(Just to tease you!)
I have a banoffee pie recipe to share, but not until Monday. No reason other than I am a cruel woman. I also have a cinnamon roll recipe that I may or may not wait until the following Monday to share because not only am I cruel but evil.
You see Thursday's are for wittering and waffling and Monday's are for recipes and rambunctiousness. Something like that.
You will be pleased to hear I wont be boring you with my on going organisation, other than it is miraculously continuing, and I won't detail my new home cleaning regime, as that's far too domestic and housewifey. No today it's all about creativity.
I have always felt that I'm not a 'creative' type and that my lot in life is to be a very practical person. You know, that person who is always unflappable and calm in a crisis. Practical. I've always felt that creativity is for other people...artists, graphic designers, sewers, knitters, crafters,sculptors, makers...not for me then. When I was at school, primary and secondary, I was the quintessential average student. There was nothing I excelled at, mostly I was average but some things I failed miserably at. I couldn't draw, I couldn't sew, I couldn't knit...I couldn't create. I couldn't even grasp the basic concepts of how to do these things, they seemed so abstract! I have such strong memories about being baffled about how to even start off sewing and sure enough anything I made would somehow unravel and fall apart and I'd still be left feeling bemused. Worse still to have what you have just sewn ripped apart, literally, by a sadistic sewing teacher. Art was even worse and it got to the point when I stopped doing my homework entirely so that I wouldn't get another D scribbled across it.
Its not until the last 5 or 6 years that I have really started to get over some of my school day hangups and realise that I can do all these things. It's helped that I have realised that 'creativity' has a broader scope and definition than I previously thought. I write regularly on this blog...isnt that creative? I have taught myself to crochet...isn't that creative? I can sew reversible baby trousers when I havent sewn in years...isnt that creative? I can garden, create new recipes and develop unusual herbal recipes. All these things are creative. I'm learning in my own way, at my own pace and am now no longer afraid of making mistakes because this is how I learn.
Right, enough of the baring the soul. I want this year to be the year I really unleash my creativity. Yeah, sure, everything has already been done but not by me. I'm not going to get too hung up about originality. So here is how i plan to approach my creative year.
- I will not hoard sketch books/notebooks but use them instead I have a terrible habit of collecting notebooks and then either get quite annoyed when they get used by others or am so terrified of filling them with utter drivel that they remain blank and untainted.
- I will not worry about the contents of said notebook. No one else has to see it.
- Anything I make must be either practical and therefore not clutter or so fabulously fabulous that it must stay in my house forever and become a much coveted item by all who come visit.
- I will not permit further UFOs in this house as there are enough of them already! UFOs (unfinished objects) will be completed before taking up new projects. So no more crocheting more interesting items until my granny square blanket is complete! (although it's gone from a full size blanket to a cot size and now a dolls bed sized blanket...I may manage to complete that).
- I will not take on unmanageable projects in terms of size (see above) or ability (therefore no launching in with a self drafted coat).
- I will not let doubt or flashbacks to school days cramp my creativity. I'm a big girl now and don't have unmotivating and uninspiring teachers breathing down my neck whispering words of negativity in my ears. I am a creative person and have the ability to master anything I desire (so up yours Miss Stewart (my evil sewing teacher) and the drunk art teacher who I can't remember the name of but know she drank cheap sherry in the art store cupboard.)
- I will not inflict unwanted handmade goods on everyone I know, including my child. I will not force badly made gifts onto my loved ones...but if I hate you then oh, yes, I shall gift you the worst items I can, insist you wear them and then ask about them all the time. If I particularly despise you I shall make sure your name is on it so you can't give it away either... Bwhahaahahahahaha.
I think that's everything. Anybody else got any ideas on how to be/stay creative? What do you feel your creative outlet is?
Love your description of your current learning at own pace... it is terrible how the negative voices of the past can echo forward into the present and am so pleased you are slaying them :)
To do anything creative well, you have to be prepared to do it very badly to begin with. Not that you're doing anything badly - I am in awe of most of it!! You've been a creative genius with food for years of course :D
Posted by: Lucy | 19 January 2012 at 20:38
oh and the pie looks completely lush!
Posted by: Lucy | 19 January 2012 at 20:39