When Someone Else Can Say It Better..

I’ve been struggling with how to post the scattered thoughts I’ve had all week as I struggle to find little ways of being Creative while getting back into a regular routine.  To complicate matters, I also gave up drinking Pepsi a week ago and the headaches were pretty bad at first.  I still find myself missing my Dad at odd times or wondering how to work in some time for creativity at the end of the day when I need to exercise and pack lunches.  Sometimes, it feels as if I am starting over from scratch every day...

Then a beautiful entry on my sister’s blog reminds me that each of us wrestles with that on any creative journey.

Her gift with words sometimes takes my breath away!  Then I remember to just take the next breath... and repeat... again and again and again.

INHALE: How often does trying to be perfect get in your way of doing anything at all?  How hard are you on yourself when you create anything?  How often to you stop before you get very far and think about starting all over again?  Maybe it is time to stop trying to be perfect and just concentrate on being.

EXHALE:  Instead of trying to do it all ourselves, we can learn from and lean on the wisdom of others.  When you feel flustered or frazzled, remember that you are not alone.  When you feel like giving up, go looking for words of comfort or inspiration from others.  I found these gems tonight and plan to scribe them into my sketchbook!

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.”

-Alan Alda

“Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.”

-Edwin Land

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”

-Henry David Thoreau

Life is "trying things to see if they work."

-Ray Bradbury

Time For Some Holiday Fun...

When I revamped my website last week, I added a contest for the holidays and linked it to my drawing blog .  Since no one has been brave enough to enter the contest yet, I thought I would throw it out here for those of you who are trying to inhale a bit of Creativity.

This isn’t about drawing ability so much as ideas...

Are you up for some fun?  Let’s see what some of you can come up with!

INHALE:  The thing about taking chances or trying something new is that it can be scary.  We are worried about how people may judge us.  Today was report card day and Bethany was actually disappointed that she only had one A+ in a straight A report card!  So often, we create impossible expectations in our heads that keep us from trying something because we are afraid to look foolish or to fail. The more I try to be Creative, the more I realize that failing is actually a necessary part of being Creative.  It is only when you try something different or push the envelope that you may sail off in to brave, uncharted territories!

EXHALE:  Today is easy.  Print out the picture and doodle... colour it... turn it into a paper airplane.  You don’t have to enter the contest if you don’t want to, you just have to play.  We need to have more play and experimentation in our lives!

Trying Not to Hold My Breath...

This is a time of year when the veil between Heaven and Earth thins a little.  Everyone is rushing around preparing for the many celebrations that brighten this time of year.  This weekend is going to be incredibly busy as so many obligations collide...  and I keep catching myself holding my breath.

I do that while driving or as a passenger, especially now that snow has fallen, as cars cut each other off or run red lights in their hurry.  The girls were disappointed that today wasn’t a snow day after the storm blew through to quickly... but I needed that day home alone.

I hold my breath to calm myself when a wave of anxiety about my father hits.  When I exhale, I am reminded that there are things in this world over which I have no control.  I can, however, try not to make myself turn blue or purple.

I hold my breath when I am excited. There will be plenty of that this weekend as Erin’s team plays in the Provincial Volleyball Finals to establish rankings for the year.  When the score gets close, I am often so caught up in the volleys back and forth that I don’t breathe until someone scores a point!

I also find myself holding my breath sometimes while creating things.  Today was all about getting angel costumes ready for Sunday’s pageant at church.  Hemming was easy, but working with fabric paint and glitter requires steady hands... and sometimes holding your breath so that you don’t wobble.

My basement floor became the perfect place to let most of them dry overnight... as long as the rabbit doesn’t sneak out of her cage!

Every time I exhale after one of these moments, I am reminded of neat twist of fate that gave this blog its name.  I thought I was being clever and creative, but little did I know how those simple images would come to mean to me on this 365 day journey.  I can hardly believe it has been 3 months since the start of the adventure.  There was so much more that I expected to have done by now!  Through all of the fun and most of the chaos, thinking about ways to bring Creativity into my life has been a wonderful anchor.  Maybe that’s what we need most when storms hit - an anchor or a safe harbour.

INHALE:  If I have learned nothing else in the last 90 days, it has been that you cannot control everything in your life.  The wonder of all of this is that you CAN control how you respond to what is thrown at you, especially when looking for Creative solutions.  I haven’t always been successful in the past 3 months, but some of the strength I have gained along the way has been because of the effort more than because of the results.  I’m learning to love the expression “Plan all the details, then go with the flow!”

EXHALE:  There are SO many opportunities to get involved in something Creative during this time of year, especially in ways that help others.  Can you knit mittens or scarves for a shelter? Take some toys to a hospital or youth charity? Buy an extra turkey for a family who may have none?  Think about how you could stop holding your breath and just get out there to make a difference in one other person’s life.  If nothing else, you’ll get so busy that you’ll forget about whether or not you should hold your breath and one other person’s life will be enriched!

Why Does Creativity Differ From Day to Day?

There are times when Creativity just seems to flow as easily as breathing and other times when it moves slower than molasses on a -30 degree January night.

I fully intended to have the overhaul of my websites done during November... and yet every time I  got a few minutes to work on the basic organization of it (as well as the look), something would happen or interrupt me.

Today, I finally got everything updated and even posted a contest on my Doodling Dragons blog .  I put the best of my sketchbook pages on flickr so that I can link a slideshow to my websites.  I mailed out an order to a distributor after batching everything.  I am working on some Biology sheets with little drawings to help the struggling students.

Why does it still feel as if I am moving through quicksand?

INHALE:  Perfectionism is something that I have struggled with all my life.  Sometimes the voices offering advice were external, but mostly they are internal.  The past few years have finally started to teach me that it isn’t so much about doing something perfectly, it is more about just doing it.  Does is matter how fast a job gets done, how well a job gets done or just that the job gets done?  The answer can be different at any given moment, but the trick is to make sure that you at least make an attempt.  To do nothing does not help the world in any way.

EXHALE:  If you find yourself making lists and checking them twice or marking way too many things on your calendar as we flip the page over to December, don’t forget to add some Creative doodles to lighten the mood.  Your challenge today is to go online or into your local newspaper and find a cartoon that makes you laugh.  Print it out or cut it out and paste it into your book to make you a smile anytime you return to that page.

Tearing Down to Create Again...

Today, one of the Creative women I admire most took the courageous step of announcing that she was closing down her cross stitch design business.   Sometimes you have to end something in order to create something new.

Teresa and I met through cross stitch just over a decade ago, but we quickly formed a friendship that went beyond just working in the same industry.  As cross stitch began to falter, she and I began to act as sounding boards for each other and talk about if and how we could take our Creativity in other directions.

Four years ago, we went to Dragon*Con in Atlanta to see if we wanted to transition into Fantasy artwork on the con circuit.  She also helped paint me green for my She-Hulk adventure as mentioned in yesterday’s post.  Last February, we went to the SCBWI conference in New York together to see if children’s book illustration would offer new possibilities.

The joy of having her as a friend is that we share some of the same hopes and insecurities, interests and insights as well as quests and questions.  While we have very different styles, we both feel called to continue to share our Creativity with the world... we’re just still trying to find the next way to do that!

I do know that the past 5 years would have been a lot more scary and stressful without her encouragement, support and sense of humour.

I stayed home today to take care of Bethany who is still running a fe er.  I also got up the courage to tackle a demolition of my own.  A year ago, I overhauled my Dragon Dreams website to reflect the change my artwork was taking as I honoured the 98 published cross stitch designs that I had created, but also tried to showcase the different directions I was heading in.  Then I created a separate website for illustration once I got feedback that Art Directors don’t have time to sift through intensive sites looking for your artwork.

I’ve limped along since then feeling very fragmented and slightly confused at how to make things better.  Today, I realized that the only way to rework the site was to start over from the very beginning, look at what works, get rid of what doesn’t and focus on what truly needs to be covered by the website while making it an informative place to visit.

I am in the middle of the destruction and rebuilding process, but I am actually pleased at how well it is turning out. I'll post on my blogs as soon as the new site is uploaded.

INHALE: Sometimes we have to rebuild from the ashes as friends of ours have done with their house, shut down a business to start in a new direction, crumple up a drawing that isn’t working or go back to the beginning and start over.  Any Creative person, crafter or artist has experienced this more than once.  I’m not sure it ever gets any easier, but I am finally learning to trust that something even better may come from drastic measures.

EXHALE:  I tried to explore today's topic in a fun way.  Find a few magazines for images or inspirational photos.  Instead of trimming them carefully with scissors, rip and tear them out then glue them into your book so that they overlap and create a collage background (you can leave white spaces).  Next, write some words over the images or around them that add to your Creative inspiration.  If this seems too time-consuming for your hectic day, try a simpler exhale: crumple a plain piece of paper and then smooth it out again then draw or write a message to yourself on the less than perfect paper as a reminder that we often set ridiculous standards for ourselves.

Battling with Boa... or Knowing When KNOT to Continue...

I have to laugh now and make this into a horrible pun.  Last night at midnight, there was nothing funny about wool wrangling. The yarn known as BOA to be exact.  It’s not wool and never will be. Think of it as a long string of pretty colours that looks ever so much like eyelashes.

After showing off my half completed scarf that absolutely dazzled non-knitters, the time came to change to the next 2 balls of yarn and complete the scarf.  The only problem was that the second ball of Boa did not lie placidly and cooperatively in my knitting bag. It did not blend beautifully and play nice with the other yarn... it turn into an evil tangle.

“Fine!” I thought to myself.  After a day of worrying about a friend and dealing with the oxymoron of Church politics, I was sure that Creativity was telling me to turn this into a wonderful blog entry about patience and persistence....  that when life got tangled, you were supposed to just take your time and try to sort things out.

So when my yarn began to do THIS around 9 pm and The Amazing Race came on, I wasn’t too nervous, I just began to try to sort through the tangle.

By 10 :15, I was making a bit of progress after the yarn decided to do THIS, but my  husband gave up and headed to bed.  The house grew still after I turned the TV off to sit alone with my thoughts.  I love the sound of a quiet house when my family is sleeping upstairs.  It reminds me of MANY nights I spent working from 9 pm to 1 am when the kids were young on designing and graphics because that was the only time I could work on the computer uninterrupted.

I did think a lot about life and how things can snarl up or get complicated to quickly.  I thought about how sometimes everything goes so smoothly and other times it become this incredible, impassible tangle that we begin to dread dealing with.  I had all kinds of lovely meditations planned as I sat there trying to unknot my yarn that kept snarling into clumps like THIS.

The problem with me is that I tend to get a wee bit.... hmm... STUBBORN, FIXATED and OBSESSIVE are probably the kindest words that I can think of.  You see, I’d basically decided that this would make such a wonderful blog entry as soon as I had a nice, neat, tangle-free ball of boa to show you.

The yarn had other plans... devious plans that increased in their complexity as the clock drew closer to midnight...

(OK... most of you would have gone to bed or played Farmville by now, but I did share that I can be a wee bit stubborn, right?)

Finally, as the clock struck midnight, I used some very colourful words and decided to salvage what I could of my yarn mess.

Tiny boa balls....

Tying them into one ball, knowing I can hide the knots in the scarf or keep them to the side and darn in the ends as I get to them, I took one last picture and headed off to bed just before 12:30 am.

What did I learn?  Next time, be quicker to pick up the scissors... or if Boa is on sale for less than a dollar, buy a third ball just in case one becomes uncooperative.  Let the cat have the one that refuses to play nice!

INHALE:  So often, we fall into the trap of wanting everything to go a certain way.  We get an idea in our mind of how something should unfold and leap merrily out into that adventure, even when Life, timing, circumstances or the Universe try to gently tell us that maybe we aren’t thinking things through.  Learn when to follow a vision and when you should adapt your great plan to get to bed at a reasonable hour!

EXHALE:  Inspired by my yarn disaster, this exhale is FUN.  Open your sketchbook or take out a blank page of paper. You might want to put a paper underneath to keep everything safe! Closing your eyes, scribble all over that paper in big, swirly, loopy tangles.  When you think you’ve made plenty of lines, open your eyes and check to see if you stayed on the paper.  Take out some of your favourite colours (or some of the ones you’ve been challenging yourself with) and color in any of the shapes in the tangle that catch your fancy.  You can try to see if you find any shapes in your scribbles or just enjoy colouring at random.  Think of me and the yarn as you color.

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!!

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. 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!!

Moment of Truth...

The phone rang this morning at 6 am, a few hours before I left for the airport to fly to Toronto .  On the other end of the phone was the barely recognizable voice of one of my best friends telling me that she wouldn’t be able to get on the plane to teach with me at the CreativFestival .  What had started as a cold earlier in the week turned into the worst kind of flu and she was in no condition to leave home to board a plane... she could barely talk to me.  I tried to tell her that everything would be OK and to get some rest or get to see a doctor.  It wasn’t until I hung up the phone and clung to Nick that the panic set in along with the little inner voice screaming “How on earth am I going to do this?”

Then, a funny thing happened.  I just began to take deep breaths.  Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... Exhale.  In that moment of focussing on my breathing to calm myself, the ideas began to flow of how I could adapt Sunday’s Power point Breakfast presentation, of who might be able to help cover Teresa’s part of our joint classes, of how she might be able to get her files to me and lots of other insights buzzing like bees in a hive.  I knew in that moment that taking this year to focus on Inhaling Creativity was not only teaching me unexpected truths, it was helping me cope better with uncertainty in a creative manner.

By the time I got on the plane and hauled out my journal, I was reasonably calm.  By the time I shared with show organizers what had happened, I had some backup plans.  By the time I met up with Erica, I knew I had a Guardian Angel helping out who was inhaling and exhaling Creativity herself.  Just look at the beautiful breakfast goodie basket she’d made up for Teresa and I!  (OK... to all of my Weight Watcher members following this blog, I do know that some of those nummy rolls with have to find homes with other people since I am the only one in this hotel room!)

I even found another advantage to kicking around in this hotel room all by myself, missing Teresa and hoping she will feel better soon... I get to cover the other bed with all my kitting stuff as I sort and snip and get ready to start teaching tomorrow.

I will miss her!  Get Well Soon, Teresa!!!

INHALE: You can’t stop the panic that happens when life throws you a curve ball.  I am learning this each time something unexpected happens on this adventure.  Part of what makes it so much worse for many of us is that we have this built-up template in our head of how things are SUPPOSED to happen.  When life or reality fail to measure up to that template, some of us freeze, panic or get really bent out of shape.  Others, like Nick, work in an industry where every day brings the unexpected.  Teachers, emergency room staff, firemen, police, taxi drivers... there are many professions where each day or each client can bring something totally unexpected into the mix, so they learn how to adapt and think Creatively better than most of us.  Don’t measure everything to some PERFECT ideal.  Just let it be and think of any creative solutions you can without giving up.  Then watch as it unfolds into something new.

EXHALE:  Take 10 minutes to explore an area of your life in which you tend to expect PERFECTION from yourself.  Does this add more stress to your life than enjoyment? Does it really have to be done to the standard that you’ve set for yourself?  If the answer is YES, then write down 3 ways you could reward yourself once the task is done.  If the answer is NO, then write down 3 ways that you could lighten your load slightly, adapt your standards without throwing them away altogether or come up with a Creative solution that won’t leave you feeling like you just didn’t measure up.  After all... Pobody’s Nerfect!

Looking Deeper...

Mondays often feel full of potential until the first disaster of the week hits and then we feel like this photo that I shot a few years ago...

One of my favourite stories about not giving up is the example of accidentally dropping one egg out of the container.  Just because that one breaks... do you smash the other eleven?

Today was filled with the joyful chaos of substitute teaching all day, coming home to a house that smelled wonderful thanks to the chili ingredients I’d tucked in the slow cooker this morning and then watching the girls get homework done before volleyball practice for Erin.

She showed up at the first practice of the new team after last week's tryouts to find out that  some of her new team members had jumped to another club in town without telling anyone until the last minute.

No, life does not always go as planned.

So I dug out this picture instead of the one I’d shot earlier today of floor tile.  This week, I am challenging myself to look DEEPER...  to really see what might lie hiding in shapes and shadows when you look beyond the obvious images.

When I look at this photo, I see a dragon’s wing, a dog’s head, a snail, a bull frog, a square pig and a treasure trove of other things.  What do you see?

INHALE:  We tend to just books by their covers, success by how much money someone makes and hundreds of other SURFACE things.  Creative wonders are waiting all around us if we just take the time to really LOOK at them.  Stop. Look beneath the surface. Look deeper than you usually do.  Part of becoming more creative is taking the time to see with more than just your eyes!

EXHALE:  Find something with a pattern in it.  Tile flooring works well as do wood grain patterns.  Crumple some tinfoil then spread it out again.  Stare at the clouds.  If you have a digital camera then try to capture the image you see so that you can look at it more closely.  What images do you see to sketch?  What stories d o they conjure in your head?  Follow where they lead and see what you can find when you look deeper at the world already around you.

Not What I'd Planned To Learn...

Today, Creativity taught me a lesson without me looking for a theme.

Creativity = Adaptability = Creativity

My day was full of times when I had to suddenly spin on a dime and change plans:

• Sunday School began again today at church and our kick off had kids in rather high spirits, so Nick came up with the idea to do a few parachute games with them to wear off some steam and gradually calm them down to focus.  It meant we had to adapt the rest of the lesson on the spot, but the kids were in a much better space to listen and then move to the craft than they would have been otherwise.

• Back at home, we cut up the bag of older potatoes to make 2 recipes, one for supper today and another one for later in the week.  We had enough sliced that I needed to make a 3rd dish or let the potatoes go bad, so I threw together my very first potato scallop (as they say here instead of scalloped potatoes) to reheat for yet another meal this week if I am teaching.

• I had a meeting to attend tonight that hadn’t made it on to the Master Calendar and I’d planned to work on something else tonight, so I took one of my extra props for the Hoarding Your Creativity class I am teaching at the CreativFestival in Toronto next month and added to that while I was listening and taking part in the discussions.

All of these prompted today’s Inhale and Exhale...

INHALE: Take a very deep breath.  It is Sunday night and you are about to head into another week.  No matter how well you think you have things planned out, you will NEVER be able to control or predict everything that can happen to you.  Instead of panicking when things have to turn on a dime, try to remember that by nurturing your inner creativity, you will be better equipped to handle that chaos and turn it into something creative, to come up with solutions to problems, to find the humour in the moment or joy that will keep you going.  If nothing else, you know you can stop and find a can of play-doh to squish out your frustrations on later!  Move gently into the week ahead and just keep taking it one breath at a time.

EXHALE:  Creativity does not have to happen at a specific time. This first week and a bit, I was trying to carve out certain times  of the day when I would be creative.  Today taught me that when I try to live in a state of Creative awareness, I am much more flexible and less panicky when things don’t go according to some inner plan.  So.... set the timer for 10 minutes.  In your book, write down 3 things about the week ahead that are worrying you and space them far apart on the paper.  Beside each one, write down as many ways to confront those worries and find solutions for them, ideas on how to change them, people you could lean on for support, delegate tasks to etc.  When the timer beeps... STOP.  Slam the book closed with a resounding thud and leave your worries where they are.  Then go do something fun like have a hot bath or read a good book!

NOTE FOR THE WEEK AHEAD - See if you can find a digital camera to keep near you (if you are lucky enough to have a cell phone that takes pictures, then this will be easy) I’ve been noticing things around me the more I go looking, so some of the things I am going to try this week to Inhale Creativity may involve snapping pictures.  If you are following along on this adventure, you may want to try your own explorations of the themes.