Patience

I am not a patient woman. Passion YES but patience - no I haven’t got a lot of that. This makes me a woman who does things fast, who is no good at waiting and more often than not acts before having actually thought things true. But, and this is important I am NOT rude or impatient with people who doesn’t do things quite at my speed – I just tend to chose doing most things myself!

I want to see a result fast and I think that’s why I take photos instead of paint pictures, do wet felting instead of quilts, embroidery instead of weaving and almost never knit with a thin yarn…..and it’s why I don’t do leaven bread! Just the mere thought of having to wait for the bread to rise for days on end makes me itch all over.

The not being patient thing is also why I don’t do gardens or at least didn’t until quite recently. Gardening is all about patience. You plan, you plant and then you do what? Yes you WAIT!

My gardening used to consist of frequent trips to the nursery where I bought all the plants I could lay my hands on, planted them and then forgot all about them. I got a fast result that’s true but it never lasted for long. Nowadays I really try to fight the urge to do “a quick fix” when it comes to gardening.

If someone had said a few years back that I would own a green house, grow my own plants from seeds and have vegetable garden I would have laughed out loud. But what do you know, things can change. Who knows I might start to doing quilts next….or not!

Jeanette

Do I have an artistic passion?

Last year I participated in One World One Heart hosted by Lisa Swifka. It was a great event and helped me find my way to many new bloggers around the globe. I am still following some of them. This year Lisa Swifka is launching a brand new event that is replacing One World One Heart. It is called Our World Our Art and will be an annual international blogwide art event.

Lisa says : “Its mission is to give all of us who create with our hands in many mediums and in many genres....a chance to celebrate our authentic artistic selves and our authentic artistic vision....together. This event will also continue the importance of meeting other bloggers from around the world making connections, forming friendships.”

What qualifies you to become a participant? Being an artist or a crafter? Well Lisa says that you have to have an artistic passion. So what is that then? No one explains it better than the creator/host herself:

“….In my book, and for the purposes of OWOA, we're going to call it your "artistic passion". So what does that mean? It means if you sit in your home or studio and you have supplies (whatever they may be) and you create something out of those supplies - by hand - and with your own designs....AND you LOVE doing it to sell or to just do it because you love it or because it brings harmony to your very existence....then you have "artistic passion". …. “

I have been creative all my life but to call myself an artist or a crafter always felt wrong somehow. I think I didn’t have self-confidence enough. I wasn’t well known or educated in arts & crafts and I didn’t have exhibitions or sell my “art”. So naturally I wasn’t an artist!

But I have absolutely no problem with artistic passion. I have loads of that. My life would be empty and not worth living if I wouldn’t have time to create. Hey I even wrote a Creative Manifesto…. So I can`t wait to enter Our World Our Art when it starts in the end of February. Hope to see you there too.

Do you want to read more about the event and the rules to participate you will find it here.

Take care

Jeanette

The Creative Manifesto

For me creativity is all about joy! The feeling I get inside when a fabric, yarn, tin can or color scheme gets my creativity going and I light up like a 100 watt bulb inside. The urge to get started at once and the happiness and contentment I feel when creating something with my own hands. You may think that you are not creative, arts & crafts teachers has a lot to answer for here, but it’s my firm belief that everyone can be creative and that everyone has a talent but for some this talent is hidden and yet to explore. By searching for the things that make you truly happy, the things you enjoy reading, watching, making or participate in you are most likely to stumble over that hidden talent of yours. But creativity is also about courage. You have to put trust in yourself and dare to follow where your creativity might take you.

So this weekend I decided that in the furure I would like to dedicate this blog to creativity, making a creative manifesto and through my posts I hope to inspire you to try out something creative of your own.

The Creative Manifesto

Try to do something creative everyday even if it’s just doodling while talking on the phone.


Be curious and open to try stuff outside your comfort zone you might like it! If you don’t like it you can always be joyful over the fact that you don’t have to do it again!


Enjoy the moment!

Making with your hands is empowering.


Surround yourself with people that boost your confidence and takes joy in your creations.


Surround yourself with objects that spark your imagination and gives fuel to you creativity. It might be books, fabric, color, yarn, thrash, buttons, paper, your stamp collection or whatever. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it gets your heart beating and your mind spinning with ideas. Creativity & craft is what you make it!


Try to make a creative space, how ever tiny, where you can let yourself go.

Don’t discourage yourself by thinking that you haven’t got the time. The old Greeks might have said that that “No great thing is created suddenly” but that doesn’t necessarily mean that something created in seconds can’t be darn good!

Making handmade items allow you to turn your back on many of the mass-produced items you can find in the shopping malls. If you use recycled stuff you do the environment a favour too.

Allow yourself to make mistakes. The most fun part isn’t always a perfect result it is the laughs you had while getting there.


Look at what others create but only for inspiration and not for comparison. Don’t try to be like someone else, envy will only get you down.

Say yes to the adventure of creativity!

Jeanette

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

Mary Lou Cook