Link Love for the Weekend: Encouragement
The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination.
John Schaar
My blog is about things that makes me happy in everyday life. It’s about being gentle with ourselves and others, and to share encouragement and hope. I like to every now and then highlight the community, other bloggers and things that I like, personally. Today I am sharing some great links that I hope you’ll enjoy, click through to and find encouragement in. I am sharing all of this in the hopes that you will find inspiration to be creative in your own life.
Lots of links today as well, because there’s so much goodness out there right now.
Creativity & inspiration
- Shine your light – creative encouragement and a collage exercise (to download) that I want to try in my art journal. Lucie writes (and this could be our NaBloPoMo theme of the month):
Now, more than ever, is the time to find your allies, connect with people who share your values, spread love and generosity, and build communities! There will be a lot of ups and downs but we have the power to lift each other up.
Lucie Duclos
- Circles and Stripes for Challenging Times by Jane Davis
- Blogging is part of my creative practice by Tammy [via DaisyYellow] – a blog post about the intersection of images (photography) and words on a blog, and how to work with that. I love the title of this blog post because it feels like a writing prompt to me, so I might use it as that and share my own thoughts later. But first, you go check out Tammy’s blog.
Textile art & craft
- The Truth About Knitting and Crochet….They are Good for You [via the Craft Yarn Council]
- Organize Your Sewing with Threadloop – a new app designed just for sewists – I’d download it immediately if I didn’t know I’d be organizing all my fabrics digitally for days and ignoring them IRL (in a horrible loop I’m sure, not kidding)
- NaKniSweMo 2025 – National Knitt a Sweater Month is also in November, who knew? At least I’ve never heard about it before, but I do love a fun abbrivational challenge. Maybe next year, huh? [via Laura at the well-appointed desk]
Reading & writing
- eReader Peace [also via the well-appointed desk] – this blog post (and a previous post about different brands of e-readers, including the comment section with recommendations) about what’s available out there peeked my interest in e-readers for the first time. As someone who loves physical books I have ignored that so many people are reading books digitally these days. Not sure it’s for me, but at least now I know more and I got a bit curious. Maybe I’d enjoy reading more digitally if I had a dedicated e-reader? Would it lessen my book clutter a bit perhaps?
- Do you have an e-reader and what is your thoughts about it?
- On setting low goals and reading my way through the year: how I read 56 books [via Casey Brown]. Quote:
…the only book goal anyone should ever have is: one book. Because if you read one book per year that is a great year. But I also set my watch fitness goal for 5 calories so it congratulates me when I stand up and put my socks on in the morning. It’s not that I don’t want to be challenged, it’s that all I ever do is SO MUCH and I don’t need anyone or anything telling me that anything I did wasn’t enough. I want to keep reading because I love it and refuse to ruin it by self-imposed pressure to read more.
Casey Brown
As someone that reads a lot of books but would never set a numeric goal on my reading, I absolutely love this quote and the entire idea of setting a low yearly goal (if you really must set a reading goal). I think it is brilliant. I’d add that if you aim to read books, aim to read good, enjoyable books. That is the best way to keep yourself motivated and to keep reading. When I am reading a slow book or one that does not speak to me, I am not as eager to pick it up so it takes me longer to finish it and get to the next one. But if it’s a good one, then I race through and can’t stop reading. That truly is the road to success if you want to read “more”.
- 18 pieces of writing advice by Tao Lin – quick and easy tips on how to keep writing
Important but hard
- The path forward – to read if you’re in the US and in need of a little encouragement right now [via Ben Sheehan]
- Creative response [via Anna Brons, Creative Fuel] – Art is rebellion.
This week’s NaBloPoMo finds
Picking two silly blog posts out of a whole crap ton of beautiful, smart, interesting content. I think I needed silly this week.
- Things I say to my cats by Stephanie – just a sweet and fun confessional read, as are the comments.
- Top Five/Bottom Five: The Emoji Edition by Elisabeth – quick and fun idea, and the comments are also worth reading. Here’s my quick reply:
Video to watch
Craft time.
I was so tired last weekend that I couldn’t get a Link Love post out, and I almost gave up on NaBloPoMo. But then I remembered a text that I had written the previous week about art materials and thrifting, so I published that with a random image and called it Creative Maximalist. It’s a bit of a confession and very personal to me, but it felt good to get “something out” that was pre-built, almost. If I ever do NaBloPoMo again I’ll try to have a lot more planned posts. As it was a spur of the moment idea to do this challenge of one blog post every day for a whole month I have been a bit stressed out about it. Jumping in meant I had nothing pre-planned at all. But yes, I am on track so far, with only a week to go.
A huge thank you to everyone who’s left me a comment this week. That has been very encouraging to me.
This concludes today’s blog post, with some link love for the weekend. I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope you are feeling encouraged and ready to tackle what ever comes in your way.
Which of these links will you check out first and are dividing the links up by approximately topic a good idea? Do you also share link love to helpful resources and lovely blog articles on your blog? And if not, why the heck not? Link Love is our glue.
❤ You might also enjoy my previous Link love for the weekend: one thousand things
This post is part of NaBloPoMo where I write 30 blog posts in November. Thanks for reading and leaving me a comment, it encourages me to keep going. To follow along subscribe to blog posts via email or RSS. I also have a sweet Substack Newsletter about art, craft and creativity that you might want to sign up for so that we can keep in touch in the future. I’d love that. On instagram I’m @ihannas and on YouTube Studio iHanna. Take care and stay creative friends.
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These are some great ideas for reading! I do set a goal for books but really it is kind of arbitrary and one I can reach, so it is a goal-setting-win every year. I also enjoyed Elisabeth’s emoji post, and thought that the responses were as fun to read as the post itself! I love reading through comments and seeing how other people think!
Yeah, but who has time for more reading during NaBloPoMo, right? LOL. I have +50 unread posts right now, and it feels a bit stressful as well. I don’t even aim to comment on everyone’s blog posts but I do read it all and enjoy getting to know you all SO MUCH. And I loved all your photos this week, do you have a photo account somewhere (like Flickr for example) where you upload?
I do have an e-reader (kindle) and I exclusively read ebooks. It is so easy to borrow and return books which is key for me in this stage of life. I also like not having to hold a physical book, especially when having flares in my hands from RA. I also use the kindle ap to read when I don’t have access to my kindle. I still love physical books but only buy them for my kids!
Thanks for chiming in on e-readers! I listen to a lot of audio books via a app in the phone from my library, but I might consider getting an e-reader although I could probably read on my phone as well.
Your blog is so beautifully colourful and inspiring!
I have a Kobo reader, which I take out on vacation only because it is lighter, and I can download free books from the library there. But I use my ipad as a reader more often than not when I buy/borrow eBooks. The only thing it is a bit heavy so I’ve had it land on my forehead for a rude awakening a couple of times when I’ve read in bed LOL! I checked out the advice about writing as the first link.
Free e-books from the library is so great, thanks for leaving me a comment! I hope NaBloPoMo is treating you good.
I love the quote that starts off today’s post. Lovely and so true. I’m going to go make a cup of tea come back, and click on your links and have a lovely hour surfing. And I loved Elisabeth’s post about emojis too funny!
<eanwhile, I hope you're having a lovely weekend.
Awww. Thanks for the shout-out. I love to have a mix of serious and fun posts because…that’s kinda real life? I want people reading my site to feel like they’re over at my place drinking some coffee. Sometimes the conversation gets deep (mental health! parenting!) and then sometimes it’s light and fluffy (emoji talk, for instance).
Thanks for putting so much lovely art out into the world <3
Thanks for leaving me a comment. I agree that a blog can be big and contain so many different topics and feelings. I hope mine does too.
Love this collection! The weekly link+inspo dumps are something I miss from the old days of blogging. I’m going to leave this tab open on my laptop so I can pick away at the links you’ve shards with us, and enjoy them thoroughly!
Thanks, link love is important to us bloggers. Many of the links are to great Substacks these days. I’m so happy to have found that place, I stumble upon new interesting things there all the time!
National Knit a Sweater Month – wow. I had no idea that existed. I actually knit a sweater earlier this year, but it took me three months – not sure I could have finished it in one month!
Thanks for the great links!
Yeah, who knew? I have a sweater that I keep knitting on, but it’s not done yet (after three years, LOL) but I’ll get there. One could aim to finish and share during November but maybe not knit a sweater with all this blogging going on as well. :-)
Thanks for sharing my post! <3
I really enjoyed reading it, so thank YOU! :-)