Creativity: On Writing and Relevant 11

"We give inspiration too much weight. If you're a writer, you have to write even when you don't feel like it."
-Lisa Jo of The Gypsy Mama

It was the first session of the morning. I'd not procured caffeine, breakfast offered only the hope of a carb-coma and I was pretty tired from engaging in late-night conversation. Hungry, under caffeinated, over-tired and generally grumpy, Saturday morning at the Relevant Conference was, erm, a stretching experience for me.

Also, there was a nor'easter bearing down on Harrisburg, and fat snowflakes were coating the ground, making the lights flicker. If you've been around for awhile, you know I'm not a snow person. {Read: I cannot believe I don't live in Hawaii I loathe snow so intensely.}

So there was that, too.

I wasn't in the mood to write. I was feeling at a loss for the words that normally so easily come to my mind and spill from my fingers and lips.

So when Lisa Jo dropped that little gem of truth --

"We give inspiration too much weight. If you're a writer, you have to write even when you don't feel like it."

-- I was particularly challenged in that moment. And then she asked us to write for five minutes straight without worrying that it's just right.

With the prompt "becoming" I just wrote, and this is what came out.

Outside, white fat flakes blanket the ground,
covering it with the heaviness of the
first footprints of winter.


Yesterday, sun, streaming through the
thickness of gray-drenched skies,
reminding that there is warmth
beyond what meets my eye.


And, I am,
too,
being coated
in the heaviness of grace,
of hands, fingers stretched
across the blades of my shaking
shoulders
of whispered words being
gifted to my ears.


The snow coats the streets,
and morphs from flake to slush,
making a mess of the roads.
There is mess in the becoming.

The other outcome born from this session was a burst of creativity, a fierce rush of ideas coursing through my veins and running through my mind.

I simply cannot wait to share the creativity-sharpening idea Melissa, Lenae and I brainstormed while munching on lunch together. We'll hopefully be sharing soon after talking with Sarah and Alita.

I also cannot wait to share other truths I gleaned from the whispers of wise women while at the conference

In the meantime, if you need to just write without worrying if it's just write, check out The Gypsy Mama's Five-Minute Friday prompt this week and link up.

Disclosure: Our trip to Relevant is being generously sponsored by Chevy’s Driving the Midwest who has given us a tank of gas and a Traverse to get there. Our ride is also being fueled by Kawa Japanese and Asian Cuisine, Dr. Reena Jacobs of The Healing Groves, Curves of Lake County, Bigger Picture Blogs and Little Lake County, each of whome have provided one tank of gas for the trip. All opinions expressed are our own.

Simple Swaps: More Creative Oasis Inspiration

Still mulling whether or not to take the September Simple Swap challenge and morph a space in your home into a Creative Oasis?

If after reading a few very simple guiding lights to creating your space, you still need a little more inspiration, let me share with you the spaces of three more talented ladies who've created their own spaces ....

Melissa took her bedroom from well-slept in to inspiring ...

After picture here.

Jade transformed her guest bedroom into an inviting space with a view ...

Room picture here.

And Stephanie cleaned and revamped her sewing area to include some beautiful, inspiring artwork ...

Click here to see entire space.

Remember, we women -- artists, mothers, homekeepers, wives -- need a space to retreat to after a long day so we can breathe of the craziness, the busyness of the day. It's essential to have a space that is alluring and aesthetically pleasing and inspiring -- one that invites us in to it and allows our creativity to flow, says welcome with its sights, sounds and smells; a Creative Oasis is the cure for creative slumps and much-needed respites for sure.

 The September Simple Swaps Creative Oasis linky will be open until September 30, but I hope you'll carve some time out before then so you can have many more days of enjoying your space!

Also? Someone who links up will be the lucky of winner of a beautiful Creative Oasis space enhancer from Scentsy. Head on over!

{This is the first challenge in my Simple Swaps series, a monthly link up that centers around creating a healthier, more inspired and intentional lifestyle.}

{Also, all pictures are from the corresponding blogs. Please go show them some encouragement and love!}

Simple Swaps: A Creative Oasis {How to create a space in less than 15 minutes at no cost}

*Congratulations to Stephanie who was randomly selected to win the Scentsy giveaway.* Saturdays around Undercover Mother are getting a little makeover for the fall!

The first Saturday of each month, I'll introduce one Simple Swaps as a way encouraging my friends here to find the time and resources to make simple changes aimed at gaining a healthier, more inspired, intentional lifestyle.



Each swap will:
1. Take 15 minutes or less to accomplish
2. Be free to implement or boast overall, long-haul savings
3. Focus on improving health/eco-friendliness, being good stewards of our resources or fostering a creative and intentional life.

Some weeks, all three will be accomplished in only 15 minutes!

The beautiful and creative Robin from Diet Coke on the Rocks will make the Simple Swap first each month so as to show ease and perhaps sometimes another way to implement a Simple Swap. Check out her September Simple Swap for more ideas!

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Simple Swap for Saturday, September 3, 2011: A Creative Oasis

It had been quite the week around our house -- chaotic with the craze of two weddings in three weekends, a pending bachlorette party {last Saturday night!} planned by yours truly and the insanity that emerges around both boys' birthdays when developmental peaks happen.

Plus, you know, life -- a business and laundry and cooking and cleaning per normal, none of which rests.

Last Friday night after the boys were fast asleep and the house was bathed in quiet, I found myself totally unmotivated and uninspired to take on all of the Martha Stewarting necessary for executing last Saturday's bachlorette party.

Because, really, there is nothing that zaps my desire to create like a house that looks like this:



My brain just cannot get beyond the mess {which is normally cleaned up before the boys go to bed, but holy crabbiness, batman!} and let the creativity flow when I'm knee high in toys and general clutter that's been scattered around the house by the boys.

As time was not a luxury with the party being so close, I decided I needed to make a creative watering well of sorts amid my cluttered, tumbleweeded desert of a home.

I picked one small space last night, gave myself 15 minutes and transformed the dining room into a tidy and inspiring Creative Oasis by focusing on making just a few improvements to the senses for no cost and with little planning in little time: Sights, sounds and smells

1. Sights

-Clear Clutter

After clearing the clutter from my chosen space, I focused on bringing beauty to the space.

- Beautify

I switched out the dirty table cloth, clothed my temporary desk with striped colors and retrieved the bouquet I'd been drying from last weekend's wedding, placing it in a vase as a visually appealing centerpiece.

-Stage Lighting

The dining room light isn't too harsh, but I dimmed the chandelier and instead turned up the tiny lights laced into decoration above the hutch so as to soften the ambiance.

2. Sounds

Though I often crave the quiet only night brings, I know I'm inspired by song and lyric, so I turned to Pandora {free Internet radio in your chosen genre} for the deep lyrical melodies of Mumford and Sons, Death Cab for Cutie and Sufjan Stevens. I opened the window next to the table, too, so as to soak in sounds of the crickets chirping in the late August air.

3. Smells

A fresh lemongrass Thai candle not only enhanced the smell in the air, but it also provided a bit more of soft lighting.

To top it off, I brewed a sweet smelling coconut tea at the table and let the smells waft into the air as I cleared the rest of the clutter from the table and hutch.

After my allotted 15 minutes passed, I looked around {took a few pictures} and breathed in the clarity and beauty of a freshly designed Creative Oasis.

And I'm overjoyed in the works that came from being in that space for a few hours last night



My creations turned out so awesomely, too! Much funkier and loads more playful than the vintage button bracelet I crafted last month.

{My BIG fall project is to create a permanent creativity oasis because I think we should all have some sort of small space, even if it's just a corner, where we can think and feel and let inspiration have room to expand and take shape.}

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OK! It's your turn to Simple Swap and create a Creative Oasis. If you make the Simple Swap, link up a post of your before and after picture below.

One person who links up her Creative Oasis, will be randomly selected to win the Scentsy Nantucket midsized burner and her choice of a scent bar gifted generously by Scentsy rep Natalie.



If after checking out Scentsy and loving the awesomeness of a flameless candle scenting your home, you can use 10 percent discount code for any Scentsy orders placed through September 30 when mentioning September Simple Swaps in your email order: nataliejcline{at}yahoo{dot}com.

The Creativity Oasis linky will be open through next Saturday, September 10.

Create: Button Bracelet

I've become a pinning aficionado since discovering pintrest a few weeks ago.

From decorating and organizing ideas to yummy recipes, I've found so much inspiration around the web and on the boards I follow; Pintrest makes it really easy to discover and share inspiration. And, lately, that's just what I've needed -- inspiration coupled with a little motivation to keep on creating even while journeying through my creative desert.

My favorite Pintrest find, probaly, is a button bracelet handcrafted by a jewelery designer at Lillyella.

{Photo from Lillyella}

With the tropical weather keeping us tied to air conditioned places, I felt like yesterday, after my bemoaning of said crative desert, was the perfect day to take a cue from my pin board and create my own button bracelet. The boys and I headed to the craft store and picked out the elastic and buttons together, all of which totaled about $20.



Lillyella made it easy, with step by step directions at her blog.



And can I say? I just adore how my design turned out! Not only am I loving wearing it, but my creative spirit is feeling a little refreshed and renewed.



If you're on Pintrest, let me know so I can follow your boards. I'm Hyacynth there. {Well, I'm Hyacynth everywhere, but you know what I mean.}

Thinking, that's all: Cracked

Beneath my bare feet, the Earth is cracked open and dry, clumped into rock-hard pieces.

Deep lines split the soil from one end of the garden to the other.



Surrounded by crisp, tanned grass, drooping, yellow leaves hanging wearly from the vines under the heat of July sun, I pray for rain.

Only what we've diligently watered via the hose is surviving, blooming, bearing fruit.

The other flowers have wilted and any flora in the sun's direct path all day has withered away.

And I hope for rain again, a deep soaking that goes beyond what I can provide from the hose -- a drenching, thirst-quenching downpour, saturating the landscape, reviving the color, the livlihood and beauty of summer.

In my uttered prayers, I find myself feeling much like the soil on which I stand.

Cracked. Dry. Parched.

Wishing and praying for that deep, soaking rain to brew up in the clouds of creativity and wash over my soul, reviving the words inside my heart and the vision wrapped in my mind's eye, hoping that the flood of water would fill the cracks and soften new fertile soil to bear deep, rich fruit.

And, in my prayer, as I see the dry, parched Earth in a new way, I am thankul, again, for the Gardener who waters my artistic soul even in seasons of drought.