Author: carolyncordon

Wife, mother, Poet, Writer, Art Installationist, Stand Up Comedian, Dog Enthusiast. Spending most of my time being creative in a variety of sometimes quirky ways! I have suffered in my life, I have had wonderful things occur in my life. Concentrating on the wonderful things makes it easier for me to live a great life.
Arts, inspiration, New Ideas, starting a business, therapeutic writing, writing opportunities

Moving Forward, Slow & Sure!

carolyncordon

I know what I want to do, and I know many of the people who can help me as I go. Having goals is one thing, but with action, a goal is just a decoration, amounting to not a lot that is very useful in terms of ‘doing business’.

The goals I’ve set for this year though, ones developed after reading a recent Journaling topic given by Nan Berrett on the Facebook page ‘Your Journaling Journey’ will be guide posts to assist me as I go through the necessary steps to make my business the best it can be!

The ten ideas I came up with in response to this prompt topic cover a variety of things, some of them concerning my business others more personal things, but it all blends into creative things for 2025!

This Journaling Journey has brought up many interesting thoughts and ideas, and I definitely want to continue with journaling once this 30 day program is all over.

This is part of our gate, which forms a part of the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation, which is going to be one part of the business I am going to start up early this year, if all goes as I want it to! I’m excited about this new direction I’ll be going, it feels like I’m finally doing what what my life has been leading me to!

So slow and steady wins the race, and I have my eye on the prize, which is to have a respected business doing a variety of creativity-connected activities that will bring in a reasonable profit for me (eventually).

This year is for setting it all up, next year though, let that be the year it takes off in good ways!

I’ve made some money from my writing over the years, but now, with many more things to do, I ‘m expecting more! An I nervous about starting a new business at my age? No! I’m almost 62 and that is the perfect age to do this!

So I’ m not nervous, I’m excited. Bring it on, I’m ready to make it all happen! Many thanks to the people who’ve been helping to get to this position, especially my Support Worker, Tereza, and my husband Graham! You are both great, and have helped me to be great too, or more than that, I am Awesome!

Uncategorized

Exciting Times Are Coming Soon

carolyncordon

As a poet writer of many, many years with nine books published, I consider myself to have been a hobbyist for most of those years, and while I’d more recently thrown off the hobbyist tag, I haven’t really thought of my writing as being a business.

But as a creative person, with ideas frequently popping into my mind, and with some of these ideas while still Creative things, they’re a large step on and up, far beyond being a poet and writer. And with these new ideas I have, I can see much more opportunities in terms of actually making money, more than occasionally selling one of my books.

I am looking to bring together all of my Creative things I do, and doing all of them as aspects of the business ‘Carolyn Cordon Creative’. I am poet and writer, yes, but I will also be and Art Installation Curator, and a Stand Up Comedian/Performer too. And while I will still be doing the various creative writing group and workshops I currently do for free, I will also be putting my name out as a Performer and Presenter, and also the person running a Tourism business.

I’ll have lanyards for this and that, so many of them I’ll have to be careful not to choke myself! Haha. One tag will do – Carolyn Cordon Creative!

The turnaround in my thoughts about all of this came, I feel, when I realised what I did at my own home had possibilities for Tourists to visit, and also my most recent creative writing workshops are proving to be worthwhile to others, and fun to me as well.

And while I won’t be starting to charge for those particular workshops, I feel the world is my oyster regarding any more such opportunities that come along.

And having this new website, where I have brought all of these aspects of myself together, and having paid money for it, rather that doing the basic websites by myself, well, it feels much more business-like to me. I’ve been talking with people, getting assistance, and I know who to talk to in the future to get all of this business thing up and running, soon, soon, soon!

I’ve put a note on my calendar (which I’m now using in a more business-like manner these days), to get a haircut if and when needed, and for me that is definitely a sign of new things on the way. Usually my next hair cut is months overdue before I get around to doing anything about it!

I have meetings that will be relevant to me in my new business happening soon, I’ve got a milion ideas in my head, and I am so excited to be doing this. I know there are many things I don’t know yet that I don’t know, but the idea of the new learning required makes me even more excited, not worried!

I have two books on the way, with both of them to be launched later this calendar year, and I am going to have a fine time wehn both of htese new books are launched into the world – book launches are so much fun, I love them, and when the book being launched is one of mine, Woah, even better!

There is a poetry collection, about the pond at our place, and the turtle who lives in that pond. This should be easy to get ready, most of it is already written, and it’s mostly poetry that is already more or less collected together, and ready to be made into a book.

The other book to be published is another poetry related book, with some prose as well though, and photographs as there too. Hmm thinking about it, perhaps that book may need to wait a longer time. Unless … Ahh, the decisions that need to be made, I can do this!

I’ve had the thought that perhaps the idea that I move up from self-publisheing my work and actually become a publisher, may be useful, and profitable … Who knows how that might go. It’s certainly relevant to everything else I do!

At the moment having this business is feeling like a big bundle of fun things, wrapped up together with the possibility of getting money for doing what I love to do. How awesome would that be? Extremely Awesome!

Uncategorized

Regarding My Art Installation

carolyncordon

Yesterday I did a little bit of work on the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation, in m role as the Curator of this Installation. And I was so happy when I went and checked out how one of the adjustments I made to a part of the Installation survived overnight!

I’m learning more about the good and bad things about having an Art Installation that is out in the open, exposed to weather, as well as the various creatures outside! The best thing is that anyone who wishes to view this Art Installation can do so anytime they wish to! They’ll miss out on learning more about it, in my absence of course, but they can make up their own ideas and opinions on what they see.

But the pariticular part I’m referring to is the Exercise bike, an old and well rusted one that has pride of place close to the wire fence which is also a part of the Installation, along with the great many other objects on display.

Any way, I had what I hoped may be a great idea regarding the placement of one particular item that is on display, a quite popular item, as it has turned out, and I moved that item to be displayed in an amusing way, and I love it! Being an Art Installation Curator isn’t all collecting, cleaning, and other boring aspects, there can be joy there too, particularly if you can have a bit of fun with what you’re doing!

So the image below shows what I’ve done, I hope it gives you a bit of a smile at the very least!

I call this piece ‘Chickie Chook Goes For A Ride’, and I love the amusing incongruity of it! I hope other viewers will love that too! Chickie Chook has been placed out in a variety of different sections of this Art Installation, and wherever she is, she looks like she loves being there (except for when the nasty wind has blown here over and too far away to be seen as a part of the Installation).

I’ve been thinking of producing a children’s book featuring Chickie Chook one day, and this little exercise bike adventure may well feature in that book, or perhaps series of books …

If you have any thoughts about this, please, leave a comment, we can discuss it all further, if you want to!

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Uncategorized

Oh My What On Earth Am I Going To Do Next?!

carolyncordon

Haha, watch and you’ll find out, it will be more of the same, but bigger and better, and who knows it might even add up to a real job, like growned up peoples have!

If you want to now more, check this out, it will give a good hint at what at least some of what I may be doing next might be. But you never know when something shiny and new (or rusty and old) might attract my attention, and I may go toward something else entirely!

In the meantime, what’s on my mind at the moment? Well, I’ve been considering the idea of actually getting a real job, and earn proper money, instead of the dribs and drabs of the stuff most of us poets are reduced to scrabbling for …

On the other writing platform I use, and use more often that this one, to be honest, but shh, don’t tell WordPress!, well on that other platform, Medium, I posted a piece about this working thing, as in doing a job for real money instead of enough for a cup of coffee, and if I’m luck a blueberry muffin too.

If you’re interested in reading about this working thing take a look here https://medium.com/@kittycordo/unique-ideas-i-have-a-few-3a778806efb6 and I hope you’ll find it interesting!

The article has a photo of me being a curator of the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation, not dressed up neat and tidy but getting stuck into the reality of it, putting on display rusty dusty stuff found out there, along the road I live on perhaps …

You can never know what I might do next, because I’m not sure about it myself, unless it’s on my phone calendar, and I remember to check what it says!

Thanks for being here, come back soon, there may be something new!

Uncategorized

What On Earth Is My Brand?

carolyncordon

I’m a Writer, Poet, Editor, Art Installation Collector/Creater/Curator …, Creative Writing workshop presenter. From the first two in that list I make tiny bits of money, occasionally, and for the first, a larger bit of money once a year.

The rest of the items on that list are things I do as a volunteer, or for myself. You could say I’m a Creative, and you would be getting close to the truth, but, but, it isn’t a business, at least not yet it isn’t. The question is though, could I make it a business, and a maybe bigger question is, do I want to make it a business?

These ideas are in my head more right now because I’ve paid a reasonable amout of money to attend a day of ‘small or micro’ business workshops, all in the one place, all with the aim to teach me, and the others attending, how to be better at running their business.

I had a fit of enthusiasm and registered, willingly paying out the money, with barely a thought about whether I could actually call myself someone who was, or could be in business.

I sell my books every now and then, but most often for only enough money to get back the acual money put in to having the book printed. And the editing job I do for fun, well that’s for a monthly newsletter that I put out for free to obtain, but I actually pay money out to get it printed now.

Once upon a time, the newsletter was printed by myself in my job working in a council, then later it was printed by various offices of politicians. But those all fell though, so if I want to have this particular newsletter printed, I have to pay for it myself.

One of the things I do, and enjoy working on. But it doesn’t bring in any money for me, not yet. I’d love to get involved in tourism and show off what I’ve created, and even talk about it all to interested others.

Could that be a business? It would be great if it could be! Maybe I’ll find out how to do that, at the workshops I’m attending on Wednesday this week. Or maybe those baby plans will all flitter away, and I’ll go back to being a volunteer and not think about any ‘I could be in business’ ideas.

We’ll see. It will become clearer, anyway, by the end of the day on Wednesday. I might find a great Mentor who takes me under their wing and shows me what I could do in ways that don’t frighten me! Haha!

Caro the Creative, or something along those lines …