Happy New Year lovely people! I hope you are all enjoying your summers (and winters :)) and getting in some focused crafting time. It hasn't happened for me with visitors and merry making - but I wish it for you.....and for me in the not too distant future.

So this morning I did what you do on school holidays. I took the kids to their swimming lesson, and then chased down that stuffy chlorinated experience with a delicious flat white and some eggs. Yum. Then, something shocking happened. While at the cafe, the kids were simultaneously reading their books so I picked up the paper for a moment's quiet. On the first page I looked at I saw a catchy headline and chased it down to page 17. 

The article was called "Lessons in courage and passion, from Lady Gaga" by David Brooks and it was perfect for me on this day.  As I was reading it I felt that sense of recognition where you just know that the universe (and David) wrote it just for me; for me today when I am sitting with the shifting energy of the New Year, it was just what I needed to hear. 

So I've mentioned that I haven't been on my game lately, and that I can't figure out what or why. I haven't been able to write and I'm barely making anything. I've been blocked. I've been tired. And that's totally OK - annoying but OK. I was just waiting it out. I've felt it before and I'm sure you probably have too. But I'm ready now for it to move on. 

When I started The Craft Sessions nearly three years ago I spent a lot of time feeling slightly queasy. Queasy about whether it would be successful. Queasy about whether I was going to let my family down and cost us a pile of money. Queasy about it failing and of no-one coming. Or worse, that people came and didn't like it. Anyway, as time has gone on and you guys have embraced this idea, then comfortable has replaced queasy, and I think that possibly that has a lot to do with my funk. I wasn't feeling the excitement or the hum that comes with leaping into the void. I was missing the danger that the article so eloquently speaks of. I was cruising.

This article was a great reminder of what I want in my life. I want passion. I want courage and I want to be putting myself out there. All in.

So in honour of that, and in honour of honouring things that I am passionate about, let me tell you one thing that I want to do this year with The Craft Sessions. Even though I don't have the details nailed down and I don't have a fully formed plan..... I'm going to jump!

I want to create a Scholarship Program to The Craft Sessions! Scholarships for a person/people who wouldn't otherwise be able to come. Scholarships for a person/people that need a break and need the shining light of something good on the horizon. I've been passionate about doing this from the very start of the idea of The Craft Sessions, but I've never quite been able to get around to hitting the go button on the idea. This is my stake in the ground lovely people. This year is the year. 

I'm not fundraising to support it, but I will need to come up with some kind of commerce to make some money to support it. I have ideas but I need to get a wriggle on which is why this stake in the ground will help.

I'll tell you more about why Scholarships are so important to me soon, but in the mean time Happy Holidays! and a bright shiny New Year to you and yours. 

Here's to putting your passion where your mouth is ..... or something like that.

Fel x

PS. I have so many (super) idea's about what we are going to talk about in this space this year, I can't wait to start sharing them with you.