July 27, 2011

where craftiness comes from: the desire within

complete by shirae on etsy click image for more info

Over the past few months as I have explored where craftiness comes from, I have realized that, while our craftiness can be influenced by others, it is our own desire to create that really makes things possible.

Everyone I have interviewed has come from a different upbringing; some went to art school, some did not. Some found their passion from the generations before them and others were inspired by their children.

The one thing that links them all is their creative drive.

As I have gone through my own creative journey, I have noticed that it is as much what I learned as a child and the support around me, as it is my own desire to just create.

Without the desire to create, projects would never get launched and boundaries would never be pushed. Every one of the creative people that I talked to had to listen to what they really wanted and had to push to make it come true.

No matter where you’re at with your craftiness – hobby or business, new or veteran – there are always going to be days where you need to trust the process and work through.

Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that everything needs to be done yesterday and that we much share our craftiness as quickly as possible. But if we stop for a moment to see where we are right now, we can revel in the gift that is our creativity.

If writing this column has taught me one thing it’s that creativity shows up differently in everyone. We all have creative talents, even if we haven’t quite worked out how to harness them yet. Not everyone needs to make money from their craft to make it fulfilling, they just have to want to start and to finish.

Do you think so, too?

Filed Under: Read & Play, Where Craftiness Comes From Tagged With: , , , , 1 Comment
July 22, 2011

little things link love: the ever-changing weather

Weather - Painted Handmade Wooden Toy Playset by Armadillo Dreams - click image to view more

Our love/hate relationship with weather comes in many forms.

Love: warm sun, blue skies, refreshing showers, the rainbows they produce, a cool breeze…

Hate: scorching heat, torrential downpours when you’re caught outside, blizzards, bowl-you over winds…

Beyond that realm, you can also enter the destructive category of droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning strikes, floods, and white-outs.

One thing is for certain, though: weather is fascinating. Humans have always been affected by it, and it can alter the course of your day, your week, and your vacation, depending on what is predicted. It can affect our mood. It can be fun to shop for cute rain boots and umbrellas. It can be the reason we select one vacation destination or permanent address over another.

In the United States, the Founding Fathers took a large interest in weather and some were avid observers. According to the National Weather Service, Thomas Jefferson bought his first thermometer while writing the Declaration of Independence, followed soon after by the purchase of a barometer. George Washington documented the weather in his diary up until the day before he died, and, of course, there is Benjamin Franklin’s interest in lightning and electricity.

Here are some unique ways to document, harness, and learn all about what Mother Nature has to offer:

  • Join the Cloud Appreciation Society – Based in England, the CAS is an online group of cloud lovers who share anything and everything related to those particle puffs in the sky. From Jell-O cloud recipes, to photo galleries, to forums, you’ll be surrounded by over 27,000 others in 92 countries who share the love.
  • Knit a sky scarf – The endlessly-creative Lea Redmond from Leafcutter Designs came up with a brilliant project called a sky scarf. Every day for one year, you knit one row of a scarf in the same color as your sky for that day. Completely cloudless day? Tack on a bright, bold, blue stripe. A little overcast? Make the next one a bit more gray. Give your neck a little hug with a great story behind it.
  • Use a rain barrel – We don’t realize how important water is and how scarce it can be until we no longer have access to it. Growing up in Ohio, I was used to my parents having their water use metered and being charged accordingly. Here in California, it’s not as widespread. This can end up in an undocumented free-for-all until the summer restrictions kick in after months without a drop from the sky. This site will show you how to put the ancient practice of water harvesting to use so you can reduce water waste and maybe save a little money in the process.
  • Wear weather jewelry – Recent featured Etsy seller, The Angry Weather, bases a good part of her product line on what’s going on in the atmosphere. She makes metal jewelry featuring clouds, rain drops, lightning bolts, and even meteorites.
  • Take snowflake photos – I miss snowflakes terribly, so I now live vicariously through the documentations of others. This post offers a beautiful collection of snowflake photos from around the web. The symmetry and structure completely mesmerize me.
  • Learn more about weather – The National Weather Service offers JetStream, an online weather school, where you can read up on topics ranging from heat indexes to satellites. Each module has a quiz at the end to test your learnin’s.

What is your ideal type of weather? What do you find makes you more active or productive? Are you a cold-lover or a heat-lover?

 

Filed Under: Link Love Tagged With: , , , , , , , 2 Comments
July 15, 2011

little things link love: snail mail

Postage by Virginia Kraljevic - click image to view more

Once upon a time, if you wanted to get in touch with someone, you sent a letter.

It’s no big secret that postal services are hurting. The advent of the internet and email gave us e-cards and online banking. Recessions gave us less money in our pockets for mailing and shipping. Environmental issues have us curbing the amount of paper we use. Technology is making us flat-out less personal with one another. We’re lucky if we even send out real Christmas cards anymore. Facebook, Twitter, and every other social media outlet has us convinced that we can still connect with our fellow man by just skimming our way through their life story.

Letters still exist. Letters say you care. A good chunk of the younger population out there has probably never even received an honest-to-goodness letter from someone. Sure, they take time out of our supposed busy schedules, but remember how it felt when you opened a letter knowing someone was thinking about YOU? And ONLY you? While you still have the chance, pick up a pen and a piece of paper. Sit down and write a letter to someone. SEND IT. No email, tweet, or status post will mean as much to a person as the time they know you took to focus on just them. They can hold your letter in their hand… see the emotion in your writing… have a little piece of you arrive at their door. A little piece of happiness.

Don’t we all still want that?

Here are some small ways you can keep the nostalgia alive and your mailbox happy:

  • Leafcutter Designs — Teeny, tiny, personalized mail that you can actually send to someone for everyday correspondence or special occasions. This is what you get with the World’s Smallest Post Service, or WSPS for short. Each letter comes with a tiny magnifying glass so your eyes don’t go all buggy trying to make out the message. Bonus: WSPS is just one of many creative ideas spawned from the noggin of Lea Richmond at Leafcutter Designs.
  • Postcrossing— The idea of a pen pal is fading right along with snail mail, but you can still make a connection abroad with the handwritten word. Postcrossing allows you to send and receive postcards to and from countries around the world with their automated address list. I joined a little while ago and was excited to send my first cards off to Russia, Finland, China, Ukraine, and the Netherlands. Bonus: Take your communication further by participating in forums or opt in to receive  mail directly.
  • Telegram Stop— When telegrams were a main method of communication, punctuation cost extra when composing your message. The word “stop” was inserted at the end of a sentence instead. Revive this classic piece of history with Telegram Stop. Based in Australia, Telegram Stop sends an authentic-looking message, complete with stops, to anywhere in the world. Bonus: One rate covers anywhere on the globe!
  • Postcarden— If you live inside the European Union, you have the good fortune of being able to send someone there a PostCarden. As a recipient, you can get one of five postcard-styled boxes that open up in 3-D form, allowing you to plant the enclosed seeds and grow your own miniature garden. Bonus: You can eat it, too. The greenery. Not the paper, crazy.
  • bARTer Sauce— Brought to you by Rosalie Gale of Unanimous Craft and Ugly Baby Shower Art, bARTer Sauce is an experiment in trading for art and odd objects with a story behind them that you provide… real or not. Sign up now and you could be a foster home for goods like a house hat, transvestite robot, or a paint-by-number sailing ship!
  • The Post Culture— A celebration of the art of snail mail. “Lovers of fine paper, good penmanship, beautiful stamp design, and the hint of perfume on an envelope from another time and place.” Follow along on Twitter (@PostCulture) and postculture.posterous.com

Beside bills, what kind of snail mail do you still send?

 

Filed Under: Link Love, little things Tagged With: , , , , , , , 19 Comments
July 8, 2011

little things link love: garden gnomes

Garden Gnome by PhenomeGNOME - click image to view more

Garden gnomes first originated in mid-19th century Germany, based on tales of gnomes that would help out in the gardens at night.

They were called Gartenzwerg, which literally translates to “garden dwarf.” Their popularity skyrocketed very quickly and continues today. Most of us are familiar with the Roaming Gnome mascot for the Travelocity website (whose adventures you can follow on Twitter), or the act of stealing gnomes and sending photographs of them around the world back to their owner. The movie Amélie featured this activity, which was spawned by the Parisian group Front for the Liberation of Garden Gnomes—le Front pour la Libération des Nains de Jardin (FLNJ).

Typically made of clay, but now produced in a variety of mediums, the standard bearded, pointy-hat gnome is the most sought-after. Other poses and types can be found to suit your fancy, though, from raunchy to presidential to zombie.

Gnome love stretches far and wide. Here are some other ways people have shown their affection – and in some cases, distrust – for the wee ones.

  • Free the Gnomes — This American group follows the same cause as the original FLNJ here on the U.S. homefront.
  • Garden Gnome Carnage — In this fantastic, 80s-style online video game, you are responsible for defending Christmas and chimney attacks. According to the site, “It’s pretty much impossible to describe this game. Here’s a quote from one player: ‘At first I was wtf. But then I was wtf.‘” It takes a minute or so to load on the screen, but is cheesily addictive. Hitting the pause button will show game hints and tips scrolling across the screen.
  • World’s Largest Concrete Gnome — If you find yourself near Iowa State University, you can visit Reiman Gardens for this behemoth. He’s 15 feet tall and close to 3,500 pounds.

What do you love (or hate) about gnomes?

Filed Under: Link Love, little things Tagged With: , , , 12 Comments
July 5, 2011

hobbies: you have some, right?

print by dainlarson – click image for more info

As passion-driven entrepreneurs, many of you are able to monetize something you might otherwise do for fun or for free. You know I’ve been handing out awards for this kind of work, yeah?

But wait. Did you just bizness-fy your hobby? Oh, snap.

It should be said: your business is not your hobby.

This has 2 really big implications:

  1. You need to treat your business as a business, not a glorified hobby.
  2. You need hobbies. Stat.

“But if I’m doing work I love, do I still need hobbies? I like what I do and how I spend my time for my business.”

Doing work that you love = you’re ahead of the game. But no matter what your work is, you still need a hobby for three important reasons:

1. If you have a hobby, you have some free time.

Your brain, your body, and your business will benefit from you taking recreational enjoyment outside of your work.

2. Hobbies, even strenuous ones, are restorative.

You give a lot in your work and life. Taking time to recharge helps you stay engaged the rest of the time.

3. Hobbies deepen your relationship with yourself or anyone you share the hobby with.

Humans are wired for connection. Knowing yourself and the people in your life gives you a deep charge. Take it.

All of these things are good for the person, good for the business.

Challenge: this week, set aside time to enjoy a hobby, old or new. Share your commitment in the comments!

Gathering light,

Filed Under: creating action, Read & Play Tagged With: , , , 7 Comments