Posts by Miranda

Breakfast with Kelly

Guess who’s coming to Breakfast? Our own Kelly Warren! Blogger, jewelry designer, collage artist, guitarist, singer, photographer — Kelly is a renaissance woman in creativity. With twin girls, a menagerie of pets, and a full-time job, there isn’t much that this creative mother can’t do. Raise your glass of OJ in salute!

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family headcount.
KW: By day, I’m the college-wide coordinator of Student Life and Leadership Development at a very large community college in Florida. We are the second largest community college in the state and in the top 15 in the country in student population. After hours, I’m a jewelry designer and all-around-just-like-to-play-with-art artist, mom, and wife. I have a very supportive husband of 13 1/2 years, twin five-year-old daughters, one dog, one newly rescued baby kitten, one grouchy old cat who’s not very happy about the new kitten, two clown fish, two starfish, and depending upon whether or not we’ve been to the sandbar recently, anywhere from 5-20 hermit crabs. Hermit crab races are a big deal at our house. [Read about Kelly’s silly self-portrait session.]

CC: What prompted you to start blogging? What keeps you going?
KW: I’ve always loved to write, I’ve always loved art, and I’ve always loved creating things myself. A blog seemed to be a way to bring all that together. I already had a website for my jewelry business, so the blog was a natural extension. My blog has definitely morphed and grown as I’ve gone along and it still takes different twists and turns depending on what’s happening in my life. I blog about my latest creations, life with twin redheads, and fun art finds I stumble across. I’m the team leader for the North Florida Craft Revolution Etsy Street Team and the founder of the First Coast Art Spot, so I love to meet and promote other artists on my blog.

CC: Tell us about your jewelry making and any other creative pursuits. What’s in the offing at your Etsy shop and your own online store?
KW: I’ve always done some sort of “creative” work, whether for fun or for employment. I started designing jewelry while I was home on a six-month maternity leave with my girls. I wanted a mother’s bracelet and could not find a double strand for less than $100, so I decided to teach myself how to make one. From there, I just got hooked, and I’m totally self-taught through trial and error. I have both a website and my Etsy store, and I do juried arts festivals. Lately I’ve been playing around with mixed-media collage and have been really enjoying that medium, so some of those pieces may appear in my Etsy store and on my website soon. And I’ve always loved photography. I really need to update my Flickr site!

CC: What does “creativity” mean to you? How has motherhood changed you creatively?
KW: I think creativity is really a state of mind. You don’t have to be an artist, a writer, a photographer, a seamstress, whatever, to be creative. You just have to look at things with a creative eye. From that perspective, you can bring creativity into any and every aspect of your life, from how you create your grocery list and navigate the grocery store (my girls and I often create a game out of that mundane task) to redesigning your pantry once you get those groceries home to creating a new meal at the end of it all. For me, motherhood has brought out even more of my creativity because I’m able to share it with two little people who also want to play. They get me thinking about new creative ideas I can do with them, and the three of us can get lost in my workshop for hours playing with paint and paper.

CC: How do you make time for your creative life and blogging with a fulltime job and twins?
KW: Geez….that’s the million-dollar question for me. It truly is difficult, probably because I have two qualities that really trip me up. I’m borderline Type-A. My guitar teacher and I discussed this at length last night and he says I’m in denial. 🙂 There’s no borderline there! I do know how to sit back and relax when needed, though. (Yet, somehow I’ve just become the president of my sorority alumnae chapter here in town and I’m still trying to figure out how that one happened…must have been a meeting I missed!!) I tend to mistakenly believe that I can take on yet another project — because it sounds like soooo much fun — along with everything else I’m already doing. The mammoth Fatbook Swap I’m currently participating in is an example of that. Add to that the fact that I’m the world worst’s procrastinator. If I have a show looming, invariably I’m up late, late, late every night the week before cranking out jewelry pieces for the show. You’d think I’d plan ahead, but then all that other fun stuff just pops up! But somehow it just all comes together. Do I get everything done I’d like to get done? Heck no! But I’ve learned that sometimes it’s just more important to sit out on the dock with DH and the girls and watch the dolphins go by. I’m getting much better at learning to live in the moment.

CC: Where do you do your creative work and blogging?
KW: I am blessed! When we built our house, we initially did not close in the ground floor (we live in a stilt house). After a few years, we closed in one side of it for a real garage, and after another couple years, we closed in and air-conditioned the other side for a workshop and playroom. That’s really where we spend most of our time now. My workshop is about 8′ x 12′ with shelves and bench space all around. It’s wonderful! Now I just have too many supplies! We also created an art bench adjacent to my workshop for the girls since they were starting to take over my space. The rest of the space includes a flat-screen TV and comfy couch for DH to hang out and do guy stuff. As far as the blogging aspect, I have my laptop in my workshop for quick stuff (and entirely too much distraction at times), and a larger desktop upstairs in my office, which is conveniently located just outside the girls’ room.

CC: What do you struggle with most?
KW: Simple answer: TIME! Just finding the time to do everything I want to do.

CC: How much does guilt factor in your life?
KW: I think the guilt factors in with my jewelry business more than anything else. I show in 8-9 juried festivals a year, so that means DH is home alone with the girls all those weekends. Add to that my work travel, and that “being out of town so much” guilt weighs on me. It’s a catch-22 there; we’ve invested so much into my business to get it started, and now that it’s doing well, I feel I have to keep it up, but the time factor involved brings about the guilt.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
KW: We have three historic districts here in Jacksonville, and I love to take photographs around there. I love the color combinations on many of the old Victorians in these areas, and they crop up in my jewelry. My art inspiration sometimes comes from the Creative Construction weekly prompts as well, and I can spend hours flipping through art magazines!

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs-the ones you check every day? (Aside from Creative Construction, of course!)
KW: Well, there are lots more than five that I try to keep up with but if I can only pick five….. Wyanne Thompson, Elizabeth Beck, Kelly Rae Roberts, Ink Stains, Creative Every Day, and Scoutie Girl. Wait, that was six…

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
KW: Without a doubt, art magazines. I subscribe to more than I’m willing to admit and love nothing better than to curl up on the couch and read stacks and stacks. Of course, I never get the couch to myself or the solitude to do that, so that means I just keep a couple in my tote bag for work and sneak away every now and then. My favorites are Cloth Paper Scissors and anything and everything by Stampington & Co.

CC: What are you reading right now?
KW: On my Chi Omega book club list…The Time Traveler’s Wife, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Water for Elephants. My most recent favorites have been The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and The Mermaid Chair. I also just got around to The Secret Life of Bees and loved it.

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative and find time for their art?
KW: Wow, not sure I’m a good one to give advice since my life seems to be so chaotic! But if anything, I guess it would be to embrace the chaos when it happens, try to remember what really matters, and take a breath to live in the moment. And dolphins….I highly recommend having dolphins in your backyard. They are excellent stress relievers. 🙂

CC: Thanks, Kelly. Whatever you’ve got, we want some!

Breakfast with Emma-Jane

Another tasty, international Breakfast coming your way this morning. We travel to the UK to meet prolific artist and blogger Emma-Jane Rosenberg. Prepare for inspiration.

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family headcount.
E-JR: I’m 38 and live in East Anglia, UK, with my husband and our daughter, who’s just turned 2. I work from home as a freelance editor two days a week.

CC: What prompted you to start blogging? What keeps you going?
E-JR: I started my blog when my little girl was 5 months old, and I was keen to get back into the habit of sketching and painting. I joined the Everyday Matters group, and since many other members there kept art blogs, this seemed the obvious way to record and share my own progress. Apart from the interaction that my blog has afforded me with other artists and crafters, what appeals to me about it is that, like sketchbook journaling, it’s an ongoing record of my life that’s mostly pictorial, and with only as much of a written element as I feel comfortable including. I have always enjoyed the idea of keeping a diary, if not the act itself: not one word remains of the many thousands I’ve scribbled in paper diaries since my early teens. Although I very much enjoy words (my background is in languages), I’m far less self-conscious when it comes to making images.

The communal show-and-tell aspect of blogging is also a great spur to keep creating. I find a certain amount of guilt creeps in if I’m away from the blog for very long! Recently I merged my art blog with the erratic knitting/crochet blog I’d been keeping in tandem, and though this means that “Omphaloskepsis” is now going through something of an identity crisis, it at least reflects the fragmented nature of my creativity these days.

CC: Tell us about your art and any other creative pursuits. What does “creativity” mean to you?
E-JR: For me, it can mean knitting and crochet one week, then a couple of weeks of sketchbook stuff, then an urge to dig out my oil pastels the week after that. I recently realised that I don’t need to compartmentalize these aspects of my creative life anymore: it’s all good. I can do something creative—enjoy colour and texture and the excitement of making something—every day, whether it’s painting a still life, knitting a sock, making thumbprint butterflies or plasticine animals, or even drawing all the items on the shopping list so that my daughter can help me find what we need at the supermarket. Much of what fills my day isn’t high art, but it’s definitely creativity, and though that might sound obvious, I’m amazed how long it has taken me to get to grips with this truth and to stop expecting that I should be doing things a certain way, achieving certain things, making x amount of “worthwhile art” while M is only little.

CC: You’re prolific. How do you make time for your art; managing creativity and motherhood?
E-JR: Even before I had my daughter, as soon as the decision had been made to have a family, I could feel my relationship to my art changing. When I was expecting her, after turning in a couple of soft pastel commissions I then did very little sketching or painting for a year. Learning to knit and crochet became my substitute creative outlet, since they allowed me to indulge my love of colour and learn new skills from the comfort of my sofa, with minimal mess and with the exciting prospect of being able to make things for the baby. When I became a mum, it wasn’t practical to be working with pastels anyway because of the dust, and I no longer had a dedicated art space in which to leave still life setups or art materials lying around, but in the early weeks and months I barely had the time or energy to open my pastel box anyway! I’m certain I will pick up my soft pastels again someday, but for now I’m exploring other media. It takes me longer to build up an image with oil pastels than it used to with my softies, for example, but they are cleaner and easier to stash away between sessions. If I have an extended period of free time for art, say a few hours, I’ll work on an oil pastel painting. An hour or so, while my daughter is napping? The oil pastels again, but just a sketch. If I have less than an hour, maybe a sketchbook page, or part of one, in pen and watercolour. And if there are only minutes to spare (such as when my husband is putting little one to bed), it’ll be a line drawing only.

I’ve definitely felt these past few weeks that I’m losing the struggle for creative time, yet when I recently spent a couple of evenings uploading all my stuff to Flickr, organizing my sketches, paintings and photos of my knit and crochet projects, the sight of all those little thumbnail images packed together, representing everything I’d created at times when I thought I was failing to make art, I was astounded.

CC: Where do you do your creative work and blogging?
E-JR: My art space is a large desk in the bedroom that stores all my materials, sketches, and books I’m feeling inspired by—as well as a newly-acquired vintage Singer sewing machine. Because the desk tends to be covered in my clutter, I rarely use the space for actually making art. It’s easier for me to work on the living room floor or on the bed—or out and about with my sketchbook. In the evening, when the light’s poor and I’m weary or have been working, I knit or crochet on the sofa and catch up with blogs and podcasts. I mostly do my blogging from the sofa too. The sofa’s a great friend!

CC: What do you struggle with most?
E-JR: The piecemeal nature of free time as a parent. I would love the luxury of being able to develop ideas more fully over time, to play around with different approaches and techniques and do loads of preparatory sketches for a piece, then spend as many long sessions at the easel as I needed to make the imagined painting a reality. But as the parent of a small child, snatches of time are often all you have. You can build up a project slowly, but it’s that much harder when you’re sleep deprived or your thoughts are constantly being interrupted, and using your limited time to play around with different media can be more rewarding. I do find I need to jot down anything and everything that inspires me, any ideas I have for future subjects, or they’re soon lost in the brain fog.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
E-JR: Colour, colour, colour. More often than not, the prompt to create will be an impression left on me by a particularly colourful painting, by flowers I’ve seen on my daily walks with M, or from art and craft magazines. Lately I’ve been dipping into magazines and books about crafts I don’t even practise—yet!—because I find that ideas, techniques, and images start to feed off one another when you‘re not focusing on just one medium. I’m also taking a vast number of photos of M every day, because she is so photogenic. I love capturing her. I have painted her in oil pastel and sketched her while she was sleeping, and there’s a sketch I made of two of her favourite cuddly toys that I’m planning to frame for her bedroom. We’re surrounded by toys here, so it’s not surprising they get in on the art too!

CC: You participate in the EDM Challenge—is that something you do regularly?
E-JR: I discovered the Everyday Matters group on Yahoo early last year. It is a very active group, in which members share sketches and paintings and visual journals and art supply recommendations, as well as approaches to drawing and painting. The challenges offer no-pressure encouragement to get drawing: a weekly suggestion is posted to the group which is then added to the ever-growing list of subjects to sketch, and members tackle it as and when and if they please, then share with the group. My approach to the challenges is a haphazard one, mostly because my mind tends to go off in too many directions at once for any kind of prompt to stay lodged there for long, but I enjoy doing and posting them, and seeing what other artists have come up with in response to the same prompt.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs—the ones you check every day?
E-JR: It’s so difficult to narrow it down to five, especially with Yahoo groups, Flickr, Ravelry and podcasts also competing for my time now. I check the EDM Superblog daily, as it’s a good way of accessing the latest blog posts of a large number of the group’s members in one place. I’m also an avid listener of the Creative Mom Podcast and Cast On. The Artful Parent blog is a recent discovery that’s very inspiring too [check out Breakfast with Jean]. The stuff I read regularly is listed on my own blog.

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
E-JR: Art and craft magazines! The Pastel Journal, Interweave Crochet, International Artist, Knitscene—and whatever magazines in French I can lay my hands on. If there’s a glass of wine handy with which to wash down all this information, that’s always a welcome indulgence too.

CC: What are you reading right now?
E-JR: The Quincunx by Charles Palliser—a novel I’d been daring myself to read about 15 years, and which, now that I have less free time than ever, I’ve somehow decided I should get stuck into. I think it may be precisely because I’m resigned to the fact that I can no longer devour books as greedily as I used to, besides which I’m usually dipping into several non-fiction books at the same time. At the moment, these include Feutres: regarder le ciel et créer, Françoise Tellier-Loumagne‘s book about felting, and Ruth Issett’s Glorious Papers.

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative and find time for their art?
E-JR: For me, the way forward is to embrace those periods of, say, 10 minutes to crochet a few rows of my scarf, knit a row of my shrug, draw the outline of a simple still life to be painted at a later date, or scribble ideas in a notebook. Time that only presents itself to you in small amounts becomes all the more precious, I think, and you learn how to be more productive in a short space of time, picking up whatever tool is to hand instead of faffing around looking for a particular pencil. When I go anywhere, my bag is always over-optimistically crammed full of stuff—sketchbook, pen, watercolour bijou box, and waterbrush, a small crochet project, my digital camera, a knitting magazine—in case I get 5 minutes. And since I work from home, there’s nobody to tell me on my work days that I can’t use my lunch hour to sketch what I’m about to eat, or listen to a knitting podcast as I clean the kitchen.

In order to use the time more productively, though, I do think you need to have some idea of what it is you’re trying to produce, even if it never materializes in the form you envisage. Setting monthly goals can be helpful. I hope September will see me becoming more familiar with my sewing machine, managing a couple of oil pastels, coming up with my first ATC [artist trading card] for an exchange, filling a few sketchbook pages while I’m on holiday later in the month, and keeping up with Project 365 (to take a photo every day for a year). If I achieve all of these things, I’ll be surprised. But I’ll be even more surprised if I don’t manage a few of them, now that I’ve fixed them in my mind. In between all of that and work, I expect to spend a lot of time at the kitchen table with my daughter, finding new ways to make a mess and have fun. I love buying new art materials for her as much as I love acquiring them for myself. The other morning our explorations with paint lasted a wonderful 90 minutes. At 2 years old, she now exclaims “Yeah! Painting!” and rushes to the table whenever I suggest an art session. I’m not sure which of us is more excited. And that’s a joy.

CC: Thank you for the wisdom and inspiration, Emma-Jane!

Breakfast with Benita

I am so excited about this week’s Breakfast guest! We’re off to Sweden to meet Benita Larsson, blogger behind the insanely popular Chez Larsson. Of all the dozens of blogs I read regularly (I’m up to 52 in my Google reader), Benita’s is an absolute fave. She blogs about organization, creative hobbies, and domestic life with an inspiring, original flair. I can’t read her blog without itching to go clean out a cabinet. True, I happen to be an organization junkie — but this stuff is so good! Since my birthday arrives in a few days, this interview was a gift to myself. Birthday cake for breakfast? I’ll take a big slice, please.

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
BL: I’m 43 years old, the visual merchandiser of a chain store in Sweden where I’m in charge of the look of the marketing campaigns. I buy the props, the promotional materials, and the gift wrap for 150 shops. I live in small house in a Stockholm suburb with my husband, 14-year-old son, and two cats.

CC: What prompted you to start blogging? Are you surprised by your blog’s popularity?
BL: I had a Flickr account and people were noticing my photos and commenting on them and blogging them. I got Flickr mail requesting house tours and quite a few questions on whether I would start a blog. I resisted for a while thinking I don’t have that much of interest to share but then thought I might as well give it a go. I’m completely overwhelmed at the popularity! To think that people all over the world are reading what I write and find it interesting amazes to me. I get the sweetest e-mails from readers who say I’ve inspired them to become more organized and I love that!

so many crafts, so little time…

CC: You have many creative pursuits, in addition to a talent for organizing (to which you bring much creativity). Can you tell us about your various creative hobbies and interests? What does “creativity” mean in your life? How does your design background figure in?
BL: I always take on way too many creative projects… Most are to do with our house. I love renovating, organizing, decorating, and gardening. I sew pillows for my home and my Etsy shop, screen print fabric, gocco print card for my shop. I wish there were more hours in a day to fit it all in… Creativity to me means seeing possibilities in everyday items and being able to turn nothing into something. I don’t really have much professional training in the design field. I started out as a trainee at Ikea more than 20 years ago and I think that Ikea influenced me in thinking economically about design and decorating and keeping things simple. I worked there for three years and have since worked for many companies but I think the simple Ikea way is probably my biggest influence. Although I don’t think of my home as an Ikea home. There are not that many Ikea pieces in there. I guess I have a sort of love/hate relationship there…

blogging spot

CC: You clearly like to be busy and productive. How do you prioritize among family life, work life, blogging, domestic work, and creative projects? What are your time-management strategies?
BL: All of it at once! I’m very impulsive when it comes to doing things. I think of something and want it done immediately and finish it off quickly. Problem! Like I said there are not enough hours in the day. The way I’d love to prioritize is 1) Family 2) Creative projects 3) Blogging 4) Domestic work 5) Work life. That would be ideal. The truth is more like this 1) Family life, domestic work and work life in a jumble 2) Creative work 3) Blogging. I so wish I didn’t have to got to an office five days a week but at the moment we can’t afford to cut down. I’d love to come up with something which would allow for me to work from home…

craft area

CC: Where do you do your creative work and blogging?
BL: I blog at a standing desk in the hallway of our house. The creative work is done all over the house, depending on what it is. Carpentry in the garage/workshop, sewing in the living room, papercraft at my craft desk etc. There are usually projects going on in all of these spaces.

CC: Challenges: What do you struggle with most?
BL: Lack of time!

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
BL: I read design blogs and housy blogs. I love foreign interior design magazines and books and I occasionally travel abroad, which is inspiring too.

gocco in the kitchen

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs—the ones you check every day?
BL: That’s a difficult one. Only five huh? I love these, but many, many more too…

• Creative Organizing
• Decor8
• Door Sixteen
• Husmusen
• Making it Lovely

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
BL: Getting somebody to clean my windows twice a year. I hate doing them as I can never get them perfectly clean and this guy arrived and swoosh, they are perfect! I love it!

garage space for building furniture

CC: What are you reading right now?
BL: I just finished reading a nostalgic coffee table book about candy and ice cream. I also love crime novels…

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative and find time for their interests?
BL: Please try to fit it in somehow and skip something that’s less important to you. I skip going out in favor of staying in to do my creative projects. To me a movie and a meal out or a party is of less importance than finishing a project I’m on. That’s me, but you may want to skip doing your ironing and get somebody to do that for you to free up that time for some creative project.

CC: Tack så mycket, Benita!

Breakfast with Amy

Amy Grennell is overflowing with creative mojo. Not only does she have a beautiful blog, fabulous art journals, altered photos, and many other creative interests—she’s due to give birth to her second child in a matter of days. We’re so glad she had time to join us for Breakfast before the baby comes, sharing her ideas for getting started with art journalling for the uninitiated. You may want to rush out and get your hands on a journal posthaste. Enjoy!

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family headcount.
AG: I am a 33-year-old stay-at-home mom who spends her “free” time doing lots of creative projects, from painting and photography to art journaling. Family: Me, my husband, 3-year-old daughter Melody, and Baby (coming September 3); miniature schnauzer Odin and four hens (Lucy, Glenda, Irma, and Betty).

CC: Tell us about your many creative endeavors and what’s on the offing in your Etsy shop.
AG: I do painting, drawing, collage, journaling, photography, jewelry-making, and sewing. It rotates a lot according to my mood or current interests or even the time of year.

I started off doing some mixed-media type collages using free images a couple of years ago and I have always done photography. I took a quilting class in 2004 and made a quilt before getting into sewing a bit more.

My creativity sort of blossomed from there and I ended up doing altered books and then teaching a class at a local paper store. I also started making jewelry because I could make it very easily and even sell it to make some extra money. Then I got into art journaling last year as a way to do some mixed media with my own images and handwriting as sort of a scrapbooking meets collage-type of expression. I really liked the outlet it gave me to create a little something every day to represent that day (even if I don’t always do it every day).

As my daughter got more into painting and collage herself, she was spending up to 30 minutes doing her own artwork at the dining room table and so I experimented using her supplies too. Now I do mostly art journaling as well as some painting and photography. With the photos I have been doing a lot of altering in Photoshop to make them look a bit more surreal or artistic. I would like to experiment more with combining photography with watercolor too.

In my Etsy shop I sell jewelry as well as a few other items like prints of artwork, photos, and soap.

CC: How did you get started with your beautiful visual journals? Any tips for those of us who may not be “artists” but would like to start an art journal?
AG: First off I don’t consider myself an artist so when I first started one I called it a “visual journal” because I was so worried about using that “a” word. I really didn’t know what I was doing but I liked the idea of incorporating more than just writing into a journal entry. I had been doing altered books with images and text but then was inspired by some art journals I saw by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts, Mary Ann Moss, and Kira Harding.

I had already collected random images from magazines and such for use with collages so I just got a Moleskine journal and started drawing or doing rubber stamping at first along with some other images every day. From there I found that I like using white cardstock and a three-hole punch to make a larger journal that I could keep the pages in or out of while working on them.

To get started, all you need is some paper and a pen and maybe a few things to color with or even a few images you like. The basic things that I use are: white cardstock, black Sharpie or Pitt artist’s pen, cheap acrylic paint, some sort of images, scissors, and a glue stick. Most people have these basic items on hand anyways.

Don’t compare your pages to anyone else’s and don’t share them with anyone if you don’t want to.

See how you feel about journaling this way and then keep at it. When you look back on older pages you will see not only that you are “getting better” at it but are able to fine tune which symbols, colors, and themes you are using.

CC: What prompted you to start a blog? What keeps you going?
AG: I think I just started reading quite a few and then realized that it would be a good way to keep track of my creative goals. If I shared a project on my blog then I would have to share the end result as well. This has really helped me get things finished.

I try to share things that I love and hope to inspire others while I am at it. I think of myself as a positive person and if one reader gets a smile or feels a similar feeling I think it’s very meaningful.

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
AG: The dining room table really. I had set up a space in what will be Baby’s room and then never really did a lot in there. I still don’t do much where my supplies are so I tend to carry them around in a tote bag or keep them on the table or a side table in the family room area.

CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work?
AG: Not really, just that I usually do things in the late morning because later in the day and the evening I am tired and just feel like reading before bed. My husband usually takes my daughter out for a walk in the morning for a while so I often get a little “me time” then or work on something when my daughter is playing or doing her own painting at the table. I also try to have my camera with me all the time, especially in the backyard so I can take a photo or two every day.

CC: Any planned strategy for keeping your creative fires burning with a new baby at home?
AG: I think my outlook is realistic in that I know everything is going to change and I really won’t have time or energy to do much. The weekends hold some promise but also I have been trying to sketch or write down ideas for things as they come to me right now so that when I do get a little time and I can’t remember something I wanted to make, I can just look at the sketch or the notes. I do a lot of things in short little spurts of 5 to 10 minutes—especially on the couch—so I think I can squeeze some time in here and there.

CC: What do you struggle with most?
AG: Trying to narrow things down in my creative life so that I can just focus on one thing. I know that this isn’t really possible for a lot of people, but I seem to have a hard time with identifying who I have become in the last couple of years. I was a writer; then I pushed some of the creative or artistic limits I had imposed on myself after my daughter was born. I look at the time spent at home raising our children to be partially a time for me to hone my true life’s purpose. I know that sounds a bit cheesy. This is easier said than done because I have so many interests it’s always challenging for me to really narrow myself down even though I would like to a little more.

CC: How much does guilt factor in your life?
AG: It used to, when I would be working on something and really wanted to finish it but my daughter was whining and pulling on me. I realized that creating things makes me feel better so I am a better person and parent overall because of it. Also when I sell something and go to the post office now with my daughter to mail it off she asks “who I am mailing it too?” I explain someone bought that necklace or earrings I made last week. They gave me money for them so I am mailing it to them.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
AG: Nature and my daughter, as well as children’s books.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?

• Crafty Crow
• Soule Mama
• Be Dream Play
• Dispatch from L.A.
• Suzie’s Sacred Space

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
AG: Chocolate and naps.

CC: What are you reading right now?
AG: Tao of Watercolor by Jeanne Carbonetti, Painting From the Inside Out by Betsy Dillard Stroud, and All Year Round by Ann Druitt.

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to find the time and means to be more creative?
AG: I think being creative is an integral part of everyone’s life whether they think so or not. Doing something creative every day no matter how small is a great outlet for stress and expression so you are doing everyone a favor if you spend some time doing a creative project every day. I don’t think guilt or frustration should factor in. Plus you can always involve your children too in a project if you simply can’t do it alone.

CC: Thank you, Amy!