Random Tuesday Thoughts

Thought I'd join in this fun Meme today. It's hosted by my bloggy buddies Keely and Kelly...go check em out.

Ok - here are my random thoughts.

What is that on the floor of my minivan? Oh, a dirty diaper in a ziplock bag. Keepin' it fresh.

Go Sharon Go! I think it's great that this creative mom finished NaNoWriMo and found herself nominated for a Pushcart! (By the way, she has links to her poems on her blog...go read. Really.)

This is a cool link. And so is this. And this, um yeah, some of my stuff belongs here.

I finally spent some of my birthday money on a small, red leather messenger bag. I love that I can wear it across my body so it doesn't slip off my arm constantly when I'm chasing little H around the grocery store. It will also fit a diaper and wipes case so I can ditch the huge diaper bag (not the ziploc one although, that should also be ditched) for quick trips.

Curious...Red Skittles plus diet Coke = cough syrup flavor. Ew.

I wonder what Green Skittles plus diet Code equals? Om nom nom. Slurp. Weird! It's like there's no flavor at all! I wonder if there's a drink that can cancel out the flavor of Pesto? I hate Pesto.

Congrats to Katie for wining the Rebecca Martin CD!

Oh look! It's snowing. The first few snowfalls of winter are always so nice and pure. It's like everything is fresh again. Whoah, snow is nature's ziploc!


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A Literary Treat - Poems by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer

When I first became a Mother, the love and hormone crazy emotions I felt were overwhelming. I did many things to try and capture those times. I took a gazillion photos, I started a scrapbook, I sewed tiny little bits of (pathetic) clothing and I wrote. I wrote a few poems, one of which is here in case you care to have a read.

Then I received a *signed!* copy of Dancing with My Daughter by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer in the mail. Her poems struck a familiar chord, especially this one, which happens to be the first in the book:

Heirloom
by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer

I remember this dress!
It was my favorite.
I loved it because it was buttercup yellow,
because the fabric was softer than skin,
because the sunflower buttons made me smile,
because Mother made it
just for me.
Look at you wearing it now!
Wouldn't your grandmother be proud?
And shouldn't I be ashamed
that such superlative sewing skills
seem to have skipped a generation?
I can make you a cake, my darling.
I can make you a nursery rhyme.
But I cannot make you a
soft yellow dress with sunflower buttons.
And that is my loss,
much more than yours.

If you like her work and you subscribe to this blog via email you could win your very own signed copy....did I mention it's signed? Yeah, she totally wrote on it! And don't fret if you don't have a daughter. She also has two other books: A Mother of Sons: Poems of Love, Wisdom, & Dreams
and A New Mother's Prayers: Poems of Love, Wisdom & Dreams

By the way, if you want to be in the running to win a copy, you need to subscribe before Dec 15th.

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Recognizing your influences - Part 2 of 2

In my last post I wrote about recognizing our influences. Today, I'd like to discuss using this information now that we've revealed what it is.

There are two ways we can go here. We can embrace our influences and work towards incorporating them as much as we can while still maintaining our originality, or, we can shut them out and see where our mind wanders when it finds itself in unfamiliar territory.

So what does this mean really?

1) Embracing our influences.

How do we go about incorporating everything we love and still remain truthful to ourselves? The key is in our awareness. In order to include or exclude anything we must be aware of our inclinations and that is why my previous post was important. If you haven't done a little self study exercise go and do so.

Once we know why it is we do the things we do; we are free to pick and choose which techniques, which feelings, which voice to incorporate into any given project. Not only can we choose what we want to do openly, we will recognize when we are losing ourselves amongst our influences.

2) Shutting out our influences.

In the opposite direction we can attempt to abandon what we know and forge ahead into uncharted territory. This is going to be more difficult as our influences are so ingrained into us that they may even form the basis of our creativity. However, we can take drastic measures here. If we normally write in prose, we may switch to poetry. If we normally paint in oil, we can switch to sculpture. If we are comfortable in sewing, what would happen if we picked up a paper art? Changing mediums gives us a higher chance of leaving behind our influences and seeing our basic creative nature show through. Will we create a masterpiece? It's unlikely. We will though, get in touch with ourselves and how we work when our instincts are challenged. We will have fun and we will learn. Teaching ourselves how to be creative in a new way will help us to carry over those new techniques into our medium of choice. Like remapping our brains, we will be able to see things afresh and it may be the key to breaking out of a creative rut.

I hope you take some time for self reflection. Think about your influences and what they mean to you. Be aware of why you do the things you do and it will only elevate your art. All the best to you in your endeavors.

by H.E.Eigler of Maternal Spark

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So what are you into?

I've been working on developing a weekly "Energizer" post. The idea being, I would post exercises or fun projects or ways to jump start your creative projects and you would get so inspired you would rush away to work into the wee hours and come out with a masterpiece. That's the idea anyhow. Then it occurred to me that it would be a whole lot easier if I knew what my readers enjoyed most. Are sewing tutorials going to fall on uninterested ears? Who cares about writing prompts? Punch your answer into the poll below and give me a little direction wont'cha? After all, this blog is for you.

Poem

Shortly after my bundle was brought home I was hit with a wave of creativity spawned by my very intense feelings of love and amazement for her. This is something I wrote during that period. It's short and it's a sort of poem. I'd never written a poem before so I'm not even really sure if this qualifies as one. It is untitled.
















Outside our house there is a tall, tall tree.
I rest underneath it with you and look up, into the foliage.
On nice, summer days the leaves of green stand off against
a cerulean blue sky.
I wonder how old you will
be when you recognize beauty.
I hope you will realize it within yourself
and see what I see
when I look at
you.