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Dec 1

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Miranda: Creative Holidays

december-2006-30Believe it or not, December is here. The holidays arrive faster every year, don’t they? At this rate, I figure that by the time I’m 85 it will seem like Christmas shows up at two-week intervals!

Many of us are approaching this holiday season with a much smaller budget than we have in seasons past. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course. I’ve explained to my kids that we’re going to do “Christmas lite” this year. I hope that by making more time for holiday activities — crafts, lots of baking, and time spent together — we won’t mind the fact that the pile under the tree is less than half its usual size.

With so many extra things on your to-do list this month, you may find it increasingly difficult to find time for your “regular” creative work. If you’re able to work in brief snippets, try to get in at least 10 minutes a day. Even the briefest creative session helps you stay focused on what you’re working on — and keeps your project simmering in the back of your mind while you’re busy with other things. If you can’t work in small chunks, try to schedule at least one two-hour session per week, or whatever your minimum is. Now is not the time to end up feeling grouchy and resentful on account of being separated from your creative self.

Another temporary strategy is to spend more time doing seasonal creative projects with your children. They’ll have fun, you’ll have fun, and you may find that you’ve satisfied your creative itch, or at least served yourself an appetizer. If you’re looking for creative projects to enjoy with your kids this holiday season, here are a few good sources:

If you have any favorites of your own, please share!

Of course, one way to make do with less — and flex your creative muscles at the same time — is to make your holiday gifts yourself. One year I made wreath ornaments from dried hosta stems trimmed from my garden. Another year I hand-painted trinket boxes. For a long time, I made my own Christmas cards (up to 100 of them each year) by creating mosaics from all the Christmas cards I received in the previous year. One year I even made my own wrapping paper. Then there was the candy making; peanut brittle, fudge, truffles, and other treats packaged for gifts. I miss having time to do those things. (I know, “someday…”) This year I don’t think I’m going to have time for making gifts, aside from a bit of baking for the neighbors. How about you?

If you like homemade but can’t make that happen yourself, don’t forget to shop at Etsy, where many of this blog’s community members sell their creative work. Another tip: For all things merry and bright — without going over the top — Simple Mom has a series of holiday posts that might inspire you. And if you haven’t seen it yet, Keri Smith has a fun holiday treat at her site that might amuse.

My list? Well, the holiday cards are in hand (I even ordered my own photo stamps this year — too cute!) and my shopping (mostly done online) is nearly finished. I have a few more decisions to make, but I hope to have the gift tasks done by the end of this week. On Saturday we’ll go and cut down our tree — and decorate that, along with the house, on Sunday. The week after, my oldest son turns 18, so there will be a bit of festivity on his account — and then we will hopefully have smooth sailing to Christmas, with lots of fun holiday activities for any of the kids who want to participate. One of our favorite holiday traditions is decorating gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve. Two years ago, instead of each decorating our own smaller house, we collaborated on a single “mansion” (see photo). That became our new tradition. My mother — creative genius that she is — prepares and assembles the house in advance, so we can all just decorate (and munch).

How are the holidays shaping up in your creative household?

Nov 10

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Kristine: Cautiously Optimistic

As a work-at-home mom, it seems I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Perhaps it’s the unpredictability of my life and the result of wearing too many hats during the course of a day—wife, mommy, housekeeper, writer, and editor. When one of those hats fall, it sends my whole routine and day into havoc.

When I think I have time to open my e-mail or catch up on my favorite blogs, my daughter wakes up unusually early from her nap. When I think all my editing work for the day is done, I get a frantic call from the magazine publisher on our ship date telling me I need to find enough editorial to fill a half-page of space after an advertiser dropped out at the last minute. When I think I have two hours of uninterrupted time at night to work on my novel, my computer crashes, and I have to spend my precious writing time trying to figure out the problem.

I wake up each morning with one goal. I strive to be “cautiously optimistic.” It’s the motto for my entire life, actually. I’m optimistic that things will go as planned but cautious about getting too complacent. If something goes wrong, I try to be ready for it. If nothing goes wrong, I’m pleasantly surprised.

Sometimes being cautiously optimistic is the only way I’m able to function without having a nervous breakdown. It’s also the way I’m able to smile at my 11-month-old daughter when she refuses to take a nap and I’m on deadline.

I still groan and grumble when that dark cloud appears, and there are some days when even the most optimistic thinking gets me nowhere. The only remedy for those days is the emergency stash of chocolate.

Oct 27

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Kerry: Sometimes the Universe reaches out and gives little hugs

I wish I had a brain that could juggle two babies and two teenagers and a husband that wants to chat as soon as I sit down to check my e-mail. But I don’t. Not lately. Multitasking is holding one crying infant while making dinner, listening to the newest teenage angst about how I ruined yet another child, trying to make my way across the room with the 22 month old attached to my leg and then the phone rings? What? It’s my other teenager, wanting to come over for dinner, and she needs a ride.

I haven’t been very positive lately. If one more of my well-meaning relatives asks me if I’ve painted anything lately, or if I’m still writing (gave up that gig after baby #1), I think I’ll run screaming from the house. I don’t. I say something snappy about taking care of babies…that’s what I do. That’s all I do. I usually have to say it two or three times during the visit, reminding them that I still have the little ones. Are they blind? Are they deaf? Do they not see the little boy, the most adorable baby boy, scrunching up his tiny face in rage when I try to put him down for one second to pick up baby girl as she tries to launch herself from the sofa? Do they not hear the constant shrieking? I don’t get many visitors. Too bad too. I love it when someone holds the baby so I can run off for a potty break.

I can’t write. I can’t think. I always have my ears fine tuned for the sounds of baby wails, and my reflexes ready to grab another bottle as I’m trying to persuade my darling little girl that the potty seat is not a hat.

Kudos to those of us who can tune it out, but I  need to get into that space, that zone, that meditative communing with my muse or I can’t hear her. Two minutes is not enough. I don’t know how to stop listening to the happenings in the house. I don’t know how to turn it off. When the babies are quiet, I fall into bed and sleep the blissful sleep of one who knows it’s short-lived. Usually one, if not both babies wake up every night. I’m tired and I’m frustrated and I’m angry, if the truth be told.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve become a traitor to my true self, to that artist and writer I was, I am, I will be. I look at myself in the mirror and think, Really? Is this all there is? What happened to the me that I was? And then the baby cries and it all fades into another day. Another day gone by.

But that pity party won’t get me anywhere. I still have babies to take care of. And sometimes there is a little glimmer of hope…like e-mails reminding me that once I used to write a blog, and that things will get better. I suppose they will. I’m still trying to live in the moment, in the now, as Eckhart Tolle would say. But my now sure is full of dirty diapers.

But a positive, a piece of synchronicity at work in my very own life, a little reminder, a kiss from beyond:

My significant other has been working on various projects around the house…since we bought it. I’ve been waiting for the building in the backyard to become my studio for five years. So far it has housed an assortment of tools, old furniture and Christmas decorations. My paints are in there too, somewhere. But in my husband’s defense, he has been working on it, actually working on it for the last few weeks. Reframed a couple of walls, rehung some cabinets, and in the midst of it, he comes to me with an old piece of paper. “Look what I found in the studio,” he says. Studio, I think. That has never been nor will ever be my studio at the rate I’m going. But I take the folded slip of paper from his hand and see the date March 1994 scrawled across the top. Curious, I open it. And my heart beats a little faster as I read: “I am an artist and this was my studio. I hope it brings as much joy to the next person as it has brought to me over the years.” Signed by the artist herself. And I think, how funny, that building that we named “the studio” the first day we viewed the house, was always meant to contain art. Like it was taken out of my hands. It doesn’t have to become anything. It already is.

And inside I danced a little jig and smiled. It is mine. Given to me. Just like that. I’m going to frame that note and hang it on the wall for everyone to see, but mostly for me to see, to remind me of possibilities waiting.

Sep 23

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Online Inspiration: Your creative foundation

From the blog Art Slam, a great post full of inspiring ideas:

If you want to sustain your creative life, you have to lay down a firm foundation. You ever notice how easily you make excuses for why you can not be creative? You know the ones; you are too busy, you have to take care of the family, this is silly, you are not creative, blah, blah, blah… Well, dismiss them. Making time to feed your creative side is important. We all need a little time to play, relax and return to center. By using the following tips, you will be well on your way to establishing your creative life.

Read it here.

Aug 26

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Don’t forget: Get your veil on!

Reminder: tonight is the deadline for this week’s creativity contest. Entries should arrive by 8:00 p.m. eastern time, but there’s a little latitude if you need another hour or two. The prompt is “wedding.” Take a few minutes and come up with something — even a quickie Vegas-style entry!

Aug 22

3 Comments

Kelly faring OK with Tropcial Storm Fay?

Cathy just pointed out that Kelly Warren’s most recent blog post included a photo of her girls kayaking in their backyard. Sending thoughts and prayers that Kelly and all her neighbors are weathering the flood without too much damage!

Aug 20

Please wrap your arms around Alana

One of this blog’s friends, Alana, is experiencing a painful personal loss right now. Please join me in sending Alana and her family your thoughts and prayers.

Aug 18

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Bittersweet, dark, white, or milk?

Ladies, I KNOW that I’m not the only one here who has a love-hate relationship with chocolate. But as of Monday night, we only have one submission for this week’s creativity contest. If we don’t receive a few more, I will be forced to drown my disappointment in a large jar of Nutella. Save me!

Aug 12

Running in circles?

Only four submissions for this week’s creativity contest (the prompt is “circles’) — but there are more than 6 hours left until deadline, so if you need a kick in the pants, think outside the box and send something in! Come on, you know you want that $10 amazon.com gift certificate!

Aug 5

2 Comments

Weekly creativity contest: deadline tonight!

If you have a few extra minutes today — even just ten of them — consider creating an entry for this week’s contest. Our theme is “vacation.” Remember, you can use this theme as broadly as you want to. A color, a snippet of memory — anything goes. We have just two entries in hand so far. (They both happen to be great entries, but everyone likes a little competition!)

May 6

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Christa: Scare people for a good cause

Folks, my apologies for being quiet lately. I have honestly been so busy that I haven’t had time to think much about being creative, though I’ve spent plenty of time doing it. (Upshot: I still miss writing articles, but these kids at these ages make it nigh on impossible.) But this post isn’t about me. It’s about something far more important.

Shroud Publishing (where I am assistant editor) has a new anthology in the works. Proceeds from the sales of Northern Chill (tentative): 100 Terrifying New England Tales to Tell Around a Campfire will go to the American Cancer Society. Why? At the Shroud forum, an email from author Nate Kenyon discussed the impact of cancer on his life. His words have all the more impact as we approach Mother’s Day:

When I was eight years old, my mother was diagnosed with an advanced stage of ovarian cancer. A short time later, my father was killed in a freak automobile accident, leaving my mother alone to care for two young children and battle a terrifying disease, with no hope for a cure.

My mother never let anything destroy her remarkable spirit. When I was only 4, she and my father left a comfortable life in Seattle and drove to Maine with nothing but a Volkswagen full of their personal belongings. My father set up shop as a small-town lawyer while my mother, a former teacher, learned to build passive solar houses. Then she built our home, from the ground up, with her own two hands.

I tell you this to illustrate her incredible strength and determination. She lived another five years after my father’s death, four years longer than her doctors predicted, astonishing everyone. But even she could not beat this disease forever, and when I was thirteen, she passed away peacefully with her family at her side.

I cannot express how devastating this was to me. It has taken me many years to begin to face those days from an adult’s perspective. The simple fact is, an experience like this damages a child in ways that are permanent and life-changing.

My mother loved the arts, and always encouraged me to draw and write as much as possible. Her enthusiasm and support made me want to become a writer, which brings me to where I stand today. Bloodstone, my first published novel, was released this week in paperback by Leisure Books. It is (I hope) a fun, scary read full of ghosts and demons and possession and old, long-buried family secrets. But there are also many references to cancer in the novel. I didn’t do this intentionally, but it crept in from my subconscious all the same. I guess it was also an exorcism of sorts for me.

The guidelines are as follows:

Flash fiction (no more than 700 words) told in the FIRST person (to allow readers to re-tell the story) set in a New England location. The anthology will be separated into 4 sections (tentative titles):

  • Haunts- Stories of ghosts, specters, and phantoms
  • Beasts- Stories of monsters, critters, and wild animals
  • Humans- Stories of eccentric people, serial killers, mad men
  • Other Oddities- everything else

Format: Submit as a Word .doc or .rtf attachment. SUBJECT LINE MUST SAY: “SUBMISSION–NORTH–TITLE”

Contact: via http://www.shroudmagazine.com/info.html

Multiple submissions allowed and encouraged.

No reprints

No simultaneous subs

Payment: (.01 cent a word or you can donate your stories)

I donated mine, a story right at the 700-word mark about a sailor, a werewolf, and what happens when you let your loins make the decisions. Who wants to join me?

Jan 1

The creative buck stops here. (Or doe, natch.)

2008.jpgIt’s the start of a new year, and many of us are full of plans and creative dreams. For me, and many other women I have spoken to, turning dreams into reality is a lot easier when someone is watching over your shoulder. We can all benefit from a stern yet supportive friend to remind us of our stated intentions, and keep us “honest” in the process. Checking in regularly, and seeing the progress that others are making, is inspirational food for the creative soul.

With this blog, I hope to create a community where we can share our creative intentions–only a daily, weekly, or monthly basis–and receive support in making those goals happen. Going public with your “wishes” can be a powerful means to actualization. You can link to a website of your own, a Flickr site or your artwork, or post documents for others to read and comment on, if you like.

If you’d like to participate, send me an e-mail (see box in right column) and I’ll set you up as a contributor. Then you can post your own entries and receive comments, feedback, and support–from me and the rest of the community.

So, what do you want to do this year?

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