creative juices

turns out i've actually been having some fun with this juicing thing. i mean my goal is to improve my overall health, but it's had some other side effects. i feel like my mind is more clear than usual since i've been focusing more on what goes into my body.. a super concentration of goodness and nutrients straight into me. i'm in love with my juicer...

..and suddenly feeling a lot more creative. i've been in a slump for a long, long time.. having a really hard time expressing myself with words, or with colours.. i've been looking at this small pile of blank canvasses for months and was finally inspired today to blow off the dust and make use of them. we've been slowly turning our little basement apartment into our own little hideaway, some paint here and there, some art and a random collection of decor. the kitchen is where i spend the majority of my time when i'm home, so i spent a little extra time making it look extra fresh. red green and gold is the theme of the room, so i decided to carry the theme to the blank canvasses.

i sketched loosely onto each blank slate a rough drawing of an abstract-ish mushroom, trying hard not to think too much about it, just let the graphite do it's thing. i ended up with a whimsical trio of oblong mushrooms that will be a series i will use to hide a hole in the wall beside the cellar door. we've decided since the apartment has been so long in disrepair that we would do repairs of our own to a point, and use our creativity to somply dress it up to make it feel more like home.

the weather finally eased up a little today, instead of minus a million below zero it's now above freezing and raining on top of the snow. yum.. well on the plus side i finally had the nerve to make a couple trips to the grocer to stock up on produce for the rest of the weekend. selection usually isn't so great on sundays, and there are things i simply cannot juice without. speaking of.. juicing in itself has become an activity in which i get to express a little more creativity. i seem to be building a skill in blending juices, learning little tricks to keep it fresh and flavours that work well together. i never in a million years would have seen myself willingly comsuming raw cabbage or an entire grapefruit, let alone having them together in a glass. with a few other fruits in there you can't even taste the greenery. i'm a juicer ninja... and i have some more painting to do. toodles!

wooden hearts

for a couple weeks there was a stack of boxes under the stairs filled with things that were destined for the dump. the tenants upstairs told us to go through it in case there was anything we might like to keep before they throw everything away. amongst old albums and schoolwork and random broken things there was a few decorations that i liberated with the intent of updating them. i found ceramic geese, a wicker wreath and three wooden hearts glued to braided grass that read 'home sweet home' ...classic. with lots of potential.

today i started with the wooden hearts. i wasn't sure exactly what i'd do with them, so i sketched out a few little sayings and words and tried to make them fit inside the shapes. after sorting through a couple totes of craft stuff on my buy nothing black friday, i found an assortment of metallic acrylic colours. red green and gold. perfect, they fit with the theme we're already rockin' in the kitchen.

i used some leftover dollar store taupe as a base coat to cover the letters on the hearts and provide a solid backdrop for the light coloured paints. after putting the colours on i decided no further alterations are needed, no words necessary. they look nice simply red green and gold. and now they live in our hand painted crafty kitchen! happy craft day :)

Art Day!

finally after three weeks, i got to hit up an art day last night. sometime back in autumn, my friend Dan, myself and a wee posse of artists from the Niagara region decided to start gathering every wednesday afternoon for Art Day. the idea behind art day is to have a specific time to gather for no other reason than to get creative and enjoy the arts.

our first art day was a little slow, we gathered and discussed various projects that we would like to work on. anything goes, some draw, some write, read, paint, sculpt, sew, create music, design gardens.. whatever each person does to get their creative juices flowing.

the best part about having an Art Day is the inspiration from others. not only having others input and constructive critique, but also the ideas that flow around the room inspire others to go outside of their comfort zones as far as creativity is concerned, and try something new.

the last day may have been my favourite one so far. a ball of hemp twine, a bag of wooden beads and a few nice ceramic ones from the dollar store had three people crafting various pieces of hemp jewelery. it's amazing the things one can learn on youtube!

there's not any pressure to have a project on the go to attend an art day. sometimes it's just nice to sit and converse with others while there's some creation happening. sometimes only music people show up, and it turns into an all out jam session, or even recording session.

don't have an art day to go to? why not start one! pick a day or an evening when you and a few friends are free to gather, and a place with enough seating and surfaces for everyone. it could be as few as 3 or four people, or as many as you can fit! get together and discuss your ideas and goals, bring a sketchpad to jot things down, and get started. it's a nice way to relax with friends and melt away the worries of the world over a nice warm cup of tea and some herbs.