Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes!

This weekend has been a little odd - I'm writing this on Sunday morning - as Adrian has been away, leaving just me and the little guy to amuse ourselves! So what did we do, and did it involve creativity?

No smoothies for a start! I joined the boy and had cereal and toast breakfasts, but I think I was less messy than him! (I hope so anyway!)

No dinners either! Fish and chips on Friday - Simon loves both! And leftovers on Saturday.

Trip to the park Saturday morning with Aunty. Good conversation and fun, which always energises me. Somehow, for me, things seem better, funnier etc if you can share them with some one, either at the time, or afterwards! Perhaps that's why I like to make art? I like to share my feelings and experiences!

And my evenings?

Friday was creative in that I worked in paperwork for my childminding business. I don't really call writing policies creative, but it is working towards the life I want to create I suppose. I'd still rather not be doing it though!

Saturday was fun! I'd set that aside for creativity and did the following...

I finished the I spy quilt! Yay! I'll try and get some better photos, but this shows that I gave it a test run and snuggled up in the sofa to do...

These are blind contour drawings, where you look at the object, not at the drawing! I've recently started following this blog http://taraleaver.com/ and she offers a free drawing course! Free! Drawing! Got to be worth a try, right?

So this was the first lesson, and it was fun. It reminds you to look and frees up your hand to move. Drawing definitely needs practice to get better.

Tomorrow's post will include food...I'm welcoming my big fella home with a nice meal! 

Coloured scribble and snickers smoothie

Today I am posting about smoothies because I tried a new one yesterday, mostly because we'd had raspberry based smoothies for two days, then I went and bought some more raspberries, but I wanted a change! (I could have got strawberries but I thought, yum, I like raspberries, then realised we'd had a rather raspberry heavy week! At least it's all healthy!) 

Anyway...snickers smoothie! Three bananas, three teaspoons of peanut butter, three teaspoons of coco (not drinking chocolate!), a couple of handfuls of baby kale and some almond milk. (I always fill our blender up to the 3 cup mark, once I have put the other ingredients in, but it's about 500ml)

It was very yummy! Probably because it's not quite a healthy as our normal smoothie, but still healthy!

I also did some scribbling with coloured pens yesterday.

I wanted to see what some of my previous scribble techniques would look like if I used colour. I really like the circles! 

I also started a kind of zentangle, but as they are a very specific technique and I have messed about with it here, I'm not sure it it strictly speaking a zentangle, more a filling in with patterns and colours! If you're not sure what a zentangle is, this website has some good information http://tanglepatterns.com/zentangles/what-is-a-zentangle

Interestingly it felt a bit restrictive so I may not finish this one. I feel at the moment that I want to be a bit more free, a bit more random, a bit more go with the flow!

If you want find out more I can recommend this book about zentangle, which helps you get started and helps you develop and personalise the technique. You can get it on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Zentangle-Day-Relaxation-Inspiration/dp/1592538118/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471592610&sr=1-1&keywords=one+zentangle+a+day

I don't get any money for plugging Amazon (I wish!) but I do love to share a good resource...it comes from being a librarian's daughter! 

Have a fun and creative weekend! 

Erm...

Erm...well...yesterday was a busy day, spending time with friends, then out line dancing in the evening. So what did I create?

I made a breakfast smoothie, but no new recipe.

Dinner was stuff out the freezer, so no real creativity there.

And that's it. No time for any sketching, or sewing, or baking. 

But I had lots of fun anyway. So I have learnt that though I need creativity in my life, a day off is not the end of the world, especially if it full of fun stuff! 

Scribbles and visions

After my doodles on Monday I did some more doodling, trying out shapes and just going with whatever came into my head, no plan, no design.

It's so nice to just get drawing again!

To inspire me further I bought this book, all about drawing with red, blue and black biros! Perfect for this time of life, when I might just have those lying about the place, when I don't have time to get out lots of paints or want the 'help' I might get from a certain small person, when I don't want fabric full of pins lying around everywhere in case it gets stepped on. It's full of good starting points. I can't wait to try some out!

I also got this book.

Well, maybe I don't mind fabric with pins lying about in certain places, like behind the closed door of the spare room where I have my sewing corner! Plus it's just full of cute ideas I could adapt and make my own.

It's always tricky when you get to a certain level of expertise and in a way you don't want another step by step book as you have the techniques already, but they are good for ideas, and you can adapt them.

I like to have a vision, to have ideas for what I want to work on next, and I think that has been missing for a while, as my vision has been all about the house. Now is the time to re-envision myself, to think about my hopes and dreams.

One thing already in my plan is some monoprinting. This is a cool, quick, fun technique. Here's a quick YouTube tutorial from a guy called the Snake Artist...the video has got some snakes at the beginning so if you don't like snakes...the tutorial is good though!

https://youtu.be/El6aIKAIvTA

Tracey Emin, who is one of my favourite artists, has done lots of monoprinting. (If you google it you will find some stuff that is not suitable for kids, just so you know!) 

Here's a longer tutorial that she's done, which is more the technique I've used.

http://www.ideastap.com/IdeasMag/the-knowledge/sky-academy-southbank-show-masterclasses-tracey-emin

Just need to find where I put all my printing stuff when we moved...

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!

Paint...everywhere!

Yesterday's creativity was mostly aimed at helping Simon be creative.

I made a breakfast smoothie...back to khaki I'm afraid, as it had strawberries in it!

Simon and I then did some painting. We went into the garden and I put down a plastic cloth and a big piece of paper and put some paint in a dish. I stripped Simon down to his nappy and let him get stuck in!

We had a great time! Simon preferred to paint his body rather than the paper, and he liked the paint being squirted directly on to the paper rather than in the dish. He found it easier to move around like that, and kept asking for 'bore' which means 'more!'

This was the final masterpiece, and he was so pleased with it! 

After our last go at paining like this (see my post 'plagiarism and getting messy' http://joscreativeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/plagiarism-and-getting-messy.html) I tried really hard to just relax and go with the flow, and I think I did well, as Simon was basically a multicoloured baby, and I had a fair bit of paint on me too. I'm glad we were outdoors though, as when it came time to wash off the paint I discovered it stained - Simon now has a tide line of brown round his tummy where his nappy was, and I have stained trousers! Thank goodness it was a hot day, the paddling pool was out and Simon quite likes being squirted with the sprinkler on the hose! Once the worst was off I cuddled him up in a towel and up into the shower to warm up!

As the saying goes 'you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs' and if you are going to be creative you have to be able to cope with mistakes, stains, disappointments, disasters, successes and going with the flow.

When I was doing my final piece for my Foundation diploma, I so didn't want to do an installation...it was just too art studenty. And what did I do? Take a look here http://joscreativeblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Foundation and at other June 2012 posts. I remember a sense of inevitability that it HAD to be an installation, as in the piece wanted it. It wasn't my choice, other than I went with it, but it was the way the art work needed to go. I hadn't really experienced that before, but it is exactly what happened.