challenging old beliefs

I used to think it was copying. Now I realize it's inspiration. We need inspiration from others, need outside ideas to be stimulated, to give us juice to create our own vision.
I was driving on Main Street today, looking at a flag I have seen many times before. I had been thinking all morning about my flower designs and when I saw the flag, it hit me, I could make a flag design using my flowers.
Some artists, like Monet and Manet, are inspired by beautiful outdoor scenes in France. I'm not that type of artist (I can't draw to save my life. This is one of the reasons I never thought I was creative. That's another belief of mine that I have challenged). But I get now that we need to be around beautiful things to create our own gorgeous things. I used to be so hard on myself, thinking it all had to come from the inside. When I created something based on something that had been done before, I thought it was unoriginal and not worthy.
Like the old me would have thought the flag/flower idea was stupid. You're copying the flag, how silly is that. But now I realize the many ways that's original, it's a twist on an old delicious symbol. I bet even Betsy Ross would think it was cool.
This is what I love about this blogging community! All the beautiful ideas and colors and pretty things to look at! It's like candy for my creative soul.
Now I just need a better camera, that cardboard one isn't going to cut it, I realize!

balloons!

Well that was a blast!
I put the how to make balloon kit in the car in the bag of returns.
Was going to take it to Barnes and Noble one of these days. (I mean how many kits can I keep. When am I going to find the time to do all these).
But like the kid I am, I just want to do everything (and I knew the kids would love this kit, too). So I took the balloons out of the car at Beth's house today and me and the kids had a great time! At first it was frustrating because the pump that came with the kit didn't work. We tried blowing the skinny balloons ourselves, but to no avail. (Try it, you'll see what I mean! They aren't like the "fat" balloons.) Sammi got her dad's soccer pump and that worked better, except for the occasional hole in the balloon. It took some work, but after a few hours of on and off balloon making, I was able - with one kid reading me the directions and another helping me to hold the balloon - to make dogs. I got that down! Now I have another hobby to obsess over!

dish towels from martha stewart

I realize today as I take out the bright and colorful MS towels that I bought from K-Mart a year or more ago, that I am obsessed with dish towels. I love looking at these colors, have been saving these forever, often thinking about them. I mean they are only towels, yet the thought and look of them is inspiring and beautiful. I think to myself, maybe this is one area where I do scrimp that I shouldn't. That instead of waiting til the existing towels get really faded, I should replace them sooner.

so many crafts, so little time

I overwhelm myself this weekend (must be a stressful week at work)...I buy so many things at the craft store and at barnes and noble that I can't possibly do them all...I will have to return the origami jewelry kit and the balloon making kit and maybe even the cat training kit.
I did buy glycerin in the solid form, which I use to make soap that turned out kinda neat, but not neat enough that I would buy it if I saw it in a store. They were pretty, in the shapes of muffins, and cinamonny, yet they do have proplene glycol in them (bad!) and are drying (I couldn't find any with more natural ingredients). I need to learn more about soapmaking before I find something I truly would want to use my own bod.
I also buy a knitting loom...all my attempts at knitting have been unsuccessful in the past. I would start something, but then screw up and couldn't figure out how to get back on the horse. But this loom looks really easy. So I buy one and start making a hat. I buy some really pretty yarn in a beautiful green, the color of my cat's eye's kinda green. I start that and it is truly easy. I figure this out on my own.

blogging

I am starting to feel so energized by the work of other crafters out there.
I wish crafting blogs were around when I was in high school. I was just as obsessed with crafts back then, but had no friends who were into them, and so I sort of suppressed my craft passion. I mainly crafted on my own or with my mom or aunt. I made lots of embroidery towels and pillowcases back then and gave them as gifts, but it was always hard to find pretty and cool patterns. Sometimes I created my own.
I wasn't artistic in the sense that I couldn't draw, can't draw. But I always had the urge to create, to make beautiful things with color and fabrics and thread and paints too, but not in the sense of someone like Renoir who can paint a beautiful scene.
Now I realize there are so many people out there to connect with online. So many beautiful blogs! I'm inspired to make mine beautiful as well!

so that worked!

finally...i've been playing with the computer for like an hour and finally figure out how to upload these potholders that i made for erin's shower. well, not bad, i guess, for a cardboard camera. i'll be uploading some more photos that i developed from that camera. and in the meantime, i think i'm going to get a digital camera!
i'm going to try to upload one more photo, this time i think i will try to upload the computer cake (which says Be Obscure Clearly) that I made for the newsroom.

let's see