Monsters and Things

I mentioned before that I was working on making monsters for my niece and nephew from their drawings.  Well, I’m still working on the monster for my nephew, but the one for my niece is finished so I thought I’d post it.  I’m learning ALOT about how to put things together by doing this.  It’s a great exercise AND the kids love the one monster I’ve made so far!

It’s funny because I wasn’t sure if my niece liked her monster, but the day after I gave it to her she came back to me with more monsters to make!! I swear they have a list of things for me to make for them.  Not just monsters. It’s great and helps me to continue to be creative on a daily basis.

I’m only posting the original drawing and a full body picture of the monster.  If you’re interested in seeing more detail please check out my Flickr! photostream.

Original drawing

Monster in real life

I’m also posting the last ATC that I was unable to post before because it had not been received.  Unfortunately it STILL has not been received and I had to make a new card.  I’ve completed the new card and hope to mail it tomorrow.  I can’t post the new card yet but I hope you’ll appreciate the one that was lost.

Finding My Feet

My whole life I’ve never believed I was creative. My mother and brother were creative.  I was the intellectual one. They picked up a pen and out came an actual picture.  They sat down at the piano and out came actual music; but me? Me not so much.

I thought, for a long time, that writing was my thing.  My space to be creative.  That thing that came naturally, that made me happy, that gave me an outlet.  But I finally realized that it’s not that thing. That thing that pulls something unexpected out of you.  That thing that truly makes your soul sing.  You know, that thing.

I’ve “crafted” in some way or another all through my adulthood.  I think it began with the nesting instincts that came along with the birth of my daughter. Even though I “crafted,” and my family believed me “crafty,” I never quite found anything I felt comfortable with.  Nothing that made me feel as if I were expressing myself creatively.  But then, I never gave myself permission to actually believe that I could go beyond basic crafting to be creative.

Recently something changed within me.  Don’t ask me to define it.  I don’t know exactly when it happened or what caused the shift; but I finally gave in and thought that I could be creative.  I gave myself permission to try new things to find a creative outlet.  Explore new mediums, experiment, fail and hopefully to ultimately succeed.

And thus this blog was born.  I hope you’ll find me, and my journey, interesting enough to follow along.