Love and inspiration

My 'Love and inspiration' posts are an insight to all that I've been discovering, or rediscovering in the world of blogging, from across the globe. And, hopefully each of these discoveries will help to inspire you in your creative journey, as well as me in mine! 

Emma from A Beautiful Mess has hit the nail on the head with her 'Five Secrets to Success', I love the concept of setting yourself lofty goals alongside the realistic ones. 2013 taught me, that sometimes if you dream big, it pays off and you achieve big as well! I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and this often kicks me in the butt, especially when working and re-working and re-re-working Hazed, in the end I have to walk away leaving some imperfections because the hours in the day have captured me again! 

Have you heard of Meet me at Mikes? Creator of several fantastic craft books, and an inspiration for bloggers like me! I've just signed on for 'Blog Yay', hoping to learn a little, and maybe even a lot, to make this space all the grander and more fun for you all to read and enjoy! x

Love and inspiration

From the land of the blogs I've discovered a few fabulous reads for you this week...

Over on Little Baby Garvin they're talking about Summer Bucket Lists - okay that's not entirely true - they were talking about Summer Bucket Lists - but they're American, so this post is a little bit old now! Like six months old, but it is timely for us here in the Southern Hemisphere! 

So, I wondered - have you created a Summer Bucket List? I've only just started creating this one, so I am sure it is going to evolve a little grander than what you see here...

1. Make home made ice cream.
2. Make home made slushies.
3. Have a picnic at the park. 
4. Eat fish and chips at the beach. 
5. Log off - get outside and don't touch the internet for a couple of days. 
6. Go berry picking. 

Did anyone else pick up on the theme - that almost all of them revolved around FOOD! Yum! Get in my belly!! 

I'm not a drinker - living the life of sobriety has become very important to me over recent years - but when I spot a recipe like this one, I can't help but think it could be worth a try! Garden Fresh Sangria! Maybe I should add this to my summer bucket list! Yum!

Or maybe this bad boy? A Strawberry Basil Lemonade - I bet I could recreate it as a mocktail too! Yum! Could be perfect after the afternoon spent berry picking that I suggested above. 

Image source

Getting outside is one of my all time favourite things about summer - I'm often spend my Sunday's at the park with Brooklyn getting out on his bike - working on my tan - or not, for those of you who know me and my Princess skin more likely to burn than tan! At the moment I have a real affinity with my sneakers - and I'd love to own these gorgeous pink bad boys! 

Now with the sunshine in mind - I'm heading off outside to enjoy it - oh, and hang out the rest of the washing! LOL! 

I'd love to hear what you have on your summer bucket list! x

Love and inspiration

From the land of the blogs I've discovered a few fabulous reads for you this week...

I recently read #Girlboss and absolutely LOVED it, it is one of the few non-fiction books I have read cover to cover in (almost) one sitting! Sophia shows you the journey Nasty Gal has taken to reach it's magnitude proportions. All the hard work that she put into her business and the pay off that it has had as a result. As a small business owner watching the growth and development of Hazed, it has provided some much needed enthusiasm to just put in the work to 'make it happen'. 

I really enjoyed A Beautiful Mess's discussion on the topic, it is encouraging to know that the book had the same impact on other readers too! 

Likewise this post from Creative Women's Circle 'When is it giving up? And when is it finding your true north?' has had an impact on Hazel Loves Design, last year I put too many fingers into too many pies and as a result found that a couple of those fingers got burnt, and I got burnt too, as in burnt out. It meant I needed to walk away from some of those projects, and even some projects I really, truly enjoyed participating in. It was disappointing, it was hard, but guess what... I now have even MORE focus to pull off the things that I am really good at! So it was worth the sadness that let that happen. 

Vanessa from The Bubbalino Kitchen brings forth an interesting argument about the world of social media and the glorification that instagram brings to the seemingly perfect, it has been left in my thoughts for the balance of the week after reading them. BONUS of this post is the Ginger Roulade recipe she shares with us at the same time... YUMMO guys, YUMMO!!

Likewise Gala Darling shares an interesting thought on her post 'I woke up like this: On flawlessness and admitting the effort required', another interesting piece on the world we project. As gala says:  

"Blake Lively and Kim Kardashian spend the same amount of time in the make-up artist's chair, but only Black Lively acts as if she doesn't. The natural look is fine, but no one wakes up like that. It seems to me that women spend an inordinate amount of time trying to look "effortless": effortless appearance, effortless career, effortless relationship. 

Let's be straight-up: "effortless" is bullshit. Every woman I know is working herself to the bone..." 

I find Gala's posts the best to read for those 'self check' moments, those moments you need to have a look within yourself to comprehend the world outside yourself with fresh eyes.

And last but not least 'Weigh in: Are personal blogs and business blogs really that different?' by Problogger. For me, my blog attempts to follow a niche, that of 'Kiwi indie design', but it is also about the people who write the blog, our fabulous contributors and myself, so of course it tends to have an edge of fabulousness personal elements built into it as well. I hope that we at Hazel Loves Design are carving out a space where you all enjoy coming to visit from time time. 

So my lovelies, those were some of my favourites this week, obviously a whole lot of reading and not nearly enough visual inspiration, but that is the point, sometimes we need the fabulousness to be in our minds and not in our eyes for the growth and development of our worlds!

Love and Inspiration

I've been getting my blog on lately and appreciating the work of other bloggers and designers across the globe, so I thought I'd start a regular series of posts about my favourites, my favourite images, my favourite blog posts and my favourite ramblings that I discover as I dip my toes back into the world of blogging...

Who wouldn't LOVE to attend a workshop by Design Love Fest... the goody bag alone would have me there in a snap - even if it were empty! Drool! The fact that it was a photoshop workshop has me even more excited, I desperately need to attend one of those bad boys!

This blog post has been on my Bloglovin for a while, but I'm completely in awe of the achievement of this blogger/crafter and the fabulous parties she gets to create during the American Stationary Show, each time I revisit the post my brain starts whirring into action with ideas on how my next Craft Love Festival will pan out! Imagine having the Etsy Wholesale team at your event? Imagine having signage that looks like this! Imagine having goodies to give away like those, and just fabulous decorations EVERYWHERE. In awe I tell you, in awe! Oh so beautiful paper is AMAZEBALLS! 

Another oldie, but a goodie, and mostly because I'm finding myself on a pink tangent, but I came across these on a Cupcakes and Cashmere blog post a few months back and decided to bookmark them, not only because of the pink and the ease of the project, but because at the time I was genuinely struggling to find any decent coasters anywhere. What do you think? Should I make some of my own?

I have to admit to having a bit of a 'love, hate' relationship with this next blog, A Beautiful Mess, I love them because they create some amazing things and have great style, their projects are always achievable and gorgeous. I hate them - because they get to do this for a living AND they just produced another book!! Okay, so maybe hate isn't the right word... I envy them and I'm jealous and I'm sticking my tall poppy stick at them too! 

I particularly love this project and think it would be great for signage for craft love, and/or at a stall selling Hazed magazine.

I really enjoyed reading this interview with 'Pampa Rugs' by The Life Creative, don't you love meeting the makers behind the brands, 'Pampa Rugs' may be an Australian brand, but their brand and ethos is one that we can all understand. 

And besides, that's the best bit about inspiration and blogging, it comes from EVERYWHERE!! So I guess that is where I'll leave the first ever 'Love and Inspiration' post, with that thought, where do you find your inspiration? And do you have any blog posts you think I might like to enjoy? Or any blogs I should add to my blog roll on Bloglovin?