Make (and throw away doodle sketches done while watching tv)

Make
note pad, faber castell artist pens, uni-ball artist pen.

I have decided to start being intentional about my creativity again. I am going to start blogging again. I am going to work on my etsy shop again. I am going to paint again. I am going to write again, and I am going to pay attention to the creativity that I AM practicing.

So I have a job and kids and bills to pay and a house to maintain and food to cook.  So what?

I have a me to maintain, too. And that me demands that I make things that are meaningful, beautiful, purposeful and sometimes even fun.

One of the things I'm going to do, on the way to being purposefully creative and organized and productive again, is to pay attention to what I'm already doing that is creative. This counts, is what I'm saying.

It counts when I try out a new recipe or mix together play dough, or decorate for a birthday party, or rearrange the kids room or crochet a granny square, or write down notes on the stories I'm writing, or make a blog post, or cobble together a play kitchen out of cardboard boxes (I'm almost done, will post on that later.)

scallop doodle sketch while watching tv.
note pad, uni ball pen, hilighter

It also counts when I make a doodle on a pinky purple notepad, a little throw away scallop doodle sketch while watching tv. A thing I might have ignored and not counted.

Yesterday I was going through my photos that I took recently of all the crafts that I've done and feeling no inspiration for a blog post. I couldn't see anything that I could learn from or give to you. Then I gave up, grabbed a handful of chocolate and sat down on my bed to watch Raising Hope.  And that's when I noticed the throw away sketch and realized....creativity is not the big projects that I can turn into tutorials and show you how to make, it is not the finished paintings, it is not the stuff I can sell on etsy, or a finished 300 page novel that can be shoped around to agents... or rather, creativity is all of that, but it is not limited to that. Being creative is about making something new, something that did not exist before.

And that includes dinner, or a  rousing rendition of 101 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, or a rearrangement of the tchochkes on the bookshelf or the doodle in the notepad while I'm doing something else.

Be creative. Make something. And give yourself credit for being a creative type of person, as we all are.  Then pay attention and take a look at what you've done and see if you can build it into something that is bigger or grander or closer to that intention you have for yourself. Or just love it for the artsy-craftsy pretty thing that it is.

Rock on, you maker, you.