Surrounded by Creativity...

It’s been hard to blog, even though I had to add Internet access to the room in order to get Teresa’s files up here safely and ask her the occasional question as she gets over the nasty flu that kept her from coming to the show in Toronto.  While everyone REALLY misses her, they are a wee bit glad that she kept her germs at her house!

I’d forgotten what a huge city Toronto is compared to Moncton.  I’d also forgotten just how small the CN tower makes me feel!

This festival is the most INCREDIBLE experience because you are literally surrounded by Creativity for the whole day!  I’ve seen the most amazing beaded, knitted and quilted outfits that I’ve been longing to go up and touch, half drying or half completed class projects being carried carefully by their creators as they head to their next adventure and enough craft supplies to send me into fits of “I need to have that!”  I’ve been good actually... I’ve also been teaching most of the time!  The only purchase that I did justify yesterday between classes and my lecture was this yarn.  It’s been REALLY cold here in Toronto and the taxi showed up just early enough in Moncton that I forgot to grab one of my scarves to bring with me. Yeah... that sounds like a convincing excuse...

Despite having to juggle things, change things and adapt, all of my presentations have gone well so far.  I’ve spent time with amazing, creative people and also had fun just playing.  Yesterday was the joint “Tiny Dragon” class where Teresa and I both designed little dragons over one to “torture” them with. 

One creative stitcher even brought along some of my Gemstone Dragons that she’d stitched OVER ONE  backstitched with BLENDING FILAMENT!

They looked amazing and I felt so honoured that someone loved those dragons enough to work on them that small.

I did a lecture called The Perfection Trap that reminded stitchers not to point out all their mistakes to others or strive for impossible standards and then went on to teach my Hoarding Your Creativity class.  What fun we had!! I’d made a bunch of Inspiration tags before leaving home with the ShrinkyDinks film (I just LOVED this stuff as a kid!). If you haven’t played with it recently, go find some at a craft store and tuck it away for a day when you want to play.

That was really what made the last class go by so quickly.  I was inspiring them and sharing why it was important for Creative people to have a book or box in which to hoard things they find that spark their creativity from quotes to scraps, images to ideas and photos to textures.  Everyone got so caught up in playing on that deep level that children know instinctively that the time just flew by. Before we knew it, we were cleaning up and I was heading back to the hotel to snip more floss and chase beads around on the carpet. That’s another entry.

INHALE:  We sometimes forget how important it is to surround ourselves with other creative people.  They may not all create the same things that you do, the same types of objects or crafts that you like, but when you are with other creative people, it recharges you in a special way because you don’t feel as alone.  We cannot create in a vacuum.

EXHALE: Whatever craft you love most or whatever creativity you have just discovered, find out if there is a gathering, a special day, a class or a retreat that you could attend in the next few months so that you could take a large block of time to spend not only doing something creative but also surround yourself with other creative people.  I know that even though this festival can be tiring, it is also way more INSPIRING!!