Life Book progress video of my journey on this yearlong mixed media art course.

So last year and now this year I joined an awesome mixed media, yearlong art course called Life Book. Curated by the lovely Tam of Willowing Arts, it offers weekly video art lessons by a range of mixed media artist, learning techniques and also exploring personal development. Life Book has been a wonderfully fulfilling course and it truly has made my life more creative and more connected.

Last year I joined halfway through the year and struggled to finish all the lessons (no biggie, as you can download them to keep for life) but this year I really wanted to try to follow along in real-time as part of my continuous learning. Life Book helps me keep on track and when I am feeling uninspired is great for getting me to put something on paper and create.

I’m pretty proud of my progress so far this year – I have pretty much kept up with all the lessons and felt brave enough to stray far from the brief, or content enough to stick to what the lesson offers.As well as learning new mixed media techniques and styles, Life Book also creates wonderful connection with other people that enjoy art online, and it nurtures a very encouraging and “safe” environment to share your art with others. It is this gentle encouragement and love that has helped my own self-esteem and confidence blossom. Sharing my art with the world is now something I celebrate, when years ago it would leave me shuddering in fear!

I decided to create a simple video documenting my progress so far, which I shared with the group and am now sharing with you, hope you enjoy! :-)

If you’re interested in signing up for Life Book (and I’m not an affiliate just a fan!) just visit Tam’s site here.

The art shown here has been inspired by the following artists (not necessarily in order):

• Tamara Laporte 
• Jane Davenport 
• Joanne Sharpe 
• Violette Clark 
• Alisa Burke 
• Jill K. Berry 
• Mati Rose McDonough 
• Patti Ballard 
• Rachael Rice 
• Roben Marie Smith 
• Lynn Whipple 

Enrich your life by starting your own business, as told by The Learning Sponge

I have become a learning sponge. I’ve been soaking in as much knowledge and trying to master as many skills and techniques as I can. I don’t think I’ve ever so fervently wanted to learn as much as I do now.

One of the biggest changes I have made this year is forming my creative business, Little Lyra, and blossoming into this new side of myself. With that, I have discovered a mammoth and life-enriching learning curve.

It’s important to me that I understand all the parts of being a business owner, even the sides I don’t naturally lean to as a creative soul, like financing, working out marketing plans and generally "being business-y".

The essence of Little Lyra is creativity, and whilst that comes with relative ease to me, there is a huge chunk of being a business that I need to learn to do in order to triumph.

On a practical level, as a solo lady start-up, I also have a very limited budget. With modest means, I’m being forced to embrace aspects of running a business that maybe others could happily/ easily outsource. It’s a huge learning curve and it is difficult but with that difficulty and that grafting comes such a deep personnel sense of satisfaction and achievement. It's fantabulous.

Every week night, after an 8 hour working day, I go home and I sit down and I learn. I can feel so flippin’ tired and sometimes the road to success seems like a very long, arduous one. But do you know what? It’s these long nights, when my bones ache and my eyes are watery with fatigue and I think back to why I started my business.

I want to share the joy of creating with the rest of the world. Art makes me happy and I want it to make you happy too. And that spurs me on. That flicker of why sets me on fire to keep learning, keep doing, keep crafting and keep grafting.

I’ve had an absolute blast so far, soaking in the wonderful knowledge our friend the internet has to offer! And talking with mentors, learning from previous experiences they have walked through so I don’t have to.

I’m a dreamer but I’m also realistic (ish!) and if I discover I can’t do everything myself, of which I’m certain that day will come, I certainly will enlist the help of others. In the meantime, I am just enjoying the thrill of all my learning and how learning to run a business is one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences I have privy to.

What learning curves or new experiences are you going through right now?