Along with all my other challenges I am currently in the final week of a month-long blogging course.  It’s called Blogging Your Way and it’s run by a highly talented blogger/writer/interior designer called Holly Becker who blogs at decor8.

I found the course when I googled something like how to blog courses so I came to the course in a different way to most of the other participants, many of whom were fans of decor8. There’s something like 700 people from all around the world madly trying to figure out how to create great blogs. It seems 699 of them are highly, talented, artistic, designers, photographers, craft enthusiasts who produce some amazing work. Then there’s me.

Look I can string a sentence together but right there I’ve reached the end of my artistic ability. I’ve done two short photography courses and still can’t manage to get a photo in focus, painting, drawing, colour selection … I’m right out of my depth … there’s a reason Shambles Manor is painted all white.

So when dear Holly suggested we create a mood board for our blog I cringed.  I can do mood – there’s cranky mood, out-of-patience mood, tired-out-of-my-mind mood, just leave me alone mood, I can run the whole gamut of moods before breakfast. But somehow I didn’t think my fellow students would enjoy my mental health issues laid out on a piece of cardboard!

What is the purpose of this Mood Board thingo? I consulted the good folk at Wikipedia  who told me:

Mood boards are often used by graphic designers to enable a person to illustrate visually the direction of style which they are pursuing. However, mood boards can also be used to visually explain a certain style of writing, or an imaginary setting for a storyline. In short, mood boards are not limited to visual subjects, but serve as a visual tool to quickly inform others of the overall ‘feel’ (or ‘flow’) that a designer is trying to achieve.

I know Oprah has been a big fan for years. I remember having especially enjoyed Martha Beck’s piece last year on how to create a vision board to change your life. But I didn’t enjoy it enough to actually get off my bum and make one! Obviously the reason why my life remains unchanged.

But now I had to focus on creating one for my blog.  Something that would give a sense of the the overall “feel” or “flow” of my newly published blog. I picked some of my favourite photos, ripped quotes and pictures from the hundreds of magazines I’m addicted to and hoped I could somehow convey a sense of Shambolic Living on a piece of cardboard using visual not narrative!

It was a challenge but I’m starting to get to be a little bit of fan of the old mood board.  I look at it frequently and plan to stick it over the computer to help keep me focused on why I’m blogging.

And look I may not be of the artistic kind but I managed the cut and pasting OK!