This Week’s Creations

This was a good week creatively…. After last week’s come clean, I felt very much better about using my energy to be creative….creative within my own intuitive intentions of spending and consuming less….

I can’t show you the first bit of this week’s craftiness b/c it is a gift for someone who regularly reads here…..I’ll get photos tho’ and post it after the gifting.
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I’ll let you guess what this used to be…

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HBI was off from school on Friday feeling a bit under the weather and we talked about ways to surprise Dad when he got home from his business trip. To his 7 year old mind, there would be nothing that Dad would enjoy more than Soft Gingerbread Cookies…and I figured, hey, 7 is old enough to read, measure and mix. So, he did it on his own! I didn’t photograph the finished product, but he did a mighty fine job which Dad was enjoying with milk!

 

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I thought Dad might like some new shop rags…so an old towel was repurposed for him!

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I’m naturally inclined to all things natural. Especially health-wise. Nothing drives me more crazy than to think about the multitude of ways we are each poisoning our bodies with stuff-we-call-food. I can’t preach about it b/c I am as guilty as anyone else. I do the best I can do, and just keep trying to make better choices every day.
Anyhew…a friend of mine is suffering with all sorts of things and after years of Dr’s and years of prayer, she is not seeing breakthroughs. Knowing that sometimes our answers to prayers come in people-shaped-packages, I’ve offered to help her analyze her diet to see what changes I can recommend.
I typed up this chart and in 14 days we are going to look for trends, pray for wisdom and see what changes she can make.

Feel free to download it if you like.  (if the download is not working, put your email address in the comments and I’ll get it to you that way)

holistic-food-journal.pdf

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If anyone were to ask me “if you could do anything you wanted to do, and money was not an objection, what would you do?” I would answer “become a Naturopathic Doctor”. After doing research for her, I feel compelled to continue on that path. In some way, it has been planted in me to help people with some sort or form of healing. I don’t know if becoming an N.D. is the answer, or what, but something for me, lies in there. I will continue to seek for that answer.

In the meantime, I’ve mocked up a blog that might take some more of my creative energy in the next little while….you can see it here

I’ve neglected the beauty…This week Creative Jan 20-26

Coupla three things I’ve gotta come clean on here…

While the Creative Every Day challenge has inspired me to be more active in using my creative side, it has also caused me to not stay authentic to myself.

You see…I pledged this year to spend A WHOLE LOT LESS money on STUFF. Our lives are being controlled by our stuff and I want that to stop. Now that I’m ‘creating’, I’ve felt justified in going out and buying thrifted / second hand things to ‘repurpose’.

But that just isn’t sitting right.

My ‘repurposing’ is not going to take another priority spot in my life and take me down a path of un-authentic living. It’s just not.

So…today I repledge to not be buying ’stuff’ to clutter up our home and our life.

Second come clean…

I’ve never had trinkets. I don’t collect anything. I don’t understand the point of things that don’t have a point. (that’s just my INTJ personality..!)

So, I’ve had fun making ‘things’….but I don’t know what to do with those ‘things’.

I’ve got to stick to what is truly me and repurpose things which will have a useful life afterwards….not just something else to add to the clutter.

Third come clean…

What this new creativity stream has done for me is made me realize that I have never taken much time to stop and appreciate beauty. I don’t have a favorite mug. I don’t have a favorite corner to curl up and read in. I just have never spent alot of energy on those kinds of things.

I think I need to.

I think I need to see and appreciate the beauty in everyday things, in everyday people and in everyday circumstance. I need to see those things for what they are and what they bring to me…I need to appreciate the little things.

Perhaps for me, that is going to be my most creative task every day…to simply stop, see, smell, appreciate.

There is beauty and creativity all around me. And I had nothing to do with it.

The week Creative – Jan 13-19

I’ve been toying with some mixed media this week…simply because it seems to be the perfect creative outlet for a ‘garbage artist’. I found out that’s what I could be called.

It seems as though there is a whole movement of Garbage Artists…some who dumpster-dive, some who scrounge scrapyards and garbage dumps, and others who are constantly looking at what someone else is throwing away and says…”can I have that?”. While I’ve been known to dumpster-dive a time or two in my life, my thrill comes from ‘redeeming’ something that someone else was going to throw away….

..and with that, I present this week’s creative endeavors…

First I cut up a cheerios box and made a bunch of little tags, and painted both sides of them with some acrylic paints we bought with a bunch of other junk, and have stored for 5 years, at an auction.What to do. What to do.

I created this cutesy little tag? ornament? hangy thing?…. (it’s a rhinestone earring hanging from the bottom)

  

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Then, I took a tuna can, and a vintage magazine, cut a fuzzy red heart and went diving through my own stash and found this great keychain to add on….aww..how sweet.

    

Now what do I do with it? another hangy thing.

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I am ashamed to even show this messed up creation, but again, it’s all about the process right…? I’m still going to work on it, but my canvas was the cheerios box, again painted with acrylic paint. Then I started looking through vintage mags and postcards. I think it might have a theme and I will probably keep embellishing it to see where it goes….

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Here’s a Christmas themed thing that was inspired by a vintage postcard. I think I will add two gromments and wait until I find some nice ribbon so I can hang it.

This little sweet thing started out as a spoon. I added a photograph…a doily…a brooch and more cheerios box cutouts in the shape of wings , and voila. A what the ?? I have no idea…would you hang it? would you stick it in a potted plant? Not sure.

I struggle with this one a little because within my vision of Garbage Art, (who knew I had a vision about this crap, er I mean art form) I think I should only use items that the average Joe or Jane could find while thrifting. I don’t think the glitter counts in that. That is something that most people think they would have to go buy. I guess I should say that I found scads of glitter at a garage sale ( I think the nice old lady was previously a Sunday School teacher or something). So, within the confines of my art, it was not a deviation…however, I may find another pair of wings that inspire.

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And here is the first REPURP. I think that is cute little name for snuggly creatures made out of old sweaters. And stuffed with scraps of who-knows-what. Nothing purchased here. That’s the key.

He has been tagged with alphabet beads…I think it’s nice to identify them..

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And just so I don’t forget who I am , I made this….man do I need a good pedicure.

That should be it for this week. I am dedicating the rest of my time to some writing and that is something that likely won’t appear here, at least for awhile.

This weeks’ creativity

It’s been a busy week but I have got a few things going.

I don’t know how to crochet, so I figured I’d try it.  I ended up with a bookmark and this teeny, tiny basket.

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We practiced and made a few yo-yo’s:

Next, we worked on some post-it note oragami flowers.  Each petal is one post it note.

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Then I spent a day working on an invitation for a party I am holding which celebrates the day I become older than my mom…..(she lived to 37 years 38 weeks and 4 days..)

I can’t really show that here b/c it has too much personal info on it but I was very pleased.

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Next we spend an evening collaging and I ended up with this.  (I took a picture of it next to my shiny sink because I am trying to follow FlyLady and live with a shiny sink – all day, every day!.)

HBI ended up with this.

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I also spent a day photoshopping just to play a little….see what can be done with the same photograph….just think if I actually learned to use my camera settings too!

Actual Photo above, unretouched.  Below have been adjusted….

      

    

      

Creative Every Day 2008

I’m joining up with a ragtag group who is going to work on being creative every day through 2008. No hard and fast rules about how much is created / what is created or even what is shared, but I thought it would motivate me to get out some of the ideas that are floating in my head.Here are a few things I’ve done in the past few days or so.

Found an ADIDAS skirt in a thrift shop,

and since it just completely blew my mind that ADIDAS would make a skirt out of track pant fabric, I just had to buy it. I took apart the skirt panels, and here was the first thing that came out of my brain.

The perfect size to carry around a bottle of water! The welted zip pocket was saved so it’s the perfect place for your key, or change or tissue!

I found the perfect webbed belt to compliment the stripes, which is a good thing because I really didn’t want to have to cut up the other panel with the ADIDAS stripes on it for the strap.
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Then I found some really great vintage fabric that was just crying out for some new life. These were HUGE pillow shams that I don’t think had ever been used – the fabric was so crisp! I washed and dried it because I was sure it would shrink, and my first inspiration was a cute little flower with rag tag edges.

Hmm. I wonder what else I could make with rag tag edges??

ta – da…

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My sister was giving away a bunch of her old clothes and I just knew this sweater could be something more (sorry, I downloaded the fuzzy picture and deleted the good one!). Now it covers an old pillow that I was really tired of!

 

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Then I started looking through my scrap bag and started putting pieces together on a felt background. I kind of like it! What you are seeing here is a scan of the original work. There has got to be a nifty idea in here somewhere. Just not sure what to do with either the original, or the scan next…..any ideas???

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And…just to find something to do with HBI, we started folding up magazine pages. So far, we have repurposed it into a trivet. Not sure what else you could do with something like this, but I’m sure we can think of something!

And, last but not least….these were made before Christmas when HBI had a friend staying over….they put a bunch of these together (they had help with the hot glue gun) and teachers, bus-drivers, moms and grandmas got very special gifts for Christmas! 

 (idea taken from artsy-craftsy-babe)

 

That’s it for now!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I tend to go ‘all out’ on anything I do and it is looking like creating / artsing / crafting is going to be no different!

I hope you will enjoy my journey through Craftdom!

Oh wait….here is a sneak peek at what I’ve been hoarding,   collecting.  I can hardly wait to see how it gets used!

 

 

It’s all in the family!

Much to Dad’s chagrin, I had the boy doing more ‘crafts’ today….

We had leftover fabric from his robe, so he asked for a pillowcase.

I figgered he was more than old enough to work this one out for himself, and if you look at the pride on his face, I’d have to agree with myself.

Well done HBI.