Creative Week Installment 5
Well, it took me a bit longer to get to this posting, but here I am! Hoorah!
It is now that time of the year when I deeply mourn the loss of summer, but I also force myself to look forward and plan how to ward off the winter blues. What better way to use time wisely than to get creative?
My specific immediate plans are to: 
finish the baby hat I started for my colleague who had her baby two weeks early
finish the scarf I started in January
(I think in some way not finishing it has been my way of not acknowledging that dirty word - winter).
if you are perceptive, and I believe you are...
you will note two bikes in this shot - lil' C by the pole, and a nice classic in the window.take a sewing class, perhaps two, at my favorite local candy, I mean craft, store
improve upon the bicycle skirt prototype
rework the headband - it was a little too wide
And I look forward to doing a little reading too
On the local creative front... you've gotta love Minnesota and their romance with Scandinavia and the Arts.
Where else could you take these classes?
Norse Pram - Build Your Own
Making Moosehide & Canvas Mukluks
Thor's Velvet Hammer - An Introduction to Anticlastic Raising
Craft Your Own Coiled Bee Skep
Fundamentals of Yurt Construction
to name but a few...
Thank you for joining me on Creative Week! It has been a nice escape in a crazy work life of late. I appreciate each and every comment and look forward to sharing more as our nights grow cooler and darker. Happy Creating!
PS I would be remiss if I did not mention these bicycle related items:
-Need a flashy carry-all to put your fall coat in on the ride home? Go here
-In Minneapolis and want to show some support for those bikers who sadly we have lost? Go here
-A nice problem to have on public transport eh? Go here
-Horribly tragic news, my heart goes out...here
Creative Week Installment 4
I'm not quite sure how it came about, but I am pretty sure it is partially thanks to these two brilliantly talented women that I got interested again in sewing.
Lotta & Amy
There was a time in my younger years that I recall being able to sew. I do not remember the teacher, I do not remember the learning, I just remember the doing. Likely my mother was the teacher - it was her quirky Singer whose pedal had no speed control (slow...slow...fastfastfastfast...slow...) that I crafted many projects on. I specifically remember rifling through many sewing patterns at a local sewing store and picking out my very own outfits to sew. I suppose 'normal' kids were at basketball practice or out watching movies at their friend's houses, but I was perfectly content to be doing my own thing. It was good fun to work on my sewing projects and so satisfying to be able to wear something I made by myself. It must be that feeling I desire to tap into again. I suppose now all the other kids are out at their kid's basketball games or watching movies with their friends, but I am still perfectly content to be doing my own thing...
I had forgotten my interest until I started seeing all of the beautiful things Lotta and Amy were making. They are so talented and they make me want to get in touch with my Swedish roots and live in a funky modern house in Ohio - or at least capture those things and turn Minnesota into my own version. I did after all travel to Sweden to get in touch with my heritage and paint my living room an Amy-inspired blue.
So, this Spring with the giddy excitement of the girl I used to be, but a much improved older and better me, H went with me to pick out my very own sewing machine. The Bernette is about the only thing that makes me look forward to the winter. I can't wait to get to know her better and learn all she has to offer.
This summer I did attempt my first bike skirt, which I feel I made a successful prototype of. I look forward to mastering the skirt over the winter and making more creations for riding around on my new bikes next summer...
(Yes, I said bikeS....more on that later...).
early June
July
August
September
Creative Week Installment 3
There are a lot of things in life I thought I would never do or be interested in. Gardening is one. We had previously had some high altitude planting trials during our time in CO, but alas either hail or vacation got the best of our potted attempts. We decided perhaps gardening wasn't for us. 
A few moves and a surprising number of years later, it was now time to try again. Although I enjoy all that a garden has to offer, I still am not convinced I have the love and attention an organic garden needs - thank god for H. It became a partnership of sorts. I started by taking a Urban Gardening class at our favorite local garden center. I had no idea I had it in me to do such a thing, but it was one of the most fun things I have done since I moved here. The people teaching were great, the students were great, and I left invigorated to share all of the information with H so he could successfully manage the garden. Then when we returned from Sweden in the midst of our after-vacation blues, we had something to look forward to the rest of the summer. The garden became H's daily ritual and he tended it well. It became one of the highlights of the day to receive his garden progress reports, and a real treat the first time he pulled something we could actually eat out of it!
We are a little 'out there' I guess to some people in our pleasantly evolving neighborhood. 'Those crazy people who moved here from California'. A rain barrel and garden right smack dab in plain view. Placing the garden and the rain barrel where they are was not about beating everyone over the head with how great our idea was, it was merely the sunniest and best spot on our property for a garden. But the cool thing is, it has created a lot of interest locally in what we are doing and by just living who we are and not trying to be anything else, we know we have made an impact. I know this because when I'm out with the push mower I get comments like "you folks are really 'green' aren't you? that's great!" And H has people ask him questions when he is out tending his flock. H has also seen people walk right off the sidewalk over to our rain barrel to check it out in action. For a first attempt it turned out pretty nice. At times during the summer almost everything we ate for dinner was out of our garden, and with the bumper crop of tomatoes we have going, these delicious dinners continue. We are simply doing the things we had hoped to do when we moved here, and slowly, one step at a time it is happening.
Self-sustained success tastes awfully good!
Creative Week Installment 2
I started blogging because basically, I was cold, lonely, and depressed. And, well, basically I am still all of those things, but a little less so. Often in my life I have felt I am not really where I want to be. There were a few short glorious years where I was exactly where I wanted to be and I remember turning to H as we drove through the Headlands saying that I had never been so happy in my life - I had never said that before, ever. Though that happiness was wrenched out of me and keeps getting squeezed away, I have tried to bottle it up and keep it here in this little stratosphere of my hyggelig. I try not to focus on negativity here ~ for me my hyggelig is about keeping myself positive and inspired, focusing on the brighter side - capturing that one moment in time and spreading it throughout my daily life. And it is a bonus when someone joins me for part of the ride.
A wee bit o'time ago when I was but a lass, as soon as I finished grad school I subscribed to Martha Stewart Living and bought a Garrison Keilor book. I wanted nothing to do with serious reading and this was a good start. Folks can bash on MSL all they want, but back in the day it was a great read. Like a great runway show, it isn't about being what you see, it is about taking away the great bits you can make your own. I found it inspiring.
Fast forward a few years and I start hearing about these folks called 'bloggers'. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was too busy working, commuting, traveling, and falling asleep on the couch at 8pm to pay much notice. Or one could say I was simply spending too much of my free time with the Boys at, on, or near a beach...
But when I moved here these things were not part of my life anymore - none of them. Somehow I stumbled upon sfgirlbybay and a whole new world opened up to me just when I needed a new door to go through. Bloggers knew other bloggers and some of them were even meeting up at events and making friends. Like-minded, incredibly creative people we may not meet in our daily lives were there making connections in the blogosphere and it was pretty darn cool. And, I was inspired. In the midst of a disheartening career changing job search, I had these little golden moments in my everyday.
And though they may not know I am out here, I thank these folks for what they have brought into my life through their brilliant creativity, perhaps a unique and witty sense of humor, a visual sense of the world, and the courage to put themselves out there. Yes, it may not be a book or a painting you made by the seashore, but a computer can lead to creativity.
H is on a plane to LA.
It is raining, it is dark, it is Autumn, and work is bringing me down.
Bob pretty much stays in the bedroom now.SO... it's me and Bob blogging together for a few days.
What better time to kick off Creative Week?
Yes, I am officially deeming it Creative Week
and I have a few post ideas up my sleeve...
Creative Week Installment 1Today... Let's talk Creativity...
My adult life with creativity all started one day at work in SF a few years ago when a certain well known artist asked to see my colleague's sketch books. I thought to myself 'my god, all I do is work, if he were to ask what I do in my free time I would have nothing to say, nothing. I have no life!' I was terrified by the thought and suddenly the wind was knocked out of me.
And then I had an 'aha' moment.
I began to look for places I could start throwing pots again (that's a whole other story), but alas, my situation in the Bay Area made that too difficult. At the time I was traveling for work a ton and my friend A had inspired me with her adept knitting skills. 
one of the coolest gifts I've ever received.
and now my iPod case.
I thought 'perfect!' A never knit because it was cool or because it was trendy, she did it because she's an individual and she liked knitting. But, at the time knitting was also really hitting its stride in SF as the thing to do, or maybe it had already peaked, and I decided it was the perfect solution - something I could say I do, something I want to do (I wanted to make all those cool things A was making), and something I could take with me and do at the airport and in my hotel room. 
first project
I promptly signed myself up for a class at the cusp of Noe Valley and the Castro and for 4 Wednesday's in January I made a night out of it; muni'd my way out near class, picked out a nice restaurant to take myself to for dinner, and then class - wonderful class. H & B as always were supportive and would drive in from Marin to pick me up after class and we would talk about how we loved the City (man g**gle street view can make a girl homesick!) and how class went and where we would eat next (another story).
It was truly a turning point for me and I haven't looked back.
And now look, I can do it too!
Funny, sometimes it takes awhile to get back in touch with those things you forgot you enjoyed as a child. I had strayed far away from so many things, but now they are coming back into my life as the most positive things - bringing me new adventures, keeping me focused, providing new mantras, and centering me.
