Halloween on the Brain...

More Happy Little Fairies

Yesterday marked the conclusion of a two-part fairy wings and tutu class, and just in time for Halloween.  I am so excited about the creativity my students brought to the class!  We had a very small class, but one of my favorite classes of all time.  It is always my goal to encourage students to use their creativity.  For the class, I provided outlines of 3 wing patterns from last year, plus the two new ones I created for this year, as a starting place for students.  This year I had one student create her own wing pattern, another alter existing wings, and 2 more students use existing wing patterns, but paint them in very creative ways.  These ladies all get gold stars for creativity and super cute one-of-a-kind Halloween costumes!

Class began by choosing or creating wing shapes, and then we moved on to painting.

One student created a bat wing pattern.  She had a great beginning, but was unable to attend the second class.  I really hope I get the chance to see the project finished!

After the wings were painted students made no-sew tutus using a method that yours truly created to avoid the tangled, rolled up mess that can sometimes accompany making no-sew tutus.   

Once the tutus were finished, students finished and embellished their wings. 

These wings and tutu were designed to go with a pig hat, which I think will be absolutely adorable, and super fun!

I love the boldness of these wings and the sunflowers make the perfect accents!

These lovely tri-colored wings and tutu were designed to go with a Tinker Bell costume.  This student so enjoyed making wings, that she plans to make another pair for her upcoming wedding!

Thanks for the inspiring class! Those are some lucky kiddos! 

If you are interested in making your own fairy wings and tutu, this pattern with a full set of illustrated, detailed instructions is available on Etsy.

Monster Bags

 I made these really fun Monster bags.  But I thought they could use a little more "personality"...

Perhaps "personality" would have been easier to 

add in the preliminary steps, but I managed.

Love, love, love the results.  By the end in my little adventure of "personality" I wished I had more bags to fit all of the personality ideas that popped into my wee little brain.   

 Meet the Ladies...

and the Fellas. 

 The only way in and out of the Monster bag is through mouth, which I think adds extra fun.  

During our photo shoot...

Little One Eye Miss got a little HUNGRY!

The Sewing Lessons

This summer I needed someone to babysit my children while I taught classes at the Arts Center; just over the hill there was a teenage who needed to learn to sew.  A light bulb came on!  I offered said teenager private sewing lessons in exchange for babysitting hours.  We had a plan that suited everyone!

Jessie upheld her end of the bargain; children were alive, feed, and happy when I arrived home.   So our sewing lessons began.  We started with an exercise that I modified from the way my mother learned to sew.   My mother made rag quilts, I taught Jessie to make a rag pillow, an excellent exercise in getting the feel for a straight stitch and how the sewing machine runs.  Next, Jessie made a small bag for her make-up and then a garden apron for her mother.  We were working up to the BIG project she really wanted to do…making a skirt.  In our first lessons she learned the importance of accuracy, measuring and ironing, three skills there is not a lot of fun in learning, but truly essential to sewing.  Undeterred by the first lessons and still excited about the skirt we sewed on. 

Jessie and I butted heads a bit about the design of the skirt.  She came to the table with lots of great, fashionable ideas, backed up with pictures.  I had my own great, practical ideas, backed up with experience.  Jessie REALLY wanted a very wide elastic waist band, and I thought it would be frustrating for a beginner to sew.  We finally found very wide elastic, but not in the color she had in mind. I agreed to let her try sewing the elastic if she would agree to a compromise about the color.  In the end the elastic was a bit frustrating, but she persisted and eventually prevailed!  She did a wonderful job on her skirt!  AND now she wants to make a hat.  We have a talented seamstress in the making...and a very proud teacher. 

Want to make a skirt like Jessie’s?  Stay tuned for directions….  

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

As I say “Good-bye” to Summer and “Welcome!” to Fall, I will miss the flowers until the Spring, but look forward to all the colors that Autumn brings. 

2 days a year when the day time and the night time are in balance, the yin and yang of days.  It serves as a reminder in our struggle for balance that the experience of the extremes makes the comfort of balance an even more pleasurable experience.  Enjoy each change, each stage and ride the preverbal wave that carries all of us through the depths of Winter, the heights of Summer, and through the peaceful balance in between. 

In what I now dub a Creative Compulsive “tradition,” here is a photographic peek into my world from the last week of Summer…. 

In a last minute effort to bloom..

the best of all possibilities...new growth and an amazing seed pod!

the corn fields are full of dried stalks

most of the grapes have been harvested, but a few remain

doors seem appropriate imagery for a seasonal change.... crossing the Autumn threshold.  

riding into fall?...OK.... I just like this picture. 

Kitty Angel

Kitty where did you get those pretty parakeet wings?  

OK, I couldn’t help myself…this costume was the brain child of the class combo ideas I had for my upcoming classes at the Arts Center.  This costume combines the Little Critters class (September 21 &28), where we make animal hats and tails, with the Fairy Wings and No-sew Tutu class (October 5 &12).   

I had a conversation with one of my students at the Arts Center yesterday about a costume’s wearability.  It is easy to find cute kid costumes, but the challenge is actual getting the child to keep the costume on.  I am a big supporter of costume pretend play and think the more time a costume gets played with and worn, the better.  With my own children I have found that costume pieces that fit over or accessorize their own clothes are the costumes that get the most playtime.  Hats, tails, wings, and tutus get a LOT of playtime in this household!

The Kitty Angel costume is currently hanging in the Arts Center window and when it’s time on display is finished it will be sent to my lovely niece for Halloween, who, as it happens, loves kitties and the color green!  The model in these pictures has also requested a black kitty hat and tail.  For her birthday last year she received a white kitty hat and tail, and I’ve heard it is so popular she has even been known to sleep in it, which absolutely tickles me!  

Best Lil" Kitty Friends!

An Interview with a (Reluctant) Fellow Creative Compulsive, Dana

Sardegna by Dana 

Dana, a fellow American living in Northern Italy, is the creator of the fabulous blog, 3 in Giro.  She writes about her adventures in raising a family in Italy, their travels throughout Europe, and all of the gastronomical delights along the way.  Not limiting her talents to witty writing, Dana also captures the surrounding beauty with her photography.  In the following interview Dana shares not only a little bit about her creative process, but has also kindly shared some of her photographs. 

Wine Tasting in Sardegna by Dana

Would you diagnose yourself with Creative compulsive Disorder?

I think I would be diagnosed with Creative Compulsive Disorder by immediate family, though I would deny the diagnosis wholeheartedly.  Although, part D: “At some point during the course of the disorder, the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable, but has no desire to stop,” is something to which I relate quite well, the need to create didn’t enter my life until much later than those with this disorder. I spent a childhood almost entirely outdoors engaged in sport with two baseball teams worth of neighborhood kids or crawfishing with lunch meat as bait in drainage ditches. Art and music were essentially nonexistent in my public elementary school education; in their places were religion and foreign language, Roman Catholicism and French, respectively. Things are different in rural Louisiana. I avoided classes related to art in both high school and college, to include any creative writing courses, even though my major, Secondary English Education, required mostly upper-level English classes. I did study art history for a semester in an auditorium of 250 students; I chose this class to avoid the alternative, music appreciation where rumor had it that I would be forced to listen to classical music. The horror!  I was never known as one of those creative types. Ever. I don’t think people see me that way now, either.  I did marry one, though.

Apricot Blossoms by Dana

Apricot Offering by Dana 

What inspires or feeds your creative compulsions?

Creating is a process that battles the hormones percolating inside of me. It’s calming for my soul. Oddly, I am unable to create anything during my darkest moments, which is a pity considering the relief it provides. I think it’s also fed by this fairly recent realization that, yes, I am creative. I think. My day-to-day experiences in a foreign culture also inspire me.

Cow by Dana

What project or projects are you currently obsessed with?

Herein lies my greatest weakness – too many projects to devote adequate attention to one. Writing and photography are always present but recently, I…am studying video production, dabbling some in needle crafts, dreaming of mastering Photoshop, longing to learn to sew, preserving 40 jars of cherry jam, learning to garden. Did I mention I have plans to make vanilla extract and want to devote time to mastering Italian cuisine, though baking is my one true love? If I had the outdoor space, I would raise chickens. Yes, I would. No, I haven’t a clue how to do that. It would only take a bit of creativity. For me, at least, these all represent the creative side of me.

Cherries by Dana

When you look back across your creative endeavors, what are you most proud of?

I am most satisfied with my confidence in writing, but I am also proud of my progress with photography.  I have discovered my voice, and am able to confidently claim, “I am a writer.”  Ironically, I’ve been a competent and accomplished writer since middle school, when I won my first essay contest with an essay on the theme: “Alternatives to Drugs.” Oh, for the love of the high that comes as a result of getting that ball in that basket! Even Mr. Naismith would have been proud. It crafted the perfect middle school anti-drug sentiment in a well-written five paragraph essay, in sixth grade. Even as early as first grade my letter to Santa was one among a handful chosen from the entire school to be published in the local paper. I aced all writing assignments in high school and college and into grad school, experiences that relied heavy on a linguistic intelligence to excel. I have that. It has worked well for me. Of course, it’s only in hindsight and with the confidence that overcomes one on the cusp of being forty-something that I am able to understand and lay claim to this: I am a writer.

Trumpet Lesson by Dana 

Recently I tried to explain to my 7 year old about "Happy Accidents," where you plan for a project to go one way, it takes a turn, seemingly for the worse, but ends up creating something new and wonderful.

I have many “Happy Accidents” in my life, mostly because I am not an expert of anything but generally am not hindered by that small fact and give compulsions a chance. Jam that doesn’t set makes a great topping for waffles, right? When I first starting becoming serious about photography and understood that it is also a part of my creative self I had many, many, many happy accidents with my resulting images. In 2005 I purchased my first DSLR, and about three years later I began adventures in Photoshop. I have learned the art of photography by taking millions of images and by studying the images of others. My secret? Understanding light. I have learned to notice it in ways I never dreamed possible just several years ago; I can’t take a decent picture without natural lighting. Winters in the Veneto are a rough time for me.

Everything I do is for me.  I doubt that I could ever create on demand. 

War and Peace by Dana 

Many thanks Dana for sharing her insights about her creative process and the beautiful photographs!  To read from Dana  and see more of her photography please visit her at 3 in Giro.

Lumignano Branches by Dana