What do I get passionate about? Things that make me feel joyful, delighted, happy.

Sharing them with you sounds like a project worth doing, though I know myself well enough by now to avoid promising to do one every day for a week, much less a year. So I’ll stick to just posting when the mood strikes.

My very first Happy Thing: taking my cats for a walk on the beach. I’ve written about this before, but the joy I feel with these two, listening to the waves roll in, smelling the seaweed and salt, feeling the wind and warmth of the sun.

Perhaps more than almost anything else, these walks define my daily life and remind me to pay attention and be happy. I took along our new videocamera and, having heard somewhere that 3 seconds is the average shot these days, what you get is a slice of our life today, in 3 second doses.

May it bring a smile to your face too.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB2DS12QCx4

This year’s Tweed Run event in London saw 400 immaculately dressed cyclists gallivanting about the city, soaking up the sunshine and stopping for tea at regular intervals.

I’d love to do something like this, though I think argyll sweaters and multiple tweed layers will be more the order of the day than this:

Which projects to try next?

Already we’re brainstorming which projects to tackle after we’ve finished the Kids Bushcraft, Reinvention Sewing Lounge and Bit Better pilot projects, and we’re thinking bicycles.

Malcolm’s keen on doing a bicycle repair workshop while I’d like to combine it with refurbishing and adding personal style so you absolutely love to get on your bike.

I’m particularly interested in sewing my own panniers and testing out alternatives to toxic waterproof chemicals in all those plastic-coated panniers.

It’s gorgeous outside today, so I’m off for a leisurely cycle down the road to take in the blue sky, cows grazing alongside their calves and the sweet scent of wildflowers on the breeze…

Transform the clothing that’s sitting in the back of your closet, gathering dust, into stylish one-of-a-kind pieces.

Join Kirsteen Stewart as she teaches you how to transform your wooly jumpers into this beautiful scarf:

Or if you know how to sew and want to try a different project, we’ll have several charming project patterns you can work on and a huge stack of gorgeous sewing books to draw inspiration from.

Beautiful fabrics available

Browse a gorgeous collection of fabrics

New pieces of fabric from Kaffe Fassett, Alexander Henry, Cath Kidston and Kirsteen Stewart will be on hand for purchase to combine with recycled clothing to make fetching, affordable pieces.

Thurs and Fri, Aug 5 and 6 at Orkney College

Our sewing lounge will be held for two days only at our stylishly furnished tipi. Come join us for gourmet coffee and tea and the delectable truffles from Cocoa Mountain.

Delicious truffles from Cocoa Mountain in Durness

We’ll be at the tipi on the lawn of Orkney College (right next to the car park) for 2 sessions only so be sure to book now if you’re interested as we only have 8 spaces available each day.

By the end of the two hour session, you’ll have something fantastic to take home along with the skills to create more projects at home.

Register and pay now >>

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Available dates

We have two dates available:

• Thursday, 5 August, 2-4pm
• Friday August 6, 2-4pm

Both sessions will take place on the lawn of Orkney College, Kirkwall. Click here for directions to the College from the Bus Station (next to the library).

Cost

£4 or FREE if you bring an extra item of clothing, curtains or fabric to donate to our collection — natural fabrics only such as 100% cotton, linen, wool or silk.

We’ll provide all tools. We’ll also have truffles from Cocoa Mountain for sale, alongside gourmet tea and coffee.

What to bring

Bring at least two items of clothing (ideally several) that you want to repurpose — jumpers in particular, or all natural fabrics. We’ll also have secondhand and vintage clothing you will be able to purchase.

Pre-booking required

Because we’re limiting the session to 8 people only, you must pre-book the session.

Register and pay now >>

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See you there!

From a poster for the new Reinvention Sewing Lounge, coming soon

It doesn’t look it yet, but below is the beginnings of the new Reinvention Sewing Lounge, one of our latest projects:

Soon our tipi will be furnished with sheepskin rugs, a woodburning stove, and a cornucopia of fabrics and craft tools to transform the clothes you’ve got sitting in the back of your closet into hip bags, pillows and something new you’d love to wear.

My favourite part: while you sew, you can sip gourmet coffee or tea and nibble on some of the best chocolate truffles I’ve ever had the privilege to sample (and I worked in a Belgian chocolatier’s in college so I know what I’m talking about).

The rebirth of sewing

The sewing lounge concept rides the crest of a modern, stylish crafting craze that’s huge in America and in cities and is gradually making its way here. With places like The Make Lounge in London, sewing has followed in the wake of knitting to become something trendy and hip, an activity that’s more about creative expression and socialising than just making something functional.

Recycling + making something better = “upcycling”

Touchwood’s take on it is to introduce the element of upcycling, or making something new and better out of something old. In our case, we’re asking people to bring a few items of clothing that are languishing in their wardrobes and bring them in for a makeover. I know I’ve been holding onto a silk jacket that’s the wrong colour and shape because I feel guilty about buying it and not wearing it — well now it could become a sleeping mask for me or a lovely pillow for a friend.

Or maybe you could turn a few moth-eaten sweaters into a scarf like this one:

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll start making labels, stringing up the solar-powered fairy lights, stoking the woodburning stove, and in general making it an Aladdin’s cave that people beat down the door to enter. The feel I’m going for is a bit of early 1900s English Empire with a dash of 1950s American retro.

Here’s some of the stuff I’ve gotten already:

Almost everything is secondhand, from the vintage tin trunk that will store the old sweaters, to the leather suitcases and hatboxes for supplies. I’ve trawled eBay and our charity shops for weeks hunting things down.

Inspiration from amazing books

I’ve got a huge stack of outstanding craft books for project ideas too which I’ll have in the tipi. I’m going to create little laminated cards with photos of projects that I’ll string up next to fabric so that people can get ideas for which project they want to work on while they’re here.

Show me the money

One of the biggest challenges we face with this project, and with Touchwood in the long term, is figuring out how to generate enough income to be sustainable. Because of our hybrid status as a business whose profits are channeled entirely into a social cause, we can receive grants to do community work, but our long-term goal is to be completely grant-free.

The problem is, the first 6 courses we did with the sewing pilot project taught us that many of the people here on the island are accustomed to things being heavily subsidised. I know my sewing course was about £45 for 8 weeks thanks to big subsidies, and when we asked people what they would expect to pay for a sewing course, some of the answers were £4(!)

Bear in mind this was having a professional sewing instructor on hand and all tools and materials provided for a 2 hour session. We knew when we ran it that there was much more we could be doing, and that’s what the sewing lounge is in part trying to explore.

So rather than charge a big fee upfront, can we earn income through sales of things like tea and chocolate alongside selling fabric? Charge £1, say, for a nice square of silk or eye-catching cotton print.

My thinking at the moment is to have two (at least) different types of sessions: one led by Kirsteen Stewart, a local fashion designer and sewing teacher, where you work on a specific project and learn specific skills, and another where people who already know the basics of sewing can come to work on their projects without an instructor. The first is more of a sewing class, the second is more a get-together.

We have 2-3 more grant-subsidised sessions to find out what will work.

Getting the pricing right

I’m thinking £4 entrance fee or free if you bring an extra item of clothing to donate. That’s for a two hour session where you can use all the tools we have. One or two of those sessions will also feature Kirsteen as instructor, but if she’s going to do it longer term, we’d have to charge at least £16 to be able to pay her.

We’ll also have the gourmet tea and coffee brewed on the woodburning stove and served up in these handmade mugs at £1.50, and chocolate truffles from Cocoa Mountain, based in Durness, at £1.25 each.

Secondhand wool sweaters will be sold for £6 and varying prices for some of the cottons and wools. Maybe Malcolm’s homemade soup for £2.50, though that gets into the realms of food, which may be too complicated.

We’re looking at 8-10 people at a time.

Show me the social purpose

The reason we’re doing all this?

Well the goal is to empower people by teaching them practical and fun skills which also help the planet by recycling materials that might otherwise be thrown away (just cause it goes to a charity shop doesn’t mean it won’t end up in landfill or being shipped far away — charity shops can only sell so much).

Our newly revised mission is to “empower you to make the world better”. I certainly have seen how knowing how to make something beautiful that’s homemade makes your world better and I’d like to help anyone else who agrees.

I don’t know if people will go for it, but the upside is if they don’t, think of all the yummy chocolate and hot drinks waiting for me.

How can we make this succeed?

What do you think? Have you been to a sewing lounge? What would make you go out of your way to attend ours if you lived here?

One of the challenges in starting up a social enterprise is actually having something to show for months’ worth of effort. Since an eco-lodge will take some time to build, not to mention write a business plan, do a feasibility study, and consult with the community, we needed to find ways of getting started NOW. So we’re building on the success we had with the StrengthsFinder pilot projects and running at least 3 more in 2010.

Here’s what we’re planning to do…

A mobile classroom

First up: a ‘mobile classroom.’ We’ve bought be a canvas tentipi like the one in this picture and are furnishing it with a stove and lovely fleeces, sheepskins and comfy chairs.

A tentipi offers shelter and warmth while still connected to the outdoors

These two photos here — from the Beautiful World Tents website — show how it could work.

Inside the tentipi with an open fire

The challenge of the Orkney (Scottish, British) climate is that it’s usually too cold or possibly rainy to contemplate doing something like a craft activity outside. On the other hand, we don’t want to go the route of being indoors in a community centre.

Tentipis are a modern update of the traditional tents used by the Sami. They look like tipis, but have a few cool features — like the ability to roll up the sides to open out the view.

Our plan is to kit them out beautifully and cosily, but still be able to take them around Orkney, including the more remote islands like Sanday, Eday, Shapinsay and Westray. We also plan to have a number of craft courses that will help furnish the interior with handmade rugs and fleeces.

Beauty, craftsmanship and eco-friendliness are core to what we want to do.

On to the courses…

Crafts and outdoor pilot projects

Bit Better Project

This project is all about living by the principle: ‘Leave it a little better than you find it’.  Going beyond Leave No Trace, we’ll work with farmers and local walkers to make the countryside through which they are travelling a ‘bit better’. It includes going out into the countryside with tools to make improvements to fences, waterlogged land, and other problems.

Upcycle Your Clothing

Not just recycling or reusing clothes you would otherwise donate or bin, but ‘upcycling’ to create something new, beautiful and wearable. Includes gathering local natural materials from outdoors, such as shells, stones and fibrous plants. Hip sewing courses delivered by a young, local designer called Kirsteen Stewart. I just took her dressmaking class and it was brilliant. We’re thinking one of the courses we’ll offer will be a ‘Knockout Knickers’ class where we make our own gorgeous underwear. Yee haw!

Kids Bushcraft

Hands-on sessions for kids in building shelters from heather, making fire safely, and navigating and walking outdoors via Treasure Hunts. This one is about rethinking what a ‘weed’ is and appreciate traditional skills and the natural environment.

Why pilot projects?

Well for one thing, we don’t actually have a place. We’re still mostly a lot of good ideas, a growing network of people, and lots of paperwork. So running this as a full-on enterprise just isn’t feasible.

But I also don’t want to fall into the trap of working for months, even years, on the Touchwood Project and not actually have something tangible to show for it. Too many projects I’ve heard about lurch from year to year, snapping at funding, beleaguered by internal politics and strife, and resulting in little more than lots of strategy documents and a logo. While I don’t think that will happen to us, we all want to make things happen as fast as possible.

Other benefits of doing a pilot:

• Work out logistics and get courses right for future rollout
• Get training for local people to deliver courses to highest standard
• Build ties to existing organisations and businesses on Orkney to co-offer courses
• Build awareness of Touchwood Project within larger community

Where we’re at now

Update: We’re running these three pilot projects now and through July, both on the mainland of Orkney and on outer islands like Sanday and Hoy. More details of dates and times to come.

Simon Sinek goes through the successful example of the Wright Brothers who, he argues, succeeded because they believed in the power of flight to change the world and thus inspired and attracted people working for them to give their blood, sweat and tears to the cause.

This opposed to Simon’s example of a guy named Langley who was the Wrights’ competitor, who had all the money and media backing any inventor could want, but who was doing it for the money and prestige and therefore had only people working for the paycheck for him.

Here’s the video if you’d like to see it:

So I ended the talk by asking Malcolm: “What do you think the ‘Why’ is behind Touchwood?” The ‘What’ is all the pilot projects and Power Off Weekends that we’re doing, but what is the reason behind our dedicating almost two years to it unpaid?

Well here’s why:

We believe we can do something bold about the environment, that we can take action right now, and that it should be fun.

Pretty simple, really.

It doesn’t sound to me like the kind of manifesto that would inspire millions off their chairs, but then again, who needs millions? I’ll start with the amazing people who have come our way already like Jess and Julie who helped us build a chicken pen, a compost bin, and plant our first garden. Or Victoria, who is leading the Upcycling Your Clothing pilot project this month (really, really need to write a post about these projects but have been so busy actually doing them to write about it). Or Kelly and Laura, who have inspired and led people to join the Power Off Weekend and fended off miserable people on the Guardian.

These people have been amazing and we all seem to share this same core belief that each of us can do something to help the planet and to help our own lives, and that it’s fun to do so.

So what do you believe?

I love how this woman, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, is so clearly being herself.  She’s not shy about saying not only what she really thinks, but much more impressively and rarely, what she truly feels. That raw honesty and sincerity earned my respect and appreciation.

Hope you enjoy it too.

If we don’t, one won’t happen and we will need to return those funds to Awards for All. Malcolm and I are too busy working on the first two and simply don’t have the time to manage all three, so I’m posting here to see if any of you would like to take part.

What’s the project?

The pilot we need help with teaches basic sewing skills through three different classes, each aimed at different types of people and will all be taught by Kirsteen Stewart, local fashion designer and sewing instructor at Orkney College:

“Upcycle” an item of clothing

2-hour or half-day session repurposing an item of clothing in your wardrobe. 12 sewing sessions planned with 3 separate courses:

• Make Your Own Creature for parents and young children
• Junky Style for teens and young adults
• Knockout Knickers for women to make their own knickers

What we need

Someone to act as Project Manager, to make sure this test case happens.

Are you someone who likes organising events? Would you enjoy contacting the local papers and radio to advertise the classes, or figuring out which dates and locations to run the event at?

We have a budget, venue, teacher and course description. The rest needs to be worked out by you and Kirsteen, with Malcolm and myself helping where possible.

What you don’t need to do

Be perfect. Since it’s a pilot, the project (and you) doesn’t need to be flawless — it’s designed to test whether there is an interest and need for courses like this on Orkney and potentially throughout the UK.

We’ll also be testing out how much to charge and where to run courses — we have a mobile classroom thanks to the “kata” tent we have purchased. We’ll do our best to run the courses like a business would, but the bigger goal is to test things out and see what works best.

Finally it’s a chance for Touchwood to lay the groundwork for offering courses in the future, the best of which will run one day at the eco lodge. We have many more potential projects in the pipeline, from building low-cost, eco-friendly houses to teambuilding, and these pilots teach us vital skills to enable us to make those courses a success.

Why volunteer

Because you are someone who likes to make things happen, who will be proud of the fact that this project couldn’t work without you. You enjoy organising things and want Touchwood to continue growing.

You and your family will also be able to participate in all of Touchwood’s projects free of charge, from the Kids Bushcraft courses to the Bit Better Project (countryside walking and trail repairs) to all three sewing courses.

Interested?

Email me at rachel@touchwoodproject.com if you’re interested and want to find out more.

You can also download the Pilot Projects Summary, which explains the projects and Touchwood in more detail, and the Sewing Pilot Project Budget.

Some days all I can see is grey, grey, grey — all the things I haven’t done from the dishes and laundry to tax returns and web design work, and I have that moment of thinking I’m not really achieving anything. I find myself glumly musing, “What’s it all for? What am I really doing with my life?”

Then my rational mind jumps in and tries to remind me that yes, I am getting somewhere, that what I do is getting me in the direction I want to go, even if it only feels like a stumbling shuffle to a far distant finish line.

But it’s hard to remember that on days like these, so I’ve been thinking about a simple daily habit that can boost my spirits and put a shine on my pride.

What’s my goal?

I started by asking myself, “What is my big goal at the moment? What is something that, if I achieved it, I’d feel had given my life a real sense of purpose and meaning?”

I ask such a big question because it takes something that big to keep me motivated, to inspire me to keep making changes. I mentioned big picture thinking in my last post about the Futuristic strength, but I think it’s a universal human need, to feel we’re all striving for something better, something special.

If you’re in my situation and not entirely sure what your purpose in life is, if you weren’t born knowing you were meant to be a doctor or writer or teacher, then it helps to come up with one yourself. That purpose can change many times, so no pressure to come up with the One and Only.

Here’s mine:

To have our own eco-centre and cottage, with a herbal garden, a place to watch the stars and have a fire. Where friends and family come and are happy. Where Malcolm and I are happy.

That’s my huge goal. Now here’s what I’m going to do everyday to get there. I’m going to write down each morning the answer to this question:

What will I do today to get one step, however small, closer to my goal?

Then at the end of the day, I’m going to answer these two questions:

What did I do today that took me one step closer? How did that take me closer?

The reason I think it’s important to 1) write this down and 2) do it everyday is that we tend not to focus on what we’re achieving, what we have, what’s going well.

Instead we focus on all the negatives, from what we didn’t get done to what we want to have someday to what we messed up on. It can leave you feeling exhausted, guilty and feeling worthless. I hate that feeling and what’s more I think it’s a crock. So this little game is about making me aware of all the things I’m doing each day that are moving me forward.

Making it something pretty I can see

Rather than have just a diary with these entries, I wanted some way of seeing it visually, some instant picture of my progress. That’s where the goal circle comes in.

Each day, I’ll draw a circle to represent what I’ve achieved that day. The circle can be a different size and colour so that, as each day passes, I’m creating a mosaic of my accomplishments. My dream goal is the first circle, then I add one for each day.

Since I just started today, here’s what it looks like:

I know, it ain’t much. But it will be. Imagine 6 months from now when I’ve got 180 of those suckers on there. Won’t it be pretty.

Those little circles are smiling back at me, reminding me “Hey, you did something worthwhile today!” Small steps, small steps.

Want to join in?

If you’d like to do your own goal circle, here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Clear 10 minutes and sit down and think about a goal you have that you’d be hugely proud of yourself for achieving, that if you were at the Pearly Gates and your life was spread out for judgment, you’d be happy to say you’d done. Remember, you will probably have many of these over your life, so don’t feel it has to be perfect.

Step 2: Write that goal down on a piece of paper.

Step 3: Now write “What will I do today to get one step, however small, close to my goal?”. If you’ve already done something today that fits the bill, write that down. If not, think of one thing you might do and jot it down.

Step 4: Go about your day, making sure to do one thing — no more — that you’ll be able to write down.

Step 5: Write on your piece of paper “What did I do today that took me one step closer to my goal?” Now answer your question.

Here’s what I wrote: “Put my size 8 clothes (which I’m too big for but should fit into in a year or so) in a suitcase and cleared the closet.” See? Nothing earth-shattering.

Step 6: Next write “How did this take me closer?” Answer your question.

I wrote: “By de-cluttering the closet, I freed up some energy to focus on other things. By protecting my clothes (by putting them in suitcase instead of our closet which alas is having a moth problem) so I don’t have to buy more sooner and can instead put the money towards the eco-centre.”

Step 7: Find a blank sheet of paper or use your computer if you have a paint or drawing programme (I use Photoshop) and draw your first circle to represent your dream goal. Mine’s in grass green because that’s my favourite colour. The background is grey because I like the colour contrast and also it’s the grey world feeling the colours are combatting, but you can easily just use white. Then draw a circle for today’s achievement. Mine is teal.

You may want to number your circles or write on them a word to remind you what that circle did. Space the circles out or nestle them in close — whatever works for you.

A goal circle is a work of art as much as anything, and yours will look completely different to mine.

Only you can know when your picture is done, but I hope to see yours someday.

Today I’m talking about the “Futuristic” strength in StrengthsFinder and how Futuristic people are going to help save the world. It’s part of an on-going series of articles on identifying and using your strengths with the help of tools like StrengthsFinder.

(I know we still need to post about how the Power Off Weekend went, but we will get to that soon I promise.)

First, here’s your superhero badge, designed just for you:

I’m thinking t-shirt, coffee mug. Why be shy?

What is the “Futuristic” strength?

Futuristic people think of what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

They’re Arthur C. Clarke with a vision of satellites, space stations and moon bases long before we’d ever set foot on the moon.

The space station we were going to have in 2001

They’re Walt Disney who imagines a utopian city where people can live and work with maximum happiness and efficiency.

Walt's utopian vision for EPCOT

This is what EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) was meant to be when Disney conceived it in the 1950s, not a theme park.

They are Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” or JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you.” These people can inspire hundreds, then thousands, then millions. It’s a mighty heritage.

The accident that gave me my superpowers

In my case, Futuristic is heavily sci-fi and science-oriented. Not everyone who has this strength likes sci-fi — you just have to enjoy thinking about the future in some way — but I can only speak to my experience.

So my journey starts with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was about 6 when I first saw it (I had a cool mom), and the dreamy scenes of floating spaceships and air hostesses walking upside down hooked me into a lifelong love affair with the future.

2001: A Space Odyssey and those fab gravity boots

The film opened some dimension in my mind and the world never looked the same again.

Then regular episodes of Star Trek at my dad’s side taught me you can have a moral message, broadcast controversial messages under cover of entertainment.

The first TV interracial kiss

Then Blade Runner. After I was done being shocked and a bit traumatised (remember the scene where Pris, the Replicant, dies? Yikes), I learned about the power of dystopian visions, of showing the worst of what can happen when you ignore the present problems. Reading 1984 helped that along nicely as well.

The dystopian city of the future

Dorks. And proud of it.

We get a bad press, us sci-fi futuristic people. We’re the geeks buried with our nose in the latest Iain Banks, supposedly without any real life friends. We’re the dreamers who never notice what’s going on right before our eyes. We go to geeky conferences, debate Star Wars vs Star Trek, or wait for the latest release from Apple with baited breath.

Don't mess with Star Trek fans

I’m all for the label “dork”. I once thought of designing a t-shirt that said “ProudDork.com” because I think it’s worth reclaiming that word for the proud and the free.

We must use our powers for Good

Now here’s the thing. We have a responsibility, in case any of you didn’t already know it.

Our job is to show people what could be, how things could be better if we try. There are already a lot of people who show how bad things could be — death, destruction and doomsday we’re all well acquainted with.

So let’s focus on the positive, shall we?

Let’s use our writing, drawing, computer, music, architecture, filmmaking and any other skills to communicate our inspiring, hopeful visions that sparkle so clearly in our imaginations. Let’s bring those ideas to others so they can help us make them a reality.

Like this guy:

Kick-Ass: Be Your Own Superhero

How am I putting Futuristic into practice?

If I’m gonna preach, I gotta do.

One of the things I’m doing is writing these series of posts about how to find and use your superpowers — or “strengths,” as they’re known more conventionally.

I see a future where kids are encouraged to develop what they love to do, where they’re praised for building a model airplane, or drawing a bizarre picture, or helping their friends get along at recess.

Flying the dork flag with pride

I imagine adults having learned to tune into their inner voice that says “I love this” and doing more of that rather than another load of laundry, or Botox injection, or an extra hour at work in a job they can’t stand.

The big, big dream

The other thing I’m doing with Futuristic is helping keep Malcolm and myself inspired and driven to keep doing the work we do, day after day, to get us to our ultimate dream: our eco lodge where we will teach some of the skills we need to thrive in the 21st century and make it a better place. I think of it as a Hogwarts for the real world.

This is my biggest, most thrilling dream, one we working towards day after day as I write to you, as Malcolm already thinks about the next Power Off Weekend and I blow my way through craft after craft. We’re still putting the details together, finding inspiration from multiple sources, drawing up lists of skills we need to learn, people we’ll need to locate.

It will take years, so my job is to make sure we never lose sight of The Dream. To stay hopeful, optimistic and certain that it can and will happen.

If you’re Futuristic, that’s your gift too.

So be proud of your dreams, your hopes, your belief that a better tomorrow exists. Then remember that you help make that tomorrow happen and get out there.