Are you creating for your own wellbeing? Someone said that to me several years ago as I began to develop Gorgeous Yarns and was getting a bit “bogged down”. It was valuable advice.
I have always been a creative person, since making houses for my Sindy doll and learning to knit and sew as a child. The happiest times in my life have been when I have been creating, but the saddest times have also been helped significantly by being creative.
Its not just woolly things that I create. I thought it would be fun to share with you what I have been creating recently and a bit about the joy it brings me….
I love jam making! The whole process from collecting the fruit from the garden (Mr Gorgeous is the fruit gardener), preparing it, and then making the jam; a bubbling, boiling pan of fruity, jewel-like liquid that sets in the jars as a taste of summer. This week, Garden berry and Damson jam. I get such pleasure from giving these jams to friends and family and knowing they will enjoy the taste of summer and benefit from my creativity.
I am making face-masks for a couple of friends’ shops. ( Essa Collection in Porthleven, and Pavot in Honiton. ) I enjoy the process of the sewing, folding, ironing and finishing. Its quite mindfull as I sit at my machine and sew the lovely fabrics. I enjoy thinking of people wearing the masks and wondering what and why they choose each one. Special thanks to Alison Bick who sent me some beautiful linen in one of her designs to make a mask for myself.
This week I need to take out the May DIY Daylight Dye kit samples I have made to show you. I’ll post the video clip later today on You Tube channel. Its a lovely yarn and colourway to create things for autumn, and somehow it reminds me of a tiger’s pattern.
I have also been spending more time recently reflecting and musing on things; we are all living in a very unbalancing time. Nothing we knew before will be the same and everything in our communities seems to be changing and different. I am very grateful for what I have; being creative is one of those things. I have been jotting down my thoughts and reflections daily in 2 notebooks. One for gratitudes and one for journaling. As you might guess, my journaling is not just writing, its more creative than that and includes pictures from magazines, ideas, doodles, post-its, bits of fabric and yarn, anything that captures that creating moment for me.
We can all be a bit creative, it doesn’t have a “standard”, it doesn’t have to be “perfect” or “as good as” anyone else. As long as you enjoy it, it’s fun and gives you joy it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about it. Its the doing in creating that is the value, not the end result. Go ahead, give it a try!
Bye for now,
Caroline
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