A creative life

It’s been all fun and activity here for the past few days as we have visitors staying and with every space of our little house abuzz it is difficult to find a place let alone a time to write. The spare room is filled and the overflow is sleeping on mattresses on the lounge room floor. We’re having a great time and it all adds to that wonderful, relaxed, holiday feeling.

After a late night, everyone is still asleep so I’m taking the opportunity to catch up - I didn’t realize we had so many creaking floor boards until I just crept out to get my laptop – as I want to write about creativity.

For as long as I can remember I have always crafted and this is the earliest example I have of my stitching. I was four when I carefully sewed three felt flowers onto a piece of hessian. Mum did the stem stitch and made them into a pot holder and an apron which were never used – I think only blacksmiths or saddlers would use aprons made of hessian! I love having them though. All my life I have continued to stitch and an instant de-stressor for me is having a needle in my hand and a project at the ready.

Another early love was coloured pencils, in particular my small tin of Cumberland Lakeland pencils. They were only the little-half length pencils which I don’t think are available now, but I loved them and was especially enthralled by the picture on the tin – it was so beautiful! My four-year-old self couldn’t imagine that such a place really existed and I wanted to find that lovely land where the pencils were made (many years later I did make the pilgrimage to the Cumberland Pencil Company in Lakes District of England).

Over the years I have learned new crafting skills, been exposed to other media, had times of intense creativity and other times of just following the pattern. Recently I have been ‘just following the pattern’ but would like to use a little more imagination, so after a lot of thought and knowing what a myriad of other things are going on in life at the moment, I have signed up for a creative challenge. Now challenges are not new to me, but on-line ones are and I really don’t know what to expect. I have also added an extra clause … in this year of celebrating the wonderful abundance in my life I am not purchasing any items for this project; I am sticking with the ‘make do and mend’ motto.

Initially I thought that perhaps I should establish a separate site to tell of my crafting journey, but as it is part of my nature, of who I am, I realised it is appropriate to include it all here. So although the challenge is unknown at this stage, I hope you’ll enjoy discovering with me what will be in my Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.