Yesterday' s post made me think it would have been nice to suggest you some of my favourite YouTubers, so here' s a little selection of my favourite channels to learn the making of basically anything.
Audfaced is in my opinion one of the most creative and talented make up artists on the web. She' s got a lot of fantasy and her videos are always beautiful both for the content and their making, she' s an endless inspiration for me. Check out her channel at http://www.youtube.com/audfaced
Tarteofraises is a very skilled french nail artist, through her videos you' ll be able to learn a variety of techniques to have beautiful, elegant and colourful nails. You can find her english channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/cutenails and I also suggest taking a look at her blog full of beautiful and inspiring pictures at http://www.nail-art.fr/
Here' s my knitting bible on YouTube, you can usually find an answer to any doubt you might have on Knitwitch' s channel. You can find her here http://www.youtube.com/user/theknitwitch and I' m pretty sure you' ll enjoy her videos, always very clear.
If, like me, you really suck when it comes to hairstyling, you really want to check out Bebexo' s Channel here http://www.youtube.com/user/bebexo. She' s my hairstyle' s little fairy and I actually think I was able to make a decent french braid following her tutorial once or twice.
Last but not least Hilah' s lovely cooking channel, which you find here http://www.youtube.com/user/hilahcooking. You can find tons of nice recipes here, I love the vegetarian ones and I' m sure you' ll be delighted as much as I am by the nice presentation and the super easy tips you can find in any video.
Now what are you waiting for? Watch, learn, enjoy, unleash your creative self and go make something beautiful!
 
Immagine
Lately I' ve been experiencing a strong and permanent urge to create. I feel compelled to do something creative everyday, whether it' s making something from scratch with my hands, playing with make up, writing, painting... I am trying to committ and find at least a moment everyday I can devote to art in any form. What you see in these pictures is what happens if you leave me with a free day, some brushes, lots of make-up and false eyelashes. You can click on the pictures to see their larger versions.

Immagine
I felt like trying to paint on my face this creative spark that has been blessing me lately. I tried to give shape and colour to this inner life and dance, so vivid and magnetic, I just surrendered to that part of myself who' s always wild, alive and free, I just let her move the brush and pick the colours and the textures. I really loved the final result and I loved taking all the make-up off as a reminder that a spark is an ephemeral thing to be nurtured and kept alive every day with love and committment.

Immagine
Here are some things you can do to keep being creative:
  • Play with make-up, of course.
  • Paint with and on whatever you have at home.
  • Get a book of mandala shapes to colour.
  • Create a new recipe with whatever lies in your fridge.
  • Take a tour on Pinterest to get inspired.
  • Schedule your days so you have at least a moment every day you can devote to some creative project.
  • Watch some DIY videos on You Tube.
  • Decorate any item with your favourite nail polish.
  • Pick a nice exhibition to visit during the weekend.
  • Find a nice e-course to learn something new.

 
_What does style have to do with spirituality?

I believe that one of the main goals of any spiritual path should be getting to truly know ourselves, acknowledging and accepting every part of us, trying to transform in a positive way the ones we don' t like in order to be whole - as my wise teacher and friend Phyllis Curott says, "to be whole is to be holy".

Style is one of the many instruments we have to both explore and show our personality: for instance, I' m sure each one of you has definitely noticed how hard it can be to decide what to wear in a bad morning rather than when you wake up in a great mood. How and how much you buy for your style can also tell you a lot about yourself: lots of my customers spend way over their budget for beauty products because they tend to focus on the outside rather than on the inside, and lots of them tend to choose famous brands over the others, even if they don' t know much about the quality, just because they feel that choosing luxury for their bodies means they' re worth more as people.

Personally speaking, by observing my habits I realized that in the past I used to compulsively buy clothes, accessories and make up, always obsessed with the "I don' t have anything to wear" issue: looking back I see that there was just a lot of empty space within me that I didn' t know how to fill, so I tried to fill it with objects for a long time. Needless to say it didn' t work, and what happened is that after I filled that empty space in the right ways I found out I had too much stuff, so I started decluttering until I ended up with a reasonable amount of things, both for clothing and make up - I still own a ridicoulous amount of make up and beauty products, but since I work as a make up artist and I' m a beauty blogger that makes sense.

Finding your style without spending a huge amount of money an without desperately cluttering your home can be easy as pie: you just have to work with what you have, looking at your clothes with some effort to find the perfect match for every day and the way you feel that morning. It' s the same as whenever you feel stuck somewhere in your life and you really need to work with what you are to find a new perspective to get through your problems. I recently got inspired by the Uniform Project, by Project 333 and by this post: I have no intention whatsoever of wearing just one - or thirtythree - piece of clothing for a whole year, nor I could live for an entire year just wearing skirts because I suffer too much for the cold temperatures here in the north of Italy (scandinavian friends, I' m sure you' re laughing at me, but I come from a place when in winter we reach 8 degrees at the worst so the -15 we reach where I currently live is like death for me), but I decided to start my own project.

Starting tomorrow I will try to look for a different combination of clothes everyday in order to create a different outfit for each day of the year, just with the things I have. I hope to give more meaning to my style putting some more thoughts in my outfits everyday, getting dressed can easily become a simple activity to integrate the divine in your everyday life, for example if you are working with a specific goddess or element you can choose clothes that resonate with that energy, or you can pick the colors for the day thinking about the kind of energy that you need to get through it. Another goal of this project is to get inspired to play with clothes, make up and accessories to create always different looks without getting lazy and wearing always the same makeup or jewelry, I find that being creative with your style helps to keep focused on creativity at a deeper level and to feel generally more satisfied with yourself: this is a reason why it is always damn important to get dressed from top to shoes even if you' re spending the day at home, it makes you feel way better than wearing your pijamas all day long! I also wish with this project to lower my footprint on the planet and to save a lot of money not buying any clothing or accessory whatsoever for a whole year: I will allow myself to buy only a pair of warm boots for the winter because I really need them, and that should be all. New items will be allowed in my wardrobe only if they' re coming from swap parties or if they' re homemade.

I' m going to regularly write posts about the outfits, with pictures and a short explanation of why I picked them for the day and with information on where the clothes I chose come from. I chose the name of the project opposing a certain idea of fashion that forces you to buy and own some status symbol to belong to something: I would spend a lot of money on a dress made with love and attention that suits me very well, I would spend it on a special bag that' s a unique piece made with fantasy and that looks like an art work, but I' d never, ever spend a lot of money for - let' s say - a Louis Vuitton bag that' s made in series and that I see running around on their owners' arms in hundreds of identical copies everyday. Therefore, if this is fashion, this is not a fashion post and neither will be the following picturing the outfits.

What about you? Have you ever thought  bit more about your style and how to use it to let your personality shine or to help you live brighter days?
 
_In my language we have a saying that roughly translated sounds like "if you start well you' ve done half of the work". These words seem to resonate well with me today. I' ve always been a perfectionist and I spend an infinite amount of time thinking about my projects before actually starting them. As a result, half of the times I never start them. This website has been on my mind for a while now - a space to share all my ideas, my inspirations, my knowledge, and in my mind it already exists full of colours and richness: the pages bloom with my drawings, my posts, my pictures, my videos, there' s a cute little e-store where you can buy e-books, e-courses, guided meditations, homemade cosmetics, there is a place where we can meet so you can learn to do your make-up... Of course it is going to take some time to take that website full of inspiration from my head and fantasy to the real world, through these pages, but the important thing is today I just started it. I don' t care if it' s not perfect, if it' s not complete, if it' s not everything I want it to be right now, what matters is that it' s here. I welcome with joy, pride and an open heart this new creature of mine and I invite you all to this little place to watch step by step what' s going to become.