Mending is Creative?

While I was sewing away Monday night on the growth chart I kept looking over at my mending pile. I had a cheap diaper bag (one of those freebies the doctor's office fills with samples of formula and gives to every expectant mother) with a side seam coming undone, an open seam on the baby blanket I made my toddler oh.... 3 years ago, and ripped seams along the edges of my two braided rugs. Why do they always come undone at the edges of the long part of the oval? Weird.

I have to admit, those rugs have needed mending for at least a year. I kept telling myself I'd sit down and do it someday, but they were oh so easy to skip over. I can not believe I sat down last night and actually mended everything!!! I read once in The Artist's Way that mending was one way to open yourself up to creativity. Weird, I know. But I can't stop thinking of all these other projects to do now. Once the mending pile was out of the way, my creative to do list can't stop growing. I love it!

Remembering Who I Am

There were many tasks listed in "The Artist's Way" that I did do, and many more I didn't. One of the best ones I did was to make a quick and dirty collage. I went to the break room (during a break of course!) and found a travel magazine, science magazine and even a few smutty, gossipy magazines for good measure. I sat down at my desk and just ripped out whatever caught my eye. This was the end result.

It surprises me, every time I look at it, how accurately it reflects me. Sometimes when you just go and don't stop to think, analyze or judge, the truth comes out.

This collage holds a place of honor on my wall at work. I can look up from my keyboard and soak in the things that I love. Babies, my baby, my husband, working with my hands, white, cultivating, growing, plants, blues, small bits of surprise color, flashes of red, and above all else...walking on this earth as a princess, a woman of God, His child, His beloved.

Trying Something New

This past Fall I realized my creative, artistic side had dwindled down to almost nothing. There was very little in my life that was just for me, nothing that filled my artistic well. The well had run dry. So I picked up a needle and a thread and I created. I didn't create a blanket for someone's wedding gift. I didn't make Christmas cards. I made just for me. And it hasn't stopped yet. In fact, I made so much stuff that I wanted to share these items that had added beauty and depth to my own life. So I took a risk and did something scary. I put myself out there on etsy. And that is where Seamingly Sarah was born.