Where Has All My Creativity Gone?

I'm not sure if it's the change in weather that I was so looking forward to, or work getting on top of me like it often does, or some of my other previously identified demons. Whatever it is it seems like my creativity, my energy and my zest for life have left the building. I have no desire to paint, collage, sew, blog or anything else remotely creative. When I do try to do these things telling myself that it will make me feel better it feels forced and chore-like and makes me feel even worse.

It's a horrible feeling when I don't feel creative. I always think that it's never going to come back. It always does, and on some level I know it will, but at the time there is always this sense of fear. Perhaps it is the not knowing when that is so hard to deal with. I have never been all that good at giving in and going with the flow - in other words just trusting.

In the absence of creativity, work is even more of a drag than usual. When I am energised by art, craft and blogging work becomes insignificant and I am excited by the possibility of a future and a vision of me as an artist or crafts woman. When the creativity goes I become terrified that I will never get to do work that nurtures my soul and makes me happy. Instead I envisage that I will have to keep doing what I have been doing for so long.

Woe is me today!

Part of my fear is about all the things that I have started working on or ideas that I may never get finished or even started. So I'm going to write down my crafty intentions so they can't get lost. Here goes in no particular order:

• Finish artworks for my 1st market stall
• Make a plastic shopping bag and coin purse - inspiration from here
• Make envelopes using vintage cookbooks just like these
• Make a travel wallet like the one I found here and here
• Finish my art swap piece for this lovely woman
• Finish the entry that I have been working on for the Cancer Council Arts Awards
• Finish the clutch purse I am making for my partner's neice
• Finish putting together the top of my first patchwork quilt

There we have it. Recorded in history never to be lost of forgotten. Perhaps now I can go and take a long, hot bath and be kind to myself.

This is...The Contents of My Handbag

Many thanks to Three Buttons for the great meme. And this week thanks to Sharon for the great choice of theme.

Firstly I have to say a woman can never, ever have too many handbags. I have tonnes of them and always want more. I currently have my eye on about 3 possible new purchases that would look lovely in my collection if only I had the funds.

So here are some of my current stock.

And finally, the contents. I change around between bags a lot but I always carry these standard items everywhere I go. Wallet, notebook and pen, hankie (Mum taught me well), glasses and sunglasses - one of which will usually be on my face, chewie and keys. Along with these I also often have a change purse, my diary and other random bits and pieces.

On My Desk - Wednesday

• Some vintage wallpaper remnants from here
• A cook book from the local op shop. I was inspired by Starashan's crafty envelopes and will try to make some myself.
• A lovely surprise from here. It is the first giveaway I have won since I started blogging so I was very excited to arrive home and find a parcel in the mail.
• Some pringles. I am having a junky kind of day today so lots of snacky food. My partner is away for a few days and I feel a bit out of balance and like the house is too big for just me and the cats. Come home soon honey.
• One yo-yo. It just slipped its way in there. You can never complain about having a yo-yo hanging around on your desk. If you haven't picked one up in a while I highly recommend it.

The weather is fabulous here in Melbourne. Cold and rainy. I am going to have a night in front of the television with my junk food and my craft. I hope you have a lovely evening or day wherever you are.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

It has been a splendid weekend. I did exactly what I planned to do. Lots of art and craft, plenty of socialising, just enough relaxing and not too many chores. Now it's time to pack up the paints and the glue and start thinking about the working week. I missed posting on Three Buttons This Is... yesterday. The theme for the week This Is...My Demon is courtesy of Drewzel. I have many demons (don't we all). Unhealthy food, inability to commit to regular exercise, pervasive self doubt, fear of failure, and never seeming to find a job that I can commit to. There are others but I don't want to think about them too much today. Progress for my market stall is coming along beautifully. I made about 40 canvas backgrounds over the weekend.





I also whipped up this birthday gift for my partner's nephew, which I have to say I am very pleased with.

Lovely Loot

I've been shopping, and had a wonderful time of it. I was inspired by Curly Pops who made some excellent Op Shop purchases. I was planning to go to the very same Op Shop but didn't make it with all my other purchasing.


Fabrics. The pinks are to make something for my partner's niece for her birthday. I'm thinking about a handbag of some sort. The blue and green - well that's for me.

Supplies for me. Lots of lovely new colours to play with. And...canvas to play on.


I am planning to have a market stall in May at my local neighbourhood house. It will be my first ever such thing. So I need to get busy making, and now I have the chattels to do so.

I am planning a lovely weekend of pottering in the studio. I seem to be completely unwilling or unable to sleep at the moment. Six months of lack of structure and routine has really messed with my ability to sleep. It's a double edged sword. I like the freedom of not having a whole lot of structure but I kind of need the structure and routine to keep me balanced. Anyway, I have decided after Easter to focus on balancing my life a little more - earlier to bed, increase exercise and eat healthy (the usual suspects really). In the meantime I will enjoy the last of my late night roamings through the house and cyberland.

One last shot for this post - just because I like it...

Art Swap Updated

Ok, I have adjusted the art swap adding shellbells to the group.

I didn't redraw the names - I just swapped shellbells into Zoesquid's spot. So just to remind you it now goes like this:

Curly Pops is making for Make Like A Tree and Leaf
Juddie of Flightless Boyds is making for Big Cat
Big Cat is making for Two Cold Feet
Make Like A Tree and Leaf is making for Juddie of Flightless Boyds
Shellbells is making for Curly Pops
Two Cold Feet is making for Shellbells

Don't forget to send me your e-mail and postal addresses Juddie and Shellbells. You can send them to cathkirwan(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au.

Also I'm going to extend the finish date to the last day of April to give everyone a bit more time. So now let's plan to post our finished peices to our own blogs on May 1st.

I think that's it for now.

On My Desk - Wednesday

This is my diary. It is one of my very favourite possessions. I am a woman on a quest. I spent years in search of the perfect work bag and finally found it in a crumpler. More recently I have been in search of the perfect diary and found it in my Rebound Books Little Golden Book. The Poky Little Puppy was a childhood favourite too.


Not only is it a fabulous cover but you also get the whole story spread throughout the diary to read whenever you want. And the page set up is perfect. One side for all that structure that goes with being a grown up and having to be in certain places at agreed times. The other side for notes, to do's, cool finds, and random thoughts. It's just perfect. Perfect I tell you.

Art Swap Hiccup

There's been a little hiccup. The lovely Zoesquid has had to pull out this time around so I need to rejig the swap list. I'm going to chase up someone who wanted to join in late and thought she had missed out. I will sort it out in the next couple of days and post the changes. In the meantime keep creating, the only change might be who your piece goes to.

And don't forget to e-mail me your details as per the previous post, if you haven't already.

OK, here we go. I've drawn the names out of a hat and matched them against a list of everyone playing and here's what we have


So it goes like this:

• Curly Pops is making for Make Like A Tree and Leaf
• Juddie of Flightless Boyds is making for Big Cat
• Make Like A Tree and Leaf is making for Juddie of Flightless Boyds
• Zoesquid is making for Curly Pops
• Two Cold Feet is making for Zoesquid
• Big Cat is making for Two Cold Feet

Can everyone send me your e-mail and postal addresses to cathkirwan(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au and I will distribute them accordingly.

You have until Thursday April 17th to make your piece. On the 17th post a photo of your finished piece to your blog so we can all play show and tell. Then send it to your person and wait patiently for the mail to arrive. Once you have received your new piece of art post it to your blog. Art swap successfully accomplished.

Why doesn't everyone also let me know if you finish your piece prior to the 17th and that way if everyone is finished early we can post and send sooner.

I am so excited. Thanks everyone for signing up for this. Now hurry - off to your creative, happy places and get your minds and hands to work.

Any questions, just let me know.

Happy days
Cathy

This is...My Creation

I had a Moroccan dinner party last night. Chicken, lemon and olive tagine accompanied by beetroot salad, carrot salad and almond harissa couscous. It was delicious. A lovely evening with good food and great friends - the best kind of evening.

It's too hot today to do anything. I wanted to do some painting. I wanted to organise Art Swap. I wanted to go to the Stitches and Craft Fair. All I can manage is lying in front of the fan watching bad TV.

Maybe tomorrow...

Don't Forget

Don't forget to join in the Art Swap. Absolutely everyone is welcome. It is very exciting. There are already 6 people signed up to participate. The theme is "In The Woods" and apart from that there are no real rules. You can use any medium you want to create something that represents the theme. You give your piece away to someone else who is participating and in return you get a piece of art. You have a month from the start date (sometime next week) to complete your piece and send it off. Once I know who is playing I will draw all the names and work out who is making for who. I will post it here and get everyone to send their e-mail and postal addresses to me so that I can pass them across to the appropriate people.

See I do all the logistics and you just do all the fun bits. Just the way life should be. Don't delay. Get on board. C'mon artsy people, join the fun. Sign up here or at the earlier message which you can navigate to here.

On My Desk - Wednesday

My desk reflects my state of mind today. Messy and somewhat sluggish. This is a photo album I am working on for friends. An unfinished project circa 2006 that I found some inspiration for on the weekend. It is such a great feeling to get unfinished projects moving. I feel like an unfinished project myself today. Hopefully something will get me moving in the next little while.

I Wish

I wish today that I could be doing this

or this

Instead of this

Perhaps more coffee will help!

Crafty Peeps Join The Fun

I'm organising an Art Swap. It started when I saw this cool art and thought hmmm... how can I get some for my very own. So Tessa and I said let's do it. We are both new to blogging and thought it would be fun. All are welcome to join in - the more the merrier.

Given that Tessa was the initial inspiration the theme will be "In The Woods". You can interpret the theme in any way you like and make a piece of art or craft in any medium. The timeframe for completing projects will be a month from the starting date.

If you would like to join in leave a message on this post by this time next Sunday including letting me know your physical location. I will put all the names in the proverbial hat and organise the swap list. I will also post start and finish dates, and other logistics.

This is an international swap so you should keep that in mind for the size of your work. If you want to join in but postage would be prohibitive then let me know in your post and I will try to organise it so you are sending more locally.

Any questions or advice most welcome. Otherwise, c'mon, join the fun and make this art swap kickin'.

Naughty Pusscat

Here I am happily blogging the afternoon away. I was thinking to myself that it seemed awfully quiet around the place and I went out to the kitchen to discover this.

She'd get in lots of trouble if she wasn't so damn cute!!! No cats on the kitchen bench missy!

This is...

I'm joining in Three Buttons meme (I still haven't worked out what meme means by the way). The theme this week is thanks to Boobook Sausage Dogs. I am using a little bit of interpretation for the sake of greater interest.

This is...looking out my back door


Every night this fella gets about making his web right across the exit of the back deck. Sometimes he even has a lady friend over to visit. It's been going on for weeks now. It means that I no longer go out in the back yard after dark and have had to train myself to check the web isn't still hanging around in the morning before I walk out there. I'm terrified of spiders, especially big ones like this but I am also generally in awe of the wonder of all living things so I am happy to adapt my life to accommodate us both. Besides it really is a an example of excellence in craft.

A Day of Treats

I managed to pick myself up a few treats in my travels today. I fell in love with this scarf when I saw it at a shop a couple of weeks ago. Luckily for me when I popped back in it was still there. I scooped it up at a bargain price.

I also bought myself a couple of magazines. I heart magazines. Particularly craft ones. Pages and pages of inspiration, ideas and new projects to try. Lastly, a couple of notebooks and some chocolate. Because a girl can never have too much stationary or chocolate.

Then there were the people treats. A great catch up with my best buddy this morning before lunching with a fabulous friend who I haven't seen for over a year. The thing I love about true friends is that is doesn't matter how much time has passed, you just pick up where you left off last time.

So all in all a lovely day and the weekend is just starting. I have lots of crafty plans for the weekend, along with a few social engagements and some things to blog. Oh, and I just remembered its a long weekend - no work until Tuesday. Yippee!!!

A Fabulous Crafty Time

Last night I frocked up and headed off to Crafty Peeps Drinks. I had such a lovely time and met so many lovely peeps. Check back after the weekend cause I am going to add links to all these wonderful ladies blogs. Today I had lots of nice messages from people on my blog which made my day.

Then I arrived home to found my Cloth Paper Scissors magazine had arrived in the post just to totally top off my day.

It's been a fabulous crafty time. I am wondering though where I am going to find the time to make crafty things now that I am fully addicted to blogging. Who would have thought!

On My Desk - Little Cat

Kootoyoo has a fun game going on. It's called on my desk and every Wednesday you photograph and blog about what's on your desk. I decided to play along too.

Today though I'm cheating. This photo was taken on Saturday night. Little cat (aka Willow) spent the evening with me while I played on the internet. We had a lovely time together and I couldn't resist using this for "On My Desk". You can also just see Big Cat (aka Holden) in the photo frame in the back left hand corner. Next week I will be true to time and place.


Something excellent happened today. I can't say anything yet. Don't count your chickens before they hatch and all that jazz. However, I might have some exciting news to share early next week.

Now it's time to get frocked up to go out and be brave at Crafty Peeps Drinks. If you see me there looking lost come and say Hi.

Be Careful What You Wish For

My news today is that I have secured more work. I have 4 days a week until the end of June as the Acting Coordinator at the centre where I work. This is the solution to mine and the organisation's difficulties that I have eluded to in previous posts.

It is bittersweet. It means money to pay the bills, and to buy treats and craft supplies, BUT (and it's a big BUT) a lot less time to daydream, potter and be crafty. It means less stress about personal finances and more of the stress that seems to come hand in hand with working. I hope that this is a time where I can become better at keeping work in context and in its rightful place in my life. I have a tendency to become overly consumed by work stress and particularly the games people play.

I am enjoying so many things in my life at the moment and particularly blogging. After all these years of wondering what all this blogging fuss was about I am overjoyed to find that it is a way to connect with like minded people, to make new friends, to learn new things and to challenge myself in so many ways. I found a kindred spirit in Two Cold Feet. We are both new to blogging and it is fun to connect with someone who is miles away and yet in the same space as me. I also discovered Make Like A Tree And Leaf. I love Tessa's paintings and the quirky blog name. Tessa's blog is even newer than mine so it was nice to connect with another newbie out there in cyberland.

I'm not just connecting in the ether though. Tomorrow night I am off to Crafty Peeps Drinks. I don't know a soul and I shift between being excited and terrified. I am hoping that the excitement of meeting some new crafty folk will continue to outweigh the fear of finding myself sitting in a pub talking to noone and feeling like a total loser. The other thing I did this week was booked myself in for a night at Brownies. Again I am filled with excitement and anticipation served with a garnish of trepidation. I must thank Stacy at Two Cold Feet. She posted about getting herself out there in the crafty world and I thought if she can do it I can too.

My partner's niece had her 10th birthday this week and I made her this. I posted it off today and can't wait till she gets it.

I am feeling so creative and inspired at the moment. It feels wonderful. What a pity I have to go to work so often now!!!

Soup and Pudding

The good folk over at Meet Me at Mikes are running a competition. Share your favourite soup recipe and you can win 10 vintage fat quarters. I love soup, I love vintage and I love fabric so here goes.

RED LENTIL AND SPINACH SOUP WITH CHEESE CROUTONS - SERVES 4

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
5 cups vegetable stock
2 cups spinach shredded
1 lemon, cut into 8 slices

Croutons
8 slices French stick
60g parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a heavy based pan. Add the onions and cook until softened. Add the garlic and coriander and cook for another minute
2. Add the lentils and stock and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add the spinach and slices of lemon and cook for another 2 minutes
3. Croutons - Preheat the grill. Lightly toast the bread on both sides. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese. Grill until the cheese is melted and golden
   

The soup is very healthy so just to balance things out here is one of my favourite desserts to tempt you as well.

RASPBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE WAFFLE PUDDING - SERVES 4

Ingredients
480g (about 10-12) waffles
300g fresh or frozen raspberries
200g good quality white chocolate, chopped
500ml thick cream
¼ cup caster sugar
1 tbs plain flour
3 eggs
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs icing sugar, to dust top
Cream or Ice-cream

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 170c.
• Grease a medium ovenproof dish.
• Cut waffles into 2 cm cubes.
• Place half in the dish, topped by half the raspberries and half the chocolate.
• Repeat these layers.
• Whisk together sugar, flour, eggs, rind, vanilla and cream.
• Pour over waffle mixture and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until golden.
• Dust with icing sugar.
• Serve with cream or ice-cream.

NOTE: If you want to do a fancier version of this you can divide the mixture into individual serving dishes and serve this way.