How has your creative summer been so far?

Hello from the West Coast of Canada!

I hope your summer is shaping up wonderfully! I took this selfie last night aboard our boat anchored in Boundary Bay. My husband and I watched the sunset and hoped to see a few last shooting stars. The city lights were probably a little bright, or we were a day too late but any time on the water is magical.

Feel free to share your summer creative stories and adventures, I would love to connect with you – Christine@dailycreatives.com.

I’ve had a busy July writing an ebook about my creative journey, (so far). In case you have not heard about that yet, please read on to discover some lovely reviews.

Reviews for the ebook Fruitless at 40: Rediscovering my Creative Power

“If you identify with creativity you will be interested in Christine’s story of the changes she made in her life over the past six years. There is something for all of us; for those in their 40’s – you may identify and take heart that you too can change, if you are younger – this is a blueprint and a cautionary tale, and if you are, (like me), well past your 40’s – there are many ah-ha moments when I saw my life and reflected on my journey through ‘early’ midlife.”
-Linda Hermanson
Creative expressions through Social Work, Beading, Knitting, Doodling, Cooking

“Love it! A wonderful, encouraging, motivating and inspiring book. Very insightful and truly personal. I am so glad to have been with you for most of your journey – sometimes more and sometimes less – and am very much looking forward to the exciting next chapters which are laying ahead of you. Hope I will see you on a book tour in Hong Kong, soon :-)”
-Andrea Niess
Creative expressions through Fashion Apparel Manufacturing, Travel, Music, Cooking

• If you are interested in learning more about this ebook, check out a few preview pages at Preview Fruitless at 40
• If you have not my survey yet, add you voice at What does creativity mean to you?
• Check out the creativity discussions going on at the Daily Creatives blog, or on the Facebook page
• Daily Creatives is also on Instagram and Pinterest – be inspired there as well
• If you are ready to have a copy of my ebook, check out Fruitless at 40 at the Daily Creatives blog or at Gumroad directly for Buy my book, purchasing options

Cheers and happy creating!

It seemed like a good idea at the time…

On Mother’s Day weekend, I was alone in my own house. My husband took our 2 kids camping and I had about 48 hours to myself. For those of you that live with at least 3 other people, you know what it means to have that much time to just be. But I had a bigger agenda, other than just hanging out, doing nothing for no-one.

My plan was to conduct a solo strategy session. Goal setting, big ideas, brain storming and generally answering some questions about what was I doing with my life? Out of those days and my membership with fizzle came a 30-day challenge. What could I create in 30 days to test out if my ideas had any relevance to anyone other than me?

I had been working on an e-book for months at that point. It seemed like a good idea to just finish it and the rest of the challenge would be easy peasy. Oh the best laid plans. Turns out, writing a book, even one of only 17,000 words or so is not that easy. Add in the complexity of everything else required to bring those words to life and this challenge is proving to be, well let’s say challenging.

Not to mention that my family only went away for 2 days, months ago. We had some very busy stretches of time since then. I also have a full-time job. And lots of other interests which I didn’t want to drop completely. I can’t exactly order take out every night and eat restaurant lunches. All of this is to say, I do not have a great deal of extra time. So what was I thinking?

As with all other cases like this, it seemed like a good idea at the time. As you can probably tell, I have not given up, nor will I. I’m going to see this one through to the end. Please checkout the details of my ebook project at:

Fruitless at 40: Rediscovering My Creative Power.

If you have taken the creativity survey, I thank-you so much. This has been a challenging, but fun ride so far.

Happy Creating!

Do you enjoy these creative practices?

Question #3 from my survey; this one is super interesting. When I put up the multiple choice answers, I focused on the things I was most interested in at the moment. I was curious to see the other ways people practice a creative spirit. (Maybe I should have phrased it that way!) In any case, the comments reflect many other activities and even, “ways of being” which are self defined as creative. I love it. Just the spirit I was hoping for.

As of 8am West Coast time, the survey has 37 responses – excellent! Thank-you so much for taking part. If you have not joined in yet, please add your voice to the conversation.

If you are curious, here is the full list of additional practices so far:

• music
• writing
• fashion
• food
• entertaining
• gardening
• jewelry making
• woodworking
• crafting
• building
• beading
• pottery
• blogging
• business
• costumes
• signs
• painting
• parenting
• relationships
• health & well being
• up-cycling
• problem solving
• poetry
• scrap booking
• flower arrangements
• crochet

Amazing honesty in the responses, thank-you so much. I am honoured to be connected to so many creative people. Rightly so, many times it has been noted that “creativity is a way of life”. For many of us, it can’t be separated from our daily life. It is present in everything we do. I think that is pretty evident by this list.

Speaking of creative projects, enjoy these photos from a recently completed silk scarf I knitted. The pattern and yarn came from LoopsClub in Tulsa. I’m a member who receives a kit each month. Because there is always another project on it’s way, I stay focused on getting projects finished. For me this is a good incentive. Otherwise projects sit on needles for years, waiting for me to complete them.

How important is creativity in your life?

Wow! 14 people have completed my survey – What does creativity mean to you? That is awesome, thank-you. If you have not taken the opportunity yet, please add your voice to the conversation! I am learning so much about what the creative experience feels like on a personal level.

When I was thinking of the questions for the survey, it was tricky to generate ideas which would prompt meaningful answers. Everyone is so different and lived experiences would likely run a full spectrum of possible responses. Yet, there seems to be some patterns developing which I had not thought of in my original assumptions. Interesting stuff. When my survey is complete, I’ll post the aggregate graphs so everyone can see the clusters.

The second question of the survey relates to how important creativity is. I think that even if there are differing opinions about what creativity means or what kinds of activities should be deemed creative, everyone seems to have a sense of it’s importance. In my answer choice for “important” I included the bit about “balance”. For me, the really creative things I want to do, must be balanced against a whole bunch of stuff I have to do. For example, cooking a new recipe at dinner is somewhat creative, but all the old favourites and the dishes are not so creative. Not to mention all the grocery shopping and recipe research which had to be done ahead of making dinner.

Maybe creativity will have greater importance in everyday situations if we place more value on it? Shelley Berc wrote a good piece entitled, “Creativity in everyday life“, on her blog called, “The Creativity Workshop”. I’d never given much thought to adding creativity into my everyday tasks, simply through perspective. It is worth a try.

I’ve always thought it was important to have a space in order to “be” creative. This was a priority for me, long before computers came on the scene. So I still keep a space, is only a desk for now. Maybe one day it will be a whole room again. But for now, even my desk is hard to claim as my own. I often end up on the couch or in my bedroom. Good thing I need very few supplies for writing!