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!

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!