Hello, my time-conscious friends. As today’s title suggests, I recently joined a choir. How did I find time for it? Well, I basically used up my entire allotment of free time on Wednesday evenings, and my Sunday mornings to sing alto in the Highlands United Methodist Church at Five Points in Birmingham. So I get off work on Wednesday’s at 5pm and need to be at choir practice at 6:20. No problem, it takes less than 5 minutes to drive from where I work to the church. But it takes almost half an hour to get to my car, so Brant and I decided that it would be best for me just to stay on campus during this down time. I actually enjoyed the solitude. I had a mediocre cheddar bacon sandwich from the hospital cafeteria, made the slog to my car, and ate in my own space, listening to John Williams and the theme from E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial. Then I drove to the empty parking lot behind the church and in I went.
I was greeted warmly by no less than six people I didn’t know on my short trip up to the choir room. A hand was stuck out by Lindsey, who was dolling out the music for the week. She smiled and introduced herself, and already knew I was Lindy’s friend. FYI: Lindy Owens was the person that convinced me to join the choir in the first place. I was assigned a number for all my gear (there is so much music, from every era I know of) and told to sit anywhere. Of course, I chose to sit by Lindy. As we chatted about, well pretty much nothing, everyone strode in. This was the first rehearsal since their summer break, so everyone was getting reacquainted, but most of them still noticed I was the new fish and introduced themselves. I felt so welcomed… it was great so far.
The choirmaster (who is also the organist) came in and immediately started us on vocal warm-ups. Arpeggios going pretty high for me, but I sung along. Then arpeggios down, not really too low for me. Then he motioned for us to sit, warned us he was going to bust through things quickly, and he wasn’t kidding. He mentioned the name of a song, and started playing it. Luckily, each song had a number on the front, and my neighbor told me what the number was. It wasn’t too hard, but I had never heard it and stumbled a little. We divided the choir between the girls (sopranos and altos) and boys (bass and tenors) then all together. Next song. This one was weird, but he promised we would love it once we got it. A piece of the Magnificat. It was so tonally hard for me to get the notes, but by the fourth time I think I had it decently down. It pretty much spun like this through all the songs we were to sing in church in the near future, and then we broke for the evening.
The choirmaster called me to the front before I left. I thought I was going to get booted for the couple of lemons I warbled during some of the harder pieces we sung. The first thing he asked me was “what choir have you sung in?”
I stumbled. “I sung in youth choir when I was a kid, but I mostly play music. My Mom has been a church pianist / organist since before I was born (I don’t know why I said that). I play piano, French horn…”
He smiled. “I knew it. I was watching you. I could tell you knew how to read music well. And you caught on very quickly. I think you will be an asset to us here, and I want you to be a part of our choir this Sunday.” He had me fill out an “about me” card, sent me to get fitted for my robe, and that was it.
I felt so great! Totally worth losing seeing my husband until almost 10pm. Not that I didn’t miss Brant, but this is fun, challenging, and makes me feel so good. I just had to tell you all about it.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Pastime Blogs I Highly Recommend
This is by absolutely no means the whole list of blogs I love. I have perused blogs on and off for years, my favorites waxing and waning with my cyclical favorite hobbies. But these, not only are current, but have the style and content to keep me coming back for recent and archived information. It should be noted that because they are all hobby blogs, they all have shops. Some link the stuff in their shops to items they use in blog posts. Some are outright sponsored by companies and that is all they shill. Still others have their own business, and the blog is a natural outlet for selling what they do. All of this is par for the course in hobbies, and never bothers me. If I can make it myself, I will rarely buy it, no matter how awesome your shopping area is (at least online; in real life I am a total impulse shopper).
First off, for anyone who wants to start a blog on scrapbooking, the place to start is a site called “Scrapbooking Blogs.” It is a powerhouse of scrapbook blogs: updates, templates for your own site, and lots of freebies for both blog sites and those of us just looking for cool scrapbook techniques. Templates are also given on lots of scrapbook blogs for page spreads, and freebies often mean recipes for creating one of a kind accents or pages.
The blogs are typically divided up into traditional or digital blogs. I myself am a traditionalist. I love cutting, poking, ripping, staining, and layering paper, and digital just doesn't "cut" it for me. But I think I have found a kindred spirit in the author of the blog, "ScrapMatters.” She has put together a blog that is a hybrid of traditional and digital scrapbooking, with a little bit of selling thrown in. She does have a shop, as do pretty much all of the scrapbook blogs I have toured so far, as well as a great gallery, and challenges for newbies and pros alike.
Music writing blogs are a little harder to find, as most of these consist of someone just trying to sell their latest homemade CD. That is good, and some of them are great songs, but that isn't a blog to me. However, I stumbled across one called "The Writer's Corner" by Jerry Gates. This is through Berklee Music blogs. He talks about techniques as well as theory, and has links on the right hand side to other bloggers divided by types of blog. His "About me" section proves that he knows of what he speaks.
A more laid back blog is "Songwriting Scene" by Sharon Goldman. She is a more natural blogger. She posts about how she needs to learn to finish songs that she has started (I hear that), how she writes, what she writes about... a great, and personal blog in my opinion.
Baking (cakes or pastries, I do both) is a blog area that is stuffed to the gills! There are blogs that do nothing but rate blogs about these subjects. I got so lost looking around for blogs I like here that I ended up in a shoe blog because I clicked on a shoe-shaped cake. I do have to say, I love the look and feel of "Half Baked - The Cake Blog.” Yes there is some selling in there, but when they talk about a cake, man do they go into detail. And the pictures... loads of them that showcase everything that is wonderful about the cake they are talking about. I love their featured DIY's; something cute and cool that I can do myself on a website full of professional decorating. Awesome. Another great is the "Cake Journal.” It is a blog tutorial site. Most of the blog entries I see are how to make this or how to make that. It seems to be focused more on the decor side than the baking side for my taste, but the site is very well put down. I read several pages of it before I remembered I was supposed to be telling you guys about it.
As for a straight up baking site, I found "RecipeGirl" to be quite breathtaking. It is chock-a-block full of recipes, her little self-blurb says 2500 of them. Not all of them are baked goods, but all of them are delicious looking. And she tells you about the recipe herself. They are not just clips from allrecipes.com, they are telling you how to do these recipes on this site. And her blog talks about what she does during her regular life almost as much as she lists recipes.
“Joe Pastry” is an amazing pastry making site. It lists the history behind pastries as well as how-to's in its no-nonsense site. "Dessert First: A Passion for Pastry” is another pastry obsessed blog. This one is less formal than Joe Pastry, but the personal touch brought me in. She talks about what is popular in her area, about when her freezer broke down, anything that has to do with pastries in her life. I love "Charmaine's Pastry Blog,” a blog about one woman switching careers from ophthalmology to pastry, and all the things in between that she loves.
Before I leave you for the day, I will give you a great blog site for a hobby I don’t do at the moment. Not because I don’t want to anymore, I absolutely adore beadworking. No, I don’t do it because I don’t have the time to do much of the above hobby genres, let alone something as expansive as beadworking. But I do miss making sculptures, baskets, furniture, and little people out of nothing but beads and some tiny wire. I still read this blog every so often. I don’t know why, maybe just to make that tiny voice in my head nuts. Maybe just to torture myself. But “Beading Daily” is a bunch of blogs stuffed together, and is full of free recipes, tips, techniques, and everything I need should I ever dive headfirst back into it. Enjoy.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Musical Immersion for Sanity
Musical immersion is something I do when I want, desperately, to be creative but just don’t have the time or stamina to do it. Work is a great example. I listen to headphones whenever possible to keep myself focused on the job, because music does that for me. But sometimes I just have an itch to make something (crafters out there understand this) and can’t scratch it at that time. So I listen to particular types of music that allow my creativity to… how do I put this… feed and be satisfied until such time as I can do something about it. I let my stifled energy feed of the genius of other creative masters until I can make my own masterpiece (or at least a masterpiece to me).
My favorite genre of music is film scores. The music is specifically written to put feeling into the movie, to tell us when to cry, when to feel scared, when to be relieved. It adds an extra level to the actors’ abilities, or gives them the air of more talent than they have. Many of my favorites are from movies I could not stand, but the composer was just too good to be ignored. Now, I love pop music, rock, rap, R&B, gospel, and even country and tejano. These have great rhythms, and tell stories that are catchy. But a good score makes me feel.
During those times when I have no time to do anything creative, I love to listen to music that makes me feel creative. I have five go-to film composers that are my source of sanity when I have too much work to do to make something of my own. These are Rachel Portman, Basil Poledouris, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, and my favorite, John Williams (the links are to YouTube videos of my favorite songs from their catalogs). Each one brings a different flavor to the table, which I use to slake whichever creative energy is being stifled. Of course, if you want to do musical immersion, you can choose whatever music gets you going. I will try to describe how and why I use the composers, but sometimes it is hard to put into words how they make me feel. So forgive me if some of this makes no sense to you.
Rachel Portman is great at the melancholy music, and can take a simple theme to great lengths, which add depth to the movies she is a part of. Her movies include: The Joy Luck Club, Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, Never Let Me Go, The Manchurian Candidate, The Duchess, and Grey Gardens. I go to her when I want to be writing but cannot. My stories are often mired in morality tales, and her sensitivity give me the gravitas I crave when I write.
Basil Poledouris is a grand, expansive writer. He uses a strong base for a catchy melody, and then expands it gradually throughout the song, until you are surrounded by his vision. His credits include: The Blue Lagoon, The original Conan movies, Red Dawn, RoboCop, Quigley Down Under, and Starship Troopers. As you can see, he is very versatile as well. I choose Mr. Poledouris when I scrapbook. His titles are varied enough that I can find something for whatever I want to scrapbook about. And his ability to form pictures through the sometimes overwhelming use of orchestra is perfect for converting a few pictures into a beautiful page.
Ennio Morricone uses such unique ideas in his music, he is my eclectic guru. His catalog includes: The Clint Eastwood spaghetti western trilogy, The Canterbury Tales, Once Upon a Time in America, Red Sonja, and The Mission. He is an Italian composer, and most of his stuff I have never seen and can barely pronounce (his list is huge on IMDB). In Brant’s favorite song, “The Ecstasy of Gold”, Mr. Morricone takes a simple theme, repeats it, and adds a soprano, some choir wa-waahs, and driving drums to give a feel of desperation that lets you know exactly what those guys are feeling in that scene (from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). Mr. Morricone is great for when I just don’t know what I want to do, but want to do something truly unique.
John Barry is a very romantic writer, and believe it or not my go to guy for baking. Movies that benefitted from this trademark style include: several James Bond movies, Born Free, Somewhere in Time, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, and Cry, the Beloved Country. His signature style, in my opinion, is to take a simple melody and make it more complex through the use of instruments rather than through harmonies and filler. The melody pulls itself into the orchestra, instead of being held up by it, and creates an expansive feel, as witnessed by the movies he has done. Simple ingredients and simple directions to make a wonderful palette, full of flavor and a sense of place. Exactly what I want in my baking.
John Williams is my favorite! His use of French horns first drew me to him, because I loved to play his music myself. You probably already know a bunch of his hits, because he collaborates with Steven Spielberg a lot. But here is a sample of his enormous catalog: E.T., the Indiana Jones movies, the Star Wars sextet, the Christopher Reeves Superman movies, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the first three Harry Potter Movies, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Patriot, Far and Away… the list of things I love from him is too long to put here. I go to John Williams for both writing and music composition. His blending of a full orchestra into one strong voice, separating them into a cacophony of matching sounds, and bringing them back together is better than anything I can do. And his masterful use of brass instruments to give a feeling of power and dignity for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles has become the theme music for the games ever since.
Ah! Just writing about him makes me want to go listen to a whole soundtrack right now. I have to go immerse myself. You have fun finding your immersion songs. The list is half the creative fun, you know.
My favorite genre of music is film scores. The music is specifically written to put feeling into the movie, to tell us when to cry, when to feel scared, when to be relieved. It adds an extra level to the actors’ abilities, or gives them the air of more talent than they have. Many of my favorites are from movies I could not stand, but the composer was just too good to be ignored. Now, I love pop music, rock, rap, R&B, gospel, and even country and tejano. These have great rhythms, and tell stories that are catchy. But a good score makes me feel.
During those times when I have no time to do anything creative, I love to listen to music that makes me feel creative. I have five go-to film composers that are my source of sanity when I have too much work to do to make something of my own. These are Rachel Portman, Basil Poledouris, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, and my favorite, John Williams (the links are to YouTube videos of my favorite songs from their catalogs). Each one brings a different flavor to the table, which I use to slake whichever creative energy is being stifled. Of course, if you want to do musical immersion, you can choose whatever music gets you going. I will try to describe how and why I use the composers, but sometimes it is hard to put into words how they make me feel. So forgive me if some of this makes no sense to you.
“We All Complete” from the movie Never Let Me Go
“Crystal Palace” from the atrocious Conan the Destroyer
Theme from The Mission, played by Yo-Yo Ma.
Brant’s beloved “The Ecstasy of Gold”
“Train to Johannesburg” from Cry, the Beloved Country
“Prologue” from Hook, a very underrated film score
“Olympic Fanfare” who could NOT love this song?
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Music Writing: Arrangements My Way
Another long loved hobby of mine is writing music. I grew up in a musical household. My mother has played piano and organ for churches since before me and my siblings were born. She taught piano, and started each of us on it when we were about five years old. I sang in church choirs, played French horn in the school band and at special church services, and even sang solos in our church every so often (as did my sister). One of the things I grew to love about music was music theory. Creating something from strange symbols that actually came out of my mind. Clutter and chaos into rhythm and melody.
The first type of music writing I learned to do was arrangement: writing a known song in a different style. For French horn, this was as simple as transposing the song as is into a key more suited to my range. I did that a lot. A more unique form of arrangement is taking a piece of music and putting your own style to it. Look at Christmas music every year, and you will hear arrangements. In fact, Christmas music is where I started. I would arrange pieces for me or my sister to sing in church, for me to play on the French horn, or my sister to play on her flute, with our mother to accompany us. I loved doing this, and every year made two or three new arrangements of our favorite songs. My favorite Christmas song to arrange is "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". I love the plainsongs. My sister liked to look up more unique songs, and my favorite from her list is "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree".
Arranging music is not hard. I always start by just humming the tune, over and over, over a few hours or days. Not always out loud, but let it run through my head. I do this at work, while doing the dishes, doing homework, any time my humming wouldn’t really bother anyone. Eventually, if through nothing more than sheer boredom from repetition, I would hear my head adding harmony. Or I would hum the song slower, faster… the possibilities are different each time. That is when I would try to write the music down or record it somehow. Today’s phones are great for this, because I always have mine in my pocket or purse. Then, I have to focus my mental energy (which is very hard for me) and try to lay the music down in my own particular order.
First, I lay down the melody. This never takes long for me in an arrangement, because it has been stuck in my head for quite a while. Then I choose the tempo and time signature, in that order. I rarely set the key signature until the song is finished, because I am not always sure if the key I start arranging in is the one I will finish in. I just write all the notes as flats and sharps until a key signature jumps out at me. Time signature is the easiest for me, because I have no problem picking out the pattern of the song, even in it has changed from the traditional time signature for whatever piece of music I am working on.
After melody comes harmony. The harmony in my simple arrangements is usually played by the right hand of the piano accompanist. Sometimes, if I want more gravitas in the the song the harmony is played by the left hand (normally bass clef notes), but I try to keep it fairly simple for Christmas arrangements. I also love to have a counter melody that the piano plays in the middle of my arrangements, something that I make up completely by myself. The counter melody, to me, sounds like a second singer coming into the song, singing in conjunction with the main melody. It also gives the piano accompanist a chance to shine, as it is usually played a little louder than just a harmony.
Lastly, I put in what I call “filler.” this is the balance of the pianist’s accompaniment that rounds out the feeling of the arrangement. Syncopation, or playing notes on or in between up beats, is something I like to use to add the feeling of complexity to a simple tune. And I knew my mom could do any syncopation I could write. If I wanted the arrangement to have a more traditional feel, the left hand would play two and three note cords on every beat, which would be reminiscent of what you would find in a church hymnal. The filler, to me, is the most unique part of my arrangements, and what would take the most time in the writing.
And this is the method I would use to write an arrangement. Until very recently, I would do this on a piano (when I lived in Levelland) or my Casio keyboard with staff pages I actually made myself (sometimes with a ruler and a pencil). Now I use a freeware program called MuseScore on my computer. When my arrangements became more and more complex, I realized that I started writing completely original compositions. It was made clear to me that I could do this when I made a piano solo arrangement of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” in the style of Chopin; specifically my sister’s favorite nocturne, Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 no. 1. I played it in church at the Christmas Eve service, and asked the pastor’s wife after the service what she thought of it. She said she loved Chopin. No one had realized that it was an arrangement I had written.
I would love to post these pieces for you to hear and critique. But when I moved to Alabama, I left them in my mother’s house in Texas. I am still working on getting them sent to me, and will post them as soon as I get them. But finding them is troublesome. I, with my scatterbrain, know I kept them in a folder, but cannot tell my sister where they are. But she keeps looking.
The first type of music writing I learned to do was arrangement: writing a known song in a different style. For French horn, this was as simple as transposing the song as is into a key more suited to my range. I did that a lot. A more unique form of arrangement is taking a piece of music and putting your own style to it. Look at Christmas music every year, and you will hear arrangements. In fact, Christmas music is where I started. I would arrange pieces for me or my sister to sing in church, for me to play on the French horn, or my sister to play on her flute, with our mother to accompany us. I loved doing this, and every year made two or three new arrangements of our favorite songs. My favorite Christmas song to arrange is "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". I love the plainsongs. My sister liked to look up more unique songs, and my favorite from her list is "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree".
Arranging music is not hard. I always start by just humming the tune, over and over, over a few hours or days. Not always out loud, but let it run through my head. I do this at work, while doing the dishes, doing homework, any time my humming wouldn’t really bother anyone. Eventually, if through nothing more than sheer boredom from repetition, I would hear my head adding harmony. Or I would hum the song slower, faster… the possibilities are different each time. That is when I would try to write the music down or record it somehow. Today’s phones are great for this, because I always have mine in my pocket or purse. Then, I have to focus my mental energy (which is very hard for me) and try to lay the music down in my own particular order.
First, I lay down the melody. This never takes long for me in an arrangement, because it has been stuck in my head for quite a while. Then I choose the tempo and time signature, in that order. I rarely set the key signature until the song is finished, because I am not always sure if the key I start arranging in is the one I will finish in. I just write all the notes as flats and sharps until a key signature jumps out at me. Time signature is the easiest for me, because I have no problem picking out the pattern of the song, even in it has changed from the traditional time signature for whatever piece of music I am working on.
After melody comes harmony. The harmony in my simple arrangements is usually played by the right hand of the piano accompanist. Sometimes, if I want more gravitas in the the song the harmony is played by the left hand (normally bass clef notes), but I try to keep it fairly simple for Christmas arrangements. I also love to have a counter melody that the piano plays in the middle of my arrangements, something that I make up completely by myself. The counter melody, to me, sounds like a second singer coming into the song, singing in conjunction with the main melody. It also gives the piano accompanist a chance to shine, as it is usually played a little louder than just a harmony.
Lastly, I put in what I call “filler.” this is the balance of the pianist’s accompaniment that rounds out the feeling of the arrangement. Syncopation, or playing notes on or in between up beats, is something I like to use to add the feeling of complexity to a simple tune. And I knew my mom could do any syncopation I could write. If I wanted the arrangement to have a more traditional feel, the left hand would play two and three note cords on every beat, which would be reminiscent of what you would find in a church hymnal. The filler, to me, is the most unique part of my arrangements, and what would take the most time in the writing.
And this is the method I would use to write an arrangement. Until very recently, I would do this on a piano (when I lived in Levelland) or my Casio keyboard with staff pages I actually made myself (sometimes with a ruler and a pencil). Now I use a freeware program called MuseScore on my computer. When my arrangements became more and more complex, I realized that I started writing completely original compositions. It was made clear to me that I could do this when I made a piano solo arrangement of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” in the style of Chopin; specifically my sister’s favorite nocturne, Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 no. 1. I played it in church at the Christmas Eve service, and asked the pastor’s wife after the service what she thought of it. She said she loved Chopin. No one had realized that it was an arrangement I had written.
I would love to post these pieces for you to hear and critique. But when I moved to Alabama, I left them in my mother’s house in Texas. I am still working on getting them sent to me, and will post them as soon as I get them. But finding them is troublesome. I, with my scatterbrain, know I kept them in a folder, but cannot tell my sister where they are. But she keeps looking.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Stress-Relieving Scrapbook Prep
There is a scrapbook trend that has been building for a few years now that I am an avid member of: distressing. Tim Holtz has cornered the market in my mind, making everything from my favorite inks (Ranger Distress Inks, I have every one they make), to scrapbook tape (that looks like things such as strips of music, ruler tape, you name it) and blank ephemera that is made to be tarnished, dyed, stained, ripped, scratched… pretty much anything you can do to it. The result of all this destruction is a page or album or work of art that looks worn, well used…. not showroom new and untouched. I love it! Now, buying all these things to do the distressing can be expensive, but I have a few methods that I frequently use in scrapbooking that are easy, pretty cheap, and well.. they relieve my stress on those bad days.
First up, the simple art of paper tearing. There is a class of scrapbookers that think tearing a piece of paper that someone lovingly designed to be perfectly adapted to your needs is a sacrilege. I say raspberries! I learned this while working on my very first scrapbook page. It was a two-page spread for my recently deceased grandparents. I had a perfect page of assorted flowers… but I had only one. So, I put the page on the table, face up, and tore it by pulling it diagonally towards me, raggedly down the center. I put each piece on its own 12x12 sheet of sage green cardstock. Put a little ink on the white edges with an ink pad (or your finger for a more subtle, smudgy look) and now I had two coordinating pages. After that, a little vellum and a couple of pictures and my pages were done. And they still are some of my favorites. Tear paper and stick down every edge but one, and use them as pockets for tickets or little items you want to keep. Another trick is to use torn paper strips to make a rough frame or mat look for pictures. I like to take papers I don’t use (or really don’t like anymore) and pre-tear them into all sorts of sizes and shapes to use at a later date. And the tearing sounds so delicious.
The second technique is staining. Tea dye is the most popular type. Basically, you choose your paper (don’t use cardstock, it is harder to stain) and submerge it in a nice, unsweet tea bath. Just a few seconds for a light dye, or up to a minute for a dark dye. Mind you, you need a flat surface to dry these on that has something absorbent to soak up extra liquid and… leave it there. But, if you don’t want a whole page… that is where the fun begins. Coffee and colas are also great stains (please, hold the sugars and creams though). have two shallow bowls or tea saucers with coffee or a soda. Take a mug, dunk it in the coffee and then place it on the paper. drizzle the drink in random places on the page. Heck, cover your table with papers you want to stain and have fun flicking straws of tea or what have you on them. Go nuts. Let dry overnight and they look nice and worn.
The third technique is inking. I have already described inking the edges of torn paper. Ranger Distress Inks are my ink of choice here, but any ink that isn’t pigment based works well here. One way is to use the inks (inks in dropper bottles, not ink pads) for the second technique of staining. It only takes a drop or two (or more if you want a darker stain) and the whole range of colors is yours for the dyeing. Another way is to take the ink pad, holding it in a face-down angle towards the paper, and drag it across the edge of the paper. You can hold it more parallel to the paper if you want more ink further into the paper, or more perpendicular if you want just the very edge inked. This goes an amazing way towards making a factory produced piece of paper look more homemade, and it is a great way to cover up any of the white core that can easily be seen from cutting the paper. yet another idea is to stamp an image with these dye based inks randomly on all over the paper. Before it dries, spritz it with water, and let the ink move where it may. Of course, you can help it along by propping the paper up slightly, or by lightly heat setting it with a hair dryer on low or an embossing gun. This kind of look like it started raining while you were stamping. A really cool layer to add to this is to sprinkle salt (table or rock) onto the freshly inked and wetted paper. The salt soaks up the ink and water where it fell and looks awesome!
The fourth technique is crumpling. This, to me, is the most stress relieving, and can easily be done with any type of paper. Wad up a piece of paper (I use the whole 12x12 sheets, but you can wad up even the smallest bits if you need to). The un-wad it… very carefully. Here is the cool trick. Flip the paper and wad it from another angle. Now you have creases going up and down the paper. You could stop here, or you could make it look more beaten up. Flatten the paper on your table. Take an ink pad (I love the Ranger browns here, but whatever coordinates will do), and run the whole pad lightly across the paper, inking only the raised creases. I like to do it in certain spots instead of all over, which makes it kind of look like it was stepped on. If you ink all the creases, you have created a new pattern on the paper. Use the water spritzing idea from above and spray the inked creases, making the ink snake out into cooler designs. You can now flatten the paper back out by pressing it between some heavy books overnight or use it nicely crumpled to add texture to your next scrapbooking adventure.
The last technique is sanding. Crumpled paper can be stressed by lightly sanding it with a nail file (not too many strokes, unless you want a holey look) which will help the creases stand out by whitening them. Sand the edges of flat paper to create a light border. Sand the edges of several sizes of circles, crumple them, layer them, and staple the center to create a rough flower. Make up your own use for sanding, but it really is easy.
Just doing one of these techniques for an hour or so to create distressed, “ugly” paper is a great way to work out any aggression accumulated throughout the day. And the result is paper that is now uniquely yours, and makes those scrapbooking days pass a lot faster when you can finally get around to them.
First up, the simple art of paper tearing. There is a class of scrapbookers that think tearing a piece of paper that someone lovingly designed to be perfectly adapted to your needs is a sacrilege. I say raspberries! I learned this while working on my very first scrapbook page. It was a two-page spread for my recently deceased grandparents. I had a perfect page of assorted flowers… but I had only one. So, I put the page on the table, face up, and tore it by pulling it diagonally towards me, raggedly down the center. I put each piece on its own 12x12 sheet of sage green cardstock. Put a little ink on the white edges with an ink pad (or your finger for a more subtle, smudgy look) and now I had two coordinating pages. After that, a little vellum and a couple of pictures and my pages were done. And they still are some of my favorites. Tear paper and stick down every edge but one, and use them as pockets for tickets or little items you want to keep. Another trick is to use torn paper strips to make a rough frame or mat look for pictures. I like to take papers I don’t use (or really don’t like anymore) and pre-tear them into all sorts of sizes and shapes to use at a later date. And the tearing sounds so delicious.
The second technique is staining. Tea dye is the most popular type. Basically, you choose your paper (don’t use cardstock, it is harder to stain) and submerge it in a nice, unsweet tea bath. Just a few seconds for a light dye, or up to a minute for a dark dye. Mind you, you need a flat surface to dry these on that has something absorbent to soak up extra liquid and… leave it there. But, if you don’t want a whole page… that is where the fun begins. Coffee and colas are also great stains (please, hold the sugars and creams though). have two shallow bowls or tea saucers with coffee or a soda. Take a mug, dunk it in the coffee and then place it on the paper. drizzle the drink in random places on the page. Heck, cover your table with papers you want to stain and have fun flicking straws of tea or what have you on them. Go nuts. Let dry overnight and they look nice and worn.
The third technique is inking. I have already described inking the edges of torn paper. Ranger Distress Inks are my ink of choice here, but any ink that isn’t pigment based works well here. One way is to use the inks (inks in dropper bottles, not ink pads) for the second technique of staining. It only takes a drop or two (or more if you want a darker stain) and the whole range of colors is yours for the dyeing. Another way is to take the ink pad, holding it in a face-down angle towards the paper, and drag it across the edge of the paper. You can hold it more parallel to the paper if you want more ink further into the paper, or more perpendicular if you want just the very edge inked. This goes an amazing way towards making a factory produced piece of paper look more homemade, and it is a great way to cover up any of the white core that can easily be seen from cutting the paper. yet another idea is to stamp an image with these dye based inks randomly on all over the paper. Before it dries, spritz it with water, and let the ink move where it may. Of course, you can help it along by propping the paper up slightly, or by lightly heat setting it with a hair dryer on low or an embossing gun. This kind of look like it started raining while you were stamping. A really cool layer to add to this is to sprinkle salt (table or rock) onto the freshly inked and wetted paper. The salt soaks up the ink and water where it fell and looks awesome!
The fourth technique is crumpling. This, to me, is the most stress relieving, and can easily be done with any type of paper. Wad up a piece of paper (I use the whole 12x12 sheets, but you can wad up even the smallest bits if you need to). The un-wad it… very carefully. Here is the cool trick. Flip the paper and wad it from another angle. Now you have creases going up and down the paper. You could stop here, or you could make it look more beaten up. Flatten the paper on your table. Take an ink pad (I love the Ranger browns here, but whatever coordinates will do), and run the whole pad lightly across the paper, inking only the raised creases. I like to do it in certain spots instead of all over, which makes it kind of look like it was stepped on. If you ink all the creases, you have created a new pattern on the paper. Use the water spritzing idea from above and spray the inked creases, making the ink snake out into cooler designs. You can now flatten the paper back out by pressing it between some heavy books overnight or use it nicely crumpled to add texture to your next scrapbooking adventure.
The last technique is sanding. Crumpled paper can be stressed by lightly sanding it with a nail file (not too many strokes, unless you want a holey look) which will help the creases stand out by whitening them. Sand the edges of flat paper to create a light border. Sand the edges of several sizes of circles, crumple them, layer them, and staple the center to create a rough flower. Make up your own use for sanding, but it really is easy.
Just doing one of these techniques for an hour or so to create distressed, “ugly” paper is a great way to work out any aggression accumulated throughout the day. And the result is paper that is now uniquely yours, and makes those scrapbooking days pass a lot faster when you can finally get around to them.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Tips for a Hobby Shopping Trip
I will admit this freely: I am not a shopping enthusiast. I own about four pairs of shoes, only one of which I wear on a regular basis, I hate clothes shopping, and groceries are as boring as milk toast to me. But I do love to shop around for one thing: hobby supplies. My main hobbies are almost in constant flux, with new gadgets put out quite frequently, and everything updating to the digital age. Whether I am looking for paint supplies, scrapbooking, cooking, or other... it is so much fun to look at the new stuff and imagine all the things I could do with them. Unfortunately, I have to be realistic. Most of this stuff likely will not get used, or I won't like it after I get it home, or don't have any real use for it... you name it. Also, there is a budget to think of. I know I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars everytime I go on a hobby run. And my time budget is always precious. So, here is a list of tips I have garnered from personal experience, both good and bad, to help you stay on target with your shopping excursion.
Rule #1: MAKE A LIST OF WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE WHOLE PROJECT. Include on your list everything you need, even if you already own it. For baking, I even put down the oven (and temperature), pans, pots, wooden stirrers, spatulas, everything. Shopping trips for hobbyists should begin in the home. After you have made the list, go through your hobby area (for this example, my kitchen and pantry) and cross off everything you already have. Take this opportunity to put everything in one convenient place, so when you start, you will not have to stop to go looking for the cardamom, or something else you rarely use.
Rule #2: SEE IF ANY ITEMS CAN BE BORROWED. This is true in all my hobbies. It is great to have a circle of friends who all do the same thing. When I lived in Auburn, I would scrapbook on Saturdays with a friend of mine, whose nickname is Six, and we would spend a good deal of that time using each others die cuts, stamps, inks, trade papers, you name it. It saves a lot of time if you have an item your friend needs, and vice versa. This also cuts down on the amount of stuff you own but rarely use. This rule is also a blessing if you don't follow the next rule, because friends often want stuff you do not anymore.
Rule #3: ONLY BUY WHAT IS ON YOUR LIST. As a scrapbook paper hoarder, please learn from my experience. Even if you are just starting out scrapbooking and have virtually nothing: DON'T BUY EVERYTHING YOU LIKE. I have a ton of paper that I bought in those giant paper books that I think are so boring and atrocious now, I don't think I will ever use them. Everything looks good in the store, all nice and unused. Your tastes will change, so don't buy just because they look cool. Buy only what you need. And along with this tip, don't buy any bulk items unless you are making bulk items. Don't buy a Big Stack of paper wtih designs for pets on it, unless you are making a pet scrapbook. The only exceptions to this rule are neutral cardstocks. Black, white, and the browns are okay, just don't buy a ton of them.
Rule #4: STEER CLEAR OF SPECIALTY ITEMS IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. Back to scrapbooking again. I can always talk myself into buying specialty paper, like vellum or mulberry, because I like to use it. But this rule relates back to rule #3. If you buy a lot of things you don't need for this project, they will get lost, forgotten, what have you. And when you need them, you may not even remember you have them. I have about 100 sheets of clear vellum for this very reason. Specialty items get easily lost. Specialty items also include new equipment, three-dimensional stickers, the ten thousand different ways to stick stuff to paper, oddly shaped baking sheets, a new keyboard... anything you don't already have that you didn't know you needed.
Rule #5: IF YOU CAN MAKE IT, DON'T BUY IT. This sounds easy, but it can be tricky. I can make most of the things I put on a scrapbook page myself. Three dimensional stickers are totally simple to make, thanks to Xyron machines. But, you have to include in this equation how much time you have to make these things. If making accents for your page takes up half the small amount of time you have to scrapbook, I would consider it likely too hard to make, and would buy them. The same goes for baking. I can make my own blended spices, whipped cream, icings, and glazes, but sometimes I just can't budget for the time.
Rule #6: CHECK PRICES ONLINE FIRST. All of my hobby stores are online, and I have those saved as favorites. Hobby Lobby and Michael's both have weekly coupons that I treasure. Some websites can even tell you if the item is in stock at the store before you go out to get it. Heck, order online if you don't mind waiting for it. Many stores have free shipping if you are willing to pick it up at their physical store. And price check with online only stores, like Amazon. If, again, you are willing to wait for the items, sometimes it is cheaper to order it there.
Rule #7: SET LIMITS WHEN BREAK A RULE. Don't be hard on yourself if you slip up on one of these rules. It is a hobby, not a job. You won't get fired if you just have to have that adorable new baking pan for mini donuts (guilty). The trick to not getting depressed here is what you mother probably did for you when you were little and she needed to go shopping herself: set a limit. If you just have to buy the new toys, limit how much money you will spend. If you forgot to check for coupons online, see if they have paper ones near the entrance before buying items full price. If you decide that the Jolene stickers are way better than what you think you can make, go ahead but keep the purchase small. If you were so excited about going shopping that you forget to see if your friends already have some of the stuff on your list, just buy what you are sure they don't have. I wanted to get something shiny for baking the last time I was at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. So I decided a little baking sheet was much cheaper than the awesome baking sets I saw there. And the end result is: this weekend I am making mini donuts.
Happy shopping.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Creative Dreaming
I get pretty stressed out at work. A lot of it is in my own mind, but still, I get stressed. I found, thanks to my Brant, that thinking about being creative actually helps me get through many stressful days. Here is what I think about.
We have talked many times about opening an eatery called “Sci-Fi Café and Bakery.” I love to plan what I would serve up at that bakery if I could do anything I wanted. So far, I have imagined making mini-bombes, one for each of the planets in our solar system, with three others for the Sun, the moon, and Pluto (which is no longer a planet, but who cares, right?). FYI: a true bombe is a French confection consisting of several layers of frozen sherbet or ice cream made into a dome shape. The bakery I used to work at fudged the idea a little by making it several thin layers of a cake and flavored pastry cream, shaped into a dome and covered with fresh whip cream. I would come up with the grand flavors of each of them. An example would be Mars: Chocolate-chili pepper cake with cinnamon filling, iced with red chocolate whipped cream.
This made me want to research different types of pastries. If it was truly going to be a sci-fi bakery, not only would I have to come up with unique and delicious pastries not often sold in Birmingham, but I would need to put a sciencey-fictioney theme to each one, to brand them for the store. So I researched pastries from places OTHER THAN France and Italy. And I zeroed in on Hungarian pastries. There I found the Zserbo, fluffo, Isli, beigli, and kifli. They all look delicious. I decided to try to make one of them. The end result of this daydreaming was that I could make zserbo, and make it pretty darn good on my first try. It is basically five layers of handmade pastry dough, rolled thin, with apricot preserves and crushed pecans in between and topped with a chocolate ganache.
Another daydream sparked my baking creativity to try another pastry, this time from the British Isles – banoffee pie. Banoffee is a mash up of banana and toffee, the two main ingredients. This decadent treat is normally made by boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for a couple of hours, but I wasn’t willing to do that, because of its possibility of blowing up. So I compromised on the dulce de leche filling and made several mini pies instead of one large one. My co-workers and Brant adored this one.
Long story short, don’t be afraid to daydream once in a while about what you would do if you had this or that. If I had a bakery of my own, I would make my own versions of international pastries that no one around here has ever tasted. And because of that dream I found out that many of those pastries are well within my abilities now. Why don’t you try it, and let me know what you come up with?
We have talked many times about opening an eatery called “Sci-Fi Café and Bakery.” I love to plan what I would serve up at that bakery if I could do anything I wanted. So far, I have imagined making mini-bombes, one for each of the planets in our solar system, with three others for the Sun, the moon, and Pluto (which is no longer a planet, but who cares, right?). FYI: a true bombe is a French confection consisting of several layers of frozen sherbet or ice cream made into a dome shape. The bakery I used to work at fudged the idea a little by making it several thin layers of a cake and flavored pastry cream, shaped into a dome and covered with fresh whip cream. I would come up with the grand flavors of each of them. An example would be Mars: Chocolate-chili pepper cake with cinnamon filling, iced with red chocolate whipped cream.
This made me want to research different types of pastries. If it was truly going to be a sci-fi bakery, not only would I have to come up with unique and delicious pastries not often sold in Birmingham, but I would need to put a sciencey-fictioney theme to each one, to brand them for the store. So I researched pastries from places OTHER THAN France and Italy. And I zeroed in on Hungarian pastries. There I found the Zserbo, fluffo, Isli, beigli, and kifli. They all look delicious. I decided to try to make one of them. The end result of this daydreaming was that I could make zserbo, and make it pretty darn good on my first try. It is basically five layers of handmade pastry dough, rolled thin, with apricot preserves and crushed pecans in between and topped with a chocolate ganache.
Another daydream sparked my baking creativity to try another pastry, this time from the British Isles – banoffee pie. Banoffee is a mash up of banana and toffee, the two main ingredients. This decadent treat is normally made by boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for a couple of hours, but I wasn’t willing to do that, because of its possibility of blowing up. So I compromised on the dulce de leche filling and made several mini pies instead of one large one. My co-workers and Brant adored this one.
Long story short, don’t be afraid to daydream once in a while about what you would do if you had this or that. If I had a bakery of my own, I would make my own versions of international pastries that no one around here has ever tasted. And because of that dream I found out that many of those pastries are well within my abilities now. Why don’t you try it, and let me know what you come up with?
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Scrapbooking in Pieces
I learned how to scrapbook the summer of 2005, when I discovered a wonderful little scrapbook store in Auburn, AL called "PaperJazz." I was going to Auburn University working on my masters and went there to fulfill my insatiable need for a creative outlet. I hung out there so much that I got a job working there part time. They had 6 hour crops on Friday nights, and I ran them, basically helping the women (as everyone there seemed to be) find the items they need, and keeping things clean. If I had time, I was allowed to work on scrapbook layouts. I learned two things from that awesome time working at PaperJazz. One, I really like playing with color. And two, planning is crucial for doing a good amount of scrapbooking the way you want to.
Whether you are just starting out in scrapbooking and just have a wish to make a cute book to display treasured photos, or you are like me and have your own warehouse full of paper and gadgets to do just about anything you want, there is something you probably already know. Scrapbooking takes time. Someone out there is going to read this and say "I can punch out a 20 page scrapbook in an evening, it doesn't have to be a big production." And they are right. You can do a whole scrapbook in an evening, or you can take six hours to make a single page. The amount of detail you put into your pages is up to your individual wants, needs, and capability. That is not what this blog post is about. This is about how to plan to do the scrapbooking you want to do in a small amount of time. I am currently working on a pre-made scrapbook for my niece that recently got married. She and her new hubby went on a hiking honeymoon through the beautiful vistas of Utah, and I wanted to give them something fun to display those pictures in. I knew this was going to take some planning. I also knew that on a good weekday I would only have about three hours to do anything. So I broke the project down into small, doable sections.
The first phase of the project was the purchasing phase. I wrote down in an email all the things I needed for their scrapbook: the album, matched sets of paper with a hiking and camping theme, cardstock to match, stickers, accents, and double stick tape. I then sent the email to myself so I could bring up the list on my phone. This comes in super handy if you only have a few spare minutes to create the list, but can't go shopping for a few days. Then the fun execution of this plan is hunting through whatever scrapbook store you like and picking out the goods. It is important here to remember NOT TO OVERBUY. Just get what is on the list, even though everything looks great. You don't need it now, you only need the items for this project. Just keep telling yourself this while you check items off the list.
The second phase is the planning phase. I planned on making twenty pages of pre-made pages based around a hiking theme. For those times when i only want to make a page or two, I plan what I want them to look like. There are several places to look for inspiration, based on your level of scrapbooking prowess. You can go through old scrapbook pages you have made and pick and choose items from them that you would like to do again. You can troll the internet or scrapbook magazines for layouts and find one you like. There are hundreds of pre planned layouts there you can use; just Google "scrapbook layouts." Or, you can doodle until you some up with something you like. Remember the following questions as you pick layout(s). How many pictures do you need on these pages? How much time do I want to spend on putting special accents on the page? Does this page need pockets for ephemera (keepsakes)? This phase can take a long time, but it can be done whenever you have time.
The third phase is accent prep. I myself love to make accents more than buy them. All I need is a pencil, some cardstock, scissors, and my Xyron machine. I also have a QuicKutz die-cutter to make some of the cutest items ever. Confetti, borders, photo corners, and other popular accents can be handmade, giving your scrapbook a more unique feel. This can usually be accomplished in a night, if the other phases have gone well. The fourth and final phase is actual page creation. I suggest saving your biggest stretch of time for this, and try to do this in one or two nights, tops. By this time, I usually get frustrated at my lack of that feeling of having a pretty page to show off. With the freshly purchased items, layout plans, and accents from the previous phases around me, something special happens here. I run through the pages at a great rate, and feel so creative! I am almost finished with the scrapbook for my niece, and pictures will follow for everyone to oogle over. But, this is how I plan to do a big scrapbooking project using the small chunklets of time I have to actually do them in.
Whether you are just starting out in scrapbooking and just have a wish to make a cute book to display treasured photos, or you are like me and have your own warehouse full of paper and gadgets to do just about anything you want, there is something you probably already know. Scrapbooking takes time. Someone out there is going to read this and say "I can punch out a 20 page scrapbook in an evening, it doesn't have to be a big production." And they are right. You can do a whole scrapbook in an evening, or you can take six hours to make a single page. The amount of detail you put into your pages is up to your individual wants, needs, and capability. That is not what this blog post is about. This is about how to plan to do the scrapbooking you want to do in a small amount of time. I am currently working on a pre-made scrapbook for my niece that recently got married. She and her new hubby went on a hiking honeymoon through the beautiful vistas of Utah, and I wanted to give them something fun to display those pictures in. I knew this was going to take some planning. I also knew that on a good weekday I would only have about three hours to do anything. So I broke the project down into small, doable sections.
The first phase of the project was the purchasing phase. I wrote down in an email all the things I needed for their scrapbook: the album, matched sets of paper with a hiking and camping theme, cardstock to match, stickers, accents, and double stick tape. I then sent the email to myself so I could bring up the list on my phone. This comes in super handy if you only have a few spare minutes to create the list, but can't go shopping for a few days. Then the fun execution of this plan is hunting through whatever scrapbook store you like and picking out the goods. It is important here to remember NOT TO OVERBUY. Just get what is on the list, even though everything looks great. You don't need it now, you only need the items for this project. Just keep telling yourself this while you check items off the list.
The second phase is the planning phase. I planned on making twenty pages of pre-made pages based around a hiking theme. For those times when i only want to make a page or two, I plan what I want them to look like. There are several places to look for inspiration, based on your level of scrapbooking prowess. You can go through old scrapbook pages you have made and pick and choose items from them that you would like to do again. You can troll the internet or scrapbook magazines for layouts and find one you like. There are hundreds of pre planned layouts there you can use; just Google "scrapbook layouts." Or, you can doodle until you some up with something you like. Remember the following questions as you pick layout(s). How many pictures do you need on these pages? How much time do I want to spend on putting special accents on the page? Does this page need pockets for ephemera (keepsakes)? This phase can take a long time, but it can be done whenever you have time.
The third phase is accent prep. I myself love to make accents more than buy them. All I need is a pencil, some cardstock, scissors, and my Xyron machine. I also have a QuicKutz die-cutter to make some of the cutest items ever. Confetti, borders, photo corners, and other popular accents can be handmade, giving your scrapbook a more unique feel. This can usually be accomplished in a night, if the other phases have gone well. The fourth and final phase is actual page creation. I suggest saving your biggest stretch of time for this, and try to do this in one or two nights, tops. By this time, I usually get frustrated at my lack of that feeling of having a pretty page to show off. With the freshly purchased items, layout plans, and accents from the previous phases around me, something special happens here. I run through the pages at a great rate, and feel so creative! I am almost finished with the scrapbook for my niece, and pictures will follow for everyone to oogle over. But, this is how I plan to do a big scrapbooking project using the small chunklets of time I have to actually do them in.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Blog Dedication
I would like to take this blog to dedicate it to my biggest supporter. My husband, Brant.
I have always known that I am an anxious person, and I have come to live with that. But Brant met me, dated me, found this out (along with my laundry list of other faults) and still decided to ask me to marry him. He gave me a dog for Christmas several years ago who, no matter how much training we give him, still occasionally poops on the floor, and barks at noises as if his life depends on it. And he loves that dumb mutt almost as much as I do. He lets me baby talk to the dogs, and baby talk to him. He lets me spoil his own dog to the point where she has become my personal foot warmer.
He gives me loads of kisses and cuddles whenever I want, and many times when I didn't know I wanted them. He exercises with me but never calls me fat and doesn't like it when I call myself fat. He randomly tells me he loves me. He lets me plan all out meals and tells me I am a great cook. He eats anything I bake for him with gusto. He lets me express myself through the myriad of hobbies I have and enjoys the fact I take so much pleasure from them.
He asks me about my day, and listens. Brant tells me about his day every day. He always says "I love you" before leaving for work, and makes sure my car is in good order for me to get to mine. He listens to my neurotic rants when I have had a bad day, and lets me cry it out without any judgment. He shares his worries with me. He lets me help pick out his clothes when he needs new ones, and values my input. There are so many more things about him that I love I cannot possibly put them all down.
Brant is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I thank God everyday that I managed to get him into my life. I love you, Brant.
I have always known that I am an anxious person, and I have come to live with that. But Brant met me, dated me, found this out (along with my laundry list of other faults) and still decided to ask me to marry him. He gave me a dog for Christmas several years ago who, no matter how much training we give him, still occasionally poops on the floor, and barks at noises as if his life depends on it. And he loves that dumb mutt almost as much as I do. He lets me baby talk to the dogs, and baby talk to him. He lets me spoil his own dog to the point where she has become my personal foot warmer.
He gives me loads of kisses and cuddles whenever I want, and many times when I didn't know I wanted them. He exercises with me but never calls me fat and doesn't like it when I call myself fat. He randomly tells me he loves me. He lets me plan all out meals and tells me I am a great cook. He eats anything I bake for him with gusto. He lets me express myself through the myriad of hobbies I have and enjoys the fact I take so much pleasure from them.
He asks me about my day, and listens. Brant tells me about his day every day. He always says "I love you" before leaving for work, and makes sure my car is in good order for me to get to mine. He listens to my neurotic rants when I have had a bad day, and lets me cry it out without any judgment. He shares his worries with me. He lets me help pick out his clothes when he needs new ones, and values my input. There are so many more things about him that I love I cannot possibly put them all down.
Brant is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I thank God everyday that I managed to get him into my life. I love you, Brant.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
No Time for Creativity
Welcome to my new blog, "No Time for Creativity." This is my place to put what enspires me, what I like, and what gets me to create when I come home from work too exhausted to do anything but sit.
If you are reading this blog, you might recognize this scenario. I work from 8:30 to 5 at my job, but it takes me about an hour to get there and a little more to come home. So the majority of my waking hours are spent doing something about work. I barely see my husband until the sun sets most of the year. I don't have kids, but I have two dogs who are more underappreciated than they should be. My weekends are also filled. Friday evenings we have game night with friends. Saturday is grocery day, chore day, cooking for the week day; and Saturday night we often have friends over for movie night. Sunday is also a chore filled day, and every other week we host our science fiction writing group, which takes up most of the afternoon. It is a filled life, but a happy one.
But I long to be creative. To make pretty things, useful things. To turn something used up into something useful. To be creative.
The problem is, when I get home, cook dinner, and eat with my husband, I am too tired to do anything. Sometimes it is physically tired, but mostly it is mentally tired. I am drained, and all I want to do is vegetate. I have dozens of projects started, but rarely finish anything, because I know it takes so much prep work to start a creative endeavor that it will take days to see the fruits of any labor. I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to start a project if I don't have the time to finish it that evening.
My husband, Brant, said I should do something about it. "Write a blog about what you do, your take on the things you make. You have a very interesting take on what you do, and there are people out there who need to know it. And you are wicked smart..." Or something like that anyway. So, I picked three of my hobbies that I don't ever feel I have time for, and make time for them. These three are: baking, scrapbooking, and writing music. I hope to fill this blog with where I find ideas, how to get started, how to stop in the middle of project and not forget about them, and pretty much anything else I can think of. I hope you will stay with me through all these ramblings. And together, maybe, we can keep our creative juices flowing.
If you are reading this blog, you might recognize this scenario. I work from 8:30 to 5 at my job, but it takes me about an hour to get there and a little more to come home. So the majority of my waking hours are spent doing something about work. I barely see my husband until the sun sets most of the year. I don't have kids, but I have two dogs who are more underappreciated than they should be. My weekends are also filled. Friday evenings we have game night with friends. Saturday is grocery day, chore day, cooking for the week day; and Saturday night we often have friends over for movie night. Sunday is also a chore filled day, and every other week we host our science fiction writing group, which takes up most of the afternoon. It is a filled life, but a happy one.
But I long to be creative. To make pretty things, useful things. To turn something used up into something useful. To be creative.
The problem is, when I get home, cook dinner, and eat with my husband, I am too tired to do anything. Sometimes it is physically tired, but mostly it is mentally tired. I am drained, and all I want to do is vegetate. I have dozens of projects started, but rarely finish anything, because I know it takes so much prep work to start a creative endeavor that it will take days to see the fruits of any labor. I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to start a project if I don't have the time to finish it that evening.
My husband, Brant, said I should do something about it. "Write a blog about what you do, your take on the things you make. You have a very interesting take on what you do, and there are people out there who need to know it. And you are wicked smart..." Or something like that anyway. So, I picked three of my hobbies that I don't ever feel I have time for, and make time for them. These three are: baking, scrapbooking, and writing music. I hope to fill this blog with where I find ideas, how to get started, how to stop in the middle of project and not forget about them, and pretty much anything else I can think of. I hope you will stay with me through all these ramblings. And together, maybe, we can keep our creative juices flowing.
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