Posts Tagged ‘creative’

He loves to lay down on the floor with a sheet of blank paper in front of him having a movie playing on the screen. He looks at the movie and he draws, sometimes more into the movie, sometimes more into the drawing. Tonight he drew a new kind of house.

It is the house we are going to live in in the future, he told me.

And then we looked at the drawing together, deciding which part he is going to occupy, which part I am going to living in and what everything else are going to be. I love how he fills our house with his drawings, even when I get a bit tired of finding half drawn sheets of paper all over the floor most mornings. I am so grateful to see that he expresses himself through creative ways. I hope he never forgets to imagine, to dream, to make, to create, to not accept that ‘it can not be done’ as good enough answer when it comes to thinking or dreaming up new creative ways to do or live life.

It might seem like a waste of time to dream or make art. But I do not think that it ever is. I think it is one of the most important things in our life; to believe we were created with this wonderful ability to imagine and make, that we can do as the Master Creator does: create things of beauty. Not only because they are practical and useful things – but because they make us HAPPY.

And beauty is so much, we can only take a look around us: people, plants, animals, flowers, houses, the shapes and the colors of things surrounding us all have something beautiful in them. Even my orange crocks and my tea mug got chosen because of their color (crocks) and shape (mug) that I found to be beautiful. I am sure if you look around in your own living room you can find something that makes you smile with delight. And if not, give room for your creative side. Make something or find something other have made and celebrate the beauty you see.

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
(Eccl. 3:11-13)

Last Friday (September 25th) MT got invited to a costume party. He prepared well and borrowed the costume from his friend – but the head gear he made himself. They had so much fun at the party and this is a little snipped from our conversation as we walked back home. It made me smile big listening to him. It also made me realize how much he’s grown lately. This is me savoring the moment:

Me: Was it fun at the party!
MT: Oh, YES! It was the best!
I ate so much candy that my heart hurt.

Me: What was the most fun?
MT: The girl-war. I hid and scared them.

..hope he didn’t scare them too much. LOL.

I’m so proud of him for going the creative route and making this helmet himself. He’s the designer, I only helped him with gluing together the big parts as well as letting him use one of my cardboard boxes.

I love the details of it and how he found it funny leaving the post stamps on. I love the details, here is even a microphone in case he needs to talk to his friends during a mission.

Way to go for making your own statement my boy.

And for not demanding to buy something when you didn’t have what you imagined. Making it yourself is sooo much cooler anyway You thought me a lesson there.

A busy start to the Advent season. But a GOOD start.

I’ve been creating a few project over the last days. I’ve loved it, but my kitchen is messy and my laundry pile is high – so I guess I’d better spend the day taking care of a few things here at home (as well as preparing the many services with children and youths leading up to Christmas). My life is never boring and always filled with things to take care off. But sometimes (like now) I take time to sit down with a coffee and blog a little It’s nice to put a few words out there and it helps me documenting my days – and thoughts – as well.

A few weeks ago I saw Stacy Julian’s idea for a simple, but cute,  advent calendar (look down for the bonus project). I wanted to make my own and told my mom to bring my Grandma’s sewing machine so I could have a go on it. I decided to make a few gifts as well, so I started with those. It was so fun bringing out my Grandma’s old Singer and it’s amazing it still works like a charm. I’m not as good a sewer (by any means) as her, but this project is pretty forgiving when it comes to messing it up. It kind of adds interest. Anyhow, here is my go with the gift projects:

When I finished these I took some time to stitch together a few for my self, but I haven’t gotten around to finish more than one each day (until today, but it’s still a work in progress..). On the back I’ve made a pocket to hold a few cards with 1) the Christmas story 2) Today’s things to do. MT finds this each morning and reads what the cards say, first the story part and then the other with the things to do. So far he’s liked it a lot and he hasn’t even complained once about not getting a gift calendar like he got last year. I’m so glad about that since I felt all the gifts (even though some pretty small) took too much away from the season and the joy of the gifts on Christmas Eve itself. I plan on using this calendar each year – only changing the cards on the back – I like it and it’s also easy to bring along if we are going places in December.

I’ve also started my version of December Daily inspired by Ali Edwards. I’ve made a few new beginner mistakes (like making way to complicated pages – so next year there will be no snowflakes; even though they are seriously cute, but the decorating is a bit too…though). And since I print from home it’s a good idea to have page sizes that have easily room for a 8×8 or 11×8,5 or a 11×5 or … (you get the idea). Next year!!

I started the album on November 29th as in the first Sunday of Advent. So far I’ve finished through December 3rd and are going hybrid on this project. I’ve never been a paper scrapper, so this is a lot of new stuff for me – but I’m starting to get the hang of it. And it’s nothing like looking thought my album and feeling good about all the stuff captured from each day. Now I’ll never forget how this season felt. I’m running out of time right now, but I’ll make a post with the digital elements as soon as possible – maybe I even can get around to do a bit of photo-shot of the album as well?!

I love this season, but I wish for an extra hour now and then. And for documenting reasons here are few things from TODAY:

1. it’s snowing
2. the snow is wet
3. making the roads all slippery
4. the tractor haven’t been her shoveling the snow away yet (he came at 3 pm)
5. I almost did not come up to the house again after driving MT to school this morning
6. I need to order new winter tires soon
7. there is a man working in the cellar
8. he’s making a lot of noise
9. but it’s good he’s doing this job, makes the cellar (and the house) free of house fungus
10. I’m now going to clean out all the milk cartons on my counter before anyone comes to count them (and then figure out how long they have stood there….)
11. I haven’t been sick after taking the swine flue vaccine last Friday (neither has MT), but my arm is sore and I miss sleeping on my left side…
12. then I only have to wait for the photos to upload and then this post is published
13. sadly that took all day
14. I’m running behind on my uploading habits
15. my bed is calling, I’m trying to not listen…. as also is a habit of mine
16. I didn’t cross everything out of my list today
17. but I did a few
18. thanks for reading

See you around!

I love Saturdays. A time to chill out and sleep in

Today MT was invited to the birthday party of one of his friends from kindergarten. He had fun – and I enjoyed my time at home alone doing nothing more than update my project 365 and download some digi files It’s been snowing the last couple of days, but it is slippery ice underneath – and it’s been to cold for the snow to stuck to it – so it’s really slippery outside right now!!! Hopefully we won’t break anything.

Tonight we have watched telly, talked, written words and letters (mostly MT – mostly impossible to read do to it being letters of MT’s own invention) and he spent some time building new creations with his wood blocks, nails and hammer. I love that he finds this so funny and it’s not as easy as it looks so the practice does him good