissolved or settled in some small way then it's time to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, wipe away your tears and then, what?

I think if you have just had a bit of an emotional break down, you might be feeling okay now it's over, but it's a clear sign things have been getting on top of you and you need to take some time out, otherwise I feel the next little breakdown may come a little sooner than you would like.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a long time out, it can literally be an hour or so - just some time to refresh your head.

Here are some little things I like to do during this time:

• Spend time with family - despite living with my family I do not feel I actually spend much time with them, as I live with them I don't tend to make time for them like an I do friends, and I definitely do not appreciate them enough. Today I had the perfect girly day of shopping, cooking and not really doing much with my mum, and it felt like exactly what I needed.
• Have an internet break - I admit I'm guilty of not doing this often enough, however you will find it can be quite refreshing to step back from my blog, twitter and instagram for a while.
• Catch up with my favourite youtube videos - This one totally contradicts the last, but we don't have to do them all at once, right? It doesn't require much thought, you might learn something, it might make you laugh, and it just allows you to get lost in someone else life when yours is feeling too much
• Read - I am a massive bookworm, I love reading. There's nothing like a good book to make me forget my problems and chill out. As with the youtube videos reading allows you to get lost in somebody else's life, which is always nice. 
• Get out your sketchbook - Since finishing University I have hardly drawn, despite it being a favourite hobby of mine, it's definitely something I want to get back into. When in the right mood I find drawing can be very therapeutic, plus you might create something worth keeping.
• Have a bath and a face mask - these might come hand in hand with the reading and youtube videos, there's nothing like a bath with your favourite bath products when you need to wind down
• Exercise - It is good for your body and mind, why not?
• Crochet/knit - I've recently been learning hand knit and crochet and now I've got into the swing of it I have to say, it's quite a nice little activity to do when you want to chill.

So these are just some ideas of bit I like to do to relax post meltdown before getting back into my usual routine. How do you unwind when things are getting a bit much?

Recently some hairstyles I've been experimenting with have been milkmaid braids and fishtails. Once you get the hang of doing them they're pretty easy and don't take much time at all, yet wearing both of the hairstyles I've had an unbelievable amount of compliments (thank you very much, everyone, I really appreciate it). As people have been asking how I've done the hairstyles, I thought I'd do a little blog post on it.

The Fishtail:

The Milkmaid Braids:

Fishtail Milkmaid Braids:

If you want to see more from me, you can also follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Twitter or Facebook.
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