Nudge

I have a theory about being creative... part of it is an innate talent, to be able to look at a heap of supplies and just create something fabulous. Part of it is from exposure, absorbing ideas and learning concepts about different artistic mediums - what works and what doesn't according to other people's experiences. I tend to rely more on exposure than innate talent and usually spend quite a bit of time with a given medium before I am confident enough to branch out and apply my own artistic elements. But I am easily inspired, given a nudge in any direction...

Some of my favourite nudges, recent and not-so-recent?

Cooking is by far one of my favourite pastimes. Working weekends in a coffeeshop with my Grandma Dumas before I could even see over the counter, I made breads, pies and other sinfully delicious treats. She never measured anything, nor did she write much down! I recently pulled out three butternut squashes from the garden - what to do...



I don't even like squash that much, but I know I should! So I plugged it into Epicurious and was inspired by this recipe for Butternut Hazelnut Lasagne. I reduced the amount of bechamel, and added mushrooms and the ubiquitous garden-fresh swiss chard and zucchini - YUM! Made enough for the freezer too!



BTW, try not to pay too close attention to my (lack of) photography skills... I think I will have to hang out more with Lisa!

I looooooove knitting, but am not far enough in my current project to post a pic yet - wait for it!

Probably next up would be quilting... My dear friend Amanda taught me to quilt back in my university days, when I would carefully scrape together cash for the fabrics and wait for Christmas and birthdays to add rotary cutters and quilt batting to my wishlist! She started a paper-pieced quilt way back when and got sick of it, so I gratefully picked up where she had left off and made a light-to-dark transition diagonally across. Paper-piecing requires a lot of patience and precision - two things I am short on, as you can see in the close-up! But I was pretty pleased with the outcome, nonetheless, and have crafted many quilts since.




Being artistic with my kids has been a real challenge for me. Lack of ideas? Lack of patience? Too neat-freaky? All of the above? In any case, I am thankful for the gentle nudges of friends like Michelle, who gave me the idea of letting the kids paint with yarn, feathers, sponges, etc. The other day I let them both loose on the sunshiney deck with paints and paper, and craziness ensued! But it nothing that couldn't be cleaned up with a nice bath, and a good rain!





A while back, during a creative Mama Renew session, we met at the lovely Sarah J's house for a messy introduction to felting - what fun! A brave woman she is, inviting us into her living room to create using such a watery, soapy, fluffy, space-intensive process! I made this purse and fell in love with the medium, but I have yet to return to it...




Possibly this fall Carmen and I will create little felted flowers while Keira naps? I think she would LOVE it!