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Colour Cottage

~ little house in a field

Colour Cottage

Tag Archives: blogging

Pia has a Plan?

27 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Keywords

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blogging

Allrighty then, do I have your attention now the holidays are officially over?

Blogging, SoMe, juggling life in general – is that a well-hidden secret of adulting? I wonder what percentage of the population are actually super organized all of the time. I keep coming back to the intention and then bam, months happened.

Sharing the things you do takes so much time from actually doing them. Like two fulltime jobs. My break from blogging has helped me get out of the “I need to make something quick just to show it, because my blog is due – and then next week I need to make something else for variation”. Granted, I’ve been instagramming a bit, but not nearly as intensively as some people and definitely not like a marketing boss!

Stay tuned for that paper mache post I promised – I need to dig out photos or make some which takes a bit of time.

I’ve played with mindmapping again to see if it works better than checklists to organize my ideas. I never finish those in one sitting because I can’t find my previous notes, somebody wants dinner, I lose my attention span or whatever, so it’s a work in progress.

It’s not likely it’ll help me deselect anything, given that I think of new stuff to try before I even finish developing the last batch, but maybe, just maybe, I could discipline myself slightly if I had a visual aid to go back to. My serious bouts with stress a few years ago, physical and otherwise, have left me a bit scatterbrained. I’m fine now in the angst department, but one long term effect is that I can’t just pick up where I left off if I have to tend to other matters for a while. Combined with my many interests and curiosity, yes, I do need some kind of system, notes, lists and plans. I’ve come to the conclusion that changing my personality is not a thing.

So I was wondering if anybody had luck drawing up an understandable schematic of your diverse interests to see where they connect and overlap? Venn diagrams? I’m not looking to make a plan of actions and goals and timeframes, I’m the person who just spent 2 years NOT finishing a specific set of paintings because I was dead set on making them same style and theme as a previous one (same size – they could have been a collection – like real artists make). When really, I only get things done when I move with the flow of the day. The plans are just for remembering what I’ve got to pick from.

Alternatively, a plan for making things AND getting around to blogging about them. Those schedule thingies, do they actually work? If I get an alarm while doing something, I simply snooze it, the end. Not a shred of guilt.

Anyway, mindmapping is kind of fun and you can get a variety of apps for them. I change things up too much during the process to make paper a viable option tbh, and I add to them over time – we all know what that would look like with 4 outdoor cats in the house. So it would be really cool to hear how others might go about it, different angles, categories, some system I haven’t thought of myself.

I’ll go first and show you some of my initial maps. I’m making more detailed ones for each project group, hoping to get all the way out there to project descriptions. I’m also trying Scrivener instead of the blog draft section to write down various things I’d like to tell you about, for projects, website update ideas, because while I do have notebooks galore, I can’t seem to use them for other than linear brain dumps. I’d have to cart them around on a trolley to always have the correct one at hand if I had one for each subject. I did have a huge binder for everything at one point, spacers and index, but it’s just not very handy for a quick note or relaxing on the sofa with tea and ideas, or adding inspirational photos.

So what do you think, am I simply confusing myself? Each map makes sense when I start it, but they should stay like that even if I haven’t looked at them for 2 months, or they’re not working.

I guess we’ll see eventually if it at least helps me blog a bit more. Maybe I’ve just found one more thing to spend time on. Interestingly, I usually begin making these things when I’m overwhelmed. When I have enough energy it doesn’t seem like too much hassle to get things done, so perhaps I should simply focus on that.

overview2
KEYWORDS
TODO

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Latergrams

14 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Latergrams, Photography

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

blogging, flowers, garden, nature, plants, seasons, spring, weather

For a while my blog brain has been really, really silent, so I’m going to treat you to collections of Instagram posts for those of you who don’t use that platform. Who knows, maybe my words will be jumpstarted along the way.

Today, spring flowers! It’s pretty cold out still, and I don’t think my vine and hydrangea can get out of winter storage until next month. But it looks pretty and full of hope.

View this post on Instagram

Just absolutely wonderful in the #garden today – must enjoy while it lasts. #lilacs #spring

A post shared by Pia Juul (@colourcottage) on Apr 7, 2019 at 7:45am PDT

View this post on Instagram

More #white#springflowers in #bloom! #blackthorn #sloe #slåen #prunusspinosa #naturephotography #blueskiesforever

A post shared by Pia Juul (@colourcottage) on Apr 10, 2019 at 9:34pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

#muscari #perlehyacinth #grapehyacinth

A post shared by Pia Juul (@colourcottage) on Apr 7, 2019 at 9:45am PDT

View this post on Instagram

#ribessanguineum #blodribes #redflowercurrant

A post shared by Pia Juul (@colourcottage) on Apr 7, 2019 at 9:43am PDT

View this post on Instagram

White blooms everywhere and it looks gorgeous from the inside. (frosty winds all week) #amelanchier #bærmispel #springflowers #seasonschange #naturephotography

A post shared by Pia Juul (@colourcottage) on Apr 10, 2019 at 12:42am PDT

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Summer briefing

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Farm Life, Garden, Shop, Show-and-tell

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

blogging, country life, crafts, creativity, exercise, fatigue, garden, gardening, health, intention, life, summer, weather, weight loss

While I’m cooking up that promised weaving post, I’m going to drag you through a bit of a general status update of life at the cottage.

Continue reading →

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Is anybody out there?

15 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Painting, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

blogging, creativity, life, winter

…or are you all too busy preparing for the holidays to visit Blogland? As for me I think I’ve got my back under control once more, my sleep cycle has readjusted to waking up at 6 without an alarm. Now I just have to shed the habit of dillydallying about and use my time more efficiently while I have it. No cookie baking or hanging of ornaments, I just want to do my thing.

Continue reading →

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If I were to move

06 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by Pia in Books & reading, Chit Chat

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

blogging, fatigue, floorplans, life, pain

Not that I’m planning or hoping to, but these many weeks of disability lately has made me question, as usual, whether I’m ever going to utilize my garden, my studio, or even survive for another 30 years. Chronic pain does a number on your thinking, not just your outlook but the simple ability to form coherent thoughts and carry them out.

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July!

16 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Thoughts

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

blogging, crafts, creativity, inspiration, intention, life, weather

You know, after a while doing other things, I somehow forget how to think in blog-speak. I’ve been contemplating the difference between sharing your projects often vs. not sharing at all until a whole big thing is done. For the former you need to come up with finished items to show, tailored for the blog, which can be a rushed affair with focus on the telling, not the making, forever trying to create variation – it has suited me well enough since I do thrive best with more than one type of activity, but if you become too ambitious you can lose your breath all of a sudden. This typically happens to me with daily challenges for instance, especially when “the world” pounces on you mid project and sucks your batteries dry.

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5 years

03 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

blogging, summer

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered on WordPress.com 5 years ago.

O K I guess I ought to have some profound insights about that, but I’m really not very good with time and date keeping. It’s just something that whooshes by and then it’s gone and whatever.

What happened in those 5 years is all here anyway, I have a migraine today (well actually I don’t because I finally took a pill, so I’m under the influence), and the quickest recap I can make is: I did stuff and I made stuff and it was fun and some parts were really hard and I got fat. What’s interesting to ponder is, briefly at least, will I still be here in another 5?

But thanks everybody out there for keeping me company, you’re all awesome and I’m not saying that just because it’s a buzz word.

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Wordless WIP Wednesday

31 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by Pia in Painting, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

blogging, busybee, challenge, colour, crafts, new projects, studio

secretproject1
secretproject2
poppybackground
hayloftstudio

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Challenge

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by Pia in Painting, Show-and-tell

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

blogging, colour, creativity, inspiration

For the next 21 days I’ll be participating in an “online community experience”, showing and talking about various aspects of painting. I’ll be writing up posts on my Paint blog as an addition to the FB group “Creative Fire”, so come on over! There is also a special Instagram tag for all the lovely images. #21daysinmyartworld

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Marts

13 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Critters, Farm Life, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

blogging, country life, intention, life, march, pets, seasons, spring, weather

Little pink clouds
Little pink clouds
Rhubarb making a run for it
Rhubarb making a run for it

As my posts are dwindling to once a month and my stats to zero, I am however still hobbling along behind the scenes, doing bits and bobs and even finishing stuff on occasion. This is one of my recent projects, which I hope will eventually help alleviate my headaches.

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The Maiden insisted on being blue despite my antics, will she come online after my posting issues yesterday? 1/3
Pia

Pia

Knitter, spinner, weaver, painter, photographer with a passion for horses. Addicted to reading and learning.

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