What to do? What to do?

I'm sure this question has been asked by all of us at some time. There are so many ways out there for us to express our creativity, too many for me to possibly name. I've tried a bunch of them. There were some I didn't particularly like--doing watercolors is the first that comes to mind. I still remember vividly the class I took one summer. My Mom and I lied to the rec center where the class was being held. The age limit was 15, but I had just turned 14. Needless to say, I was the youngest in the class. The instructor had a tendency to treat me like the young student that I was and was fondness for taking my brush out of my hand to show me how I should be doing things. Perhaps it was this that turned me off of watercolors, or maybe its lack of instant gratification. All I know is it's not something you'll see me doing anytime soon.

I may not be doing watercolors, but there's no telling what you will see me doing. I have a voracious appetite when it comes to learning new things. I played four instruments in three years of marching band. I've been fortunate in the past couple years to be able to take advantage of stores like Panopolie (I'll have to hit up Ornamatea now that she has closed) and Archiver's. I've dabbled in jewelry making, metal etching, and have been shown card making techniques that would have made my Mother's head spin. And the DVR has exposed me to even more art forms than I could have imagined.

But that's the problem--there's more. There's so much more. And I want to try it all. I don't necessarily have to become a master at it. Take weaving. I don't really want to be a weaver, but wouldn't it be cool to say that you've actually done under-water basket weaving? There's a really cool pair of earrings that I'd like to have, the only problem is that they only exist in my head. So, why not learn how to make them? Maybe someone else would like to have a pair just like them, so I'll make a few. Maybe I'll dislike the process so much that they become true one-of-a-kinds. But I won't know until I try, will I.

So, I ask myself the question, what to do? Alas, I don't think I'll ever find a final answer to the question. At least not as long as there is some form of creative expression I haven't tried.

Identity Crisis

One of the great advantages of taking an e-course with hundreds of people is that you get to share in the creativity of those hundreds of people. Every one has their own take on the same thing. For a while now I've been kind of bored with the look of my blog. It needed something, I just didn't know what--or how to achieve it for that matter. Then at the beginning of the Flying Lessons course by Kelly Rae Roberts all the participants took the time to introduce themselves and share their websites and blogs. All of a sudden I was inundated with designs of all types--elegant, fun, wacky. Above all they were creative. And I was dying to be one of them. Lucky for me the blogs weren't the only thing that was shared. A few generous souls were kind enough to share how they came about designing their unique blog. So for the past few days I have been playing around with the design of my blog. The current look is from a website call ShabbyBlogs.com. They've got some great pre-made blog templates. Before that I played around with an image that I had created years ago. I've also used a couple templates provided by Blogger. For now I think I'm going to stick with the glitter heart design from Shabby Blogs. The glitter makes me think of Mom, since she was often known to have glitter in her hair. I'm sure, however, that I'll be playing around with the design again before too long. I guess that's one thing about being creative--I'm always working on something new.

Going Flying

It's kind of fun to see life at work. A little over a year ago a friend of mine sent me a book that she thought I would like. It was called Taking Flight: Inspiration + Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, by Kelly Rae Roberts. It's part companion, part guide, and part journal. It's the kind of book that makes you want to run to the craft room and lock yourself in until you're covered in paint and have little scraps of paper stuck to various parts of your clothes. I was all raring to go when I was hit with my ten-month forced hiatus from creative life. The book, along with many other things, got packed away and moved.

Fast forward to last week. The same friend sent me a link to a website. She had seen an artist's work in Hallmark and fallen in love. She wanted to share the artist's site with me because she knew I would love her work too. As I started surfing through the site I realized that there was something familiar about the artwork. Low and behold, the artist who had caught her eye was also the author of the book that she had sent me last year--Kelly Rae Roberts. I would say it's a small world, but I don't believe in coincidence.

I am at a point in my creative career where I could use some guidance. I've mostly decided what I want to do, and where I want to do it (read: new website coming in the near future). But I'm not too sure on the how. I can build a website, I can write a blog, but how do I share it with an audience. Enter Kelly Rae. As I was browsing her site I noticed a page for her e-course, "an inspiring and informative e-course where I share everything I know about how to start, grow, or expand your creative business." It was everything that I have been looking for. Depressed about not being able to afford to go to CraftyCon this fall, I was elated to find a source for all the information I've been looking for and it was only $99. Again, Kelly Rae is going to be a companion and a guide to those of us who want to share our creative spirit with the world (or at least the parts of the world who are interested in wearing things like Lego earrings).

I am totally elated, and grateful, that I have this opportunity. I look forward to learning all that I can, and hopefully someday I will be able to share my expertise with a whole new generation of crafters.

-Jen

Inspirations from IKEA

This is us at 4:00 in the morning, February 18.  What, you may ask would possess us to get up in the middle of the night, get in the car and drive over two hours to Charlotte?  Well...

It was the grand opening of the new IKEA in Charlotte.  There was no way I was going to pass up an opportunity like this.  It's certainly not everyday that you get to witness the grand opening of a store like IKEA.

My original plan was to chronicle the whole morning--waiting in line, the band, the hundreds of other people anxiously awaiting the opening of the doors--but I was thwarted by mother nature.  Before we left at 4 am I checked the weather to decide which coat I should bring.  Unfortunately I failed to notice the little rain symbol next to the 50 degrees.  It started raining in Burlington.  It got worse when we got to Charlotte.  Our umbrellas were in Durham.

Luckily they were handing out ponchos to us fools who were standing in line.  The lucky (crazy?) few who had been there since Monday had a cover over their heads, while the rest of us who decided we didn't need a free chair bad enough to camp out for three days were left out in the rain.  We were fortunate enough that a very nice couple got in line behind us, equipped with a giant golf umbrella.  We got to know them quite well during the two hours we huddled together underneath it.  

The store was originally supposed to open at 9:00.  They started the opening ceremonies at 8:00.  First the appropriate anthems were played as first the American, then the Swedish, then the North Carolina flags were raised.  There was a men's choir from Sweden there to sing the Swedish national anthem.  There were speeches from the store manager, the local district politician, and even Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory (whom I'm told never misses an opportunity like this).  Finally at 8:30 they asked us if we'd like to go in a little early.  The crowd responded more loudly than when the television crews asked if they were excited.  And I felt the happiest I'd been in several hours--we were going in.

This was the scene when we entered the store.  All of the employees were lined up, cheering and clapping us as we came in the doors and headed up the escalator.  It was so exciting.  It was like iPhone day, only I'd been the idiot waiting in line, not the one inside the store clapping.

We spent the rest of the morning going through the enormous showroom.  We made time, of course, for some Swedish meatballs and ligonberry juice.  If you ever get to go, you must try the meatballs.  If you're smart and pack a cooler you can even bring some frozen meatballs home to fix for yourself.  Though, keep in mind, that the cooler could take up precious cargo space in the car.  You can only buy the furniture that you can take back home with you.

So what, may say, does any of this have to do with craftiness and inspiration?  Well, IKEA is not just about furniture and meatballs, it's about accessories and organizing too.  

This is what I brought home from IKEA.  I knew when I went that I wanted to get some of these jars.  We bought some a couple years ago for our kitchen, and they are wonderful.  They have a really tight seal on them so they keep things fresh.  Well, a couple months ago when I was working on organizing my craft room I stole a couple out of the kitchen, because they look really nice too.  I've got bottle caps, buttons, scrap ribbon stored in them, and they look nice enough to leave out on shelves.  I also came across this really cute tin set.  I couldn't resist the polka dots, and it was only $2 for the three tins.  The big white board in the back is a metal board for magnets.  I've been displaying my magnets on the back of a Christmas serving plate, so I was very excited to find this, especially with a craft show coming up in April (more on that later).  The mirror I found for $4.  It's unfinished wood, which I plan to decoupage.  

The most surprising inspiration of all is in that big blue bag.  We have a couple from our previous trips to IKEA.  You can purchase one of those for $2, and it's big enough to fit everything you buy in, or you can pay $.50 per plastic shopping bag.  It's the Swedish way of encouraging you to help the environment.  They're really nice and heavy, but for me they're too big to be of any real use in day-to-day life.  I certainly wouldn't fill them with groceries.  I would never be able to carry it in from the car.  Well, while we were in line for our meatballs I spotted something interesting.  A woman had on her shoulder one of the IKEA blue bags, only it was the size of her purse (granted one of those huge suitcase-sized purses, but still).  She had taken the bag, cut it, and re-sewn it to the size that she wanted.  How ingenious is that?  I've looked at those bags a dozen times and never thought to do that.  Since it was the grand opening they gave everyone new blue bags for free, so I have a crisp new one to play with.  And who knows, maybe it will start a new fashion trend.

My final find, and perhaps my favorite, is this nine drawer organizer.  Yes, I realize it looks like a box of wood right now, but that's the fun of IKEA.  I get to put it together myself.  And since I get to do that I get to paint it and decorate it any way I want.  I'm really looking forward to playing with it.

So, I guess if I were to sum up this blog in a couple of sentences (for those of you who have scrolled down) it is this: 1)Do something crazy like get up in the middle of the night and stand in the rain for hours just for a store opening at least once in your life.  2)Keep your eyes open.  There is inspiration everywhere and some things aren't what they seemed when you first looked at them.

Why Mommy Moon

While I have a blog on my photography website, I decided to create a blog to discuss the other part of my life--crafting.  Although my crafting often includes my photographs, I do a lot of things that don't.  So I thought it fitting to share my crafty life on a separate blog.

That's the why of the blog.  The why of the name is another story all together.  The creativity that flows through my veins is genetic.  I owe it all to my mother.  She started grooming me at an early age so that I may one day pass my creativity on to my children.  My sophomore year of college my mother moved to Florida.  It was the furthest away we'd been my entire life.  She used to tell me that she could see my face in the full moon and know that I was with her.

After my mother passed away in 2004 I began to see the moon in a whole new light.  I remembered what she had told me when she moved so far away.  I now look at the full moon and know that she is with me.  I call it the Mommy Moon.  And since it my mother who inspired and nurtured my creativity, I've named my blog Mommy Moon.