I like writing, be it blogging, poetry or prose. The hardest part is to start though. Like most artistic minds, mine is a perfectionist when it comes to the things I create. Its more like a fear really. I’d put off painting for days on end, simply because of the fear that I might mess it up.

Same with writing. I created this site more than a year ago, It was dormant for nearly six months, with me just playing around with plug ins and themes, and eventually shuffling it aside completely. A few months later I reluctantly logged in again, wrote one or two entries, and got into the swing of things surprisingly quick. Till work started taking up more and more of my spare time, and one day I realized my site disappeared. Entries and all. It was a hosting issue. Got it back, yet again it lay dormant for 2 or three months. I still have some of my old entries saved, I’ll upload them soon.

So, I decided to just jump into the deep end and start writing again. Seeing as I’m obsessed with the site’s appearance (I change themes a gazillion times; I’m never happy with the changes anyway, only to change it again the next day. Or after 10 min.) I’m gonna try my damnest to stick with the current look and feel of things for a while, and direct my energy to creating good content.

Just going to focus on writing, sharing my thoughts, figuring it out as I go along, and – hopefully along the way – stumble upon that wonderfully elusive balance of all the good and not so good aspects of our lives. That which we call happiness and contentment.

I hope you’ll join me on my journey.

Your mommy probably taught you not to talk to strangers (good sound advice) so lets quickly cover who I am (so that I’m not a stranger) and what my plans are for this site (so that you’ll keep coming back.)

I do what nobody else can do: I do me

Who am I? I go by many names. Some know me as Kahla, or K. I started out my online chatting endeavour’s with that name. Others, especially in the blogosphere (some parts of it at least) know me as The Shacked Muse. Before I came up with that, I was, and still am, Ireful on deviantart other art type communities.

To some folk, I’m just Cheryl. (To someone very special I’m Sweety Pie.)

I grew up in a small dusty town somewhere in sunny South Africa. A town primarily known for being unknown. In the country regions (small and dusty, remember) and recently relocated to much bigger and more bustling city of gold. Johannesburg, Jo’burg, Egoli, Jozi. Whatever tickles your fancy. The city lights have some sort of hypnotic effect on me, I’m hooked. And loving every second of it. I live with the two loves of my life: the wise guy over at Monetize your Life; and his cat. She’s now my cat too. She’s really cute.

I’m currently not attached to any corporate endeavour’s. Basically that means I have lots of time on my hands to concentrate on my writing while I’m still job hunting. I have lots of time for that during my insomniac filled nights too, so if you notice I’m slacking in the content and writing department, slap my wrists. I wont bite.

I should also be filling my days with painting and sketching, designing and making jewelry, because that’s what I love and that’s what artists do. We do what we love. I’m a not a good role model for aspiring artists though.

My plans for this site:

This is really a hard part for me. I want my blog to be the best damn blog there is. Everything I look for in a single blog. Everything I want to see (and I hope that like minded people out there, like you, probably also want to see.) In one place.

That’s easy to put on paper, but not so much when it comes to practice. A little over the top, I agree, so I’m gonna settle just on the basics for now.

Currently I only have a blog page visible, (notice the /blog at the end of the URL), and in future I’ll design a nice home page, an entrance into my soul, if you will. With links to all the other pages, which will include:

• this blog (we’ve established that now thoroughly, lol) as well as
• an online shop (that’s definitely on the cards) where I’d put some of the items I make up for sale. Jewelry, beaded accessories, digital and traditional arts, etc. It will either be a link to my etsy shop, or a brand new site. We’ll see.
• a gallery perhaps, as I love taking random photos, and provide a glimpse into my everyday life.
• and something else which I still have to determine, but which would be most definitely, utterly and completely awesome. Oh the pressure…

How I’ve set the site up:

Shackled’s journal

Sometimes I need to write gibberish just for the sake of writing. Be it ramblings brought about by many a sleepless night or rants of raves related to something (or someone…) that just downright pisses me off, this is where you’ll find it.

Unshackle your Creativity

Be it visual arts, writing (blogging included), movement, and all those artsy goodness

Unshackle your Life

Self-development, improvement, common sense, call it what you will. My quest (and tips) for a well balanced life

Unshackle your Mind

Many weird and “unexplained” stuff fascinate me. Be it the power of crystals or opening the third eye. Although I may not always choose to dwell down these paths, I have some questions in need of answers

Just a little side note:

There are so many great blogs out there, some from which I get enormous amounts of inspiration. I’ll systematically add them to my blogroll, please take a moment or two and see what they have to say.

Some of them are, but not limited to:

• Monetize your life. (A shameless plug, but the dude means the world to me, so there.)
• Dooce. The top female blogger. What this woman has achieved…
• The Infopreneur. And even thought the original owner stepped down, its still a great source of motivation