laugh loud...cry hard: when I'm bored, I get mean

I read somewhere - maybe in an astrological profile or something - that when I'm bored, I get mean. While there could be about a hundred posts showcasing how this could be true, along with many, many comments...I'll focus on what I do to keep from being bored.

I have a saying: "Only boring people get bored!"

While this is true enough, days of duties and obligations can keep me from doing things that I find fulfilling. There's always dog hair to sweep, dishes to wash, laundry to fold and countless other things which keeps me busy, but doesn't satisfy my creative spirit. The trick is carving out time to feed my Art Soul.

This is where The Holiday Season comes in. My family is a giant bunch of crafty! I grew up with creative parents who were really into making ornaments for the tree and encouraged my brother and me to make gifts for the people we received gifts from. Give unto others and stuff.

I loved exercising my artistic muscles and whipping up the coolest gifts an 8-year-old could dream up. One year, everyone got yarn dolls - styled the the recipient's likeness. Another year (my own private favorite), I made papier mache piggy banks for my uncles.

This hasn't stopped. We still make gifts. I find that I'm happiest when I have a table covered with various projects (just like our kitchen was from December 1- 24, in my youth). Last year, I took up glass etching and made drinking glasses & mugs with pithy sayings. Other years, it's been candles, bath salts, scented coasters, wine glass markers, wreaths and who knows how many other things.

I used to take pictures of everything that I made, and was thinking recently, 'why don't I keep doing that?'. After all, there are tons of creative websites, like Craftster, DIY Network, HGTV or Martha Stewart - and my latest find (for those of us who don't raise our own bees for candle wax or have the ambition to gild all the fruit in our house) - Craftbits! I recommend any of these sites to put spurs on our creative boots.
Perhaps it was because now that I'm taking photographs for work, I didn't think of marrying the two.

So I'm about to change that. I may need to start a whole new website for all this crap, but I'll start here. Besides, people like all the freaky variety you can find here.

Here are my latest creations:

I've never worked with Sculpey before. It took a little getting used to, as it was kind of stiff and much different than Playdough. This is my little octopus, who is yet to be named. He's cute, though.

Those little, glass stones you can buy for home decor are the perfect magnifiers for tiny pictures. I plan to glue magnets to the backs to post up phone messages, dog care instructions & other exciting things.

I'm obessed with my circle punch. I have two now, in different sizes. For now, I'm playing with image collages. This is the 'before' picture - as I hadn't glued the circles down. But you get the idea.

These are little pieces of wood that I found at Michael's. I have a pendant that I constantly get compliments on, which is also wood. I figured it couldn't be too hard to make my own pretty things to wear. I plan to drill teeny holes to hang these on necklaces.

My happiest day, recently, was when my friend, Amy, came over for a day of collage. She comes from an artistic family, as well, and her bunch passes around art doll projects (IMAGINE!). The dolls even have their own back stories that the family can also add to. It's HUGE!Amy's project was a paper doll she needed to make clothes for.

Here is an example of the stuff she made (BTW Amy is SO cool.):

Look at the teeny, little purse! And a leopard skirt. Very stylish.

Here's the project table from that day. Notice the beer bottle in the background. A must for collage days.

So...the next time I feel like choking someone, I'll excuse myself into my studio and immerse myself in all the possibilities of creating.

Keeping me from being mean.