It’s been a while! I think I’ll be writing these Head & Heart posts every few months from now on, to keep things going without that monthly commitment.
The weather here in Perth has gotten steadily colder in our version of autumn – probably still warm by others’ standards, but for me it’s boots, jumpers and gloves in the early mornings. It’s hard to believe we’re almost halfway through the year, when its beginning doesn’t feel that long ago. I find it hard to keep motivated in the winter, like my own version of hibernation when not at work. Life moves at a slower pace, but it still keeps moving.
Thinking
Side hustle. In rebooting my teresawatts.com website (more on that in a bit), I’ve had to think about where I want it to go. At the moment I want to really focus on workshops, whilst also building up a portfolio of commercial or branding lettering work. My plan is to let it grow slow, invest time in creating awesome content and hope to eventually snag some awesome clients. It’s something I’ve considered for a long time (I’ve mentioned it in plenty of H&H posts previously), but now I feel like the groundwork is complete and I know where I’m headed.
Side Project magazine. Sadly we didn’t quite make our Pozible crowdfunding target, and for that reason have decided to take a break from producing the magazine. On one hand it feels like the end of an era, but on the other hand we’ve managed to make 5 amazing issues and learn a ton along the way. This also means that the team now has time to spend on other things we’ve always wanted to do, like workshops and stationery! This isn’t the end of Side Project as a whole – stay tuned for more details soon.
Doing
Puppy training! Puppies are such time-consuming little creatures aren’t they? Jasper has now grown big enough to peek his nose over the dining table, so training him to have some manners is more vital than ever. We start each day with a sunrise walk, training and breakfast, then more play and training in the evenings after work. He quivers with excitement at the prospect of food or the sight of another person, since most of his experiences with people are them adoring him. In between all the running around and mischief-making, he’s content to chill with us on the couch. He’s sweet and frustrating and hilarious, and even though he’s taken up most of my spare time these days he has brought so much to our lives.
Workshop. Last weekend I ran a brush lettering basics workshop with Eeny Empire, and things went beautifully! My 10 students learned basic strokes and a simple brush alphabet in a 3 hour workshop, bolstered by tea and Timtams. Teaching something that I know and am passionate about is such a joy; I can’t wait to do more! I have a super exciting two day workshop with Beau Est Mien coming up if you’re interested in learning brush lettering, then turning your artwork into screen prints.
Small errands and admin stuff. Without producing a magazine on my plate, I’ve somehow managed to blast through my list of admin tasks which had been hanging around forever. I now spend Monday evenings (and sometimes lunchtimes) for these mundane but necessary tasks, as well as answering emails and filing paper that builds up. I feel so much more free without those tasks haunting my to-do lists from month to month.
Making
Teresa Watts website. I started writing copy and designing this website last year, and was making slow, halting progress. Then I heard about the relaunch of May 1st Reboot, “an international relaunch of websites and portfolios by designers, developers & makers”. After a lot of hurried coding and rationalising what the minimum I needed to launch with, I managed to (just) make the deadline and get the new and improved website up! I still have a list of nice-but-not-essential things to fix up and improve on, but having a hard deadline was the push I needed to not let it stew for another several months. I had to leave out most of the front-end development bells and whistles, but I’m pretty proud of the design and copywriting which I spent a long time on. Future plans include frequent blog posts and a newsletter!
Workshop worksheets. With only a short amount of time to teach the basics of brush lettering, I thought it would be best to hand out worksheets showing basic strokes, alphabet and punctuation. These took a fair bit of prep work, coming up with a simplified alphabet suitable for complete beginners and arranging it all for them to copy, but the results were so worth it. You can look forward to receiving these if you attend any of my other workshops this year.
Reading
I’ve made the switch from Readability to Pocket, and set up all my articles to be read later to live there (see my tips for reading articles later over here). I miss the estimated reading times, but otherwise the experience is pretty similar, if better integrated. Here’s a few of my favourite articles lately:
The Busy Person’s Lies – when you break down the time spent on things, it might not seem so bad after all.
The Face Everything Technique – how to face things instead of avoiding them (easier said than done).
Why It’s Okay If Your Passion Isn’t Your Full Time Thing Right Now – for all of you with side-hustles out there – it’s okay, maybe even better?
How to Order Wine at a Restaurant – I like how accessible this guide makes the art of ordering wine! some great tips.
Excited
Letters from Teresa. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and have finally decided to try doing a monthly newsletter! It will be for teresawatts.com rather than here, and will be about lettering, calligraphy, creativity and branding, along with workshop announcements and other exciting things. You can subscribe over here if you like.
More writing. Now that I’ve finished coding my other website and have (sort of) gotten the hang of being a puppy parent, I’m hoping to do much more writing. I’ve lost my morning writing time to walks with Jasper, but with some planning I think I can squeeze in a bit of writing each week. I’m looking forward to improving those skills over the rest of the year!
You can read more of this series over here, or copy the format to join in!
