Sneak it in when you can!

Yesterday just seemed to fly by as we had a play date in the morning, and then me and Simon both crashed out for an afternoon nap! Zzz! Can't be creative if you're too tired, so these naps are important! 

I did make smoothie for breakfast...blueberry cinnamon, but I forgot the cinnamon, oops! And it was khaki...

I also did some lettering practice.

I recently started Bible journalling, which is illustrating, making notes, writing things in your Bible. My handwriting needed some improvement as it is sadly underused these days! (When I was a teacher and regularly using a black board - yes, I am that old - and a white board it looked quite good...now not so good!)

The key to good lettering is practice and experimenting, so here's the lettering I tried, complete with crossing out where I didn't like the result.

And what about the sneaking it in? I did the lettering in 5 minutes while waiting for Adrian to come and join me on the sofa to watch an episode of Death in Paradise! I'm learning to snatch those opportunities when I can!

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! 

Creativity on a busy day

Yesterday was crazy busy...swimming lessons, lunch with Adrian, a play date with a friend and then popping in to pick up a bib I'd left at another friend's house.

So did I do anything creative?

Yes!

I made a strawberry, banana and kale smoothie! We've been having green smoothies for breakfast for a while. I guess they are called green because of the kale or spinach because they always look this colour! It's a shame because this one started out a beautiful pink but once the kale got involved, it was khaki breakfast time!

Simon had a brief nap before swimming (as in I put him in his cot and he burbled for 20 minutes before I decided a nap just wasn't going to happen!) so I did a couple of lines of quilting on his I spy quilt....which I now have to unpick as they ended up horribly wrinkled and even a good press did not solve the problem! Oh poop! Such is the challenge of using 4 way stretch fleece as a quilt backing! But it's just soooo fluffy and such a cute design that I will just wield the seam ripper and sort out my stretchy wrinkles! (On the quilt not on me...)

I decided to do my blog about the previous day so if I sneak in any cheeky creative stuff later in the evening it can all be included. So bring on Tuesday and let's see what I can create today!

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!

Fish puppet

Sorry, no instructions or taken while I made it photos, as this was made very quickly while Simon had his morning nap!

It's a puppet, so we can sing along to a favourite song from Barnacles, the toddler group we used to go to in Brighton. Every week we sang a song called Mr Cow by Julia Plaut, all about how the animals on the farm said to God they loved him. Everyone got an animal puppet to wave at the right time. Simon loved it so we downloaded the album God's Wonderful World from iTunes. I wanted to sing it with puppets at home, and being rather a hoarder of puppets I already had Mr Cow, Mr Sheep, Mr Duck and Mr Pig. I managed to buy Mr Horse and Mr Chicken quite cheaply, but nowhere had a fish puppet, cheap or otherwise. I tried looking for a fish wash mitt or oven glove, but no luck. 

So I made this Mr Fish! Here's how...

1-cut two fish shapes from cotton fabric

2- cut scales from felt or fleece. Sew on one of the fish shapes in rows, starting at the tail end so they overlap. Don't out scales right to the edge of the fabric, leave the seam allowance without scales, so they are nicely flappy when you sew it together.

3 - add stripes on the tail

4- add a fin just in front of the scales

5- add a small circle of fleece for the eye, then sew a button on top.

6- on the other fish shape, sew a pocket for your hand (see photo further down) remember to leave the bottom open

7- put the scaly side and the pocket side together and sew round the fish shape LEAVING the pocket unseen so you can turn the fish the right way out.

8- snip the curves and turn the fish the right way out.

9- stuff lightly with toy stuffing

10- stitch up the gap in the fish, making sure not to stitch the pocket shut

11- sing Mr. Cow using the puppets! Yay!

Hopefully now you can see what I mean about a pocket in the back, you just put your hand in and Mr Fish swims around in the pond all day, and says plop, plop, plop! 

Where on earth have you been?

Ok, so it's been a looking while since I posted on this blog...as in over two years! Do I have an excuse? Well, my creative energy has been going into this little project!

This is Simon who was born last year. He now looks like this!

He is a gorgeous, cheeky guy and takes up a lot of time. There is still time to be creative though.

This is a quilt panel that I stitched into some blue fleece. It's a comfy play mat for the floor. (Excuse the creases, we've been playing on them today!)

This is another play mat, a construction site panel, which was Simon's Christmas present, along with some little vehicles that sing! (Yes, they drive you crazy!)

There are also some clothes I've made, and of course purée!

This is today's project - a sensory bottle, made with buttons, loom bands and glitter. I glued the lid shut, just to be sure!

As you can see, little one was interested!

Here it is in action! Whoopee! I love how the buttons and bands start at opposite ends of the bottle, and all three ingredients take different times to settle! 

City backpack

I wanted to make a backpack, a small one, suitable to use as a handbag. I found this pattern which was brilliant, really easy to use, with good clear instructions.

I used up some fabric from my overly extensive stash, using a patterned piece for lining and detail, and orange for the rest. I changed the straps from the original, as I prefer a padded strap, and the handle on the top turned out a little longer than I wanted, but I'm still really pleased with it.

Here's some more photos.

The straps, padded with fleece, and with proper backpack buckles, which are hard to find other than online.

The interior, with an orange pocket, and one of my 'created by Jo Chorlton' labels. I used gold cord for my drawstring.

The front panel was chosen carefully to make good use of the design. I love frogs, so this is the bit I chose. I worked the rest of the pattern round cutting out this piece.