Belle Amour: Wedding Ideas Less of the traditional. More of the original.

I am writing this from Toronto, Canada! I arrived on Saturday, went through immigration and am now the proud owner of a one year working visa!

So what made me decide to leave the UK? To be honest the last few years haven’t been the best for me. The week I graduated just happened to coincide with the worst event of my life and as a result the life I’d imagined for myself was completely abandoned. Rather than get a career, make brave steps into a working world and do grown-up things like living on my own & paying bills etc. I instead just wanted to be at home, with my Mum, and surrounded by my memories.

I tried to ‘make something of myself’ taking on a job that wasn’t for me, leaving to do an MA in Children’s Book Illustration (anything to get out of the job), had a brief fling with York which found me in an awful company with a contract that stops you from talking about them after you’ve left (I wish I could say more!) and then ended up back in Blackburn desperately trying to discover where I fitted into the world. The past year has seen a lot of applying for jobs I didn’t even want just to hear nothing back and crying in the job centre! Classy!

Me & my Mum

I feel like too much time has passed since I completed my Graphics degree and I’m a different person to who I was back then so, whilst a lot of people assume that’s the career I want, it isn’t. Thing is now I’m a little bit lost. I could write a list (and quite a long one at that) of all the careers I’ve considered during the past year. And sometimes I feel I don’t deserve any of them because I don’t have a passion for one particular thing. Instead I have passion for lots of things! But flitting from one idea to the next doesn’t get you anywhere and I think it’s time I made some decisions and started working towards an actual goal. But Blackburn isn’t the place to do that.

I could just have moved elsewhere in the UK but I fell in love with Canada when I spent a month here last May. My brother and his girlfriend live here and I’ve already made a few friends so in some ways it’s not as daunting as moving elsewhere in the UK. And so I decided to split with my boyfriend of 2 years and start afresh in another country. For a girl of 28 I often feel I have achieved very little. I don’t own a home or a car, I don’t have a job, I’m not married with kids… I haven’t reached any of the milestones that mark our lives. But rather than be upset about what I don’t have I’m going to embrace what I do have: freedom. To find out what I want from life. To start again.

Pasta & pesto for dinner and the first book I’ve completed in one day – I enjoyed it :)

Of course everybody that knows me back home has asked what I’m going to do when in Toronto and the answer is… I don’t know. I don’t want to have fixed goals as I’d rather see where the adventure takes me. But I have a rough idea of what I’d like to achieve:

• I’d like to be healthier. I’m looking forward to trying out the fitness classes you can’t find back in Blackburn and eating better – the lack of good chocolate over here may help with that ;D
• I’d like to learn more craft. I’m always on the look out to acquire more crafty skills. I can’t get enough of creating. And next week I’m even going to see the craft-goddess herself Martha Stewart talk about her life (definitely an opportunity I wouldn’t have had at home!)
• I’d like to take more pictures and find the time to mess about with editing them :)
• And although I don’t want to pin down a career just yet I have a rough idea of what I’d like to do and want to make some steps towards achieving it, in the hope that by the end of the year I finally fully know what it is I want to do!

Ultimately I just want to be happy. And to feel like I am realising my full potential however that may be.

Blogging

So what does my moving mean for the blog? I love writing this blog! Although to some it will just seem a collection of images and inspiration, to me it is much more. I’ve discovered all these fascinating creative people that I can connect with, that share my outlook on life and my dreams to create a career for myself. I’ve found friends that have helped me when I’ve felt a bit rubbish and I’ve never even met them in person! And I’ve been inspired by endless amounts of stuff. (Whilst some of it is probably the reason for my indecisiveness on a career path overall it’s been good!)

So I’m not giving up, even if some days the posts may not be as long and detailed as others, I aim to post something every weekday. And on the weekends I’m going to write about my Canadian adventures :)

I’m going to miss home massively especially my Mum who flew out with me and will be leaving next Saturday as well as my friends and, of course, watching Neighbours.

But mostly I’m excited about what lies ahead, the friends I’ll make, the creative projects I’ll embark on, the career path I’m yet to walk and, if I’m extremely lucky, maybe I’ll even find my very own mountie to share pancakes and maple syrup with :D

Debs

This week I have mostly been wishing I was a machine. Because then I may actually get everything done that I need to get done this week. And I wouldn’t be feeling as exhausted as I do right now! Next week it will all be calm again but this week is hectic! So whilst normal wedding-related service will resume shortly (I promise) I’m just going to leave you with some amazing pieces of artwork today that I came across via Emmadime…

Erin Tyner’s miniature artworks are so beautiful and I really want one (or lots)! I think it’s OK to move away from weddings once in a while, especially for something as amazing as this. But if you want a wedding slant then… here’s an idea for your gift list…

:D

Debs