June 29, 2012
The last couple of days have been busy, the typical business of a mom with two kids I guess. End of year pool parties and summer camps and such. I definitely feel my energy waning and my feet are indeed starting to swell as I had predicted. I went swimming yesterday, on the advice of Maegan, and it did indeed help with the swelling though. If you follow me on Instagram (fourflights), you may have seen my bikini belly shot 😉 I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get accomplished these next few weeks, but at the same time, I hope I can let myself relax a little and just enjoy, without feeling the need to come up with a new DIY for you guys every week. We’ll see. For now I’m just going to look forward to a good weekend spent with some of my favorite people.
As we head into the weekend I wanted to share with you a mini article I found in this month’s Allure, about creativity. Point #2 really stuck with me because for the longest time I have brushed off any notion that I am creative at all because I always linked creativity with artistic talent. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life and my 7 year old daughter can now draw a pony better than I can. But hearing it said that being creative is more about being open minded and it can be something as simple as changing up a recipe finally connected the dots for me! So I guess now when someone says “you’re so creative”, I can hopefully take the compliment and say thanks instead of my standard, “No, I’m not!”.
So do you guys have any methods or practices to help you be a bit more creative? Do you consider yourself a creative person at all? Speaking of creativity, I’m about to head out to meet up with a good friend I met through blogging, Jules. We’re getting the kids together to play and while they play we’re going to brainstorm and try to be a bit creative ourselves. Hopefully we’ll feed off of each other. Any fun plans for the weekend?
This is something I’m trying to implement into my thinking more lately- with my writing, designing for my shop, finding more creative & original projects to share on my blog and at this point in my life financially, too!! Trying to not lower my standard on things that are important to me but still cut back- it’s tricky, but I think possible. Happy weekend lady!!
not lowering standards – that is a tricky one and something we don’t always think as a part of creativity, but something that is important.
I do think I’m creative. Not necessarily in an artistic way because I can’t draw either but I did used to paint. I’ve also been writing for years which is definitely a creative outlet of sorts and I craft which I think breeds even more creativity because it’s using random items and putting them together in a way most won’t see to do.
To inspire creativity, I look around the internet, go to the craft store, read through my blog archives, flip through magazines to get makeup ideas. you name it I’ll try it. Doing makeup or being considered to do something for someone always sparks my creativity because each face is like a blank canvas and provides so many options!
have a great weekend!
Creativity comes when our resources our limited and we still find ways to make something happen. This can be literally anything – you find a great combination of thrift store clothes and turn them into an amazing outfit. You jury-rig a solution to a household problem with supplies you already have – it doesn’t matter what you do or end up with, but how you do it.
One of the biggest problems I’m teaching various creative classes to adults (particularly when having when trying something new and particularly with artistic endeavours) is the fear of doing it wrong. I try to try things out of my comfort zone (that I’m pretty sure I won’t excel at) because that simple act of courage allows you to let go and just do whatever it is, no expectations. Some of my best work has come out of mistakes and messes made when trying something new. Kids are so green that everything they try is a new experience, so there is a fearlessness that I think we all need to aspire to have once again when faced with that self-doubt.
Great points! I think the older we get the more fearsome we become of failure and feeling silly, not taking into consideration how much we know and how important our general life skills that we have acquired are in helping us reach the intended goal. When trying something new, I often forget that I’ve learned a lot in my 36 years here on life, and if I just let myself be open, I can probably figure it out and be happy with the results.
I think all bloggers are somewhat creative, because not everyone is able to write… But I think most of my creativity is with planning. I love to throw baby or bridal showers and dinner parties and things like that. I really enjoy coming up with themes and ideas that the guests will (hopefully) love and carrying it out in the details.
To feed creativity, I read. Tori spellings book Celebratori was a good inspiring book for party planning, and of course I read a lot of blogs… And pinterest, obviously is helpful these days!
Hope you enjoy your weekend!!
yes, I think there is a common thread of creativity in all us bloggers, no matter what we right about. We all have our talents and strengths in different areas…
I am always nagging myself about being more creative, thinking that that automatically links up with art. It’s funny I came upon your post today, because I just started a blog about 2 months ago and was thinking about how much more time I am online now, needing to prepare daily blog posts. At first it bothered me, but then I realized that that time was a time for me to be creative. To come up with a topic, to take and edit pictures, to write the posts…it all takes a creative mind. It made me feel better about all that time that I was worried I was “wasting.”
oh yes, browsing and “researching” can feel like such a waste of time sometimes, but it is often a great way to get a spark of creativity going and find inspiration.