Creativity Journal - Day 7 (Stencil)

One week down! See how fast it goes? Today, make a stencil and use it in your work.

I missed yesterday. I know. And I knew it would happen - days missed along the way. I refuse to turn this into a chore. The bane of being a recovering perfectionist is the ability to turn anything and everything into a burden. Creativity requires discipline, but it shouldn't create guilt.

So, a stencil. I toyed with the idea of a word stencil. I regularly use the glass panels of the shower cubicle and the huge bathroom mirror for messages. I usually print the message, tape the sheets of paper to the glass, and draw on the opposite side. If I want to read the message in the shower, I write backwards on the outside of the glass. It's sort of in the same vein as a stencil, but I checked the definition (curse that perfectionism) and a stencil is laid over the top and the image imprinted underneath.

God utters me like a word containing a partial thought of Himself. (Thomas Merton)

The above quote, from Thomas Merton, would have fit my word theme beautifully. And it was long overdue to be cleaned off and redone. However, all those curlicues were a little off-putting. Plus, stencils all need to have linkages and too many pieces in the letters are 'loose'.

I believe in my stash of craft goodies there is a bottle of fabric medium, so I could have stencilled something on fabric. But I came up a blank as to something I wanted/needed/would use. None of my current projects were appropriate.

Traditionally, stencilling is a wall art project. But there are no walls in our house currently requiring any additional art.

All was not lost though. After pondering for 48 hours (hence missing yesterday) I came up with an idea. Two days ago we finally bought my longed-for lime tree and appropriately sized pot. In theory, by growing the tree in a pot, if we move it can come with us. In reality, that's highly unlikely to happen. Still, it works best for our garden.

I was very particular about the size pot I wanted. Citrus are hungry plants and need decent food supply. The pot had to be tall to allow for a suitable depth of soil. It also had to be reasonably wide to allow for decent root reach. When we finally found the perfect pot, it was white. Why anyone would produce white garden pots is beyond me. Just how long do they think they're going to stay white? Hubby was all for painting it immediately. My preference was to let it age gracefully (or not). I have now compromised - it is painted and aging gracefully.

This is my stencil. Working in negative space seems easy, until you start cutting. It actually requires a little twist of the brain. My stencil is two layers. The 'flesh' section and a separate rind section. Not for any fancy reason, just because I stuffed up cutting out the rind the first time. The stencil material is binding cover plastic. It has a fair amount of rigidity, but cuts easily with scissors.

Before use

Post use

The biggest issue was actually finding something that would stick to the slightly moist concrete pot. Duct tape to the rescue. I've used an interior paint. It was the perfect colour for a lime tree. It may not last, but that's okay. I've saved my stencil, so I can redo it at some point if I want.

Here's my finished pot. Not word related, not fabric related, but creative. Now to pray that the rain stays away long enough for the paint to dry.

If you could stencil anything, what would it be?

Creativity Journal - Day 6 (Fruit/Vegetable)

Look in the kitchen and work with the first fruit or vegetable you spot. It could be in the form of juice, jam or even canned.

The first fruit/vegetable I spotted was an old apple, an old banana and several tomatoes in the fruit bowl on the table. The banana is slatted for banana bread. Baking is creative, but doesn't really fit my themes. The tomatoes are expensive. Why, I'm not really sure. They're as tough as old boot leather and about as tasty. Leaving the apple for me to play with.

There is a quilt pattern known as the Apple Core. I've never made one. All those curved edges, which have to meet at the points. I have enough trouble getting straight edges to meet at the points. Still, it's an interesting pattern. What I did discover tonight is, if your template is perfect the thing doesn't work. IF I should ever decide to make this pattern, I think I will purchase a plastic template to ensure accuracy.

The word connection with apples is, I believe, quite obvious. 'A is for Apple', it's one of the first things you learn related to words and the alphabet.

In theory and viewing, my creative challenge tonight hasn't been much of a challenge. However, I have discovered that old, wrinkly apples do not carve easily. The wrinkles distort and hide the lines you mark. And, unlike fabric, you can't unstitch and start again. Still, I was creative. I did something I wouldn't normal do. I re-discovered a quilt pattern that could be an interesting challenge to make (with fabric), so not exactly a wasted effort.

Apple Core quilt pattern, with a few mis-cut 'seams'.

This is an apple!

A is for Apple

I do hope the chooks appreciate my creative effort.

What would working with fruit or vegetables inspire you to do?

Creativity Journal - Day 5 (Collections)

No, don't go looking, there is no Day 4 entry. Day 4 requires a five minute walk. My current project is the garden - lots of digging and lugging of dirt and tools and plants. After a couple of hours of getting muddy, I'm not walking any further than the bathroom. The garden project will hopefully last until the weekend. Hope is based on the weather, pacing myself and not getting hurt. (Point 2 and 3 may or may not be related.) Therefore, I decided (my creativity, my rules) that I would "postpone" Day 4 until a more suitable time and keep on moving on. Otherwise, I'm likely to stall after just three days.

Introducing Day 5:

What do you collect? Work with a collection of objects you have in your home (or borrow a friend's if you like).

What do I collect? Nothing on purpose, lots of things in the course of just living my life. The first thing that came to my mind; however, was books. I love books. I'd love an unlimited budget (and space) to buy all the books I could imagine. Books are an obvious fit for the word theme I'm following, but what about the fabric theme? Today is one of those days I thought would happen, where I combine both themes. To create this challenge, I have used books from my craft stash. I have only two shelves of crafting, mainly sewing, books, which is quite restrained on my part, I feel.

This is View 1 of my creative challenge. As you can see from some of the covers, these are mainly sewing books.

The green book on the far right is very special.

It was given to me when I was in primary school by a family friend. It's called "The Australian girls' book of crafts, pets, sports and hobbies" by Prudence and Anthony Harvey. It's all black and white; no colour pages. It has over 80 topics and covers just about anything a girl could have been interested in in the 70s.

I credit it with being one of my earliest inspirations to be creative. Sadly, it never really inspired me to be athletic, although it covers nearly 20 sporting activities.

But, back to today's creative challenge. This is View 2:

Books are words

What do you collect? Stamps, coins, something unusual, or just dust bunnies under the bed?

Building a garden

The hubby and I are not gardeners. Ironic really, because he worked as a gardener for five years. For most of the time we've been in this house water restrictions applied, and any garden that was, soon became wasn't. With our long-planned renovations steaming ahead, the garden is starting to get a little more attention.

Our renovations all seem to be of the domino variety - when we do this, then we can do that, after which we can get that done. When the first domino requires massive effort (and/or cost) to get done, everything goes on hold. The front garden was waiting on the deck, the deck was waiting on ... well, I'm not sure what the deck was waiting on. Thanks to our wonderful neighbour (aka the Energiser Bunny on Steroids) the decks (yes, two) are now complete.

The lower deck requires steps - one on the side (right hand side of the photo) and three on the front (left hand side of the photo), but otherwise it's now complete. This means I know where the paths needs to go in the garden, so I know where I can plant stuff.

Yesterday and today I cleared, weeded, levelled and weed-matted the garden from the deck to the fence. I bought plants for hedging row for the path and a couple of fillers.The section of garden in the foreground of the photo above is planted and coming along so-so. I'm hoping for a growth spurt in everything in spring. The rest of the front garden is either bare dirt or weeds, with just a couple of 'stayers' (plants that I intend to keep).

While clearing I found three pots of orchids, which I placed (very carefully) at the base on a tree about 18 months ago. I have since completely forgotten about them; absolutely ignored them. They were from my nana's collection, so I was very pleased to re-discover them today and to discover that they appear to be alive. I have repotted them in hanging baskets on the fence. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they die of shock from being tended to. One of them had nearly no potting mix/dirt in the pot at all. Although, it actually looks the healthiest of the lot.

Tomorrow I will dig holes and plant out today's purchases. The day after I will start to spread mulch over the area that I've now weed matted. I'm not sure how long this 'creative spurt' will last. The next section of the garden requires a fair bit of muscle power - moving some gravel and dirt, an old concrete tub and the like. It may have to wait until Muscles has a day off ;-)

The current view from our deck. Starting to look like a real garden.

No creative journal entry today. The challenge was to take a five minute walk and create something with what you find in the area. I haven't taken any walks today. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a five minute walk from the garage to the garden with a bucket of mulch.

Creativity Journal - Day 3 (Paper)

Make something out of paper, but don't use scissors or glue or draw on it. What now? (And no, you don't have to know origami to do this.)

I was a little perplexed how to go about today's challenge. I haven't mentioned it yet, but one of my rules is that creations are not to create clutter. I don't want to end up with a bunch of things I have no use for just so I can say I was creative.

I could think of lots of things to make from paper without using scissors or glue or drawing. But to make something that also related to words or fabric AND was useful or wanted? The brain cells had to work a little harder.

For my words project I have an embossed bookmark. The card was a strip left over from scrap booking, so technically, I didn't use scissors for this project. Although writing is a form of drawing, I have chosen to believe that by not using a traditional drawing implement, I have fulfilled the spirit of the challenge. (My creativity, my rules.)

The bookmark is for my happiness journal. Some time ago I watched Shawn Achor on TED talking about the 'happiness advantage'. His research, based on chemical analysis and brain functions, indicates that being happy leads to success, rather than the common perception that success leads to happiness.Something he mentioned made perfect sense to me. The goal posts of success are constantly moving. If we set success as graduating, once we achieve that, we set a new mark in the sand - get a job, then, get a promotion, then ... and on it goes.

At the end of his talk, Shawn talked about a 21day challenge. The challenge is quite simple - perform five simple tasks every day for 21 days to improve your happiness. The five simple tasks really help you focus on perception of reality; changing your view from negative to positive. Those five tasks are: exercise, meditate, let someone in your network know you value them (and why), record three things (different every day) that you're thankful for, and journal about one positive thing that happened during day. If you watch Shawn's video, he explains the rationale for each.

As I mentioned when I started this creativity project, I'm not real good at day-to-day routine. I started the 21-day challenge several times. I did end up completing 21 consecutive days. Since then my journaling has been a little sporadic (although not as sporadic as my exercising). I do think it's a good idea to 'count your blessings, name them one by one'. I think we too often see the negative and we are quite surprised 'by what the Lord has done' when we stop and think about it.

Moving on to my fabric challenge. Work with paper using a fabric theme. Hmmmm. Although it sounds contradictory, this set me less challenges than working with words. I put an old needle in the sewing machine, took a piece of scrap book paper, folded it, sewed it and hey, presto, a pocket for paper off-cuts from my current scrap booking endeavours.

Are you any good at origami? What's the best thing you've ever folded?

Of mice and men

It's a beautiful winter's day, but the sun hasn't quite made it my living room. In the meantime, I'm using the mouse with my left hand so I can wrap my right around the tea cup and warm it up. it's strange how un-co that is. Strange because at work I always use my mouse left handed. It drives IT up the wall. But I always know when someone else has used my machine, because they never, ever return the mouse to the left.

When mice first started to become "normal", you couldn't set the speed the thing moved or reacted. I was having difficulty controlling it (bizarre thought now) and one piece of advice I read was to use it with your non-dominate hand. After a while I could use it equally comfortably with either hand. I made a decision to use it left-handed at work and right-handed at home to spread the strain. Eventual carpel tunnel in both wrists instead of one, anyone? Hubby is a leftie, so he gets to use the mouse with his non-dominate hand at home.

One other advantage of left-handed mouse use is that it's easier to keep things central and reachable. With the mouse of the right, you have to cross over the number keypad to reach it. On my smaller desk, I find I keep shoving the keyboard to the left, off centre, to have room for the mouse. With the mouse on the left, the main section of the keyboard is centred on the desk.

Our main home mouse (we have a number of computers; more computers than people actually) is symmetrical. I know you can get lovely ergonomic mice, but have you noticed they are for righties? I've avoided them because there is a leftie in the house and because of my mouse-ambidexterity. So, if this mouse is completely symetrical, and I'm used to using a mouse left-handed for five or six hours a day, why does it feel so awkward to use it left-handed?

Bit of a moot point now. My tea is drunk, my cup is cold and I can move the mouse back to 'where it belongs'.

Creativity Journal - Day 2 (Favourite Animal)

What's your favourite animal? Use it as your inspiration today.

My favourite animal is a difficult one. I love my cat, I like other people's cat, but cat's are also one of the most destructive creature in the Australian landscape, so I wouldn't say cats are my favourite animal. Today's efforts will represent two favourites. Firstly, my play with words:

For my fabric play I continue to work on the heirloom embroideries. The current piece is a large doily (yesterday's flowers) and two smaller doilies. The smaller ones are already stitched; the larger one is in progress. In addition to the flowers, each doily has a blue bird. Today's TV project is finish the remaining blue bird. I love birds, all birds. There is such diversity. Australian birds are colourful, tuneful, intelligent. Not always all in one bird, the poor ol' raven is not colourful or tuneful, but they are incredibly intelligent.

The darker two (to the right) were already completed. These are on the smaller two doilies.
The bird to the left is on the larger doily and is today's fabric fun.

My little blue bird of creativity.

What's your favourite animal?Why?