Brixton Purl

Dear self It's ok not to have made your wardrobe yourself. It's ok to buy clothes in shops. Sure, you've knitted a lot of sweaters, shawls, hats, etc. but you don't have to weave your own fabrics and sew your own clothes - you make a lot of other things! What about the print on the wall you made? Or the necklace? You made those! Be proud of things you've made or accomplished, even though it may not be your whole outfit.  May is a fantastic month and on social media a lot of the peope I follow celebrate Me Made May, a celebration of a home made wardrobe. I can sometimes feel the pressure to join in the choir, but the truth is that I've made the decision not to make my own clothes. I want to spend my time on other things and I'm happy to go shopping for my clothes. During MeMadeMay I sometimes have to remind myself that it is OK to wear store bought clothes. For some people it's not a choice, they may not know how to sew, in my case it's more of a ch...

I often wonder what I have to say to the world, why should anyone listen to me? My day job is with a multiple brands with very specific brand identities and I often work with people to encourage them to find their own brand, but then I stand here as a bad example, with no brand identity at all. I am versatile and know a little about a lot, and that is great and super useful for me in many ways; but it's not at all helpful when it comes to create and promote my own brand. I'm drawn to neon and strong colours, at the same time I love muted dirty pastels and neutrals. I listen to all kinds of music, jazz, blues, hard rock, pop; they all have their time and place. I'm drawn to both big cities and the country side, noise and and silence, and I need both to feel good. Loving one of them doesn't mean you have turn your back on the other. Being versatile gives me too many options, but it also gives me opportunity to try out everything before I decide what I want to keep doi...

Communication is important. We live in a society where we have 100's of communication channels in our mobile phones and most of us spend a significant part of our work day in front of a computer communicating with other people. Upping your communication game can change everything for you. I don't claim to be an expert, in fact, I fall into a LOT of communication traps all the time. This post is just as much for me as it is for you, I need to remind myself of some very essential points of successful communication from time to time. A message not understood is a useless message, and you can't blame the receiver for not understanding. If you want someone to understand your message, you need to make sure it's optimised for your reader. The most obvious mistake is sending a message in a language the receiver doesn't speak, but it doesn't end there. Words are only a portion of a language, there are cultural and traditional nuances to take into consideration as well...