Posts tagged ‘breakfast’

Breakfast with Sarah

Ah, it’s Breakfast time again—my favorite way to start Friday! This week, our creative mother from the blogosphere is Sarah Markley. I discovered Sarah when Lisa Leonard recommended I read Sarah’s blog. I was quickly enamored with Sarah’s honesty and open sharing of her life and spiritual journey. I don’t know Sarah personally, but I sense that her external beauty is reflected on the inside. Another cup of decaf, anyone?

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
SM: I am Sarah Markley and I am a wife and a mother to two girls, ages 2 and 6. I got married at the freakishly too-young age of 21 and we just celebrated 12 years. I got my bachelor’s degree in English and my masters in education before teaching middle school language arts for a few years. I quit almost 7 years ago when my first daughter was born. Now I work from home a little for my husband’s business (he/we have a small technology consulting company) and I volunteer at my church. Between those things and trying to keep my house clutter-free (an impossible task), I am a mother to my girls.

CC: Tell us about your writing life.
SM: I guess I could say that I am somewhat new to writing. Sort of. I wrote some in college and had something tiny published in my university literary publication. For some reason, when I got married a couple weeks after graduation, my writing just dried up. It wasn’t my husband’s fault; I just stopped and didn’t begin again. I began dozens of journals over 10 years and I have stacks of them with two pages written. I would put that aside and buy a new blank book a couple months later. Same story.

Until I began blogging. It has been the discipline of trying to produce a decent piece of writing each day that has changed my life. I began last summer and haven’t stopped. There is a purpose to it and there is immediate feedback. A friend knew that I was quietly trying to pursue writing and she invited me to a writer’s conference. It was the most amazing experience. It was like taking a crash course in writing and I met some wonderful other women writers, some working on books and others on article-length writing, but each one very encouraging.

I know that blogging does not equal writing, but for me, it has been the daily discipline of trying to be creative that has helped me feel like I am moving forward in my craft. I am still unpublished, but we’ll see what the next year holds. The pull and almost “call” I feel toward writing is very strong. I know I have a lot to learn and many more rejection emails to receive, but I’m not giving up yet!

CC: What prompted you to start a blog?
SM: A good friend of mine, Lisa Leonard (featured on one of your previous “Breakfasts”), moved four hours away and began a blog. I initially began reading it to keep up with her life and her new jewelry business. After a couple months, I realized that I could do this too. In fact, I felt I needed too.

CC: On your blog, you posted a moving and personal story about your weight loss experience, in four installments. What moved you to be so open with the general public?
SM: I had shared a little bit about weight loss in some of my early posts and it seemed like it really resonated with readers. I feel like everything a person goes through is so that they can be a helper to others who struggle with similar issues. I’ve always been moderately open with friends and family about my weight loss journey, and I figured that blogging was a perfect medium to share my entire story. Also, you use the term “general public.” And even though the internet is surely open to every person on earth, somehow I feel like my blog readers are closer than the general public. Sure I get someone who disagrees with me now and then, but for the most part, I felt like I was just sharing another facet of myself with people who, for the most part, were interested in what I had to say.

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
SM: As I considered how to answer this question, I kept laughing. If you all saw my house, you’d laugh too. Toys, unfolded clothes, Goldfish crackers — you name it. To find my own space seems impossible. I usually carve out a piece of my dining room table to work and then at night, hoist my laptop upstairs and work in bed. My bedroom is my favorite place to work and the most peaceful room in my house, but it just isn’t practical during the day when I am trying to keep sisters from fighting. I use a desk too, and I’ve only recently had an actual space that is just mine.

But also, when considering the idea of spaces, I do a lot of my work outside. I jog most mornings for exercise and so many days I do my writing in my head. Whether it is actual outdoor inspiration, or me just putting my life in order being by myself, many mornings I return with great ideas and a couple of paragraphs written already.

CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work?
SM: No schedule. But I imagine as my kids get older and require less of my intense attention, I will be able to do more writing on a schedule.

CC: What do you struggle with most?
SM: Blogging is one thing: 300 words, one idea, a decent take-away and I’m good to go. But writing, editing, and polishing an article for a publication is another thing altogether. Finding the actual time to perfect and article is one of my biggest challenges. By the end of the day I am so exhausted. I have no inspiration left at 9:30 at night.

CC: How much does guilt factor in your life?
SM: I don’t feel a ton of guilt. I try to balance everything so I don’t go crazy (doesn’t always work out) and give everything/everyone the right amount of energy and time. Maybe my writing suffers, maybe I’d write more if I didn’t have kids, but I sure wouldn’t have much to write about.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
SM: Inspiration really comes from anywhere. I guess that is a cliché answer, but it’s true. I think that an artist (any kind) has to live her life trying to look at things through different eyes — I try to see my kids and my husband and myself in a new light every day.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?

• Annie Blogs
• It’s the Little Things
• Spilt Milk
• Cindy Beall
• Actual Unretouched Photo

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?

• Food: Ice cream or if I’m trying to be good, frozen yogurt.
• Shopping: Books. I just buy them and only read about half of them.
• Me time: Jogging or exercising
• Us time: Getting out of town with my husband a couple times a year without the kids (I have amazing parents)
• If I had lots of money: Travel, travel, travel

CC: What are you reading right now?
SM: Both of the books I’m reading right now are memoirs. I guess I’m drawn to real stories told in fresh ways. I’m finally digging in to Anne Lamott’s Travelling Mercies. I’m flip flopping between that and Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. I might have never picked it up had someone not given it to me as a gift (it was the only book I brought with me on vacation). I love her unique perspective on fiction and how it is woven into the greater story of our lives.

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative?
SM: I recently had a discussion with my husband about “creative people.” It seems like some people are creative and work in creative fields (photographers, designers, writers, etc.) and some people move through life without pursuing anything that requires “creation” at all. I think that we all are creative in some way (some of us have multiple talents) and that it is the doing of something consistently that makes the difference. Advice I would give to mothers who struggle to be creative? Just decide to do it and don’t stop. Do a little every day of whatever makes you feel like you are in the process of creation. Someone told me at my writer’s conference, “You’ll get published if you keep writing.” Sounds like good advice to me.

CC: Good advice all around, Sarah! Thank you.

Breakfast with Jean

I hope you have some tasty croissants on hand for this week’s Breakfast installment, because you’re going to want to surf over to Jean Van’t Hul’s blog afterward to stock up on great ideas for creative things to do with your kids. You’ll also love browsing through Jean’s terrific interviews with child-focused creative professionals. Enjoy!

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
JVH: It’s funny how “who you are” changes so much, but right now I’m primarily a mama to one rambunctious little almost-three-year-old girl named Maia. I live with my husband and daughter in the mountains of western North Carolina where we garden, hike, camp, and generally enjoy the outdoors.

I love (LOVE!) art and especially love introducing it to kiddos, mine included. In my past I studied art history and studio art, and worked for an art magazine, as well as an art museum. But now I look for truly fun, generally process oriented art projects to share with children.

When Maia turned one, I started a Toddler Art Group, inviting other mothers with toddlers to join us for paint-filled messes and art explorations. We’ve been meeting for two years now, and I’ve also recently started offering an art class for toddlers and preschoolers.

CC: Tell us about your blog and business.
JVH: I started blogging 6 months ago as a way for me to focus more on the artful side of parenting as well as to share the art experiences we have with the Toddler Art Group. I want to parent in a way that encourages creative expression, imagination, joyfulness, and a love of learning. Blogging about it helps to prioritize that aspect of my life. And I’ve learned so much from the blog world and my readers and have been incredibly inspired by others’ ideas. It’s a world that I barely knew existed before I started mine, but one that I am glad I found.

As for my Etsy shop, I just fell in love with freezer paper stencils, stencilling almost every plain shirt in the house in a matter of days, so decided to branch out a bit and offer some for sale. I figured it would be a good way justify making more as well as pay for my crafting habit!

CC: You’re creative in many areas: writing and the many different art pieces in your Etsy shop. Can you give us an overview of your efforts in these different media?
JVH: Hmm… Let’s see. I love writing my blog. It’s been so much fun, and pretty much an obsession. I don’t think I missed a day in the first several months! After a beach vacation (and a little distance), I decided to give myself Sundays off as well as the occasional holiday. But really, blogging is fun! I love writing about what makes me happy and it would seem completely self-indulgent if I didn’t see from the comments and e-mails that I’m inspiring other parents out there to try more art activities with their kids and to be more artful in their daily life. And of course, I’m inspired in turn by all of their blogs and ideas and comments.

I also do some freelance writing. I first published an article in Mothering magazine a year ago about my Toddler Art Group and have since written a few other articles (mostly forthcoming). It’s such a different world from blogging. The turnaround time itself can be so s . l . o . w. But I’ve learned that you just have to have a different set of expectations.

As for the Etsy shop pieces, it’s nice to round out the in-front-of-the-computer work with a different sort of creativity. I’ve sewn since I was a little kid. My mom gave us needle, thread, and fabric from a very young age and when we were a little older, my sister and I shared a sewing machine. I stopped sewing as a teenager, but the nesting instinct kicked in when I was pregnant with Maia and I started again with blankets and quilts. For Etsy I mostly do a combo of stenciling T-shirts and sewing appliqués. I love pairing a stencil image with a print fabric and am currently enjoying the contrast of a girlie fabric with dump trucks and dinosaurs.

Sometimes it feels great to have so many different things going on, and sometimes I think I must be crazy!

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
JVH: I write at a laptop in our office, which was a third bedroom when we bought the house. Not too much to say about that room except that my wonderfully handy husband built a floor to ceiling bookshelf on one wall to hold all my books and magazines.

He also built the shelves in the art studio to hold our art supplies (tempera paint, paper, brushes, stickers, collage materials, countless bottles of glue, glitter, you name it) as well as some of my sewing and stencilling supplies. I sew at a desk in one corner of the studio, and recently made a wonderful hanging cloth organizer (from Lotta Jansdotter’s book Simple Sewing) to keep some of my supplies handy. The studio (which is really just a large laundry room!) looks out onto the backyard/garden and gets lots of sun, which I love.

CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work?
JVH: Nope, no schedule. I grab the time whenever I can, whether it’s Maia’s naptime, late at night, or early in the morning, or somewhere in between. It’s not consistent, it’s not a lot of time, and it’s not ideal, but I do what I can.

I have two complete lifesavers, though. One is that my husband takes Maia to swimming lessons one evening a week and they go out with a friend or two from class afterwards—so that’s a decent chunk of time (during which I’m answering your interview questions). And I’ve also started swapping kids with friends. I’ll watch a friend’s child one day a week and she’ll watch Maia one day a week. A full day is such a luxury!

CC: What do you struggle with most?
JVH: Time. And feeling the need for a somewhat clean house.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
JVH: My first instinct was to say media (books, magazines, blogs), but in truth, much of my inspiration comes from motherhood. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, and as starved for time as I feel sometimes, Maia is truly my muse. And not just that, but this new me—this mother that I’ve become—I really like her! Rather than sapping my creativity, I feel that motherhood has made me more creative. I love getting out the paint and encouraging two- and three-year-olds to splatter to their hearts’ content, I love making things for my daughter and for our home, and I love thinking of ways to make our lives a little more artful—whether that means shaping bread into teddy bear shapes, or taking a nature walk and finding leaves and flowers for a suncatcher.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?

• SouleMama
• Angry Chicken
• Camp Creek Press
• The Crafty Crow
• Boukhou Craft Projects

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
JVH: Chocolate and coffee. But really those are just everyday indulgences. I’d have to say my greatest indulgence is staying home with my daughter right now when I could be working and earning an income. Even though parenting is easily the hardest work I’ve done, it’s also so, so wonderful to be able to curl up on the sofa and read book after book in the middle of the day, or to cook something fun together. I get flak from extended family sometimes about staying home since we’re struggling financially, yet I still feel that I’m doing absolutely the right thing for Maia and for our little family.

CC: What are you reading right now?
JVH: I’m just finishing up Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto. I re-read all her books about once a year. I’m on a Japanese fiction kick right now. Next up is Snow Country by Yasanari Kawabata.

Other than that, I’m maxed out on my library card (as always). Some of the books I have out now, besides countless children’s picture books, are Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter, Preschool Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl, Quilts by Denyse Schmidt, and The Ultimate Herb Gardener by Barbara Segall.

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative?
JVH: If it’s a time issue (and it often seems to be), I think you just need to dive in and do it (whatever it is), time or no time—do it with your kids, do it during naps, make it a priority. If you wait until you have the time you’ll never do it and you may end up resenting those around you.

Also, there is so much inspiration out there if you just look! Get inspiration from other creative mamas, from blogs, from books…

CC: Many thanks, Jean!

Breakfast with Jen

Sit back and enjoy this week’s installment of “Breakfast,” the Friday series that introduces an inspiring, creative mother from the blogosphere and gives us a behind-the-scenes peek into her life & art. I originally “met” Jen Johnson when I surfed onto her blog and got hooked. I clicked over to Jen’s Etsy shop Baby Friendly Beads. I couldn’t help myself — I placed an order for a beautiful “nursing” necklace and reminder bracelet.

When my package arrived (Jen had clearly shipped it out on a Saturday morning within an hour of receiving my order), it was truly like receiving a gift. Jen cares a lot about presentation. Not only were my items wrapped in gift paper, but along with several beautifully produced promotional cards, she had enclosed a bag of mother’s milk tea. Everything in that box — especially the jewelry, of course — was sent from the heart. While I had thought that this little splurge was a gift to myself from myself, I suddenly felt like I’d received a gift from Jen. Enjoy the interview below; it’s a gift from Jen too.

CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
JJ: I’m the mama in “Mama’s Magic Studio,” a wife, a feminist, a poet, a teacher, a domestic goddess. I write, raise my kids, and make beautiful things, including Baby Friendly Beads.

I have been married for more than 11 years, and we have two children: a 3-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. I currently have the great good luck to be able to stay home full time with the kids. Before becoming a SAHM and starting my own business, I taught high school English and college composition.

CC: Tell us about your jewelry making, and how your enterprise came to be. Any other creative pursuits?
JJ: I make Baby Friendly Beads, Jewelry for Breastfeeding & Beyond, nursing necklaces and reminder bracelets to help moms (and babies) with some of breastfeeding’s challenges. I created my breastfeeding jewelry to meet my own needs as a nursing mother: when my son was about 6 months old, he started yanking my hair and pinching my skin while he nursed. When I researched the problem, I learned that it was extremely common, and I discovered several folks making nursing necklaces to help keep baby’s hands busy in a more appropriate fashion. But I couldn’t find the perfect necklace — I wanted something adjustable in length, with beads that could slide on the cord, and most of all I wanted something beautiful — so I decided to make my own. I also started making reminder bracelets, as a more discreet alternative to massaging myself in public to figure out which breast was “next” for a feeding. Moms in my playgroup loved the idea of my Baby Friendly Beads, and everything started to fall into place once I heard about Etsy (which was still in Beta mode when I joined, back in February 2006) and opened up my Etsy shop.

I have many other creative pursuits. I’m a bit of a crafting addict, and I am in the midst of opening a second Etsy shop and a general website, Mama’s Magic Studio, where I’ll be featuring other results from my crafting adventures. You’ll find jewelry, accessories, beadwork, mobiles, and who knows what else. In the past, in addition to my beadwork, I’ve made baskets, created hats, sewed quilts, and knitted scarves. Some people have lists of places they want to see before they die; I have an ever-growing list of crafts I want to try: papermaking, bookmaking, candlemaking, spinning, felting, silversmithing, throwing pots, working with glass (especially making my own beads!), sculpting polymer clay, crocheting, sewing from a pattern…

These days, most of my creative energy goes to crafting (mostly beading), but writing is closest to my heart and speaks most to my creative spirit. I’m a published poet. Since I was 19, I’ve kept a journal in one form or another; now, I blog. I’m currently working on several children’s book manuscripts. While I was pregnant with my son, I finished the draft of a novel, an achievement of which I’m proud and a process which I enjoyed, but also an end result that made it pretty clear I’m not meant to be a novelist at this point in this lifetime. Lyricism? Absolutely. Plot? Not so much.

During the last three years, since the birth of my son in 2005 and my daughter in 2007, it has been extremely difficult to get the time and focus necessary to court the muse. She isn’t silent, though, and I’m still taking notes. I have every confidence that in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later) I’ll be writing more regularly again.

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
JJ: I work in a cherished corner of the bedroom, on a little purple desk that my husband made years ago.

CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work?
JJ: Once upon a time — before kids — I did. Now, I fit it in where I can, doing a bit here and a bit there. Beading is good for that, which is a large part of why it is my craft of choice right now. I get a good block of daylight work time about once a week, and I also work a lot after the kids are in bed.

CC: What do you struggle with most?
JJ: Time and energy. Until very recently, I was still night-nursing with my daughter, waking with her several times a night. Sleep deprivation makes it very difficult to get through the day, much less to be creative. Caffeinated creativity is something, but it’s not my preferred work mode. I’m only now paying down enough of that sleep debt for creativity to really flourish (which is why I’m only now starting up “Mama’s Magic Studio,” an idea I’ve had for some time). And of course as a SAHM to a one-year-old and a three-year-old, most of my time goes to mothering and family responsibilities. I’m very lucky to have a supportive husband who has a flexible work schedule; without his help, I wouldn’t be able to do a fraction of the things I do!

CC: Monkeys: How much does guilt factor in your life?
JJ: Guilt is definitely a big monkey on my back, a hairy creature with a tenacious grasp and an unpleasant odor. I deeply value and absolutely need the time that I take to be creative, but because that time must often be carved out of family time, it is difficult to shake off the guilt. Even when I do, the smell often lingers. I’m usually up late working, not spending the time I’d like to spend with my beloved husband. At least once a week, most weeks, he watches the kids for a chunk of time during the day so that I can work. He’s happy to do it, and quite competent at it, but I often feel guilty about it. It seems an innate response for me, which is frustrating. But then I feel guilty about the frustration, guilty that I can’t just let it go…

I’d like to repeat a story that I sometimes share when guilt comes into the conversation. I have a very vivid memory from kindergarten: sitting at my little desk, head down, sobbing silently. Somebody in the class had done something wrong — I no longer recall what it was — and the teacher had punished the entire class by holding us in from recess, making us put our heads down, telling us we’d stay that way until the guilty party ‘fessed up. I was crying because it seemed to me that if I was being punished, I must have deserved it.

Nature or nurture? Who knows. (Really, it doesn’t matter, though I’m sure a therapist would have interesting things to say about all this.) What matters most to me is what I can learn from this memory: first, I have a longstanding tendency to feel guilty, even when I’ve done nothing wrong; second, I am longer that little girl. I can shake that monkey off. It takes work and energy, and the damned creature creeps back so quietly sometimes that I don’t even notice at first, but the awareness of his presence does wonders.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
JJ: My children are the direct inspiration for my Baby Friendly Beads. It was very inspirational to breastfeed them for as long as I did (14 months for my son, 16 months for my daughter) and their antics gave me lots of great ideas for breastfeeding jewelry. Other sources of inspiration: poetry, nature, popular culture… I’m working on a line of earrings named after a Judy Grahn poem, and another named after a popular feminist quote. I love echoing the colors and sensations of the natural world in my creative work.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?
JJ: I’ve only recently begun to explore the wealth of the blogosphere, and finding time to read online is difficult. Several of my favorite blogs belong to friends who have made them private. But some public ones I check regularly are:

• SouleMama
• The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog
• The Storque, Etsy’s blog/newsletter
• The Mother of all Parenting Blogs
• Martha Engber’s “Growing Great Writers from the Ground Up”

CC: Just for you: What is your greatest indulgence?
JJ: Etsy! It’s a huge indulgence to browse through the abundance of beautiful handmade things, and every once in a while I treat myself to something. I also love to go thrift store shopping.

CC: Library: What are you reading right now?
JJ: Middlemarch by George Eliot, The Essential Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks), Trish Kuffner’s The Arts & Crafts Busy Book: 365 Art and Craft Activities to Keep Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy.

CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative?
JJ: When I find myself struggling (more than usual) with creativity, I find that often the problem stems from focusing more on product than process. I get my knickers all in a twist because I’ve not beaded enough necklaces that week, not written enough blog entries, not made enough progress with my children’s book manuscripts. When I’m worrying about “enough,” I know that I’m in trouble.

“Enough” stifles the creative energies, diverts the flow into anticipation and judgment. Being creative requires being in the moment, letting the energy flow as it will. Don’t worry about the result.

This is easier said than done, of course, when the kitchen floor is sticky and the sink is full of dishes, and when mom only has an hour (if she’s lucky) to devote to her own creativity. All too quickly, that hour becomes extremely significant, and there can be enormous pressure to use every moment in productive activity. If there isn’t a clear product to point to when that hour is up, the cycle gets more vicious the next time another precious hour presents itself. (And sometimes that sets the monkey to howling: of course I should feel guilty, if I don’t have anything to show for the time I just took!)

I think, too, that part of the challenge lies in the fact that motherhood is extremely process oriented. So many of the things we do to take care of kids and home have very little tangible, permanent product to show for our efforts. It’s so easy to get caught up in the doing, even to resent the time and energy it takes: the dishes will need to be washed again; the diaper will need to be changed again. For me, this can be one of the most frustrating parts of motherhood. Sometimes my inner voice protests, Can’t anything just stay done?!? (And if it did, just think of the time I’d have instead to work on my own creative endeavors!) If there aren’t many permanent end products in our daily lives as mothers, it can create even more pressure to make the most of our creative times, even more pressure to worry about end results instead of enjoying getting there. But ultimately, this is just another monkey howling and hanging on.

How to shut these apes up? I find that when I can be in the moment as much as possible, life is so much more joyful. I’m more creative in every way — with my own creative projects, but also with my interactions with the kids and with the challenges that inevitably occur while caring for them. (It’s a Zen thing, I suppose, and I’ve yet to have it work fully on changing poopy diapers, but my I’m truly happier when I’m simply taking pleasure in each moment with the kids — merely for the sake of the moment, whatever we happen to be doing.) And when my designated creative time comes, I find that when I can cherish the process and trust my own creative impulses, the product takes care of itself more often than not. I try to keep in mind Jan Phillips’s words of wisdom from “The Artist’s Creed” in Marry Your Muse: “I believe that what truly matters in the making of art is not what the final piece looks like or sounds like, not what it is worth or not worth, but what newness gets added to the universe in the process of the piece becoming.”

As mothers, we are very familiar with adding newness to the universe; we are directly responsible for birthing and/or nurturing new lives, bringing them into being. Motherhood and creativity go hand in hand, but not all creative pursuits work easily with the demands of motherhood. If you find yourself “struggling to be more creative,” perhaps you might consider letting your creative energies take shape in another medium for a while: for example, if you usually write, try a kinesthetic craft. In my case, the shift from extended writing projects to blogging and crafting was extremely liberating. It has helped me follow Rumi’s advice: “Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.” Value creativity wherever it can take root in your life, and you’ll inevitably see something start to sprout. Give it the sun and water it needs in the form of whatever time and energy you can give. Be kind to yourself if that time and energy is less than what you’d like. Don’t worry that it doesn’t seem “enough.” Creativity, once rooted, is a persistent, weedy thing. (That’s why so many of us struggle with it, I think; we try to turn the weeds to roses.) It might not be what you expected, but it’s fascinating to watch it grow!

CC: Such important points. Thanks so much, Jen!

Breakfast with Bec

For your Independence Day enjoyment, today we join Bec Thomas for “Breakfast,” the Friday series where we get to know an inspiring, creative mother from the blogosphere and peek into her creative space. Bec is a photographer, blogger, and home-schooling mother to three boys. That’s right, home-schooling. Oh, and she lives on an island and spins wool. Seriously. How cool can one woman be?

CC: Please introduce us to who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
BT: My name is Bec Thomas, and I am me. Me can be a lot of things and they are subject to change over time. I live in the Pacific Northwest so I’m one of those socks and sandals wearing folk who spends a lot of time outdoors. I have a love of water, reading, and online gaming. I’m generally considered very confident, passionate, and rather anti-establishment, but if you asked my friends they would give you many nice adjectives that I don’t really think about.

What do I do? Well first off, I’m a fine art photographer who works mostly in monochrome with nature, but I also decoupage and I hand spin yarn. Yes, I have been asked how I can possibly find the time. My family consists of a husband who is a professional techno geek who works way too much and 3 boys ages 7, 9, and 13, who I home-school.

CC: Tell us about your photography and other creative pursuits.
BT: Photography has always come easy to me. I can just see it, but I couldn’t paint a scene if my life depended on it. A famous photographer, Ernst Haas, from the 40s and 50s, summed it up best: “The camera doesn’t make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE.” I can see various moments in time that will never exist again; the only way to keep that moment is to record it with a camera. I prefer to work in monochrome but will do color on occasion. Monochrome brings out the details in an image that can be hidden by flashy color. For me, color often gets in the way and the viewer just can’t get past it. I do a lot of storm photography. Here in the Pac Northwest the landscape is often naturally in grayscale in the winter months. My absolute favorite condition to shoot in is fog; it spreads the light so evenly it’s like a dream!

I’ve taken pictures since I was a kid; it wasn’t until my youngest children got to be over 5 that I decided I could fit making it a career into the mix. My two youngest often accompany me when I take photos — even when I’m going out in bad weather, as in my household we worship the Gortex gods. Since my husband works too much I often take the kids with me when I have to drop artwork off for a show or gallery and they take turns being my date for the patrons’ parties I need to attend. They take these duties very seriously.

In the midst of all the photography excitement, I get in several hand-spinning demonstrations a year, usually with my best friend Laurie Wheeler who is a crochet guru. My two oldest boys can both use a drop spindle so they usually demonstrate right along with us. I also decoupage on wooden boxes — some are as big as trunks. I don’t usually show my boxes but that is changing and my new studio will help.

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
BT: A lot of my work is outdoors. I especially like to work on beaches! After I take the photos, I have to edit them and for that I hang out in my messy office space glued to my computer. When I get photos back from the printer, I then head to my new studio space to mat and frame them. I just moved into my studio space a couple of weeks ago. It’s still under construction but it’s huge and can fit all my photography stuff and all my decoupage things. I still have to get all the photography lighting set up out there, but that will come in due time. Once the studio is completely done and snazzy, I will open it to the public. We have art tours on the island I live on and I plan get become a part of that. I will also feature other artists along with both my photography and my decoupage works.

CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work?
BT: I have what you might call an extremely flexible schedule. Since I take the kids with me, I never know what time I will be taking photos. If I shoot at night then I leave the homestead in my husband’s care (yeah, scary I know). When I have to do my indoor work, it is almost always at night. I’m nocturnal by nature; therefore I have more motivation to get my indoor work done at night.

CC: What do you struggle with most?
BT: I think the biggest challenge I have is trying to sync schedules with my husband. When I cannot take my children with me, it really puts a snag into the works. Part of the time a friend helps me out but that doesn’t always work. It can be quite the juggling act at times.

CC: How do you manage your photography, spinning, decoupage, family life, domestic responsibilities, home-schooling (!) and still have time for online gaming or even going to the bathroom? Have you made conscious decisions about areas where you compromise?
BT: I’m really skilled at multitasking and delegating. I also live under the belief that compromise is just a fact of life. I keep an extremely flexible schedule so things can be worked around and in. I find that if time gets put into a rigid structure then you start to become inclined never to break it and get really frustrated when something pops up that doesn’t fit into the box. If you can stay flexible, the world doesn’t end if something doesn’t get done. The kids usually accompany me, or in some cases “help me” (read pester me, hee hee), while I’m working. A lot of my photography is outdoors so they get an education and exercise why mommy does her thing. Much of the time homeschooling gets done while we’re doing other tasks; the whole world really is a classroom. Yesterday we were out at an extreme low tide viewing the interesting sea life you don’t normally see; I was shooting pictures while discussing what a limpet is and how I hadn’t ever seen a bright blue one on that beach before either.

I have long since refused to be the queen of domestic responsibilities. My goals in life never included being a maid for four other people. The kids all have age-appropriate chores, and have to clean up the messes they make. I still do the laundry though; it just scares me when anyone else, including my husband, does it.

CC: How much does guilt factor in your life?
BT: You know, guilt really doesn’t factor into my life much. I learned when I was a very young woman that I cannot feel guilty for pursuing what I want to do with my life. People too often forget about their own needs in service of others. When I was young I did that too; but I also learned you need to balance, need to set up personal boundaries, and that no one can possibly look out for your best interests better then you can. I generally don’t have time for people that want to try and make me feel guilty or attempt to stuff me into a box of how they think I should live. I am my own empowered individual and you can either accept me for who I am or move on.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
BT: Inspiration can come at me from just about anywhere. It can be a scene before me, randomly pop into my head, or come from viewing someone else’s work. My most recent inspiration came from fashion photography. I want to apply mass amounts of beads to my friend’s face and photograph it. She is still trying to avoid that inevitability, I’m afraid……

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?

• Crochet Liberation Front
• Patache
• Creative Construction [aw!]
• The World Through My Eyes
• Art News Blog

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
BT: Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate! That and all the books I read. I really don’t know if I can live without Laurell K. Hamilton, Jacqueline Carey, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jim Butcher. Also Patrick Rothfuss recently released his first book and it is fabulous, I can’t wait till the next one is released. When any of those authors release a book, life stops for a day so I can read them.

CC: What are you reading right now?
BT: I am currently reading Acacia by David Anthony Durham.

CC: What advice would you offer to mothers who struggle to be more creative?
BT: Don’t make excuses for not doing it. There is always something that can get in the way, always some excuse, make time and just do it. The only person holding you back is yourself. Also, ignore all that “great” advice or put-downs from the peanut gallery. If you’ve got the passion for it, you can make it happen.

CC: Thank you, Bec! And Happy Fourth, everyone.