A Very Good Place To Start…
Sometimes it’s less about finding the perfect way to start, and more about starting at all.
Hey neighbor!
Welcome back to the Neighborhood. Things look a bit different since you’ve seen us last. For starters, we changed our publication name. Every Witch Way still exists here, but as a section now. It felt more appropriate to the story we are trying to tell if we made this more of a gathering place and less of a specific focus. We call our followers and audience “neighbors”, and where do you find your neighbors?
The Neighborhood.
It just made sense.
We hope you like the new name, and stick around to the end of the post to see our updates. This is the first post of January 2025 for us, so you can see what we have in the works at the bottom of this post.
We can’t wait to show you what’s coming, and hope you find inspiration from this post. As always here is the song I was listening to while writing it out, feel free to listen along while you read.
Thanks for coming, and see you around the neighborhood,
Your friendly neighborhood Hippie Witch,
Ry
I’ve gotta be honest.
I had no idea how I was going to start this, or what I was going to talk about.
I posted it on my content calendar and gave myself a dated deadline, but I didn’t really have a concept in mind. I just knew that I needed to start somewhere or I wasn’t going to start at all.
I was hoping the details would all work out in the wash.
That was the biggest thing holding me back in my creative journey, just starting.
If you’re anything like me (and if you’re reading this I hope you are) you’re in the same boat of trying to find a creative outlet, or some way to create the life you want out of the life you somehow were dealt.
Which brings us to the point of this week’s newsletter.
Finding a good place to start.
Creative Paralysis is something A LOT of people struggle with, myself included, and I feel like it is caused by us stressing out over how something is going to be seen by the world around us. Like the act of creating is less about the actual process, and more about what people are going to think when they see it.
Social media is partly to blame for this (or mostly if I am being brutally honest) for showing us an aesthetic or desirable world that we want to replicate, or feel we have to compete with in order to have value. And I gotta say, it fucking sucks.
The idea that in order for something we do, or want to do, to be seen as acceptable it must already be complete and perfect is just utter nonsense.
Where is the creative joy in that?
I love to watch creative channels where artists are walking you through the process, showing you what led up to this realized piece that they have finished. And this isn’t just for visual artists either,
An author showing us the world building process, and how long and many variations they went through to settle on this amazing world they encapsulate us in with their storytelling
A designer showing us the multiple edits, and versions of a design from sketch to completion, complete with the hundreds of scribbled out sketches that made them doubt if the design would ever escape their brain into reality
The sculptor who built and destroyed many different renditions of a piece before it showcased their creative vision in just the perfect way
A chef showing the taste test of each time they added to a recipe, without holding back any of the facial expressions from figuring out exactly why this dessert was so damn sour
These are all things that make the final project that much more creative because we, the audience, were able to see every single hiccup along the way. Each and every trip, stumble, moment of emotional vulnerability, they all lead to an even sweeter victory for us.
We weren’t here just to see the picture perfect ending, but we grew attached to the story and the journey they took bringing us from the beginning to that final presentation.
Think about your favorite creators, Substack writers, bloggers, YouTubers.
What is it about them that you love, and keeps you coming back for more?
I am willing to bet it’s the connection they have built with you, and how you feel included in the journey instead of just the final project. If they are really good, and you found them at a point where they have it figured out, they have enough content for you to go back and learn about where they started so you can build that connection with them.
This is part of the reason we changed our publication name (that little bit at the beginning of our post before we actually jumped into the meat of this), because we wanted to build a better connection. Or at least a connection that better reflects where we are trying to direct this journey for us.
This is proof that you don’t need to have it all figured out when you start, you can go and make changes as you grow. We did, and you’re still here reading this (well hopefully, I’m not your mom I can’t force you to read it if you don’t want to 😅).
Everything will work out in the wash, just like we said it would.
Don’t worry about being perfect and fully ready, because the truth is you are never going to be fully ready.
So if you’re on the fence of whether or not you have a good enough idea hammered out to actually gain peoples interest…
Take a step back
Take a deep breath
And just start somewhere
Because chances are, where you are right now, is a very good place to start.
If you’ve made it this far, We would love to have you join the neighborhood and come back to see us. Consider subscribing to our substack do you never miss out on our future content. Just drop your email below, and all our neighborhood posts will get sent straight to your inbox.
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What’s Good in the Neighborhood
If you saw our previous post on here (which you can find here!) We chose our 2025 word of the year, Less, and in doing so we made a few attempts to tackle our goals for the new year.
Create an easier way to make content and consistently upload so we can continue to grow
Build a deeper connection with our community
And the really big one
Push the limit of our skillset by taking on the challenge of designing a new crochet pattern every month of 2025 (and document the journey on youtube!)
Taking on all of these goals has led us to trying a different approach with how we do social media this year, specifically in how we share the monthly content and deadlines for our own accountability and growth.
We wanted to make things feel more human, more personal, so we added some hand written blurbs on each of our photos. Just a simple way to make things feel more neighborly if you will, while sharing our goals and plans for the month with you.
You can see more below, and even find the first episode of our January crochet design vlog. Plus our book club choices (learn more about that on our Patreon), favorite crochet tools, and even the tarot deck we are using for the revisit of our One Minute Tarot Tutor series!
What We’re Loving
Seismic Yarn - Featured in our January crochet project
Lemonwood Love (as seen in our photo gallery) This is THE ONLY WAY to keep your yarn organized while crocheting and knitting Plus its perfect for an on the go set up
This Era Cup from Brumate. When I tell you this is the only cup I have been using, I do not exaggerate. I have an obsession and it’s leakproof!