80. I love thinking, journaling and planning
I love taking time to manage my life. I love looking back and seeing that I have completed or experienced something that gives me joy or at least provides satisfaction or pride in a job well done.
I was thinking about why I continue writing this newsletter. No, I am not going to say that I love to serve and solve problems for other people. My ambition is not to entertain people either. So, why do I write?
Initially I saw this platform as an outlet for my journaling. With each newsletter I am creating a record of what I am doing with my life and an archive of the resources I have created myself. I still use my public writing in this way. It helps me clarify things I have been writing about in my personal journal and I have created a reasonable filing system to make my resources accessible to me as well as others.
I was also excited to see that Substack had paid subscription set up. This meant that I could start up my paid Doll Clothes Pattern Club again and still write about lifestyle topics. I love having an outlet for designs that don’t exactly fit the parameters of my Etsy shop patterns. My Etsy shop mission is to provide easy to sew, pretty doll clothes designs. This excludes a lot of the designs that I love to create now I have much more experience. So you will find the Gathered Rompers in the Etsy shop but not the Dino Rompers or an easy lined jacket and not a pieced denim jacket.
For the last few days I have been watching Sheng Huang on Youtube. His passion is teaching people how to use mind maps to improve their lives. This made me think about what I am passionate about and why I write my newsletter. I did a mind map of the life areas I set goals for each month with a view to clarifying my August goals. I kept in mind that I was looking for my passions.
I began to see that I felt passionate about sharing how I live my life in the published newsletter. I felt passionate about journaling and learning. I felt passionate about planning how I wanted things to turn out. I felt passionate about creating by using my advanced sewing and computer skills. I want to share all my passions publicly so they are out there for others to get something from if they choose. My passion is not teaching or solving other people’s problems. My passion is to put myself out there so others can take what they need. Not everyone needs a teacher centred course to solve their problems. I have felt great hope and inspiration from just reading about the lives of others. Most recently I have found it a great comfort to read the posts of older women as they negotiate menopause and aging. Just knowing that there are people like me out there is enough to fuel my passions and make me want to take charge of my life.
I don’t want to always be like those other people. I don’t want to live in a tiny home. I don’t want to get a divorce or live in the wilderness. I don’t have grandchildren to keep up with or an urge to take up a whole new career. But, I can see that there are people like me out there who want to create growth and experiences in their lives. They are struggling and continually trying to improve their lives just like me.
The last week I have been binge watching Bones. I love her necklaces and earrings and have plans to recreate some of them. My 4 week work month only started today, Monday 4th August 2025 so I will be doing more intellectual activities and less game playing and Bones watching over the next 4 weeks. I am happy with my belief that sloth like activities are fine as long as they don’t stunt my net growth. I am going to have great fun trying out all the different mind maps suggested by Sheng this month and I am going to make some doll clothes designs using muslin to style them on the dolls rather than draw the patterns first on my computer. I also have some great reading and learning lined up.
Just in case you like to journal, I can highly recommend including dedicated spaces at the bottom of each page for special thinking. I journal and plan over four pages each day and at the bottom of each page I have space for:
A problem to solve
A decision to make
A good idea
Reflection (at the end of the day)
It was just by chance that the outdated A5 day to a page diaries that I bought on sale for journaling had a space at the bottom of each page with no lines. It looked like it needed to be used for something special. I ignore the dates on the pages and just put the day’s date at the top.
I have found it really helpful to record even a tiny problem and how I solved it or even the most trivial of decisions that I have to make and what I decided and it is always good to have open space to write good ideas.
A few times now I have noticed that when I write down a problem I find myself coming up with a solution the next day after sleeping on it. If I hadn’t written down the problem I would still be anxious about it rather than articulating it and finding solutions in my sleep.
I bought a whole lot of the diaries. They were $5 instead of $60. They are lovely leather bound, lay flat, hard cover books. They hold about 3 months of journaling each.
I am not big on marketing. I tend to let my work speak for itself and grow followers and customers organically. Every now and then a customer or follower lets me know I have had an affect on them. The latest message I got on Etsy was from an appreciative customer just wanting to be nice. These kind of comments occur just enough to inspire me to do more.
This one is from Lilly.
hello,
i just want to take a minute to say thank you. your patterns are adorable and so easy to follow. I would love to share the dresses that i made using them. Thank you and have a blessed weekend.
She sent some pictures of the dresses she made.
The pattern is for the 17” baby doll and comes with the headband.
If you enjoy reading my posts click the thumbs up. I can’t deny there is always a bit of a buzz when I know that people are reading my posts.
Cheers,
Val