Inspiring and nurturing creativity...and pasta

I've got a bit distracted...I decided on Wednesday night that I wanted to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I loved watching it again but it meant no evening to do much creative. Then we decided to keep going and watched most of the Chamber of Secrets last night. 

When time is limited, sometimes you have to make a choice. I had to choose sit and immerse myself in a great film that's a real favourite or spend some time doing some drawing or sewing. Tough choice, but both have their benefits. Although I didn't get to do much creative, watching the film topped up my sense of creativity and magic and possibility. Creativity needs to be fed and natured, not just by doing it yourself, but also by enjoying the work of others. After my last blog post with the free spirit drawing, a friend recommended a song of that title by her favourite band. I had a listen and downloaded it because it captured some of what I am trying to capture. Inspiration comes from many places. 

So have I done anything creative over the last couple of days?

I did some more work on the gift I am making, but no photos!

I also made pasta bolognese in the slow cooker. Simon enjoyed it, but me and Adrian decided the sauce was good but slow cooked pasta is not so great!

Here's the leftovers for Simon's dinner tonight!

Quilting and cooking

Here's what I cooked yesterday, to welcome back the wanderer! 

Moroccan chicken from the Good Food pressure cooker cook book. (You can just see it in the background)  I did it in my electric pressure cooker, which I love and is one of the most used kitchen gadgets. 

I also made this in my food processor, another much used kitchen gadget!

A blackberry and clotted cream shortcake! I spotted the recipe on Facebook and shared it with Adrian who said 'yes please!' It's a BBC Good Food recipe and you can find it here. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2857/blackberry-and-clotted-cream-shortcake-

Both were delicious! 

And here's some better photos of Simon's I spy quilt. The idea is to have lots of fun print and then play I spy with all the pictures. I made mine a snap and I spy quilt so I had two squares of every fabric, so we can play matching and spotting! I used a disappearing 9 patch pattern. I backed it with fleece.

Here's the finished quilt draped over the sofa.

Here's some close ups.

I quilted either side of the seams.

Here's the back.

I even put one of my labels on it!

I'm really thrilled with how it turned out. And of course I have two more quilts in the planning stage!

Doodles and dinner

Yesterday was a rather paper heavy day, but not in a fun, creative way! Instead I was busy preparing policies and procedures for my childminding business.  I suppose it could be viewed as creative, because I am making something, but for me, it's a bit like mopping the kitchen floor; yes, it helps create a clean and welcoming home, but...

Perhaps I am missing out on something here? Perhaps these tasks that I deem boring, repetitive and relentless have creativity in them, or at least are building blocks to creating something bigger. The policies are needed to create the successful childminding business, with my vision of fun, creative, home from home care I want to provide. Mopping the kitchen floor means my home is clean and so I can cook without giving anyone food poisoning. It is also part of the tidy up after being creative in the kitchen, never my favourite bit of any creative project, but unless you tidy up, you haven't got space to do something else, or enjoy what you've done.

So what creativity did I have space and time for yesterday? 

I did some doodling on some redundant documents!

I also made dinner and forgot to take photos...again! The trouble is, by the time it's cooked I just want to tuck in!  I made chorizo and potato jumble, my own invention.

Boil some new potatoes until just cooked. I did 10, chopped into quarters.

In a roasting tin, put some chopped mushrooms, red onion, tomato slices and chorizo. I used about 100g for two of us. 

Add the potatoes and drizzle on olive oil. Add some black pepper.

Bung in the oven, on 180 for about an hour. Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally to get those lovely chorizo juices on everything.

Yummy! 

Those monkeys? Nothing to do with me!

LWeekend catch up this morning!

Saturday was a fun day with a trip down to Airbourne. Lots of watching the Red Arrows, eating a yummy lunch and chilling out back here at home.

No smoothie as we had a cheeky cooked breakfast, and no dinner as we had the left overs from Friday's takeaway!

Sunday had a bit more creativity. 

Back on the breakfast smoothies again...and as this happens every morning and is basically the same recipe every morning - 2 bananas, couple of handfuls of kale or spinach, almond milk and some other fruit - I have decided not to bore you with it unless I try something different. I kind of feel that although I am making something, it is not really challenging my creativity, and is probably not an area where I want to put lots of creative time and thought.

I made vegetable chow mein for dinner. No photos as I forgot to take them! Easy recipe which I usually use for chicken or prawns but as we were having spare ribs I just made it with veggies. 

You marinate veggies, or chicken, or prawns or Quorn in dark soy sauce, sesame oil, cornflour and Chinese 5 spice. You cook the noodles, then stir fry the marinating mix (if you are doing chicken or prawn, I add spring onions, red pepper and bean sprouts at this point) Add the cooked noodles to the stir fry mix and there you go! Yummy! 

Not my recipe, I got it from this book which you can get on Amazon. Nice easy recipes, and usually not a huge list of crazy ingredients!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chinese-Food-Made-Ching-He-Huang/dp/0007264984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471243361&sr=8-1&keywords=chinese+food+made+easy

I also did some drawing.

This is how I want to be...lighter, freer, more random, more scattered. Not everyone's choice, I know! Most people want to be more organised, not more random, but in order to feel lighter and freer, I need space to be random and scattered. Routine helps a bit, but restraint does not. I kick against it, I feel anxious and suffocated, and a tiny bit rebellious! 

I also did some thinking about being judgmental. I realised I need to be less in everyone else's business, as well as being kinder to myself. (Awful to think that whatever I am judging myself so harshly for, e.g Simon's grubby face means I am not a caring mother, I probably apply to others...who wants to be that person? Not me, no sirree!) 

In the spirit of this, I printed out this colouring page.

This is a Polish saying which means, not my problem. I need to remind myself when I start getting all Judgy McJudgeface with other people that it's not my circus, those aren't my monkeys! In other words, butt out! 

Now that all got a bit heavy, so just to end on a lighter note, here is my favourite monkey in my circus!

Classic movie quote!

"Jules, y'know, honey... this isn't real. You know what it is? It's St. Elmo's Fire. Electric flashes of light that appear in dark skies out of nowhere. Sailors would guide entire journeys by it, but the joke was on them... there was no fire. There wasn't even a St. Elmo. They made it up. They made it up because they thought they needed it to keep them going when times got tough, just like you're making up all of this. We're all going through this. It's our time at the edge."

This quote is from a film which was a big part of my teenage years. If you don't recognise it, I will tell you at the end of this post! 

Why am I quoting it? Because I feel like some of the angst of the past few weeks has been St Elmo's Fire. The stress levels are falling now the house is all finished and in order to keep the adrenaline levels up I whipped up a storm about nothing. But the stupid thing is, I don't want to live on my nerves. I want to be fun, lighthearted, relaxed. 

The main thing I've felt that God has been saying to me recently is 'Stop digging!' Stop looking for problems, stop poking beehives with sticks, stop looking for problems when there aren't any. Instead, lift up your head, look around, rest your dirty and battered hands in your lap and just notice where you are and how great it is.

I did some drawing in my journalling Bible about this. The story is in Matthew chapter 8, and describes Jesus and the disciples, some of whom were very experienced fishermen, in a boat in a life threatening storm. Jesus is asleep and the disciples are going crazy with panic, thinking they are all about to die. They wake Jesus up, and he is a bit surprised, asking why they are in such a panic. He then commands the wind and waves to stop...AND THEY DO!!!

Here's my picture for these verses.

I illustrated these verses because Jesus is in my self created storm. He has the power to tell it to stop, to be still. The blustering lies and thoughts, the thundering emotions are stilled because Jesus is more powerful than they are.

I'm watching the storm calm already. The air feels fresher, I feel invigorated now the danger is past, and as if I have been bought somewhere new by the storm; not shipwrecked, but to a new quay, a new fishing ground, a new beach to land on. Exciting, huh?

In the midst of this storm of my own creating, has there been some other creating going on?

Yes!

Another khaki smoothie - strawberry, banana and baby kale with almond milk

I put down some weed proof membrane for a fruit and veg container garden. Simon helped by putting little bits of soil in flowerpots and by dabbling his hands in the cold paddling pool water and the muddy soil,where I watered the plants.

I made a pork casserole type thing using the leftovers from Sunday. I added chick peas, onion, red pepper and chopped tomatoes, chucked the lot in the slow cooker (I have an instant pot which is one of the best kitchen gadgets ever, as in ever!) and 3 hours later we had pork casserole!

Oh, I nearly forgot...

The quote is from the classic 80s Brat Pack movie St Elmo's Fire! If you guessed correctly have some Brownie points...or a chocolate brownie...or a glass of wine. If you didn't guess correctly, or have no idea what I'm talking about, then have a chocolate brownie or glass of wine anyway, and go and watch the film! 

Weekend

Weekends...those days I used to get off from work, but now, being a parent...well, it's not exactly the same!

But I try not to do housework on the weekend...unless it's an emergency...like an exploded nappy, or exploded blender, or actually anything that explodes really.

I do cook though, and this Sunday I made pulled pork. Here it is before it's been pulled. It was very easy. Put it in a pot with a lid, with 500ml water and cook at 160 for 4 hours. Then pull apart with forks.

I added celery and leek to the water, plus thyme and rosemary and garlic, and I rubbed on brown sugar, cumin and pimento.

It was soft and delicious but needs a sauce...a nice rich barbecue type sauce...

I had a bit of a blah week last week, culminating in me writing down some crappy (excuse the language) mummy myths which needed busting. For example, in my head last week feeding Simon baby food pouches meant I had failed and was the equivalent of giving him turkey twizzlers and putting cola in his sippy cup. 

Yup, my head was FULL of that sort of rubbish, so I wrote a list of crappy mummy myths, wrote refuting arguments and crushed 'em!

Then I drew this...

I'm going to colour it in...maybe...or maybe it served its purpose and now I can move on and leave the crappy mummy myths behind. (Did you know that even if you have managed to avoid juice and chocolate but have caved on biscuits and crisps, even the baby ones, then Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are already on their way to picket your house, publicly berate you and lead you through town wearing a placard saying 'bad mummy'? Apparently, it's true!) 

I did do some more creativity related stuff, but I will save that for tomorrow! 

And to the friend who posted on Facebook her beautiful colouring...most definitely creative!

More thoughts on that tomorrow...

Support and permission

After a busy week, me and the little guy had a stay at home day. It started with the groceries being delivered and ended with a night out for me and my big guy!

And in the middle...no housework! 

We all need days like this and it was possible due to support and permission. Adrian said 'don't worry about the housework today' so I didn't! I let it go. And I gave myself permission to do on online shop, rather than drag myself and little one round the supermarket. And Aunty came to babysit so we could have an evening out.

Support and permission - it helps creativity!

Because I didn't have to go to the supermarket, or cook dinner I was able to

Do a couple more lines of quilting on the I spy quilt

Paint my toenails...sorry for the fuzzy close up of my feet. I couldn't decide on the colour so I went for all three that appealed!

Make chicken smoothie! No, it's not a new breakfast smoothie for us, it's pressure cooked chicken, leek, celery and potato which I blitzed in an attempt to get fussy toddler to eat some meat. I even split it into three batches with different flavours. And did he eat it? Of course not! He squished it through his hands until I took it away when veggie Aunty arrived to babysit!

I made Star Wars space ship biscuits using my new bargain cutters from Lakeland. As you can see, some of them have the details showing, but not all. I think I haven't found the right recipe yet. This was a Mary Berry one from her Christmas book, but, unwilling as I am to criticise Mary Berry, it uses self raising flour which meant all the details got lost. Love the shapes though!

To end the day I went out to dinner here http://sabaideethai.co.uk/ with Adrian.

The food was delicious and beautiful. Here's my Pad Thai, with a delicious eggy net across the top!

Lesson from a toddler - play and learn

I've been having a bit of a struggle recently as all the stress of moving calms down, and I try and get into a routine of life without builders around the place, and without all our usual toddler groups going on over the summer. I've packed our time with people to see and places to go, which is great, but tiring when you try and fit in all the other stuff. Yesterday was a prime example - take the car to be serviced (nuisance) and spend time with Mum and Dad (fun) while it's being fixed. Home for a nap and lunch then off to a new friend for a play date. Also fun, but nerve wracking as I realised we hadn't been to many other people's houses since Simon started walking! Other people's houses all full of interesting toys, including many this that you aren't supposed to play with! Simon just wandered in and made himself at home...I would love to be that relaxed and confident!

So was there time for creativity?

There was the inevitable breakfast smoothie, which is our weekday breakfast.

Then there was chocolate chilli which I made for dinner - basic chilli, but I add about a tablespoon of cocoa powder (not hot chocolate, proper cocoa powder) which makes it rich and yummy!

Then there was not a lot. I was tired and feeling a bit fed up really. Adrian had to go out in the evening for a little while so I grabbed my chance and just did some scribbling....literally.

Some more lettering. I like the top one, but the bottom one didn't really work out. It needs more time and thought, and my brain was not in a place to do that last night. Looking at it this morning, perhaps I need to draw circles first, then try 'slicing' the bits out?

After the lettering, I felt I wanted to be freer, I wanted to just draw, not think, just draw, quickly and without a plan or purpose, or even much thought.

So here's the results of that. I'm sure you could read a load of deep meanings into it, but I usually draw swirls and stars, and I like the strength of an underline compared to the flow of a loop or swirl.

I then did this one, which was a bit more purposeful.

And here's the final picture...

I am learning so much from my little guy being around. I've been keeping the tops from his baby food pouches as I thought they would be good to play with. They fit nicely in egg boxes, come in bright colours and are not teeny tiny and have ventilation holes in them if they go in the mouth! I put them on Simon's high chair tray while we ate dinner and he played for well over half an hour! They went in and out the box, in and out an egg box, on the floor with cries of 'help' to ask us to pick them up. I showed him colour sorting using plates from his tea set but that was a step too far at the moment. 

So what did I learn?

Be confident going in to new places...expect to have fun!

Explore things fully, keep playing and playing, trying new stuff and repeating stuff until you get good at it!

Plagiarism and getting messy.

Ok, I admit it...some of the creativity I'm posting today is plagiarised from an up and coming young artist. Tuesdays are always an easier day for creativity as Adrian is out at an evening class, so my time is all my own.

Here is 'my' first bit of creativity from yesterday 

I took Simon to Tiny Towner which is happening every Tuesday morning during July and August at the Towner Art Gallery (here's their website http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/)

They had a great sensory room with mirrors and fabric and books and cushions and lights, and a messy room with the chance to paint with your feet, hands, fingers, bottom, elbows, nose etc etc

As you can see Simon had a great time...and he got messier from here! He loved squishing the paint between his fingers more than mark making, although it was interesting to see his reaction to the cause and effect of paint on your hands being put on paper.

My reaction to his getting this messy was also interesting. I've worked hard on being a relaxed parent, but this made me twitchy. I worried about staining and about me getting messy too. Whenever I do anything like painting, dyeing fabric etc I try and wear old clothes or an apron, and now I don't do too much of that I don't have 'art' clothes that can get messy! I need to remedy this, for myself and for Simon. He needs to be able to just enjoy these experiences, and getting muddy at the park or in the garden and SO DO I! Removing blocks to creativity is essential if I am going to have it in my life.

What else did I create?

Another khaki breakfast smoothie - banana, mango, spinach and almond milk. Very yummy as the mango was really, really ripe, but not pretty, so I will spare you another khaki smoothie photo!

Spinach and cheese filo tart - forgot to take a photo till we'd eaten most of it!

According to the recipe book, it was supposed to be ideal finger food for Simon, but I don't think he read that page as it was rejected without tasting it! Adrian liked it though!

I also unpicked and redid the stitches on the I spy quilt, no new photo as it's the same as the other day! I hate unpicking, but it definitely looks less wrinkled.

I also did some what I call 'colouring' (it is colouring) while watching a couple of episodes of Miranda - such fun! 

How can I find time to be creative?

Life is pretty full on at the moment. Having a 15 month old is a big part of that. He's amazing but balancing his needs, my needs, Adrian's needs and the house's needs is definitely a juggling plates act. When Simon naps I feel torn between trying to do something creative, trying to get some much needed sleep or doing that household task that has been nagging at me since I got up, or if it's the weekend, talking to my husband!

I realised recently that I need to be creative, as in I need to breathe or eat or sleep. Life without a creative outlet is not much fun. In fact it seems like half a life, tiring, boring and relentless.

So I started thinking what creative outlets do I already have in my life? What do I do in the day that's creative in any sense? I want to notice it and enjoy it.

Then I came up with the idea of journalling it here, just for a while, and maybe not every day, but when I can manage. I am determined not to burden myself with stuff that makes life not fun! So no tutorials, and photos if you're lucky!

Here's how I was creative today...

I cleared weeds from this bed, hoping to turn it into a fruit and veg bed in the future.

I weeded the front garden and weed killered the shrub that we dug up, which keeps reappearing! (Does killing stuff count as creative?!) 

I made fish pasta al forno from the River Cottage Baby and Toddler cook book.

Putting this stuff on my blog is not about me saying 'look how fantastic I am'. Blogs that make you feel rubbish because your life isn't the perfect image that they project are just so damaging. In fact it's that kind of blog that makes me feel inadequate and like I am failing all round at life. So this isn't about that, it's about me noticing that I still have creative outlets in my current stage of life. Creativity isn't relegated to the back burner until Simon is bigger; it's running through my life like Brighton through rock.

So expect all kinds of creativity - cooking, sewing, drawing, gardening, making tea, playing a game with Simon. But it'll be honest, the best I could manage in the circumstances type creativity, and I want to notice it and celebrate it!