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Living A Creative Life with Melissa Dinwiddie

Happiness, Self-fulfillment, Creativity, Productivity, Practical Inspiration, Mentoring, Life Design for Creatives and Multi-Passionate People

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Read My Mind, Baby!

Here's where you'll find all my writings — articles on creativity, creative productivity, getting unstuck, being a passion pluralite, and more, and behind-the-scenes journal entries on the wonderful, messy, sometimes really hard reality of living a creative that so few ever actually share.

I have a lot of other blog feeds here that you might also be interested in, though:

Podcast – my weekly podcast, The Creative Sandbox Way™.

Animation – fun with stop-motion animation!

Art in Progress – works in progress (be a fly on the wall in my studio!)

Calligraphy – calligraphy videos, tips, and tutorials

Music Loops – audio experiments in being a one-woman band, using Loopy app

Project 3x5x365 – my year-long tiny-but-daily writing experiment

How to Add Video Subtitles in a SNAP!

I’ve been obsessed with video subtitles lately.

I’ve been playing around with making videos for LinkedIn.

Like this one, which showcases my visual communication skills while sharing a message:

Notice the subtitles in that video? If you’ve ever recorded a video, you’ll know that subtitles don’t magically appear on their own.

If you want to share videos on social media, however, subtitles are a really good idea. [Read more…]

Strategic Slacking: When It’s Better NOT to Do Your Best

It was June of 2010, and my parents were looking mighty spiffy.

My mom positively glowed in the wedding dress she’d kept in pristine condition in the attic for fifty years.

My dad looked sharp in the same style of white coat, narrow-lapel tux he’d worn in 1960.

I sang during the cocktail hour with a jazz trio at the big bash party they hosted at the restaurant.

But my real gift to them was the book I made them.

[Read more…]

This Mantra May Sound Depressing, But It Really Helps

Doodle icon: Trust [multiple instances of a doodle of two hands shaking, with energy rays extending out from them, with the word "trust" underneath each doodle]I woke up on Tuesday last week, got undressed to take a shower, and was horrified to see huge, red, raised welts all over my thighs, the size of miniature roadkill hamsters.

Seriously, my legs looked like topographical maps of Middle Earth.

If I had not been recently diagnosed with eczema, I probably would have had a cardiac arrest.

As it was, I had a mild panic attack, because my eczema up until that point had been limited to my face and neck, so to have it spontaneously — BAM! — erupt ALL OVER my thighs was shocking, to say the least.

“Will I be miniature-roadkill-hamster-leg-woman forever?” wondered my brain. [Read more…]

Not a New Year’s Resolution

Wishing you a Productive, Peaceful, Playful 2019 - Creative Sandbox Solutions™Happy New Year!

In the grand scheme of things, January 1st is just a day like any other — the trees and flowers and birds and bees and my cat don’t care that it’s a new year, after all. But we humans mark the passage of time.

To us, it’s a big deal.

And because we mark this moment every year, it’s like a sign post — a natural marker for us to use as we reflect back on the year that’s just passed, and look forward toward the one before us.

What went well? What went not so well? What do we want to create going forward? What do we want to change?

I’m big on self-awareness (remember: self-awareness + self-compassion = the key to everything good!), and there’s no shortage of  [Read more…]

Choosing Where to Focus

Doodle - 12/20/18

Winter Solstice is here! The longest night of the year.

I’ve become quite the morning person, much to my surprise, given that not so long ago my regular bedtime was 2am!

Aiaiai!

That’s hard for me to imagine now, as I typically wake up in the velvety depths of 6:30am — or even 5:30am, as I did this morning — and do my shoulder rehab exercises while it’s still dark outside.

I actually love getting up early. It affords me time to do my full morning ritual:

  • Stretching in bed
  • Strength training (the aforementioned shoulder rehab)
  • Meditation (usually 10 minutes)
  • Hip flexor stretch
  • Writing in my journal
  • Doodling! (That’s my creative sandbox playtime 🙂 )

Then lately I’ve been doing vocal exercises while I [Read more…]

Spend 5 Days Creating with Me, and Walk Away Transformed - Come to Creative Sandbox Retreat