I am such a bad blogger. I have neglected to post words and pictures for a month now. I get some great ideas, but then I get distracted into some other great ideas, which delve into yet another idea or two. Not that I don't have bad ideas every once in a while, but I would say 95% are great (the other 5% are really just old useless crap pretending to be bigger than it really is).

My one and only New Year's Resolution: to allow more creativity into my life. I have some other "goals" - but they are not as important as allowing more and more of my divine creativity to flow and express through me and to grab hold of my life with gusto. And boy have I been creating a lot of fun, inspired things (of which I promise to post more pictures - I am so behind).

It is funny that I am making peace with my sewing machine after all these years. I was given a very nice Ulna machine with a billion settings at the young age of 18 (21 years ago!). I never got the hang of it. Every time I tried to use it I would jam it all up and it would make horrible noises and smell like it was going to explode. So I stopped torturing the thing. I figured sewing was not for me at all. Years later when I tried to pick up sewing again, I got so I would just take on hand stitching projects because the damn machine still frustrated me. Do you know how long it takes to make something all by hand? I stuck to little projects; small dolls and doll clothes, that sort of thing. Then my husband bought me a hundred dollar Singer machine from Target a few years back that has very basic features. After a few attempts, I can now say that I can sew on a basic machine. I can figure out how to get most things made. I am remembering sewing lessons from my mom from when I was 8 years old. (My mom, by the way, is most excellent at anything sewn – I should post a few of her creations too because she is not so into computers).

I have to say that the biggest factor that has led me back to the sewing machine is having a daughter four years ago. (I also have a soon to be six year old son – but he is not enchanted with the things I create as much as my daughter is. I think it might be a girl thing.) There is nothing more pleasing than watching my little girl hold on to a new doll or stuffed animal and make up stories and create imaginary worlds for whatever I just made. Heck, I even let her play with the fancy stuff I’ve made every once in a while because she is so captured by it.

Most of what I end up making I hand over to my kids. There are a few good reasons for this. One; they are my muses. Two; we are four people living in a two bedroom house – what is mine is theirs – there is no way around that. And because we live in a relatively small space – toys, books, games, dolls – they are everywhere. There is no place to store them away out of sight (and who wants to do that anyway). My home décor is totally for the kids, so it makes logical sense that the things I create also fit in with this pervasive theme.

I will tell you that I am contemplating creating some clothes for myself and/or my daughter. The only thing holding me back is the price of fabric is more expensive than buying an item at the store. But I just read an article in Craft magazine about making skirts with table cloths found at yard sales and thrift stores. This sounds fun and worth exploring. BTW, Craft magazine is so fantastic, check them out at www.craftzine.com

An author by the name of Jonathan Mooney (The Short Bus) writes, ‘there are two types of people in the world. People who have carpets that smell and people who don’t.’ (I had to paraphrase it because I did not read the book, my husband did and he shared the great philosophy with me.) Then he and I had a long discussion about how much our carpet smells. I think I have had this shame about my smelly carpet. I think my carpet should not smell (I hate carpet – it gives me away immediately no matter how clean I try to pretend to be). Now I need to consider the smell, the ground-in-no-plush-left , stained and overflowing with treasures of beads, sequins, pins, small lego pieces, tiny doll shoes, marbles, etc. – it is all big fabulous work of art! (I’ll post a picture of my carpet – I promise). I see all these beautiful pictures of some woman’s craft space (which we all know is only that clean for the picture) and I seethe with envy – I can show off my war torn carpet as proof that I live beyond appearances, I embrace my urge to create over my obligation to clean.