Lifestyle Design - Celebrate Your Creative Spirit - Part II

We all have a creative spirit whether it manifests itself in a talent for home improvement, sewing, craft projects or perhaps computer programming and writing music. Too often we suppress this side as a part of ourselves we will indulge when there is more time. There won't ever be more time and we need to develop and nurture our creative spirit at all times. This will help us to be better balanced and rounded individuals and allows us to share gifts with others on another level.

Here are even more opportunities to celebrate your creative spirit!

Garden Magic
I know you are thinking you have a black thumb, well get over it. I thought I did to but just until I really started to dabble in my garden and realized that if something didn't make it, it might not have anything to do with my thumb, but instead the neighbor's dog, too much sun, or just a finicky plant disposition. Sharing plants and planting tips is a wonderful way to indulge your creative spirit.

Pick a Saturday and plan to spend the time in your garden and a friend's sharing gardening tips and digging in the dirt. Be sure to take a pot or two to say thanks for the help and these can go in the garden too. (While I love indoor live plants, my pets love them a bit too much too!) I tend to like an organized chaos of blooms with layering of color and species, others are much more orderly and formal in their choices. There is no right or wrong just what blooms and what needs extra care.

Grow your creative spirit with travels in the garden.

Photo Memories
One of the best gifts I ever got was from a friend that had spent Thanksgiving at my home with another friend. She had taken photos and put them in just a small album. They chronicled my oven catching fire with marshmallows from the sweet potatoes (you do know this tradition, don't you?) then the arrival of the fire department much to my embarrassment. I offered the brigade a bottle of champagne for their trouble but they politely declined. This same friend then proceeded to land the no longer flaming sweet potatoes on her blouse during dinner! It was a riot and the picture album stayed on my desk for over a year, a happy reminder of a wonderful holiday with friends.

The power of photos is often underrated and while until digitals appeared I had the unique knack of cutting off people's heads and being perpetually out of focus (thank goodness for digital do-overs), I now take photos everywhere and share them widely. It is a way to capture the present for the future. Celebrate your creative spirit with digital memory making, keep it simple.

Paint a Plate
Sometimes we can take a lesson from the craft projects kids bring home. I often see painted plates in client's homes and I am familiar with the trend of the last few years to go to a do-it-yourself pottery source where you can paint your own plates and have them fired for use at home. This is an easy creative outlet and fun to wrangle friends or family into joining you.

You can either make the plates for decorative purposes or for everyday. You could even make one as a gift and have everyone sign it with a quote or quip. Personal makes a difference in a world where we can buy everything.

Sign a Pillow
I used this idea when I was back in grade school and realize I am going to resurrect it for my next bash. A large canvas style pillow and a package of colorful sharpie markers can take the place of a guest book and then be tossed into your décor for a memory making accent. Each person that comes in signs the pillow with a comment about the event, and it becomes a personal reminder of a great time.

If you really want to carry this a step further, have everyone sign a flat piece of fabric and then when you have collected enough of these from a few years of celebrations they can be put together to form either a wall tapestry of memories or a floor cloth (sealed with polyurethane). Tap into your creative spirit for preserving moments of celebration.

Jewelry Making
There is such a wealth of bead making places available now, sometimes at a craft show but even at the mall. This is another fun way to realize your creative spirit with handmade baubles and bangles. Whether you make something for yourself or family or friends, it is personal and unique.

This won't appeal to all. I'd just be interesting in picking the beads out and then moving on and letting someone else do the assembling, but then rumor has it I have ADD! There is still creativity involved and I have friends that would defer on the bead selection and delightedly sit patiently and string them all. (It is great when opposites attract!)

Celebrate your creative spirit with the making of bright and shiny objects.

Home Improvement
You may be one of those TV wonders that keeps up with all the DIY shows and can actually DIY a project! I admire you and applaud you, I am not. This is a creative gift and can save you a lot of money in labor costs, and be a rewarding celebration of your own creative spirit.

Whether you want to tackle a dog house complete with lighting and air conditioning (yes, a friend just did this!), or build a deck off the back of the house or maybe you'll try something on a slightly smaller scale and complete a simple bird house on a stake, have fun with it, get the kids involved if you have any and be open to help from friends and family.

It is not about doing it yourself but in sharing your creative spirit with others in a generous manner that really makes the difference.

Copyright 2008/2009 Melissa Galt

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