Jack-o-lanterns

Ambrose's fierce Jack:

Daddy's scary Jack:

Mommy's lame Jack: (I obviously spent 75% of my time cleaning and roasting pumpkin seeds and hmmmm maybe less than 25% on design...)

Asher's Jack Skellington:

(Can you believe Asher made that himself? He's so advanced and perfect. We're way proud.)
Have a spooooooooky Halloween everyone!

I gave all my students out-of-class assignments for today so I wouldn't miss one minute of Halloween fun with these shaggy haired Jack-o-lanterns!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Writing

"Writing is not for someone with a weak heart. It takes courage to keep going back to the written word and asking it if it has said what you want it to say, if it has spoken from the heart and from the truth of what you, the author, understand."

-Phyllis Barber

Saturday it is!

Seems like Saturday works best for most who commented on here or talked to me about it in person.

What: First Creative Collective meet up!
When: Saturday 10/29/11
Time: 8PM or whenever your kids are in bed...etc. -- I know my kids get down around 7:30 so this will give me time to clean my house before you all come over!
Place: My house


What to bring: Any ideas you have or desires to take your passions to the next level- let's talk about it and create plans to make things happen! Bring a little notebook if you can get/find one. This will be a really great tool for you when planning or inspiration strikes if you aren't obsessively keeping one already like most of us!

You can also bring a snack to share if you want, but no pressure. Bring any artsy, foodie, crafty, writer-y, photo-y...etc. types you want to join in. Try and come together since parking can get tricky.

I am so excited! I started one of my goals/hopes this week and I can't wait to share and get suggestions for some other ideas.

See you Saturday!
(All images from the ever-inspiring Anthropologie.com.)

Don't get it twisted.

Ambrose: "Mom I want to be a ray for Halloween."
Me: "What's that?"
Ambrose: "A tight-rope walker."
Me: "Oh yeah..." ??? "Wait, I thought you were gonna be a shark. Bruce from Nemo right?"

Ambrose: "Oh yeah that's right except I'm not Bruce-- I'm the other shark that eats Nemo's mom. That one's more mean and doesn't know how to talk. Yeah, I'm that one."

Let's get started then.

I have so many ideas that are just babies or little bits of something that should/could be much bigger. But I let "stuff" hold me back. I really hate "stuff"... don't you?

I have some secret hopes that I wish would happen, but I am afraid of taking things to the next level and failing. And other people KNOWING I failed.

I am afraid of rejection.

I don't have a lot of free time to dedicate to anything that doesn't involve caring for and spending time with my family, the job I already have and love, and maintaining my health and sanity.

I am insecure about my talents and abilities because I feel like there are so many people who are better writers, crafters, designers, cooks...etc than insignificant me.

I am not competitive at all and sometimes going for it and succeeding requires a little bit of a competitive spirit. I would rather give up from the start if it means I can avoid competing with someone else. It's not that I'm so great and nice or anything, but competitiveness usually means comparing yourself to others and that never ends well or trying to beat out someone and I never feel good about that. So I just usually try and keep competitive people at arms length because have you met a competitive person? They are usually really hard to get along with. You can never win with them.

So.... all these reasons and more hold me back from going for it with my passions in my life. I am sure some of this "stuff" may be familiar and holding you back as well.

I am going to look at that list boldly in the face and say, "Yeah, so?" and try and march forward anyway and go for it!

If you are ready to go for it too- let's meet up! I think we could all benefit from sitting in a room together and admitting what we want to do with our passions and brainstorming how to take these hopes to the next level together. If you live across the sea from us, let's do it via the comments section or email or over the phone!

Every good group should have a name so I am calling us "The Creative Collective" and that'll do for now.

This is a productive, supportive, and honest group. We are going to help each other and cheer each other on. We are going to brainstorm, create, and make great things happen in our lives. I hope this group will not take away from what's most important in our already busy worlds, but enhance and bless it.

So I think Ash had a good idea to make it a monthly meet up and for the first one I say we just all come with a goal in mind of what you want to do with your particular passion(s). You have to admit it to yourself. For example:

I want to finally get organized with editing and publishing, but I just need to bounce ideas off people before I make my plan of attack.

I have all the stuff cut out and needing to be sewn for this etsy shop I planned to open last summer, but I just need to go for it and I want to talk to other etsy shop owners before I start.

I want to make more things for my family and home and I like to talk to crafty types about these things.

I want to get a few freezer meals made for busy weeks and I wonder where to start.

I want to look for more opportunities to attend artistic events with my family or just with a few artsy friends.

I have a million of these ideas and I want a creative collective to brainstorm with and to lend advice or encouragement to others.

Let's do it! Does Friday 10/28 or Sat 10/29 at 8PM work better? The most votes wins. Let's make this happen!

Wanted: Creative cohorts

Tonight I'm craving a close-knit clan of creatives.

Someone who just licked their lips with the aliteration in that last sentence. Because it's tasty.

Artists, foodies, crafters, writers, photographers, poets, bloggers, musicians, chefs, designers-you know, those types and more.

I've been reading about writing.

I've been watching shows about baking and art.

I've been blown-away with inspiration on the Internet.

I've been keeping obsessive notebooks all over my house collecting strands of promise or whim.

I've been bubbling and crackling and snapping away in my mind over concepts and unborn free-form sparks.

............

I've been wondering if you spend more time reading about creating than actually executing the ideas that are screaming to get out?

Because I have.

The sewing society was fun last year, but this time around I feel like we can all take it further.

I want kindred souls to share and encourage the process. I want a band of geniuses reaching toward something more than an occasional night of arts and crafts.

I have writing ideas and sewing concepts and baking questions and art hopes and photography projects to explore and I'm excited.

And I want it to mean something and matter.

Anyone feel the same?

Brother friends

They don't always get along perfectly, but man do they love each other. I am having fun being the Mama to these two bright shiny souls.

I imagine them at 15 and 13 running around the mountains behind Laie like their daddy did.

I'm looking forward to them playing instruments with their dad and dreading the inevitable close calls they encounter jumping off The Point with their friends.

My heartaches a little with pride as I think about all they'll encounter for two years on their missions. I want to protect them from rejection, danger, and loneliness and I want to get them on the most direct path out there more than anything in the world at the same time.

I want to keep our family in this fun, small, tight unit forever and not complicate the simple joy we have and in the very next second I can't wait to give these boys another little sibling friend someday!
That baby child would be a good, if not overly enthusiastic, big brother.
They're both pros at the whole "fierce love" thing.

Best brother friends forever.

A Fall Ritual

Uneventful Fall Break

Hawaii has a Fall Break. You Idahoans will understand, what with your potato harvest and all. Ours is just one week and I had a zoo trip, waterpark day, maybe even Bishop Museum with the grandparents....etc week planned...

and then we all took turns having the flu.

So much for my flu shot eh? Thanks for nothing Foodland pharmacy.

Anyway, we didn't do anything and anytime I thought we were well enough to do something I was always a little sorry in the end as I held a crying child all the way home from the elementary school fall break play performance and whatnot.

It wasn't all bad though.

We tried out some possible Halloween costumes

Hung up some spooky bats (they have since all fallen down because of my safety tape and have been displayed elsewhere)

And in desperation one day I took the invalids to Costco for a quick trip. Nature called to Ambrose on the way home somethin' fierce so we had to pull over in a pineapple field and I had to take a picture because I am mature and discreet. He'll thank me someday I'm sure.

Not a bad week I guess.

Crafty Ambrose

I was looking through our family photos on the computer and noticing that we had a lot of crafty Ambrose pictures. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of ALL his crafts over the years, because it would be quite the overwhelming collection.

The boy loves trash.

Anytime I am about to throw out any empty box or container I have to hurry and do it before he notices or I will get in trouble.

"No Mama! I was gonna save that for a craft!" Is the most common phrase to come out of Ambrose's mouth after, "Sandwich please!"

Although I feel I am missing some of his truest masterpieces, here are a few I found recently:
Valentines- I did the cutting of coures cuz he was little little here

Homemade watch

Cardboard fort

Rocket with Mama's help

Some sort of alien gun?

iPhone. Duh.

Stilts- grandma cut the hole in the cans

Another rocket

A remote control car remote... one Mama's trash is truly his treasure.... frequently I will throw something away and find it like this later that day.

A paper "friend" named ROM...

He was jealous of his friend's Ironman toy so he made his own

Jack Skelington from Nightmare Before Christmas

He insisted we need personalized, decorated food trays for Family pizza and movie night

A robot factory... clearly. This is a combination of different days of trash and you should see his face when you happen upon him configuring something like this. SERIOUS. We could go through a roll of tape in a week and sometimes we do.

A family of finger puppets

Oh get ready for this one! A laptop computer with a mouse to go with it. I walked in on this delightful scene. I laughed for like 20 minutes with glee.



Oh and sad, he really wanted video games like all his cousins and I told him not until he's older so he fashioned this little gem and played on it all afternoon:


Kite

Bug jar with grandma and her Stampin' Up! supplies and a recycled jar of course.


Extremely intimidating robot (Daddy helped with cutting)

Oh, and a clock.

You get the idea. I could post at least one a day, but suffice to say, this child is a crafty beast. I am endlessly entertained.