Thing-a-day.com

Sometimes I think I’m thinking too hard about this. I was surfing about and found this quote that really struck a chord with me:

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

–Sylvia Plath

Up until about four years ago, I was pretty confident in my creative abilities. But an important thing you learn in school is to critique your own work. I think I’ve been over critiquing myself too much since then. Oh to find a happy balance!

Here is one of my latest layout mock-ups for my website/blog. I only did it in red because I was already messing around with that color and didn’t feel like converting everything to black and white. Lazy, I know, but tonight is Friday! I was thinking of having it straight black and white, or having small color details that would change between pages. I like the boldness of it, but I’m not sure how I feel about the flowers–I’d probably like them better if I actually drew them rather than messing around with a photoshop image. I like to make things difficult for myself.

One of the things that I most appreciate at my school is the way that the students are encouraged to be creative.  From pre-K all the way until the 12th grade, the students have the opportunity to take art, music, and other classes that indulge the creative sides of their brain.  My 7 year old often relaxes at the end of the day by making pictures.  I love that he does that so easily.  Sometimes I’m a little envious.

I don’t think of myself as particularly creative, though in the last few years I have worked harder to add some creativity in my world.  It’s been a gradual process, and I’ve used a lot of different outlets (making cards, writing, arranging things in my home, gardening, cooking, taking pictures).  So joining the folks over at Thing-a-Day feels exciting and a bit risky, but like a natural evolution in the process.

The goal is to spend at least 30 minutes a day being creative and then posting the results of the day’s product over at thing-a-day; my creative product will also be post on my blog.  I will indulge in some newly creative activities, as well as some familiar forms of creativity.  As has been my habit, I will broadly define creativity.

Today’s posting is today’s creative act:  actually thinking about creativity in my life, and organizing a plan for the projects that I will complete this month.  Spontaneity is not my strong suit and, in fact, sometimes makes me uncomfortable, so my creativity this month will largely be planned.  I hope to find some spontaneity as I create, but we’ll just have to see what happens. Mostly, I want to take some time this month to be mindful about creativity.

 My ‘thing’ this year is to write a blog post every day. Writing is how I am creative. Occasionally I make the mistake of veering into other areas; occasionally this is semi-successful. For thing-a-day, I will particularly attempt to document non-writing creative activity whenever I have the energy (which isn’t usually very often). Be prepared for ramblings about gardening and singing in the shower.

 This means that most of my entries here will be links to my blog posts. But I’ll try to summarise them in a witty way and to provide visual aids. Today’s visual is above, with entry below. I wrote about stuff. Not really much creativity there. I shall endeavour to do better tomorrow.

 http://lilwatchergirl.blogspot.com/2008/02/stuff-i-need.html

I’m so excited!

I’ve never considered myself that creative, so this is totally going to be a challenge for me.  But, I’m up to it! I’ve already done some late-night brainstorming (not really planning, just thinkin’).  I also want to try out a bunch of different things, like painting, and charcoal, and all the stuff that I’ve never really done before.  It would be cool to do one different kind of art a day.  Like, not from the same medium twice! That would be hard! I don’t know if I’m up to that challenge!

I just heard about Thing-a-Day via Twitter, and decided to join. I’m doing Blog365, and anything that helps me have something to blog about each day is a bonus

I blog primarily at Enemy of Entropy, but I also post at Fibrant Living and Academy Caritas from time to time. I’m moving my other sites, Heartsong Handicrafts and Cynthia Armistead over to WordPress now, so it’s possible that I’ll post there as well. When I do post elsewhere, though, I usually put a pointer on my main site.

I’m a homeschooling mom to a very creative 17-year-old, who I hope to get signed up here. I’m also a college student, writer/blogger, podcaster, and fledgling needlework designer. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!