Creative Every Day

I joined the Creative Every Day challenge a few days ago. Yesterday, I kept a promise to myself to visit with a friend from the http://SEFPCG.com- South East Florida Polymer Clay Guild, of which I am the VP. So. My friend Carol, who loves fairies, and missed our meeting the day I brought some of my fledgling fairy sculpts to our general meeting, has been wanting to see them ever since. I, on the other hand, know that she has a huge collection of Genesis heat-set oil paints, plus a crazy home studio. Her children are grown, so her crafting room has taken over part of her house. Plus, she has a bright purple fairy-themed bathroom. Well, you learn lots about people when you make the leap from casual-acquaintance to "come on over." I always equate friend-making with dating, I think it's funny. So anyway- she has two cats and a DH who, after talking for a while, I found has the same musical preferences as I (classical, with a bent towards the string section) and a collection of Celtic Woman CDs (he let me borrow for my ipod) and not one, but two violins- acoustic and electric which I was allowed to hold and caress. I have been wanting to, but hesitating from, learn the violin for a while now. You see, I always saw playing the piano as a strategic nightmare- you can exactly carry it to a party. My piano resides in my school's music department right now, as the condo we moved into this year left no room for it, and the music dept. needs it more than I do. But holding that little blue electric violin got my juices flowing. We'll see.....

But, onto my visit with Carol. She likes to make fabric dolls, plus she beads and does clay. Her dolls are lovely. I told her we should collaborate to make a mermaid- I love fabric dolls but have NO interest in sewing the bodies. She, on the other hand, is quite good at it. So, we're thinking about it. Before I left, she gave me a piece of slate and permission to scoop as much Genesis paint onto it from her collection as I wanted. So, I made myself a nice palette, which I will take a photo of sometime soon, and resolved to make her a fairy in return. Sometimes gift-making is what I need to light my fire. It can be hard for me to create "just because." I entered this year's challenge to challenge myself to create for me- rather than to sell, give away, or some other cause. It's my personal challenge to get away from the practicality of needing a reason to create something.