A Little Book of Positivity

I was having a sort out through some old boxes this week and I came across this...

This "little book of positivity" is a small notebook I kept when I was a not-very-confident teen. It was sort of like a diary, but only with awesome stuff in it: happy things, compliments people had paid me, things I'd achieved, etc. I had a great day hanging out with so-and-so! I did well on that big test! So-and-so said XYZ about my writing! So-and-so said they thought my outfit was cool! All that sort of teenage stuff :)

It's a bit embarrassing to look back at it now but it really worked wonders to boost my confidence. It was even followed by a second (bigger) book of positive things:

I highly recommend it if you're someone who has trouble with confidence issues, or who finds it easy to get stuck thinking about all the things that are rubbish in your life instead of focusing on the good stuff. Get a little notebook, decorate it if you like (I filled the inside cover with stickers and other fun stuff) ...

... and start filling it up. There are no real rules except when good stuff happens or you do something awesome or someone gives you a compliment, even if you think it's only a small thing or a bit silly (all those small things add up!), you write about it with no negativity allowed. You can add tickets and photos from happy afternoons, or inspiring quotes or cheerful photos if you like.

Then when you're feeling rubbish, you flick through the book and it's like having someone to give you a pep talk and remind you that things aren't always gloomy and that - whether you believe it or not right now - you are awesome xxx

Everything is going to be Amazing

Life is a funny old thing.

Five years ago I was unemployed due to long-term illness. I was bored, frustrated and a bit miserable.

That autumn I got the flu and was stuck in bed for a few weeks, and knitted lots of little hats for the Big Knit to keep myself entertained. I enjoyed making them so much that I started looking on the internet for crafty things to make and do, including ideas for felt ornaments that I could sew to give to our friends that Christmas.

While searching I found Flickr, which seemed to be jam packed with people making fantastic things. Lots of people linked to this mysterious thing called Etsy in their Flickr profiles... and wow! there was this whole site where people were selling their handmade things!

I made it my New Year's Resolution to set up my own Etsy shop, and started this blog soon afterwards (mostly because everyone else seemed to have one)...

... and somehow five years later here I am with a full time job designing / making / selling and writing about crafty things, loads of wonderful crafty friends and my very own book!

Basically what I'm trying to say is you never know where life is going to lead you, and what awesome and interesting new adventures are waiting around the corner. With this in mind, and inspired by this design by Olly Moss, my motto during this chaotic and stressful month has been "everything is going to be AMAZING... I'm just not sure exactly how yet!"

And of course, being totally craft obsessed, I couldn't resist turning it into little cross stitch sampler :)


This was a wonderfully theraputic project - first the challenge of getting the lettering just right when I was planning it out on graph paper (okay so there may have been a bit of cussing involved in this stage, but it was hugely satisfying when it was finally finished!) and then all those lovely relaxing hours of stitching.

I'm rather pleased with how it turned out... although I'm thinking that maybe it needs some sort of border added to it to make it look a bit more "finished". What do you think?


I'll be sharing the chart later this week so you can stitch your own optimistic sampler if you fancy one :)

UPDATE: you can download the chart here.