Category Archives: Creative

Creativity and the new year

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Why is it when a new year rolls around I always want to make a list of all these great things I want to start. The problem is I really don’t like making resolutions, but I am a goal making. But come the new year I tend to want to make tons of new goals, ones I know I’ll never accomplish. So I’m trying very hard to not make ridiculous goals for 2012, ones I know I can’t keep. But there are some things I want to work towards, one of them, taking more photos.

I would really love to do a 365 photo project, but I tried it last year, and I didn’t stick with it. I want to try it again this year, but I hate to join something just because it’s that time of year, and then fizzle out in a month or so. Plus, I don’t know of a 365 photo project out there. But I am going to try and follow what I was doing last year with Mommytography 365. I won’t put as much pressure on myself, trying to find the ‘perfect’ picture for each day. But I am going to try very hard to pick up my camera every day. I’ll keep posting weekly, because daily just won’t work for me. I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep calling it 52 Weeks of Photo Fun or not, but look for my first post next Sunday.

I was blessed with some camera gear for Christmas. The biggest one that I just love is from my hubby, he got me a wireless remote for my camera. :D I can’t wait to use it more and more. I also am trying those lens cap holders (I don’t know what they are called). You have a stretchy band you put around your lens and stick the other end on your lens cap. So when you take the cap off, it just dangles there and you don’t have to find a place to put it. I’m still not sure if I like it or not, it takes a little getting use to. But I asked for them because I was constantly leaving the cap all over, or not having a place to put it when I took pictures. I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes. The other thing I got was a beautiful background my friend made me. I’m always trying to take photos of things against my carpet or table and it just doesn’t look good. My friend, who is a photographer too, heard me say how much I needed some sort of background, so she sewed one together for me. One side is tan, one is green, it’s so pretty. You’ll be noticing it in my upcoming pictures. ;)

Besides photography, I’ve been blessed with another new way to be creative. My mom and sister started using the Knifty Knitter, and my sister especially loves it. She got me all excited to try something new and my mom, being the sweet, sweet person she is, bought me some looms so I can try it. I do enjoy yarn crafts, especially crocheting, but I’ve never taken to knitting. I’ve wanted to make hats, slippers and such, but just never took to it with knitting. The more I looked at the Knifty Knitter, I realized how fun it would be to try and make those things with it. What do you think?

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Don’t you love the background my friend made? :)
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I’m going to start working with them today. I can’t wait to see how it works. Maybe it’s not considered ‘true’ knitting, but I think I’m going to have fun with it. I’ll make sure I take pictures and let you know what I think of it.

I hope you have had a blessed beginning to your new year.

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A new header

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Well, I played some more with creating a different header, and though I still don’t like this one 100%, I do like it enough to put it out there.  Still trying to learn how to put things together in an artistic sort of way.

I’m also getting ready to crochet some coasters.  It’s a new pattern I found in this cute little crochet kit my mom got me a while ago.  I’m also looking to crochet a headband for Sarah.  I had the perfect pattern, found it in a library book, but now I can’t remember the book.  I’ll have to go to the library and see if I can find it again.  And then I need to start making a list of books with patterns I like, so I won’t forget in the future.

I’m also looking to crochet some bookmarks.  I have one pattern I like, but I’m thinking of trying to find another pattern.  I always like to try new patterns, when I can.

So what about you?  Are there things you’ve been creating lately?  Even if it’s not crafts.  Like my friend Jenn said in the comments, she creates a lot, dinners, family memories and many other things.  So what have you been creating lately?  I would love to hear about them.

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Am I being creative?

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That has been the question on my mind lately.  And I think the answer is yes, I am being creative, or at least trying to be.  I want to change my header to reflect more of what a do.  A collage picture of my crafts, cooking, photo taking etc…  I worked for about 2 hours today, trying to put one together, and I don’t like it.  So as you can see I didn’t upload it.  Like I said before, this is the area I struggle with, coming up with something creative from scratch.  I will admit, I’m a bit frustrated, I really wanted to load up a new header today, but I just don’t like the way it came together.  But I have learned a lot more about my photo editing program, Paint Shop Pro V9.0, and for that I am thankful.  I’m still trying to learn it, and it’s not that popular, so sometimes it’s hard to find good helpful articles on it.  But I did find some helpful articles today, and I learned something new.  I can now put a picture collage together, I just have to pick better photos and a better layout.  So hopefully soon you will be seeing a new header on my blog.

I have also been working on the cross-stitch project for my son, and I’m all done with the main stitching.  Now I just need to work on the back stitching, which takes me a while sometimes.  This is a picture of it before I finished the main stitching.

Besides that I’ve been working on closing out our homeschool year.  I have next year roughed out, so I know when we need to start.  I’m getting the last grades put into my grade book.  The next big thing is I need to go through their piles of paper and pick out their best work for their school portfolios.  I try to pick the best all year long, but usually the last half of the year I forget to.  Which is exactly what happened this year.  I have a pile of paperwork to go through.  I’ll take pictures of the pile, and my work through it.  It will take me a couple of hours to look through them.  But it’s always fun to look through all my children’s work they’ve done throughout the year.  If you want to see what my portfolios has looked like before, you can go here. 

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The creative side of me

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I took a bit of an unplanned blogging break over the last couple of weeks.  My daughter was in her first drama/musical in our church.  So between more rehearsals, the performances and life in general, my blog was a bit neglected.

During that time I was also thinking about the direction and description of this blog.  And though I’m still thinking and praying through a lot of things, I did come to one conclusion, I want this to be more of a creative blog for me.  Whether I’m creating articles, crafts, photos, food or something else, I want to use this blog as a way to showcase what I’ve created.  So if you notice I changed the description of this blog.

I can easily talk myself out of thinking I’m a creative person.  I don’t ‘create’ in the sense that I make my own designs or anything like that.  I need to have a pattern to follow, or have the colors picked out for me.  As much as I enjoy taking photos, I really have a hard time ‘seeing’ shots.  I’m a technical person.  I like to fix computer things, or pretty much anything technical.  So I can easily think “JoAnn, you are not a creative person.”  And if I compare myself to what others do, then maybe I’m not.  Or if I think “Why write about a certain topic, it’s already been written about.”  Maybe that’s true.  But should either of those two thoughts keep me from doing the creative things that I do like to do?  Or should they make me think I’m not creative?  No.

I was recently turned on to a new blog that I have really enjoyed reading, Chatting at the sky.  She is such an encouraging writer.  This post she wrote spoke exactly to what I’ve been dealing with, and to read it was such an encouragement.

So now I’m on the road to trying to allow myself to be my kind of creative, and I hope to share on here more and more.  And on that note I am going to leave you with one of my creative endeavors, photography.  I took this picture last May.  I’m really hoping our weather becomes that nice again soon.

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