Why Steve Pavlina is so awesome

A little momentary break from weaving posts...

I am a huge fan of Steve Pavlina and his blog, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/. He is kind of my role model.

Who the heck is Steve Pavlina? Well, he is kind of hard to define. Some people would possibly mention that he is kind of a wacko, because he is anti-corporate employment, and is into raw foods, and is a polyamorist. But most people would say he is a personal development blogger. But I don’t call him that because 1- that isn’t why he’s my role model, and 2- he kind of came upon that profession by accident. It is, however, how I discovered him.

Steve Pavlina originally started out making video games. Then he started blogging about the business of making video games. But more people were interested in his personal development business tips than his actual game making info. So he focused on that and his audience grew from there. Now he is one of the most successful bloggers in existence. And while his theme is personal development, he actually blogs about, well, pretty much whatever the hell he feels like.

From his articles about business tips evolved all kinds of topics of his own personal interest, from how to wake up at 5am to finding your life’s purpose to making raw fruit pies. Steve has now written a book called Personal Development for Smart People and holds Conscious Growth Workshops in Las Vegas. Steve was at one point in his life in the poor house, but now he is a millionaire. And he got there by doing one key thing: paying attention. He paid very close attention to what his audience wanted and gave them more. Ironically, what they wanted was to read about him paying attention to things – particularly to himself. And he is brutally honest with himself and others in the process.

Steve is not your typical self-helpey kind of guy. His formula is very simple: do your thing, and tell people about it. That is all he really does. He thinks about what he could do in his life to improve himself, does it, and blogs about it. How amazing is that?! Of course, he does also have the technical knowledge about getting blog traffic and things, and he also has writing ability. But those aren’t things anyone can’t learn on their own. So, it’s not like he has some big secret. He just lives life to the fullest and shares.

For a long time I tried to do exactly what Steve Pavlina does – live my life and blog about it. But something about just copying his formula doesn’t work for me. There’s some kind of magic dust in what he does that makes his content so awesome, and I can’t seem to grasp it. But even beyond that, I don’t really want to grasp it. That’s Steve’s thing, not mine. There’s a magic Jen formula out there somewhere. There’s a magic formula out there for everyone. The way Steve found his was paying attention, so that is what I have to do. That is what we all have to do. Pay attention to what you love doing, what you love to focus on. Pay attention to what you are good at and what people want from you. What gets you attention from others? What do people always ask of you? If you keep paying attention to these things, your magic dust will appear right in front of your eyes. You won’t even have to try to form it. Suddenly one day, you will just say, “Wow, well, I guess this is what I need to do!”

I haven’t figured mine out yet exactly, but I know it is one of 3 routes, but probably is a combination of all of them. I know it has to do with writing. I know it has to do with social sciences. And I think weaving has something to do with it because I can’t stop weaving. So currently I am paving all 3 paths and we shall see where it takes me. I know one day I will have some secret magic dust that is simply just my name, like Steve Pavlina’s.

Scrunchie Scarves!

I just figured out I can make scrunchie scarves! And they are pretty easy, too! Check out this one on R2D2 (update... Ok sorry, I have been informed this dude is actually C3PO...)

Too bad his head is about the only one this scarf will fit on. I didn't think to scrunch this scarf until I was halfway through weaving it. Then after I did the scrunch, I realized I need double the length.

So this project turned out to be a present for Matt's Star Wars shrunken heads. They can share.

I will definitely be making more of these - in human sizes. Haven't decided yet when I will make them... My next scarves are going to be in preparation for winter sales. Do you wear scrunchie scarves in the winter too?

The Reeds are IN!

The reeds have finally arrived! WOO!! Aren't they gorgeous?! I have never seen such beautiful brand new reeds before. I finally now have more weaving options.

The reed is the combey thing I put all the threads through. Imagine trying to comb your hair with a garden rake. Or put a fine tooth comb through Carrot Top's hair. Yucky. That's how life was for me before I bought these reeds.

For my new 4-harness loom I already had an 8dpi reed, and now I have a 10 and 12 dpi as well. Plus my 2-harness is a 14dpi. So now I can actually weave things at the sizes they were supposed to be woven at. Before, I had all the wrong yarns in my looms.

And now, let the weaving begin!

write.

Real writing isn't realy created, it just happens. It's always an accident that happens whenever you put a pen in your hand. The blank paper dares you to put your pen on it and let it move.

Sometimes I scare myself when I see what happened after I do that. It illuminates some neural pathway and records what it sees. Like I am etching my soul onto the paper.

I talk to myself a lot, but it is much more fun to speak from myself and outwardly.

Back to the weaving board!

As you may have noticed before, I have decided to make Openyourize Designs officially exclusive to weaving as of My 1st, 2011, thanks to the arrival of my new 4-harness table loom.

It's a Mountain loom, in case you are wondering. Before this, I had a basic 2-harness loom. Don't even know what brand it is. Now I can make many many more complex designs and weaving is WAY more fun! Without the variety of design, I needed to include drawing and other crafts in my creativity collection in order to satisfy my cravings. But this awesome loom should do now, and I can focus on a niche.

For my first project, which you can see on the loom already, is going to be a case for a throw pillow just for me and Matt here in our house. Just black and white acrylic, pretty typical of me. One of these days I will advance into more daring textiles than Jo-ann Fabrics generics. I have plenty of cool yarn, I am just afrraid I'll ruin it in a project gone bad.

Here is the draft of what I am weaving. I don't know why it's sideways and I can't fix it. It took me a bit to get the loom dressed for the first time. Some adjustments needed to be made, and I got confused a couple times with the 4 harnesses and yarn flying everywhere. It turned into a mess for a bit. I totally need to get more heddles, that will make life way easier.

I also need more reeds. This project would be turning out way cooler with a 10dpi reed. I am so excited that I can finally switch reeds on this loom. I could not on my old one.

Hopefully now you will see more weavings to come! And my blog is still in an identity crisis, who knows what I may write about. We shall see.

Crazy Chicago Blizzard of 2011

Wowie Kazowie! They have said a few times in past years that we were getting a so-called "blizzard," when really in fact it was just plain old snow. They just like to call it a blizard sometimes for some reason, maybe so they get better ratings on the news. But low and behold, last night we truly had a real life blizzard! There was even thunder and lightning! Crazy!! I can't believe people were actually getting stuck in their cars! I hope everyone was alright.

The whole neighborhood was out shoveling and snow blowing today, and I spent a good 2 hours digging and driving out my Cavalier, and possibly blowing out the engine in the process. I wanted to take a couple pictures of my scarves outside on the picnic table with a pretty snow backdrop, but uh... didn't look like that was gonna happen......


Picnic anyone?

Fortunately I was still able to take some indoor pics that turned out quite lovely. You can see them up for sale now on my Etsy shop! Stay warm and get a scarf! It's supposed to be crazy cold the next couple days!

iPhone Skin - Most Pens Don't Want to Color Someone's World in Black

I posted this skin for sale today. Here is the story of its creation.

I drew this picture in around November 2010. Right in the beginning of my new found drawing kick. When I was younger, I would draw all the time. Then I got sick of it, so I stopped. Now that I am 30 I decided to give it a try again. Stuff was just feeling like coming out of my arm in a design format.

This design was actually supposed to turn out way different. I originally intended to only use silver, gold, copper colored pencils, and black ink. But I just couldn't stand it. I needed color! As you can see from this in-progress snapshot, the swirly thing wasn't there at first. I first wanted to make it a sun.


The swirly actually came to be after I totally screwed up the ink in the circle. I havent figured out how to erase ink mistakes yet. Those pens were so annoying, they kept running out of ink. They were just regular Pilot pens. It seemed like the picture didn't want to be so BLACK, hence the title of the drawing.

The squid eyeball and red and gold swirlies along the bottom and right side were also afterthoughts. This entire drawing, in fact, is pretty much totally ad-libbed. That is kind of rare for me. Usually I have a huge whim of inspiration and I create something that has some profound meaning. But this one is in the eye of the beholder. ;)